Motor News

After years of memes, broken promises, and a lot of waiting, evidence is mounting that Tesla’s Cybertruck is actually nearing production. The manufacturer took to X (formerly known as Twitter) to announce the first Cybertruck was built at the company’s Giga Texas facility on July 15. Internet sleuths have spotted increased sightings of Cybertrucks on public roads, as well as delivery trucks loaded with what appear to be production vehicles.So far it’s been four years of memes, internet arguments, broken promises, and a lot of waiting, but evidence is mounting that the Tesla Cybertruck may actually be nearing full production. Think back to the time before the Cybertruck (unbroken windows and all) rolled onto stage for the first time—we’ll give you a moment. It’s been so long, you’ve probably undergone some major life events such as getting married, going through a divorce, having kids, or, like all of us, living through a global pandemic. Major life events or not, it appears the Cybertruck is rounding the final corners before entering mass production. FREDERIC J. BROWN|Getty ImagesProduction for the Cybertruck was originally planned to start in late 2021. It was later pushed back to begin sometime in 2022, before Musk kicked the can farther down the road to 2023. According to The Verge, Musk confirmed in January that the Cybertruck won’t enter full volume production until sometime in 2024, but early manufacturing efforts were slated to begin this summer. First Truck Built July 15That timeline appears to be the most accurate to date, with the manufacturer announcing on the recently renamed X.com that the first Cybertruck was built at the company’s Giga Texas facility on July 15. This content is imported from twitter. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.The slow ramp-up in production is further corroborated by increased sightings of Cybertrucks on delivery trucks. Internet sleuths and excited Tesla fans have been posting spy photos of delivery trucks laden with multiple Cybertucks. There have also been more sightings of test vehicles seen driving on the road. Unsurprisingly, given the CEO’s track record, one of the test vehicles has been seen with both Ford F-150 and Toyota Tundra inspired wraps. Why? Honestly, we don’t know. This content is imported from twitter. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.Pricing ChangesBack at the start of the whole Cybertruck saga, Tesla announced the vehicle would carry a starting price of $39,900 in the base single-motor RWD version. The dual-motor AWD truck was planned at $49,000, and the tri-motor AWD was supposed to launch with 500 miles of range and a starting price of $69,900. Unfortunately for a lot of consumers, those figures seem pretty out of reach at this point. The Ford F-150 Lightning, which launched around $40,000, shot up in price by more than $10,000 before falling back down to settle around a $52,000 entry point. The Rivian R1T starts even higher, at $74,800, and the GMC Hummer EV is even more expensive at nearly $87,000. Musk all but confirmed there’ll be a price increase over the initial prediction. According to a report by Forbes, the CEO backed away from the price, saying, “It’s going to be hard to make [it] affordable because it is a new car, a new manufacturing method.” We won’t really know for sure until Tesla itself confirms the initial selling price, but if the last year of price fluctuations are anything to go by, anything shy of a receipt could be wrong. More on Tesla and the CybertruckAssociate News EditorJack Fitzgerald’s love for cars stems from his as yet unshakable addiction to Formula 1. After a brief stint as a detailer for a local dealership group in college, he knew he needed a more permanent way to drive all the new cars he couldn’t afford and decided to pursue a career in auto writing. By hounding his college professors at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, he was able to travel Wisconsin seeking out stories in the auto world before landing his dream job at Car and Driver. His new goal is to delay the inevitable demise of his 2010 Volkswagen Golf. More

Lotus has announced that its electric sedan, previously known by its code name of Type 133, will be called the Emeya.The Emeya will be revealed on September 7 and should launch in the U.S. for the 2025 model year.Teaser photos for the Emeya show sharp LED headlights and a full-width rear taillight.Lotus is busy reinventing itself for the electric age. While the British automaker’s venture into EVs began with the 1972-hp Evija hypercar, the second Lotus EV, the Eletre SUV, is far more down to earth, eschewing Lotus’s typical focus on handling prowess in favor of a comfortable ride and a luxurious cabin. Now Lotus is preparing another four-door passenger car, a sedan code-named the Type 133, that’s set to be unveiled next week, and officially confirmed today that the sedan will be called the Emeya. LotusLotus didn’t reveal much about the Emeya ahead of the scheduled September 7 unveiling, but a darkened teaser photo shows piercing headlights that consist of a pair of hockey-stick-shaped, angled LED strips. These design elements