driving

IndyCar Driver Dario Franchitti Gives You Directions Around Scotland

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels, Luxury Cars & Autos

Dario Franchitti – yes, the same one who just won the Indy 500 and is married to Ashley Judd – has put together a few driving itineraries of his native Scotland. With routes lasting from four to eight days and covering the entire country, these aren't skimpy directions, either; the three trips are all stocked with enough attractions to reward scenic Sunday drivers, Scottish history mavens, and racing enthusiasts alike. Each route offers so much to do, in fact, that any of them could be given twice the time allotted. It seems Franchitti didn't factor any whiskey recovery sessions into his drive plans, an oversight you'll want to correct. You might want to drive a little slower than Mr. Judd might, but if you do get pulled over you can always try, "But Dario said it was all right..."

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Tags: dario franchitti, driving, driving tours, indy 500, scotland

RS Academy is a Supercar Club that Emphasizes the "Super"

by Jonathon Ramsey (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Cars & Autos

In almost any city where supercars gather in their sinister red, black, and yellow broods, you will find supercar clubs. Most clubs, though, are like settling for a zoo instead of going on safari: you save yourself some time and money only to be cheated out of seeing what an animal can really do. And just as you'll learn little by watching a hippo in its air conditioned paddock, you'll know next to nothing about a Ferrari F430 Challenge stuck on road duty and date nights.

Enter RS Academy, a supercar track club with some of the finest vessels made for carving up kerbs, as well as entry to three of the best tracks in the world for doing just that: Germany's Nurburgring, Belgium's Spa-Francorchamps, and the members only Ascari Race Resort in Spain. The club keeps a fleet of cars at each track so that all you need to do is show up with a helmet and a Zen-like focus on the finest racing line. Along with the aforementioned Ferrari, the fleet includes the Caterham R500 Superlight, BMW M3 CSL, Porsche 911 GT3 RS, Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera, and Radical SR3. When you're at Ascari, you have access to the that club's Spanish fleet as well.

The Academy is hosting taster days at the Ascari Race Resort in Marbella this month for sampling the club's offerings at an in-house venue. Annual subscriptions begin around £12,000, and come in three varieties. If you want to make the most of your time behind the wheel, RS maintains 12 instructors among the three tracks who will guide you to a racing license and, if you're good enough, a seat in the RS Academy race team. Between the tracks, the cars, the Jedi-racer trainers -- and did we mention Marbella? -- not even Speed Racer had it this good.

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Tags: ascari, driving, nurburgring, racing, rs academy, RsAcademy, spa francorchamps, SpaFrancorchamps, supercars

Stefan Johansson Växjö Mark VIII Watch Line

by Ariel Adams (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Timepieces / Watches

I love it when someone get's to the point of wealth and taste in their life when "starting a watch brand" seems like a good idea. Who wouldn't like their own watch brand anyway? Shows good taste - at least I think so. Well that is more or less what Stefan Johansson did. So here is the Stefan Johansson Växjö Mark VII collection, which has about 15 watches to choose from. It is Stefan Johansson Växjö's largest line, and is a luxury racing inspired watch if I have ever seen one.

Stefan Johansson is a European race car Driver and this shows in the watches. For example, the hour indicators are all racing flags, and little touches on the speak of sport racing. Interestingly enough, unlike some other auto sports watches, the timepiece focus more on racing as a sport than just the cars. This is an interesting touch as most of race watches have design elements all over them meant to look like pieces of cars. Here it is a bit different.

The watches come in a wealth of fun colors and themes. With two movement options, the automatic ETA Valjoux 7750 and 7751. The 47mm wide steel cased watches have a variety of dials, some being perforated, and some have carbon fiber - all embody the track theme well. There are a few women's versions of the watch, but they are also 47mm wide, for the lady who likes things big (with diamonds too)

The hour indicator for the chronograph has a double ring so that you can feasibly measure 24, instead of just 12 hours. Maybe something connected with Le Mans, that Stefan Johansson was a participant in I understand. The watches can also be customized with your name on the caseback sapphire window, and further comes in watch winder boxes. A cheeky collection of timepieces that incorporate some popular elements in a nicely cohesive manner. Average price for the Stefan Johansson Växjö Mark VIII collection watches is about $10,000.

Ariel Adams publishes the luxury watch review site aBlogtoRead.com.

