Best luxury supercar reviews
Ascot, more than anywhere, understands horsepower. It has spent centuries breeding it, grooming it, weighing it and inviting people in elaborate hats to bet on it. The BMW iX3 50 xDrive brings 463 horses of its own to the party, although none of them eats oats.
Aston Martin is not short of powerful front-engined cars, but the new Valen takes things considerably further. Revealed during Monterey Car Week, it is the most powerful front-engined Aston Martin in the company’s 113-year history and according to Aston Martin, the world’s most powerful front-engined production car.
There is sensible and then there is Gordon Murray sensible. The new S1 has no enormous fixed rear wing, its suspension has been softened and it even comes with additional sound insulation. Yet it also has a naturally aspirated V12 capable of reaching 12,100rpm, a proper manual gearbox and a central driving position. In almost any other context it would be considered completely unhinged. Alongside the S1 LM however, it is practically a grand tourer.
There is a very particular kind of family occasion that sees my wife Emily heading to Cornwall in shorts and a bikini, entirely sensibly, while I sit beside her in a white suit, sweating gently in what turned out to be a genuinely sweltering 35 degrees. The occasion demanded it.
There is a particular kind of English shame that comes from arriving at a country pub in something the size of a small yacht, only to spend ten minutes reversing it into a space clearly designed for a Fiat Panda and a bicycle. I know this shame intimately. I have worn it like a poorly fitted dinner jacket. So when the keys to the Lexus LBX landed on my desk, my first reaction was not excitement about badge prestige or hybrid credentials. It was relief. Here, finally, was a Lexus that might fit into my life rather than requiring me to reorganise the entire village.
There is a particular difficulty in ending a successful story. Do too little and the finale feels like a cynical exercise in badges and scarcity. Do too much and the qualities that made the original so compelling can disappear beneath the additions.
There are few places on earth where a Formula 1 car, a Le Mans-winning prototype, a heavily modified drift machine and a priceless concours classic can appear within minutes of one another without the occasion feeling remotely unusual.
That is the peculiar brilliance of the Goodwood Festival of Speed.
The emergence of the LiveWire brand as a standalone vanguard of electric performance is a shift that demands the attention of any serious rider. For years, the project incubated within the hallowed, petrol-soaked halls of Harley-Davidson, a bold experiment by the Milwaukee giant to capture the future. Yet to truly thrive, it needed to shed its heritage shackles. Now operating as a fiercely independent, publicly traded entity, LiveWire has spent the last few years proving it can build machines with its own distinct soul.
If ever there was a manufacturer that covers all the bases, it’s BMW.
If you want to ride around the world, through the most inhospitable territory imaginable, they have you back with the GS Adventure. If you want one of the fastest bikes on the planet, they have you covered with the M1000RR. Want a continent-crushing, luxurious tourer or heritage-styled factory custom? BMW Motorrad have it all and more.