line up roughly with the photos our spy photographer captured in February, which showed a split headlight design with pointy “eyebrows” above a full-width lower light unit. Those spy photos also revealed the electric sedan’s sleek bodywork, with the Emeya sporting a slinky shape designed to efficiently cut through the air in the name of improved range. A second teaser released today showing the back end confirms that the Emeya will feature a rear light bar, with a single thin LED band serving as the taillights.More Lotus NewsThe Emeya is expected to serve as a rival to the Porsche Taycan, the Tesla Model S, and the Lucid Air. The Emeya should arrive with at least 250 miles of range and a price starting north of $80,000. Although the Emeya will be revealed in just a few days’ time, it likely won’t arrive in the United States until the 2025 model year. This content is imported from poll. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.Associate News EditorCaleb Miller began blogging about cars at 13 years old, and he realized his dream of writing for a car magazine after graduating from Carnegie Mellon University and joining the Car and Driver team. He loves quirky and obscure autos, aiming to one day own something bizarre like a Nissan S-Cargo, and is an avid motorsports fan. More

The 2024 Porsche Cayenne Turbo E-Hybrid is the most powerful version of the mid-size luxury SUV.The new Cayenne Turbo E-Hybrid makes a combined 729 horsepower and 700 pound-feet of torque.The plug-in-hybrid Cayenne should be a missile on the road, with Porsche claiming a zero-to-60-mph time of 3.5 seconds and a top speed of 183 mph. It’s been awhile since Porsche purists have held a complaint campaign targeted at the Cayenne SUV, but for any remaining holdouts, we recommend getting behind the wheel of the 2024 Cayenne Turbo E-Hybrid, which is the most powerful model in the lineup.729-HP MissileThe previous Cayenne Turbo E-Hybrid was a rocket ship for the road, and Porsche appears to have fine-tuned that road-going missile with the updated plug-in-hybrid powertrain. It starts with the twin-turbocharged 4.0-liter V-8 that has been extensively revised to make 591 horsepower. The hybrid system has been upgraded too, as the electric motor now makes 174 horsepower—up from 134 in the outgoing Turbo S E-Hybrid. Combined, the new system produces 729 horsepower and 700 pound-feet of torque.PorscheBigger Battery, Faster ChargingCompared to its predecessor, the new Turbo E-Hybrid has nearly double the battery capacity, increasing from 14.1 kWh to 25.9 kWh. Porsche claims the increased battery capacity provides more pure-electric range. It didn’t give specifics, but the last generation was capable of 20 EV-only miles, so we expect the new car to be closer to 30 miles. Along with the bigger battery, a new 11.0-kW onboard charger brings charging times down to a claimed two-and-a-half hours for the new version. PorschePorsche says the 2024 Cayenne Turbo E-Hybrid is now available to order, with the first examples expected to reach U.S. dealers in the second quarter of next year. Neither the SUV nor the Coupe body style come cheap, with the former carrying a base price of $148,550 and the latter priced at $153,050. This content is imported from poll. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.Associate News EditorJack Fitzgerald’s love for cars stems from his as yet unshakable addiction to Formula 1. After a brief stint as a detailer for a local dealership group in college, he knew he needed a more permanent way to drive all the new cars he couldn’t afford and decided to pursue a career in auto writing. By hounding his college professors at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, he was able to travel Wisconsin seeking out stories in the auto world before landing his dream job at Car and Driver. His new goal is to delay the inevitable demise of his 2010 Volkswagen Golf. More

The Porsche Macan EV could arrive for the 2024 model year, and the latest spy photos show the electric SUV with minimal camouflage. The Macan EV will sport a coupe-like roofline that takes a sharp dive aft of the rear doors, likely to improve aerodynamics and in turn increase range.The Macan EV will ride on the new PPE platform that promises shorter charging times and up to 603 horsepower from a dual-motor, all-wheel-drive setup.Porsche is nearly ready to unleash its second electric model, and our spy photographer has now captured photos showing the Macan EV almost entirely undisguised. Spotted while testing in Germany, these latest images give us a clear look at the shape of the electric Macan’s body. The most notable aspect of this virtually camo-free prototype is the sloping roofline, which dramatically plummets after reaching the rear doors. The shape gives the Macan EV a squat, hunchbacked stance reminiscent of the Genesis GV60. Although coupe-style SUVs have become a trendy design choice in recent years, the curved roof has likely been incorporated to improve the aerodynamics, thus boosting range. All Macan EVs are expected to feature this body, instead of offering a more traditional squared-off body alongside a “coupe” variant.Brian