Many personalities have a signature move: For Michael Jackson, it was the Moonwalk, for Ali, the rope-a-dope, for widely known automotive writer and on-air commentator Steve Magnante, it’s The Point.
No Magnante story/photo essay or book is complete without a shot of the author’s index finger in the frame underscoring the importance of the image’s main topic. A significant serial number, a rare or unusual casting or a potential trouble spot in a project – all have warranted a stab from Magnante’s keenly aimed digit, over the years.
The affable and knowledgeable former Hot Rod Magazine editor and current Speed Channel on-air personality, best known for lending his New England accent to televised Barrett-Jackson auctions, has most recently published another book with CarTech called, Rusted Muscle.
If you’re familiar with Magnante’s Junkyard Crawl column in Car Craft, Rusted Muscle is 176-full-color pages of the same irresistible content – photos of twisted, rusted or cut-up American cars from the Muscle Car era languishing in junkyards or elsewhere, interspersed with some insight about the vehicle.
I’ve enjoyed the book as much as I’ve enjoyed Magnante’s other work, including his contributions to Hemmings’ publications. More importantly, I counted five distinct instances of The Point among its pages as well as a rare “Double Point” in the introduction.
This is a marked improvement over Magnante’s last book, How to Build Altered Wheelbase Cars, which suffered from a dismally low point count. In fact, many of the points depicted in that book weren’t even the work of Magnante’s finger, but some other guy’s.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out that you can buy Rusted Muscle or How to Build Altered Wheelbase Cars anyplace where CarTech titles are sold and on CarTech’s web site. You might also try contacting Magnante on Facebook. His preferred method of introduction? What else? The Facebook “poke.”