The July 2026 mag starts rolling out into newsagents and supermarkets across Australia on Monday, and will be on sale everywhere from Byron Bay to WA by Thursday. Most subscribers will have their copy already, of course.

The cover of each issue is a big deal for us. We need the car, the shoot and the design to be just right in order for it to jump out on the newsstand. It is also a really fun challenge and takes a great collaboration between the photographer, car owner, art director and wordsmiths to get right.

Our July cover car is Jayden Grimshaw’s HQ Holden ute. At first glance, you could be excused for thinking it was Ron Barclay’s immortal SMOTY winner, but Jayden’s HQ has a lot more horsepower than Ron’s sparkling 308!

Street Machine photographer Chris Thorogood drove up from Geelong to Jayden’s hometown of Wangaratta in Victoria for the shoot and managed to nail enough of a winter sunset to blag a killer car-to-car driving shot for the cover.

Chris also tried some indoor cover options, using the light-painting technique, including one starring Jayden’s fluffy best mate, Reyne! We came very close to making Reyne a Street Machine cover girl, but decided we needed an action shot to make it sing. Did we get it right? Fingers crossed!

With the cover shot and processed, it was time for artist Povi Pullinen to get busy on the cover design. You can get an insight into his process in the video above.

While he didn’t do it for the July cover, Povi will often knock up some 3D models prior to the shoot, so he and the photographer can plan angles, focal lengths, lighting and lenses ahead of time. Technology, eh?

Jayden is stoked: “Dad and I had always spoken about how cool it would be to get a car in a magazine one day, so he became my motivation, but I never expected the amount of attention it would actually get,” he told us for the mag story.

Stay tuned for our Friday Street Machine TV video drop next week, as Jayden takes Adam Rogash for a cruise in the ute to celebrate.

Grab a copy of the mag next week in all good newsagents and supermarkets! And if it is sold out in your area, you can score a copy online here.