Category: General

The 41 Super Leggera, the most recent launch from performance builder Outerlimits, reproduces the superior handling and blistering speed of the company’s latest world championship race boat. The finely tuned surface was built for ocean running and to deliver a smooth ride in harsh seas. “The cornering is phenomenal,” says Mike Fiore, Outerlimits CEO, and holder of multiple world championships. “Racers can cut buoys on a dime, and poker runners can hit 100 mph. We haven’t compromised on handling, though. You can feel the difference when it gets nasty out there.” Outerlimits also provides a three-day training course with world-renowned race champion Trace Martin as part of the purchase price. Luxury is also designed into the 41’s DNA. The helm console is hand-stitched leather and suede, and owners have a choice of hardwoods and fabrics for the interior. Outerlimits creates customized exteriors with signature graphics and colors, so owners can truly express themselves through their super boat.  (401.253.7300, www.outerlimitspowerboats.com)

—Michael Verdon

Apparently keen to oust the Bugatti Veyron from its lofty perch, Aston Martin is poised to deliver a limited-production supercar that may prove to be the world’s most expensive. Priced at a cool £1 million (about .5 million, at current exchange), the car—code-named One-77—will debut next year as the supreme expression of the Aston Martin brand, with a low-slung shape that merges traditional styling cues with the British automaker’s evolving design language. The One-77 (a “working title,” says Aston; expect the production car to carry a more evocative moniker) features a bespoke structure made of stiff, lightweight carbon fiber composite and a handcrafted aluminum body. The car will employ a version of the 6-liter V-12 engine in the DB9/DBS, enlarged to 7 liters and likely rated between 600 and 650 horsepower. Performance, doubtless, will be scintillating: The charge to 60 mph is expected take less than four seconds, and the One-77 will fly to a top speed in excess of 200 mph. No mere car, Aston is calling the One-77 “the world’s most desirable automotive art form.” Production, which is set to commence next year, is fittingly capped at a scant 77 units, with respective buyers expected to be intimately involved in every step of the process. (www.astonmartin.com, www.one-77.com)

—Matthew Phenix

The Monaco-based Wally yacht company is best known for its futuristic, some would say quasi-militaristic, designs. The Wally 118, for instance, looks like a yacht out of a science fiction movie. Its new 64 Wallypower yacht shares the same ramrod-straight lines and unusual angles as its larger sister ships, but the blue-hulled boat, with its expansive teak decks, is friendlier looking.

Beyond the sci-fi exterior and minimalist interior, Wally designed the yacht with a large volume of interior space, good sea-keeping abilities in the hull, and a potential top end of 50 knots. The unique shape of the 64 creates wider deck spaces than similar-size boats but still allows for exceptional performance. The yacht offers three interior layout options, including two- and three-cabin versions, each with en suite bathrooms. Owners also have the option of customizing the 64 with specific hull colors, leather decor, and handcrafted finishes for the galley and joinery. Wally even offers different overarching themes for easy styling of the 64, for owners who don’t want to bother with a laundry list of options. (www.wally.com, 011.377.93100093)

—Michael Verdon

In 1923 Bentley Motors founder W.O. Bentley coined the “Speed” moniker in response to his customers’ emphatic requests for a more menacing version of the automaker’s 3 Litre model. The 3 Litre Speed lived up to its name and promptly defined Bentley as a premier manufacturer of high-performance motorcars. Flash ahead 85 years: The Speed name is back at Bentley, and on the winged heels of last year’s sensational Continental GT Speed coupe comes the Continental Flying Spur Speed sedan. The four-door Speed enjoys the same mechanical and aesthetic upgrades as its two-door sibling, including more power (with no sacrifice in fuel economy) and a superabundance of paint, leather, and trim choices. As in the Continental GT Speed, the 6-liter twin-turbocharged W-12 engine boasts lighter pistons and connecting rods and a new crankcase designed to minimize energy loss due to friction, bumping horsepower from an already impressive 552 to 602. Delivering its colossal oomph to all four wheels through a responsive 6-speed automatic transmission, the reinvigorated engine enables a 4.5-second voyage to 60 mph and a 200-mph top speed. Bentley stylists and engineers were laudably reserved in defining the look of the Flying Spur Speed, lowering ride height by 10 millimeters, subtly reshaping the front fascia, and adding sharp new 20-inch wheels shod with bespoke Pirelli tires. All told, the Speed specification adds a less-than-modest ,400 to the Flying Spur’s 4,100 sticker price. Notable options include Bentley’s gargantuan carbon-ceramic disc brakes (,500) and a truly astonishing 15-speaker, 1100-watt audio system from lofty British hi-fi purveyor Naim (,900). The world’s fastest four-door rumbled into Bentley dealerships this fall. (www.bentleymotors.com)

—Matthew Phenix

This year, Maybach makes the leap from ultra-premium to ne plus ultra–premium with the dramatic Landaulet, the marque’s first modern open-topped model and the spiritual successor to the vaunted Mercedes-Benz 600 Pullman Landaulet of the 1960s, whose airy rear seats accommodated various heads of state, monarchs, movie stars, and a pope or two. Derived from the long-wheelbase Maybach 62, the Landaulet features a semiautomatic folding soft top over the rear seats and a fully enclosed chauffeur’s co

Mosler Automotive’s MT900S is a finely engineered, lovingly crafted monster powered by a Corvette Z06’s LS7 V-8. The 7-liter, normally aspirated engine delivers 550 hp—thanks to freer-breathing intake and an unrestrictive titanium exhaust system—through a 6-speed manual transaxle.