Williams|Car and DriverThe front end of the Macan EV draws heavily upon Porsche’s first EV, the Taycan, with similarly shaped headlights, although these may end up just being daytime running lights as larger housings live below in the bumper. The taillights don’t appear to be in production spec, but the full-width light bar sits beneath an electronically deployable rear wing, another aerodynamic trick to squeeze out as much range as possible. It also appears that there is some tape obscuring a design cue, possibly air outlets, below the taillights. The Macan EV will ride on the Premium Platform Electric (PPE), a new architecture that will also underpin the upcoming Audi Q6 e-tron, which should fill a similarly sized gap in Audi’s lineup. Last year, Porsche revealed that PPE will support both rear- and all-wheel-drive setups, producing a peak of 603 horsepower and 738 pound-feet of torque. The Q6, meanwhile, will max out at 482 hp in the SQ6 model, with a boost mode unlocking 509 ponies. The biggest benefit of PPE is the 800-volt electrical system, which should allow the Macan EV to charge at rates higher than the Taycan’s current maximum of 270 kW. Porsche is predicting that the Macan EV will shoot from five to 80 percent charge in less than 25 minutes. The Macan EV should be revealed before the end of the year, with sales kicking off in 2024. More Porsche NewsThis content is imported from poll. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.Associate News EditorCaleb Miller began blogging about cars at 13 years old, and he realized his dream of writing for a car magazine after graduating from Carnegie Mellon University and joining the Car and Driver team. He loves quirky and obscure autos, aiming to one day own something bizarre like a Nissan S-Cargo, and is an avid motorsports fan. More

For 2024, the Genesis GV60 gains 16 miles of range, bringing its EPA estimate up to 264 miles. The increased range comes courtesy of newly standard 19-inch wheels; the previously standard 20-inchers are now optional. Along with a better range rating, the GV60’s base price has jumped $1330, with the Advanced trim now starting at $61,745.The 2024 Genesis GV60 enters its second model year with an additional 16 miles of estimated range. That brings its peak EPA-rated figure to 264 miles, up from last year’s 248-mile max, as reported by InsideEVs.Better Range, Higher PriceThe GV60’s extended range can be attributed to the introduction of newly standard 19-inch wheels. Previously, the quirky electric SUV rode on standard 20-inch wheels. Those are now optional, and the Performance model still features 21-inchers that contribute to a lower EPA-range estimate of 235 miles.Michael Simari|Car and DriverAlong with the smaller wheels and longer range, the 2024 model has a higher starting price. The base all-wheel-drive Advanced trim now opens at $61,745, making it $1330 more than last year’s model. The Performance AWD trim jumps by the same rate, and it now starts at $70,745. Interestingly, the Advanced model equipped with 19-inch wheels is absent from the Genesis configurator. In fact, there’s no option to select the smaller wheel size in the configurator at all.Electrified GV70 PricingGenesis also published pricing for the larger 2024 Electrified GV70 SUV, which gets more expensive, but at a smaller rate. According to the configurator, the model’s base Advanced trim level starts only $25 higher than the 2023 model, which was priced at $67,575. The more expensive Prestige trim goes up a bit more—$600 to be exact—with it now starting at $74,375. More on the GV60Associate News EditorJack Fitzgerald’s love for cars stems from his as yet unshakable addiction to Formula 1. After a brief stint as a detailer for a local dealership group in college, he knew he needed a more permanent way to drive all the new cars he couldn’t afford and decided to pursue a career in auto writing. By hounding his college professors at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, he was able to travel Wisconsin seeking out stories in the auto world before landing his dream job at Car and Driver. His new goal is to delay the inevitable demise of his 2010 Volkswagen Golf. More

The BMW 2002 launched the brand’s sport-sedan reputation, and the 2002tii model is its ultimate expression.This 1974 2002tii benefits from extensive work, some of which moved the car away from stock but should pay dividends in drivability.This Bring a Trailer auction ends August 31.Car and DriverFrom the outside, there is something severe about the restrained styling of a classic BMW 2002. This all-black example manages to be almost clerical in spirit, like a priestly cassock or nun’s habit, all clasped hands and pious intent. But, as former Car and Driver editor David E. Davis, Jr. once wrote, “Turn your hymnals to Number 2002 and we’ll sing two choruses of Whispering Bomb.” A 2002tii is not for saints but for us speedy sinners. Bring a TrailerToday’s pick over at Bring A Trailer—which, like Car and Driver, is part of Hearst Autos—is a 1974 BMW 2000tii achingly beautiful in black and chrome. Its subtlety and simplicity stand in stark contrast to the marque’s current lineup, which ranges from overwrought coupes to the XM SUV, the latter’s colossal twin grilles lending it an uncanny resemblance to Pumba from The Lion King.Related StoriesA 2002 is as meerkat to the warthoggy XM: light, elegant, deft. This nimble little car charmed the pants off Davis, to the extent that his 1968 review of the 114-hp carburetted version stands as one of the great automotive reviews of all time.