Category: General

The 37.5-foot Sea Ray 350 Sundancer is available with Mercury MerCruiser’s Axius, a docking system that the company debuted last year for its smaller, sterndrive-powered boats.

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.

Automotive luxury and environmental consciousness are no longer mutually exclusive. Witness the sexy new Fisker Karma, a gasoline-electric hybrid sedan.

Has there ever been another automaker with Cadillac’s mysterious, Benjamin Button–like tendency to age in reverse? What started out more than a century ago as an austere marque is now inspiring the daydreams of a decidedly younger crowd.

Splice together the swept roofline of a grand-touring coupe and the brawny physique of a four-door SUV, and—voilà —you have the BMW X6, a vehicular mongrel with purebred pedigree. Although it shares its architecture with BMW’s more traditionally styled sport-utility, and rolls out of the same factory in Spartanburg, S.

It’s a confident man who names his upstart car company “Iconic,” and a downright audacious one whose first automobile brazenly evokes one of America’s great sports racing cars. Behind the Iconic GTR Roadster’s presumptuous nameplate and beneath its swollen, Cobra-esque body, however, lurks something quite unexpected: a thoroughly modern, meticulously crafted, ferociously fast sports car.