In Issue 9, our ‘F1 Comeback Special’ you’ll find a typical Ratchet mix of the the high and lowbrow. There’s McLaren F1 designer Peter Stevens’ self-illustrated history of F1 liveries; there’s former F1 Racing Editor, McLaren Comms Director (and now one of the architects of W-Series racing) Matt Bishop on batshit Austrian GPs of yore; Manish Pandey, writer of ‘Senna’ pens a prayer for a return to purity with the new regulations in 2022; and Richard Porter — aka Sniff Petrol — previews the weekend. Plus music. Plus food. Everything really, bar a boring old team-by-team guide. You can get that anywhere.

In Issue 8 we take on the scared cow that is Steve McQueen’s ‘Le Mans'. There are three takes on that including from Manish Pandey (writer of ‘Senna’) and our own Guy Berryman. We’ve given up the drinking (it was time) and this week’s ‘Quick Drink’ comes from cows. There’s the final instalment of the Ferrari cookbook (an easy one this week), music and and magical images from the open road as usual and a different take on the ‘tribute car’. Clock the ‘read me’ button for tablet or ‘print me’ to download, print and publish at home. All seven back issues are available by scrolling down.

We’re proud to share an excerpt from Maurice Hamilton’s new biography of Niki Lauda in the seventh issue of The Ratchet. It deals with the crash of Lauda Air Flight 004 and the extraordinary courage and commitment to the accidents’ victims Lauda displayed. There’s also: Sebastian Vettel; more recipes from the ‘Enzo Ferrari Cookbook’; wine from Indycar champ Jimmy Vasser; another despatch from automotive design critic Christopher Butt’s movie-car casting couch; Tom Arron’s unknown racecar series, and all the regulars. Clock the ‘read me’ button for tablet or ‘print me’ to download, print and publish at home. All six back issues are available by scrolling down.

In Issue 6 of The Ratchet there’s the craziest lock-down project you have yet seen — a sub 600kg 911 anyone? We also take a look at the sim racing revolution that’s taken hold in the last two months; there’s more recipes from ‘The Enzo Ferrari Cookbook’; a look at how their faith shaped Senna and Hamilton and how the correct casting of motorcars can make a movie. This week’s issue is 16 pages. Clock the ‘read me’ button for tablet or ‘print me’ to download, print and publish at home. All five back issues are available by scrolling down.

May 1st is for anyone in our world a day when we can’t help but remember Ayrton Senna. This year — with no F1 — the anniversary feels especially poignant so we asked Road Rat contributing writer and screen-writer of the movie ‘Senna’ Manish Pandey to write something for us, for you. Also featured; Enzo Ferrari’s favourite scoff and coffee-making tips from Marino Franchitti. We look at the convergence of F1 and The America’s Cup and our usual music and movies and memories of a time before all this. AND… as an extra treat we’ve added another file ‘peel me’ a sheet of Road Rat stickers for you to print at home.

In this fourth issue we present an exclusive collaboration with the design team at Morgan. Also we didn’t feel we had said all we wanted to say about Sir Stirling Moss last week so we have given over some pages to Peter Stevens, to F1-face Will Buxton and to a good friend of the Road Rat, Rob Halloway for their ‘Stirling Stories’. Peter, who as you know is the man who designed the McLaren F1, is also the nephew of the late Denis Jenkinson, the journalist who rode shotgun in that SLR back in May 1955.

We remember Sir Stirling Moss in this issue. Or rather writer Vaishali Dinakaren does. You’ll also find McLaren F1 designer Peter Steven’s on Neil Young’s extraordinary taste in cars and beautiful water colour drawings of many of the cars he’s owned. There’s the recipe for Ferruccio Lamborghini’s lunch of choice; Burkhard Bovenseipen’s amazing Alpina Wines; every racing driver’s favourite film; and our usual peeks in to the past and to the future when all this is over.

In this issue we go inside Mercedes’ F1 engine operation and ‘Project Pitlane’ to better understand the sport’s impressive and impressively fast response to the crisis. Richard Porter — of Top Gear, the Grand Tour and Sniff Petrol fame — gets behind a looooooong lens to remember the heyday of scoop photography and Karun Chandhok prepares pepper chicken for you.

Introducing a download-and print, self-assembly Mini Road Rat designed for these locked down times. Same writers, same approach — marginally less elevated production values. Weekly until all this is over, everyone is safe and we get back to life ‘as normal…’.