“To my way of thinking, the 2002 is one of modern civilization’s all-time best ways to get somewhere sitting down. It grabs you.”Bring a TrailerThe tii suffix on this 1974 2002 indicates further zip under the hood, thanks to Kugelfisher mechanical fuel injection. So-equipped, the fizzy little 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine is good for 125 horsepower and 127 pound-feet of torque, rasping its merry song out of a stainless-steel exhaust. It’s paired with a five-speed manual from a later car and a limited-slip rear differential. Testing a 2002tii, Car and Driver’s Patrick Bedard, wrote:No matter how you try, you can’t help but like it. It is the essence of motoring truth: no strobe stripes, no phony teardrop racing mirrors, no triple turret taillights. Just finely honed machinery in the simplest steel and glass case. And it works. It handles—with the agility of a pro flanker back—and the fuel-injected engine can make the parson breathe hard. Bring a TrailerBeing a 1974, this example has the square taillights of the later 2002 models; enthusiasts of the breed may argue that the earlier round taillights are a little prettier (although the earlier chrome bumpers have been retrofitted). Mere quibbling, as the car is so well-sorted. Recaro seats and a Nardi shift knob and three-spoke steering wheel enhance a clean and spartan cockpit. Bilstein shocks and 13-inch Gotti wheels keep the footwork light and lively. Bring a TrailerPlenty of recent servicing has been performed by the previous owner, including a new aluminum radiator, fuel and water pumps, and various bits of the ignition system. The stainless steel exhaust is also new and should provide an excellent soundtrack for a weekend’s backroad flogging.Bring a TrailerWhich, should you have the winning bid on this lovely 2002tii, is practically a commandment. Contributing EditorBrendan McAleer is a freelance writer and photographer based in North Vancouver, B.C., Canada. He grew up splitting his knuckles on British automobiles, came of age in the golden era of Japanese sport-compact performance, and began writing about cars and people in 2008. His particular interest is the intersection between humanity and machinery, whether it is the racing career of Walter Cronkite or Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki’s half-century obsession with the Citroën 2CV. He has taught both of his young daughters how to shift a manual transmission and is grateful for the excuse they provide to be perpetually buying Hot Wheels. More

The Quail bills itself as “A Motorsports Gathering,” but it’s really something more. Oh, sure, there are historic racing cars and other vintage classics on display, but with the event now in its 20th year, that focus clearly has changed, and today The Quail has emerged as a contemporary auto show. It is not, however, a mainstream auto show, a dying medium that carmakers increasingly are fleeing. Big motor shows in the U.K., France, and Switzerland have been canceled (Geneva’s having been moved to Qatar), and others, such as Detroit, languish on life support. By contrast, The Quail has been embraced by automakers because it aligns perfectly with a key reality: The automobile business has entered a new Gilded Age.We can identify two forces driving that trend, one longer-acting and one more recent. The more recent catalyst was the COVID pandemic. It caused supply shortages—particularly of the silicon chips that are critical to so many automotive systems—that spurred carmakers to craftily rejigger their offerings and production plans, focusing on high-dollar, high-margin vehicles to squeeze maximum profit from reduced output. And it worked. Set that against an economic backdrop that has seen the richest members of society grow their wealth at a rate far outpacing everyone else, and you have turbocharged growth at the very highest echelon.Related StoriesIndeed, after electrification, the biggest trend in the new-car space is this increase in offerings at the very top of the market and a concurrent shift upmarket for the mainstream luxury brands. In the first case, that would be the wave of supercars and specialty products, not just from traditional players (Aston Martin, Bugatti, Ferrari, Koenigsegg, Lamborghini, McLaren, Mercedes-AMG, Pagani) but also from a host of relative newbies (BAC, Czinger, Gordon Murray Automotive, Hennessey, Pininfarina, Rimac, Zenvo, et al.). In the onward-and-upward corner, think BMW, Cadillac, Lotus, Mercedes-Maybach, Range Rover, and even Genesis. And perennial top-enders Bentley and Rolls-Royce have joined in by rolling out new offerings with prices that are streaking skyward.Courtesy photo RolexA Festival of WealthNowhere is this reach-for-the-stars’-wallets trend more clearly on display