Ever wonder how those crazy action photos are taken? Here’s how ours was shot.

When you see our August 2008 issue on the newsstand in the coming days, you can be forgiven for uttering a sigh of disbelief. The depiction of Jay Biondo’s ’67 Nova cruising along at 90 mph doing a smoking burnout, all while the camera is in perfect focus front to back, is perhaps a bit too far fetched for even the most jaded readers.

Rest easy, things didn’t actually go down the way it looked. Here’s what really happened. Ace lensman Robert McGaffin actually compiled the final shot in a digital photography program called Photoshop. It’s built from four different shots that were combined, then massaged.

Robert starts with a rig that’s made up of aluminum poles, a hinge, and some strong magnets. The rig’s magnets attach under the chassis, and the rig holds the camera steady. The first image taken is a static shot with the car standing still. For the second shot, Robert has an assistant roll the car forward or backwards at a very slow pace, while he snaps a long exposure to blur the ground, wheels, and trees. For this cover, Robert also had car owner, Jay Biondo, do a smoky burnout with the camera still attached. The last of the four shots was another static shot with the hood removed.

Robert then combined elements of all four images in the final picture, and touched things up—such as removing the aluminum pole from the image. Nice Job Robert! And you can read all about Jay Biondo’s street-legal 9-second Chevy II in our August issue, on sale everywhere June 24.