Supercar

I took my son in the Ferrari F8 Tributo to Paris for the tour of a lifetime. To acquaint yourself with such a chef d’oeuvre you must challenge yourself and the car. And boy was it fun around the massive roundabout that is the Arc de Triomphe.

The Ferrari F8 Tributo Spider is the upgrade to the terrific 488 and lies between it and the Pista. Think of it as the younger sibling, faster, lighter and stronger but with the same DNA. Ferrari began their open-top V8 cars with the 308 GTS in 1977 and their legend continues with the new F8 Tributo Spider.

To get to know a car well you should take it on an adventure. So we drove the Maserati Levante Trofeo up to visit the Great North Air Ambulance Service helicopter rescue for a two-day extravaganza of training, tactical emergency simulation and marauding terrorist attack.

Rolls-Royce presented the new Black Badge Ghost in great secrecy. I was chauffeured to an unknown location to test the new Ghost in almost total darkness.

The mood was set for an extraordinary event. The Black Badge Ghost, the representation of the darker side of Rolls-Royce was exhibited as a grand museum piece in a specially decorated warehouse complete with a green Agusta Helicopter and roaring neon tiger in the background.

As a House of Luxury, Rolls-Royce imbues its products with meaning. A Rolls-Royce serves as a canvas onto which clients reflect their personal tastes, express ambitions and often, define legacies. The Bespoke treatment of a Rolls-Royce elegantly reflects its status as ‘the best car in the world’ while stylishly expressing the personality of its commissioning client.

Home to over 40 world-leading businesses from the global automotive industry and its tiered supply chain welcomed another noteworthy innovator, Viritech, to Europe’s premier automotive technology campus.

Gordon Murray Automotive’s T.50 supercar has had its first development test drive, marking a major milestone for the world’s most driver-centric supercar.   

The XP2 prototype with limited revs was driven for the first time at the Top Gear test track in Dunsfold, Surrey, UK and just metres from where the T.50 will begin full production in 2022.

McLaren’s first series-production High-Performance Hybrid supercar focuses more than half a century of the company’s racing and road-car experience and expertise into a next-generation supercar that blends ground-breaking technology with McLaren’s dedication to pure driver engagement.

I was immediately impressed as the Lexus LC500 Convertible was delivered to my door. It is more impressive, imposing and distinguished than in the images, with its own unique chutzpah.

A worthy successor to the LFA supercar that is now commanding a lot more interest than it did when launched. Some cars need time to be appreciated, often the sign of a labour of love.

McLaren Automotive will bring the full force of its expertise in hybrid powertrain engineering to the supercar class next year with the introduction of the new Artura, a High-Performance Hybrid (HPH) developed with the benefit of more than half a century of McLaren knowledge, experience and engineering achievements in race and road cars.

I took the Ferrari on a long, leisurely tour of vineyards with International Excellence Luxury Magazine colleague Darren Lynsdale. We took in the Surrey Hills, the valleys of Hampshire and the Sussex coast. Of particular note were the fine white wines at the Rathfinny Estate, which is a stunning new vineyard near Seaford.

So, the Ferrari GTC4Lusso V12 statistics. It has a 6.3 L V12 engine, with four-wheel steering and drive, 681 bhp, does 0-62 mph in 3.5 secs and has a top speed of  208 mph.