JULY 11, 2018

(Volvo)
Volvo has announced that it is launching M, "a new brand that will expand the company’s global mobility operations by providing dependable, on-demand access to cars and services through an intuitive app. M will learn about its user’s needs, preferences and habits, personalizing the customer relationship." It will debut in Sweden and the US in the spring of 2019. We're really glad they spent a lot of time coming up with that moniker for their mobility play. M? Wow. Catchy name, that. (We hear Alternative Mobility Group is up for grabs as well. -WG)

(BMW)
Speaking of M, if you're hankering for the all-new 2019 BMW M850i xDrive Coupe, it will cost you. Prices start at $111,900 plus $995 Destination and Handling for the new 523HP M850i xDrive Coupe. It arrives in U.S. showrooms on December 8. That is all.

(Bugatti)
Bugatti is working on a new model, the Bugatti Divo, which is named after Albert Divo, the French racing driver who won the famous Targa Florio in Sicily for Bugatti twice in the late 1920s. The emphasis for the Divo will be on lighter weight, sharper agility, higher downforce and greater g-forces. Bugatti President Stephan Winkelmann says, “With the Divo, we want to thrill people throughout the world.” The Bugatti Divo will be made in a limited series of 40 vehicles at a price of  €5 million each. The world premiere of the Bugatti Divo will take place on August 24th at “The Quail – A Motorsports Gathering“ in California. 

(Singer Vehicle Design images)
A client commissioned California-based Singer Vehicle Design to build the ultimate 911, incorporating advanced technologies throughout. The result? Singer Vehicle Design’s Dynamic and Lightweighting Study (DLS), a client-inspired collaboration with Williams Advanced Engineering and a formation of technical partners in pursuit of the most advanced air-cooled Porsche 911 in the world. There are so many unbelievable trick technical features in this car that we're guessing the total bill came to around $1.6 million, including the donor 911. It will be shown at the 2018 Goodwood Festival of Speed, July 12-15, in West Sussex, England, but for those unable to be at Goodwood, the DLS will be at Monterey Car Week beginning August 23.

(Photo by Drew Gibson/Ford)
A a one-of-a-kind Eagle Squadron Mustang GT created by Ford Performance and drifting champ Vaughn Gittin Jr. is making its debut at Goodwood to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Royal Air Force. Gittin is piloting the one-off Mustang – built with a Ford Performance supercharger generating 700 horsepower, plus an RTR wide-body kit, suspension components and authentic Spitfire materials – to the summit at the Goodwood Festival of Speed Hillclimb. The special Mustang will be on display at the Ford booth at this weekend’s event. The Eagle Squadron Mustang GT is going up for auction July 26 at The Gathering to benefit the Experimental Aircraft Association’s youth aviation education programs. 2018 marks the 20th year of Ford’s participation in the Experimental Aircraft Association AirVenture event, while the Eagle Squadron Mustang GT represents the 10th customized Mustang the company has provided to benefit the charity fundraiser. To date, 100 percent of the more than $3 million raised has gone to encouraging and supporting the next generation of pilots. Top bidder also gets an all-expense-paid trip to 2018 Ford Woodward Dream Cruise next month – Detroit’s annual celebration of performance cars – where the Eagle Squadron Mustang GT will be on display.

25 Minutes With the Rolls-Royce Cullinan.

By Tom Pease

Beverly Hills. For some reason I got an invitation to preview the Rolls-Royce Cullinan SUV. How or why I do not know since I would be able to afford a Rolls shortly after I accepted my Oscar for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy, but the invitation came so I accepted. The place was some studio on Cahuenga in Hollywood, all cool marble, granite and reflecting pools down the street from the DMV and a small homeless tent city. Rolls did get one thing right- they hired people as greeters who were not only attractive but who welcomed people with genuine warmth; nothing says "nouveau" more than haughty help. As is my wont (and because it was going to be hotter than hell) I arrived smack on at 10am when they opened. It wasn't too crowded so I was able in my brief time to take a fairly decent look at the beast.

And a beast it is. The styling somewhat manages to belie the sheer mass of it; I am sure that it's at least as large if not larger than an Escalade, an SUV that almost gleefully revels in it's own corpulence. Except for the upright grill and the (I am sure retractable) Flying Lady there isn't much that screams "Rolls" to the uninitiated. But I guess when you're piloting a $325,000.00 invitation to class warfare, it's best to keep it somewhat on the down low.

I was only briefly in the interior, which is covered with the finest of the finest and everything is finest, etc. etc. However the thing is that everyone from Audi to Hyundai has raised the bar so much on interiors that to justify stratospheric prices you're going to have to have to get stratospheric materials. Leather? Try Ostrich. Try Alligator. Wood on the dash? Ha! I can get that on a Veloster. Try Marble. Try Granite. Maybe asteroid.

I did look at the rear compartment on both cars. The red one was I suppose the standard one. It was just carpeted (no doubt with something terribly expensive; it looked far better than my rugs at home.) I was there with a couple who looked as if they could afford one and the man showed me that there was a button that folded the front fourth of the floor up like a ramp. The rear seats fold down, but do not create a flat floor so the ramp is there I suppose so that Sneaves the butler can slide those extra cases of Bollinger onto the folded back seats. We joked that it was there for the trips to Home Depot. Polite laughter all around.

The other one had the picnic seats (which a nice young man swooped in to show me as I was pressing buttons and looking clueless.) Apparently this is a module which, when the correct button is pressed, extends out a platform with two little seats, the backs of which can be folded up and an almost comical little table that powers up to extend perhaps and inch and a half. I suppose the idea is that one would be taking this to say, Ascot to sip the Bolly Sneaves stocked the (shockingly not cooled) storage with. The Prole in me thought "Massive overkill for a Brewers game." The nice young man told me that the catch I was blithely releasing was to remove the whole magilla; he proudly stated that one, on their own could remove the whole assembly without going to the dealer and store it if it was not going to be used. I could not help but think that at that price point not only should I (or Sneaves) not have to remove it, but the Dealer should store it for me, like Mercedes dealers did for SL Customers in the 70's and 80's.

All kidding aside, it is a beautiful piece that I think lets it down in certain areas, at least ones I saw in the 20 minutes I was there. Now the people at Rolls could chime in and tell me I am wrong, but I would expect if you are going to have the trick picnic seats (whatever Rolls calls them) that they would include storage that is heated or cooled, so that while you are watching the ponies run or the sunset over wherever your perrier is chilled or your hot chocolate is warm. If seats are going to fold, they should fold flat to the load floor so that barn find Klimt can lay flat on the way to the restorer.

But of course this is so not me. Even with PowerBall winnings, if I was going to get an SUV it would be far more for picking up mulch than a Manet. I would love to spend more time with the Cullinan to understand it more, but I am sure the previous six paragraphs of snark will put paid to that, as well as any further invitations. So it goes.