than during mid-August, during Monterey Car Week. That week under the Californian sun and stars historically has been anchored by the big Sunday concours at Pebble Beach and the historic racing at Laguna Seca (the annual happening’s initial raison d’être at its launch in 1950). But The Quail, held at the Quail Lodge and Golf Club in Carmel on the Friday and hosted by the Peninsula Hotel Group and a bevy of blue-chip sponsors, stands out as a singularly shiny emblem of the new business reality. A festival of wealth, if you will. To begin with, The Quail costs $1000 to get in, which begets a certain type of instant exclusivity. Children are few, while champagne, caviar, and costly togs are everywhere to be found. Excluding scattered schleppers from the Fourth Estate and jetloads of stylish influencers brought in by car-company hosts to bask in that rich-for-a-weekend feeling, plus the event’s copious support staff, the 5000 people who paid big money to be here make for a most happy hunting ground, a sort of curated game park, for purveyors of luxury goods, whose number in many years will include not just automakers but makers of helicopters, private jets, and pricey watches. Czinger’s stand at The Quail.Joe Lorio|Car and DriverFollowing the story wherever it leads, Car and Driver soldiered out to The Quail again this year and slipped into appropriate gear for a day spent swanning around the manicured golf course lawns that accommodate the day’s events. With colleagues Joe Lorio, Elana Scherr, and Dave VanderWerp, we spoke to several carmakers about the Quail’s big day and the Monterey Car Week of which it is a part as well as the reasons for their religious attendance, changes in the market, the thinking behind their presence, and where it’s all headed.McLaren Solus GT.Simari Photography LLC|Car and Driver”A Fantastic Environment”Alex Long, global head of market and product strategy for Aston Martin, said the 110-year-old British carmaker wouldn’t dream of missing The Quail. “You and your best clients are all together in a fantastic environment where they can be relaxed, circulate amongst the cars, meet key people from the OEM—the designers, the engineers—and really interact with them. It allows people to spend longer with you and spend more time talking with you. I think Pebble and The Quail in particular are the global benchmark for that.”Rolls-Royce North American CEO Martin Fritsches amplified the thought, putting it in the context of the company’s overall strategy of increasing customer engagement. “We don’t only sell products. More and more we’re selling experience.” The Quail, with its self-selected audience and air of heightened luxury, is a natural for further engaging with customers, old and new. “Obviously, we’re trying to be closer to our customers. They want to hang out with us, and through us also mingle with their peers.” Toward that end, the company offers an app, “Whispers,” which permits owners not only to be in touch with Rolls-Royce but other owners. “We have been realizing, particularly in the last two years, that more and more of our patrons, as we call them, enjoy our presence here and being part of the Concours but also enjoy our space and hospitality. So that’s one of the main reasons why we continue to invest here and dedicate valuable time to them.” Underscoring the point, on its show stand at The Quail Rolls staged the North American debut of its first EV, the new Spectre coupe (base price $422,750, although most are expected to transact around $500K). Lamborghini Lanzador concept.Simari Photography LLC|Car and DriverCurating an Experience for BuyersIt’s not just OEMs that have a presence here. Matt Boguradzki is director of sales and marketing at the O’Gara dealership group, one of the nation’s largest sellers of ultra-luxury cars, with showrooms in Beverly Hills, Westlake, and San Diego. Speaking behind O’Gara’s spacious stand lined with extra-custom McLarens and a Porsche 911 art car, he outlined his employers’ goals. “We’re exploring ways to create this global community of people because O’Gara is a super brand. Ours is a luxury house. And as we position ourselves into the future, everything we’re focused on now is really about that brand experience, curating coachbuilt and one-off bespoke experiences wherever and whenever we can, offering our community the best cars and best experience.” Fostering a personal connection with buyers is, of course, a recurrent theme. And with so few buyers in absolute terms in the market for cars that might cost half a million dollars or more, meeting with them one on one is not an impossible task. However, Cristina Cheever, senior vice-president for Robb Report, which organizes many luxury events and trips for its most affluent readers, cautioned it must be done right. Courting the hyper-wealthy, she explained, “is about engaging on a very intimate, one-on-one level. Secondly, it’s providing them with everything that you think they might have thought they needed during that day, whether it’s the food, the wine, or the chairs they’re sitting in. The hospitality has to be right, from the cars they drive to the bubbles in their glass, and