from my experience its very strange how its all done tbh..i have sent emails to lots of mags in the past but never had any replys, I met James Wallace who's a free lance photographer couple of years ago as he was interested in featuring my s3 in G+ so at the time i did'nt no him well, sent an email to the boss at G+ who replied saying he wanted it and james was ok to do it so thats the closest to having a feature from asking as it gets i think, with Fast Car james sent them emails from my G+ feature ages ago then they got back to him about featuring it in Fast Car this time around but by now the car had changed and id met with another guy Si Gray who wanted to do a feature for Fast Car before we even knew they wanted it, James then got a call from jules and it all come together with James just doing the words and Si doing the pics..
My mate has an M3 which is
but no one replies to his emails no one wants to feature it so its deffinantly down to who you no as is most of the car scene tbh..but in my case i only no these people due to the car i own so its all my own doing really