Tags: 8, driving, mark, race, Stefan Johansson Vxj, StefanJohanssonVxj, timepiece, VIII, watch

Nurburgring Driving Experience

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels, Luxury Cars & Autos

If you are a serious racing enthusiast there are certain places that you dream of driving in order to test your mettle. One of them is the Nurburgring racing circuit in Germany. It is one of the longest and most challenging race courses in the world including 170 turns and 1000 feet in elevation changes.

Distinctive Driving Tours, which operates luxury driving tours, is now offering an all-inclusive track tour of the Nurburgring racing circuit, this August. The experience costs $8,000 (without airfare) and includes transportation to and from the airport, accommodations (based on double occupancy), breakfast, lunch and a cocktail reception. Guests will also receive instruction from International Drivers Training and track time in 10 different vehicles, including the Lotus Exige, Porsche 911, Audi TT, Renault Megane Sport, Volkswagen Golf GTI and BMW's 120i, 135i, 320si and 325i. Use of a Porsche GT3 RS is available for an extra $2,200 to $4,400 (half day or full day) supplement.

Distinctive Driving Tours offers a variety of other driving adventures including a Nascar experience and driving getaways in Arizona and California as well as annual trips to the Monaco F1 and LeMans.

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Tags: driving, nurbringring, vacation

The Stallion: A $30,000 Big Wheel

by Rigel Celeste (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Cars & Autos

As with most things in the luxury arena, it's about extremes and how much you really love something if you're going to spend loads of money on it. And it's no different with this three wheeler. It's called The Stallion from Thoroughbred Motorsports, and at $30,000 it's the world's most expensive three wheeler. Albeit a fancy one, it's basically a cross between a car and a motorcycle, plus all kinds of fun features covering everything from performance (the same power to weight ratio a Mustange GT and 45mpg highway gas mileage) to comfort (A/C and cup holders for both the driver in the front seat and the passenger in the back). Oh, and it comes in your choice of six fun colors.

Via Gizmodo

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Tags: 3, 3 wheeler, 3Wheeler, drive, driving, most expensive, MostExpensive, motorsports, stallion, The stallion, TheStallion, thoroughbred, thoroughbred motorsports, ThoroughbredMotorsports, three, three wheeler, ThreeWheeler, wheeler

Porsche Driving Experience For Women Only

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels, Luxury Cars & Autos, Events

If you ever have ever wanted to try out the Porsche Driving Experience but were perhaps intimidated by the thought of getting muscled out by the male participants in the driving school, you might want to clear out September 18 and 19 on your calendar. That's when the driving school is holding their Women Only event at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama. The weekend includes classroom instruction as well as on-track sessions and off-road courses. And just because you like to drive fast doesn't mean you are not a girly girl. The weekend will also include a fashion show at the Ross Bridge Resort hotel and women drivers can also enjoy spa treatments, golf lessons and yoga and pilates classes.

[via Automobile Magazine]

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Tags: alabama, driving, porsche, racetrack, travel, vacation, women

Dents Pittards Cabretta Gents Gloves

by Nicole Weston (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Apparel

Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be as much call for driving gloves as there once was, but if you like them as a fashion accessory or want something to keep your fingers warm before your heater kicks in on a cold morning, the Bentley store as a great pair. The Dents Pittards Cabretta Gents Gloves come in three colors - tan, black and green - and are made of ultra-soft leather. They have a keyhole back, which secures with a Bentley-logo stud, and perforated fingers. Price: $110.

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Tags: bentley, driving, driving gloves, DrivingGloves, glove, gloves

Atlanta Driving Club

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Cars & Autos

The latest city to get a car club, is a city that we have seen a lot of luxury pop up in lately, Atlanta, Georgia. The Atlanta Driving Club, is Atlanta's first luxury and performance car-share company. The company will offer the usual variety of tempting wish-list cars from Lamborghini, Porsche and Bentley as well as the Dodge Viper shown here. The Atlanta Driving Club offers three yearly membership packages ranging from a $6,000 trial membership averaging 10-25 driving days to the $16,000 platinum-level membership which offers around 90 driving days. Memberships include unlimited mileage, available on-site detailing and storage of personal vehicles, 24-hour roadside assistance for club vehicles and activities such as racetrack days, social networking events, poker parties, drive-trip planning and new car premieres.

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Tags: atlanta, cars, driving, georgia, luxury

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