then, who else is in the room? Put interesting people in the room that people can have access to. That’s a home run.” Pagani Utopia.Joe Lorio|Car and DriverBrand Houses For some carmakers, a reviewing stand at The Quail is not enough. Several carmakers rented showpiece luxury homes of the sort that dot the nearby Pacific Coast environs and Pebble Beach’s famed 17 Mile Drive. Over the course of the week, they invite customers to come, er, chill with them in places guaranteed to make you jealous. Casa Ferrari, Range Rover House, Zenvo House, the House of Maserati, and the House of BAC were among them. In Pebble Beach, Aston Martin’s Club 1913 (celebrating the year of the brand’s establishment) showcased the new $800,000 Valhalla hypercar and developments in VR technology. And Mercedes erected its pop-up Star Lounge (nearly the size of a city block), filled with the Vision One-Eleven concept (a C111 tribute) and new models including the just-launched 2024 Mercedes-AMG GT coupe, while old-timer classics from its Classic Center stood sentinel out front. So much value could be found in maintaining nearby brand houses through the week that some makers, notably Ferrari and Land Rover, eschewed stands at The Quail in favor of showpiece houses worth eight figures.The Mercedes-Maybach popup at Pebble Beach.Joe Lorio|Car and DriverReportedly, more than 500 Ferrari customers turned up at Casa Ferrari during the week. That’s a healthy percentage of all the storied marque’s owners—even taking into account the brand’s record 13,221 sales in 2022, an almost 20 percent spike from its record in 2021[. On display at Ferrari’s humble Casa: the SF90 XX (starting price: $844,000) and the 812 Competizione, for which you’d spend a minimum of $601,570 if you could get one, but you can’t because it’s sold out. “Why do we come to places like this?” began Joe Eberhardt, president and CEO of Jaguar Land Rover, as, cocktails in hand, we repaired from the massive decks overlooking the Pacific to a sheltered patio area of JLR’s modern masterpiece home for the week. Nearby, hummingbirds toiled alongside a butterfly tree, and a dinner table for 50 was being laid. “You can engage with your clients in a very different way here,” Eberhardt explained. “I was walking around The Quail today, and I wouldn’t want to be there. Seriously. Because people don’t interact with a brand there, they stand in line to get a glass of champagne or whatever, then they’re trying to look at some cars for two minutes, then some other cars on another stand, and the dwell time is just not there. Then at some of the other homes or houses, it’s all just very hectic. But then you can come here, and people spend six hours here, they’re just relaxed, they sit back and you can build a relationship, really get to know them.”Maserati MCXtrema.Courtesy photo RolexDucking into the House of Maserati, following a quick snack of ricotta-stuffed fried zucchini blossoms served by an Italian chef who clearly knew his craft, we sat down with Bill Peffer, head of the company’s North American arm. The former Nissan and Kia executive was pumped by the sold-out Maserati MCXtrema, which had its public coming-out party at The Quail. Thirty-one of the 62-unit commission (62 being the exact number of Ferrari Enzo–derived MC-12s built in 2004–05) have been sold to Americans, and they’ve all been invited here to have a look at a rolling buck of the car for which they’ve all already put down a substantial deposit against a $1-million-plus price for a car that will be finished sometime next year. Peffer offered the following observation: “Customers have wealth. They want something that’s unique. They want something that’s bespoke. They want something that no one else has, and they’re willing to pay for it.”Leaving Maserati, we bump into a small delegation arriving from Lotus, who are out and about exploring brand houses as they prepare to move their own brand upmarket, an effort begun with the $2-million-plus all-electric Evija, first shown at The Quail in 2019. A brand house during Car Week might be the next step in Lotus’s showgoing evolution, although, with some cheaper (though hardly cheap) volume models such as the Eletre SUV coming to market, Lotus will pursue a multi-pronged strategy.Lotus Type 66.Simari Photography LLC|Car and DriverFinding a Focused Audience”We’re working toward selling 150,000 cars by 2028. We sold 567 last year, so it’s a big jump,” Lotus Group chief commercial officer Mike Johnstone acknowledged with a smile a day earlier at The Quail. “For us, auto shows still play an important role, but maybe different shows play different roles. Events such as this give us a great way to get in front of a very specific, focused audience. You can see there’s an absolute love here of car culture. And there’s an interest in our history and our heritage. Take for example the launch here of the Type 66 [a batch of 10 Can-Am racers designed in period by Colin Chapman’s team but never built, until now, at around $1.3 million apiece]. “I’m sure some inquiries will come off the back of it because it’s the first time we’ve actually shown it to anybody. Equally, we will still attend some of