Haymarket Motoring reinvents a classic

Classic & Sports Car magazine is on newsstands with a fresh look today – the first major change to the Haymarket Motoring title since 2004.

The meticulous redesign process started in autumn 2008 and the entire team was closely involved from the outset. The resulting magazine is still instantly recognisable as Classic & Sports Car, but every element of its design and content (both editorial and advertising) has been examined in minute detail and improved to give readers a more fulfilling experience.

To boost the profile of the new-look magazine, it goes on sale with a free A2 poster of a Lamborghini Miura and Jaguar E-type, plus a 12-page feature on the most beautiful classic cars of all time as picked by 20 leading car designers, from Giorgetto Giugiaro to Ian Callum.

The magazine’s art editor Martin Port spent nearly three months creating the restyled magazine. “The last redesign of Classic & Sports Car was a conservative evolution so we wanted to do a full overhaul this time,” he said.

Paul Harpin, design director of Haymarket Consumer Media and Haymarket Network, added: “It’s not often that we change Classic & Sports Car... but this time we’ve really pushed on. Martin and myself wanted it more pictorial, more powerful and just full of interesting and beautiful cars and terrificly well-styled text.”

Classic & Sports Car editor James Elliott said the redesign had been a “long and occasionally fraught process” but it was worth every moment. “It will continue to evolve,” he said, “but we think we have set the template for classic mags for years to come”.

“Redesigning a magazine such as Classic & Sports Car, where every detail is loved and understood by immensely loyal readers, is always very difficult,” added Haymarket Consumer Media editorial director Mel Nichols. “But I think this revamp of Classic & Sports Car is an outstanding example of how to make a magazine even better through thoughtful development that adds new elements and treatments that give readers more to appreciate. The result is a magazine that looks like Classic & Sports Car but is fresher, more varied, more engaging and more inspiring.”