Of all the special editions of the inherently special Bugatti Veyron since its much-ballyhooed debut in 2005, including the unpainted Pur Sang and the hide-swaddled Fbg par Hermès edition, the new Grand Sport roadster is surely the most dramatic. Unveiled at this year’s Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, the Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport features a removable hard top of transparent polycarbonate and an integrated roll hoop made of carbon fiber that bridges the engine’s enormous air intakes. Of course, the Grand Sport retains the Veyron’s 8-liter, quad-turbo W-16 power plant, good for a titanic 987 horsepower, but Bugatti has executed a host of under-the-skin modifications intended to ensure that the open-topped Veyron retains the coupe’s safety, structural rigidity, and superb driving dynamics. With the hard top in place, the roadster loses nothing to the enclosed Veyron: Top speed remains a stunning 253 mph. With the top off, terminal velocity falls to a still-astonishing 224 mph. (The hard top can’t be stowed onboard, but the Grand Sport includes a clever “umbrella” soft top — usable to 81 mph — for unexpected downpours.) The Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport is priced at about .1 million, and although Bugatti has promised the first 50 cars to existing customers, the company plans to build a generous 150 examples of the world’s fastest convertible starting in March 2009. (www.bugatti.com)

—Matthew Phenix

Mercedes-Benz is an old hand at diesel-powered cars—the oldest, in fact—with an unbroken lineage of oil-burners dating back to the 260D sedan of 1936. They were noisy, they were smelly, and they were slow—and that’s how their owners liked them. The 2009 GL320 Bluetec (,075) is none of those things, and that’s why we like it. Make no mistake, the gasoline-powered GL450 (,075) and GL550 (,175) are exceptionally fine performers: sumptuous, unwaveringly capable seven-passenger sport-utility vehicles. But the new Bluetec clean-diesel model may be the real charmer of the range, offering a terrific balance of lively response, prodigious pulling power, and unexpected frugality (20 to 30percent better fuel economy than its gasoline-powered siblings, and a cruising range of more than 600 miles).

The GL320 Bluetec features a 3.0-liter 24-valve turbocharged diesel V-6. Matched to a slick seven-speed automatic transmission, the engine churns out 210 horsepower and a rousing 398 foot-pounds of torque (more torque than the top-dog GL550, actually, and more than enough to launch the GL’s 5300 pounds with verve). The new model replaces last year’s GL320 CDI; apart from the catchier name, the real news here is the Bluetec’s remarkable cleanliness. With direct fuel injection and a highly advanced multistage exhaust system that scrubs soot and hydrocarbons from discharged engine gasses, the Bluetec V-6 produces tailpipe emissions as clean as those from a gasoline engine—clean enough to meet air-quality standards in all 50 states.

During our week with the GL320 Bluetec, what was perhaps most striking about the big Benz (apart from the fuel-gauge needle’s stubborn reluctance to budge) was the cabin’s unexpected solitude. Old-timey diesel-engine clatter rises under only the heaviest application of the throttle (and even then, only mutedly), and at 80 mph on the interstate, the Bluetec GL wafts along with S-class-like composure and tranquility. Acceleration is vigorous, from a standstill and during passing maneuvers at highway speed, and the GL320 will tow an impressive 7500 pounds, as much as the GL550.

Historically, fans of diesel-powered Mercedes-Benzes have appreciated these vehicles as much for their defiantly iconoclastic (even occasionally antisocial) personalities as for their more lovable traits: efficiency, durability, and grunt. But the GL320 Bluetec refuses to embrace Old Diesel’s notorious discourtesy. It’s an urbane, thoroughly modern piece, and an admirably good citizen. It holds true to diesel engines’ traditional virtues but summarily renounces their old-fashioned bad behavior. (www.mbusa.com)

—Matthew Phenix

Honda is now the sole engine option for the latest generation of Ariel Atoms. The motor, which comes from a Honda Civic, develops up to 300 hp (245 hp for the non-supercharged version), and will spin as fast as 8,000 rpm.

Arriving on the heels of the breathtaking 8C Competizione coupe, Alfa Romeo’s 8C Spider carries on as a style and performance emissary for a rejuvenated—and recently reintroduced to America—Alfa Romeo. Mechanically, the Spider corresponds with the 8C coupe, with its Ferrari-built 444 hp 4.