the bigger auto shows as well. If you take the aspiration to get to 150,000 when we’ve got relatively low brand awareness in some markets, it’s important that we get to as many people as possible. And auto shows play a role, particularly for people that are in the market for a large SUV like the Eletre.”Eric Neville, Cadillac’s associate marketing director, agrees a mix-and-match approach is right for a brand that, while hoping to go much further upscale, is still rooted in the upper middle classes. “What we’re seeing is that luxury customers and luxury auto enthusiasts are interested in a variety of events including concours, private events, and experiences based on brand partnerships as well as certain auto shows. It’s all about finding the right mix so our audience sees Cadillac as aspirational but not unrelatable.”Bentley chairman and CEO Adrian Hallmark reckons his company’s drive further up-market has been significantly aided by “a massive COVID effect.” That is a devil-may-care abandon that followed on from persons of means feeling like, ” ‘I don’t know what’s going to be on the other side of this, I don’t know how long I’m going to live, I don’t know whether the pandemic will end, I don’t know if there will be another one after it. It’s not consequential if I spend another $30,000 or $50,000 to get what I really want. And I may as well have what I really want.’ ” We couldn’t agree more, especially the part about having what we really want. Bentley Bentayga EWB Mulliner.Joe Lorio|Car and DriverBeyond mainstream luxury offerings like the Bentayga SUV (a $339,150 extended-wheelbase Mulliner version of which debuted at The Quail), Bentley also figures buyers will want toys like the Blower Junior, a $115,000 85-percent-scale EV replica of the 1929 original (which itself just completed a 12-unit continuation run at $2.1 million per). The company has done a complete about-face on its mix of special orders versus buying from stock. Where sales from stock once constituted 90 percent of volume, now fewer than 10 percent of customers take delivery from stock, with 90 percent of sales built to order. So, heightened patience, apparently, is another COVID hangover.When Money Is No ObjectThe question of how high is high also arises. Is there no limit to what rich folk are willing to spend? From the looks of it, not. Speaking at the debut of the custom-built Droptail roadster (a bespoke two-seater, only four of which will be built, with price tags rumored to approach $30 million), Rolls Royce CEO Torsten Müller-Ötvös stated that, for clients commissioning one of the brand’s “coachbuild” cars, “Money is never in any way a limiting factor.”Pininfarina B95.Simari Photography LLC|Car and DriverIt certainly isn’t limiting the market’s appetite for supercars—or their even more stratospherically powered and priced analogue, hypercars, plenty of which were on display at The Quail. There, Danish boutique automaker Zenvo debuted the 1450-/1850-hp Aurora. Jen Sverdrup, Zenvo chairman and chief commercial officer, points to the entry by mainstream super-sports-car makers into the hypercar space in the mid-2010s (with the Ferrari LaFerrari, the McLaren P1, and the Porsche 918 Sypder) as having a catalyzing effect. “It used to be extreme car guys that were into it,” he says, “then it became more of a lifestyle scene.” He also acknowledges a macro tailwind: “The recent increase in billionaires—that helps us.”With some EV hypermachines sporting 2000 horsepower, Rouven Mohr, chief technology officer for Lamborghini, doubts that today’s insane horsepower wars are sustainable, but he doesn’t foresee the market slowing down. “There will always be people that are looking for, let me say, dramatic, more involving cars,” he says. “People that have this kind of wish are not disappearing. “Rimac Nevera Time Attack.Simari Photography LLC|Car and DriverAs for events like The Quail, which he attends each year, McKeel Hagerty, CEO of Hagerty, the world’s largest insurer of classic cars, says he is confident they will continue as well. “These events are flourishing, and they’re not just flourishing in the U.S. but flourishing around the world. It’s becoming less transactional and more about the lifestyle. The best thing about these events is they allow an OEM or a lifestyle brand or even designers to interact directly with their end-user customers. That’s why it works, and frankly, it’s fun. And compared to regular auto shows, the food is better.”Certainly, there’s more caviar. Contributing EditorJamie Kitman is a lawyer, rock band manager (They Might Be Giants, Violent Femmes, Meat Puppets, OK Go, Pere Ubu, among his clients past and present), and veteran automotive journalist whose work has appeared in publications including _Automobile Magazine, Road & Track, Autoweek, Jalopnik, New York Times, Washington Post, Politico, The Nation, Harpers, and Vanity Fair as well as England’s Car, Top Gear, Guardian, Private Eye, and The Road Rat. Winner of a National Magazine Award and the IRE Medal for Investigative Magazine Journalism for his reporting on the history of leaded gasoline, in his copious spare time he runs a picture-car company, Octane Film Cars, which has supplied cars to TV shows including The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, The Americans, Halston, and The Deuce and movies including Respect and The Post. A judge on the concours circuit, he has his own collection with a “friend of the friendless” theme that includes less-than-concours examples of the Mk 1 Lotus-Ford Cortina, Hillman Imp, and Lancia Fulvia, as well as more Peugeots than he is willing to publicly disclose. More

