Category: General

The Austal shipyard in Western Australia builds a number of ferries, combat vessels, and patrol boats. Predictably, its 193-foot, fiberglass-composite Austal Outback is a sturdy craft and fast as well, with a top speed of 23 mph.

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.

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.

Audi’s high-performance RS models have come a long way since the storied debut of the RS2 Avant in 1994, but its mission remains the same: Steal the thunder of BMW’s M cars. To that end, the company is set to unleash its most fearsome RS model yet—the 2009 RS6 sedan, a car engineered with the singular goal of quashing Munich’s vaunted M5. The sedan (which joins an equally sinister RS6 wagon) features a 5-liter V-10 with a host of racing-derived modifications, including direct fuel injection, dry sump lubrication, and twin turbochargers. Belting out a startling 571 horsepower and 479 foot-pounds of torque, the engine meets a six-speed Tiptronic manu-matic transmission and, naturally, Quattro all-wheel drive. Sixty miles per hour arrives in about 4.4 seconds, and top speed is electronically governed to 155 mph—or, optionally, ungoverned to 174 mph. Visually, there’s no mistaking this über A6: Swollen fenders contain wide performance tires around unique 19-inch wheels (20-inch alloys are optional, as are Audi’s huge carbon ceramic disc brakes), and a restyled rear bumper accommodates a pair of gaping oval tailpipes. On sale exclusively in Germany for about 5,000, Audi has no plans to grace its American showrooms with either RS6 model, so speed mongers will have to make do with the more restrained S6 (,350), which packs a normally aspirated 5.2-liter V-10 producing “only” 435 horsepower. (www.audiusa.com)

—Matthew Phenix

The 2009 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 is the fastest, most powerful Corvette ever. The ZR1’s 6.

“It has always been my dream,” says Roland Gumpert, Gumpert Sportwagenmanufaktur founder and ex–Audi engineer, “to have a car with so much downforce, such aerodynamic efficiency, that you could drive on the roof of a tunnel at high speed.” Well, here it is.