BMW iX3

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.

The Tour: Le Touquet, a chateau in Fontainebleau, Chateau de Chambord, Chaumont-sur-Loire

The queue for LeShuttle's Flexiplus lounge told its own story. McLarens, Ferraris, Lamborghinis — you name them, they were there, idling politely in line like schoolboys waiting for the tuck shop to open, their owners doing that studied nonchalance that only a man leaning against half a million pounds of carbon fibre can attempt.