Rolls-Royce has revealed the second limited-production Droptail, after unveiling the first unit, called La Rose Noire, at Monterey Car Week.This Droptail, called Amethyst, draws inspiration from the purple gemstone with an ethereal paint job and real amethyst in the gauge cluster.It also features swaths of open-pore wood and purple-tinted carbon fiber.This month at Monterey Car Week, Rolls-Royce pulled the covers off of an exclusive new convertible, the Droptail. Only four units of the V-12–powered two-door will be built, each with its own unique theme. The first example, called La Rose Noire, was painted a deep, seductive shade of red while the cabin featured 1063 pieces of wood trim in a geometric pattern. Now Rolls-Royce has revealed the second Droptail, named after the gemstone amethyst, that exhibits an exquisite purple paint job, acres of open-pore wood, and actual amethyst gems.Rolls-Royce hasn’t published a price for the Droptail, but a previous bespoke project, the Boat Tail, cost north of $20 million. According to Rolls-Royce, the unnamed client ran a gemstone boutique before expanding into a multinational corporation. The customer collects jewels (along with cars and artwork) in their own private museum, so we imagine the multi-million-dollar price tag wasn’t a problem for this privileged individual. Amethyst is their son’s birthstone, serving as inspiration for the purple tones throughout the car.The elegant paint job, however, draws upon the globe amaranth wildflower, which Rolls-Royce says “blooms in the desert near one of the client’s homes.” The light purple body features flecks of powdered aluminum to create a glistening finish while the hood is a darker hue, the contrast meant to represent different stages of the flower’s bloom. The polished aluminum 22-inch wheels also include a touch of purple paint, and the carbon fiber lower section of the body is finished in a unique chevron pattern with an amethyst tint.Rolls-Royce broke from tradition with the Droptail’s grille, angling the vertical vanes inward for the first time. The Amethyst Droptail’s vanes are partially hand-brushed and partially hand-polished, with a dividing line separating the two finishes. The unusual process allegedly took 50 hours and was inspired by the brushed hands on a timepiece in the watch collection of the owner’s son. As on La Rose Noire, the lower air intake features an ornate, complex design with 202 hand-polished stainless steel rectangles, painted in the globe amaranth hue.Perched atop the expansive hood, the Spirit of Ecstasy ornament sprouts out of amethyst cabochons, a term for when a gem is polished into a rounded form instead of faceted like the gems on many wedding rings. The Droptail comes with a removable hardtop roof and electrochromic glass that can switch between opaque with a purple tint to translucent with a hint of the Sand Dunes color.The cabin is full of wood, with the client selecting a Calamander Light open-pore strain, which is meant to match the Sand Dunes leather accents. Rolls-Royce claims that sourcing wood that perfectly paired with the leather was a six-month undertaking. The tan leather appears on the seats and dashboard, contrasting with the main purple leather upholstery. The wood extends from the dashboard down the door panels and to what Rolls-Royce calls the “aft deck,” clearly meant to emulate luxurious yachts, where the grain creates a dramatic V-shape. The wood was apparently tested for 8000 hours in temperatures ranging from 176 degrees to negative 22 degrees Fahrenheit, as well as extreme sunlight and rain exposure. Rolls-Royce says the deck also serves an aerodynamic role, claiming its the “world’s only ‘raw’ wooden surface that produces downforce on a new roadgoing motor car.”More Opulent Rolls-RoycesThe gauges echo the hood-mounted Spirit of Ecstasy, decorated with cabochon-style amethyst gems. The interior also includes woven leather floor mats, a reference, Rolls-Royce says, to the traditional weaving found in the souks, or Arab marketplaces, of the owner’s original home. Like La Rose Noire, the dashboard has a space for a unique watch, which the client commission from Vacheron Constantin, a Swiss manufacturer. The watch can be removed from its dashboard housing and worn.This content is imported from poll. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.Associate News EditorCaleb Miller began blogging about cars at 13 years old, and he realized his dream of writing for a car magazine after graduating from Carnegie Mellon University and joining the Car and Driver team. He loves quirky and obscure autos, aiming to one day own something bizarre like a Nissan S-Cargo, and is an avid motorsports fan. More