Supercars

The Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio looks good in the photographs, but what struck me was how much better it looked in the flesh, or steel. It has a presence and style that most SUV’s fail to match and perfoms like a sports car. A genuine pleasure to drive and holds the road like no other SUV on the market. Better than many sports cars actually.

McLaren 720S Spider and 600LT Spider premiere at Shanghai Auto Show as McLaren Automotive celebrates 1,000 cars and five years of success in China
Five years of success for McLaren Automotive in China will be celebrated at the Shanghai Auto Show 2019 (16-25 April) with the Chinese debut of new models from both the Sports Series and Super Series, triple-digit year-on-year growth and expansion of the McLaren China network to 12 retailers.

Creating an entirely new and modern take on the Ferrari sports prototype concept is both an ambitious and complex undertaking. But it was in this spirit, and with very specific input from the client, that the new Ferrari one-off, the P80/C, was conceived. The Ferrari Styling Centre, under the direction of Flavio Manzoni, and the engineering and aerodynamics team worked hand-in-glove with the client, sharing principles and visions in order to create a new “Hero Car” with an absolutely unique and authentic soul.

At 8 am a slant of car hacks emerged from the Low Wood Bay Resort and Spa on Lake Windermere to crawl tentatively into a convoy of Jeeps, made up of a mix of Sahara's, Overlands and Rubicons in a rainbow of colours. My colleague Mark took the wheel first so I leapt into the passenger seat of a Granite Crystal Metallic (charcoal grey) Jeep Wrangler Sahara and sat back to admire the interior.
 

I was warmly greeted by Brendan as I ambled out of Dublin airport security. It’s been a while since I was last in Dublin and his easy charm and humour made me regret that as he escorted me over to the Jameson's Bow Street Distillery, for a couple of days whiskey blending and tasting to launch the new Bow Street 18 YO Batch 2. In half an hour we had covered our similar family histories, Brexit and exchanged a jokey tale or two. It was good to be back.

Bloody hell, the Vantage is impressive, a real leap forward for Aston Martin.

In 1934 Hans Trunkenpolz founded a repair workshop in Mattighofen, Upper Austria. It became one of the largest car and motorcycle garages in Upper Austria. Iin 1953, Hans started building his own Motorcycles under the name of ‘Kronreif, Trunkenpolz, Mattighofen’.
Kronreif meaning motor-vehicle, Trunkenpolz was the founder and Mattighofen was the location.
 

Danesfield House and Spa evoked 50's movies as we cruised up the steep winding hill through the gardens in the Aston Martin Vantage, before stopping at a tree lined drive dominated by an imposing gothic clock tower. This vast sprawling and imposing Neo-Tudor mansion was completed in 1991 by architect W.H. Romaine-Walker for a soap magnate's son, Robert Hudson. Later during the war it was requisitioned by the Air Ministry as a reconnaissance and photography unit and was known as RAF Medmenham.

Last night IX Magazine attended the official launch of the new Lexus sponsored film “Takumi - A 60,000-hour story on the survival of human craft” at Japan House in Kensington for a special  screening with the director, writer and Kirie artist Nahoko Kojima.
Lexus has produced a new documentary that poses the question of whether the skills of devoted craftsmen and women can survive in a world increasingly powered by Artificial Intelligence.

Automobili Pininfarina’s ground-breaking Battista luxury electric hypercar will be revealed in three different beautiful specifications at the World Premiere of the all-electric hypercar in Geneva on 4th March at 20:30 (CET). All three examples will then be available to view by visitors to the Geneva International Motor Show 2019.