Vicarious -julkaisun Fall 2022 -irtonumeron sisällysluettelo

EPOCH Bar & Kitchen Terrace redefines pub culture and pays homage to traditional British Gastrobars. Tucked away on the lobby level of the luxurious Ritz-Carlton, the restaurant gives a nod to iconic food and beverage trends of the past, reimagined with a new perspective on modern dining. Designed by DesignAgency’s Allen Chan, EPOCH provides a contemporary and welcoming atmosphere. Guests are greeted with a relaxed chic dining room, the ideal place to unwind and socialize among a thoughtfully curated gallery of works by Canadian artists Caitlin Cronenberg and Heidi Conrod. The centerpiece of the restaurant is a stunning wraparound bar fitted with pale stone countertops. The Green Room, adorned with a fireplace and pool table, is a cozy space, perfect for intimate events, and a tribute to the entertainment industry…

Still sputtering, the engine kept turning as I scrambled to find the kill switch. Runoff still flowing down the front face of the sandstone from the recent rain, I took a few steps backward as I tried to collect myself. On the verge of adding insult to injury, I stumbled to stay vertical as my feet slipped on the wet clay. The sound of my heartbeat deafening in my ears, I leaned over, hands on my knees as I tried to catch my breath. I let out a long defeated sigh, looking over my bike, still upside down; wheels resting on the rocks. Ever have one of those days where you feel like you can’t catch a break? I have no doubt, most motorcyclists will agree, nature has the distinct…

Robert Wickens has to be not just one of the best comeback stories of the year, but one of the best motorsport and personal stories in general of the year. This is a man who got his big break – a seat in an Indianapolis racing car in 2018 – only to lose full use of his legs and with that, his seat, in a horrific accident later that same year at Pocono Speedway. Now, four years later after a rehabilitation regimen that is the stuff of legend he’s back in the saddle, driving a hand-operated Hyundai Elantra N TCR touring car in the Michelin Pilot Sport Challenge, a valuable member of the Bryan Herta Autosport (BHA) team. He doesn’t just have a seat; he’s winning. We caught up with…

Crack! Thunder resonated throughout the vehicle. It was a regular occurrence by this point and felt almost normal. The boom set off a domino effect, starting with a compression of the suspension, then the sound, the recoil and my eyes pealing open lazily as my body became airborne – my focus temporarily fixed outside the window. (Wait, is that a camel?) The flight reached its crescendo with a spell of violent shaking, finishing off with a soothing vibration from the textured roadway. No sooner than when my Sparco race seat caught my limp carcass was I back to my slumber, ignoring the sheer brilliance of Edo’s driving as he steered his ’99 Prado down the racecourse trying to stay ahead of the bikes. They were released in front of some…

The tracking of a racer’s elapsed time was a relatively slow technology to develop. As such, it started with slower moving things over very long distances. Humans completing marathons in and around 1720 weren’t typically separated by tenths, one-hundredths or one-thousandths, so clocking the standings via seconds was good enough, but this wouldn’t last. In 1816 Louis Moinet invented the modern chronograph in order to track even slower moving things over vast distances – the solar system – but his invention was much more precise. It could measure time to within 1/60th of a second. From here advancements were made, the timing instruments became smaller and accuracy began walking in lockstep with precision. In 1887 Edouard Heuer would invent the oscillating pinion which is a clutch mechanism used to engage…

I’ve long been a communications system convert. The ability to dive into a podcast or get lost in a playlist while I’m weaving my way through traffic has long been mandatory for my two and three-wheeled excursions. Toss in the ability to tackle any urgent phone calls, get turn by turn directions and to connect with riding partners when an audible is needed enroute, and the return on investment is huge. And if you own one of them there new fancy connected bikes, you need to pair a headset and phone to make everything work. Towards the end of last year’s riding season, Cardo introduced their new Freecom line. Essentially a step between the entry-level Spirit line and the top tier Packtalk, the Freecom boasts many of the premium bells…

“The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.”– Albert Einstein I am not ready to let go of the past. At least when it comes to using fossil fuels to power the vehicles that I love, it’s asking a lot of me to move on. You see, I grew up in the first heyday of performance automobiles, that mad race for performance and style in the 60’s and 70’s. Names like Plymouth Barracuda, Ford Shelby Mustang, Chevrolet Camaro and Pontiac GTO were iconic, not to mention all that was happening in Europe with Ferrari, Lamborghini, Alfa Romeo, BMW and Aston Martin among others. And I have continued to bask in the glow of burning petroleum to what…

On July 10, 1913, the thermometer in Furnace Creek reached 57 degrees Celsius (134 F). The summertime average consistently hits 45, at which point heat stroke isn’t far off for most folks. When that happens, blood flow to the skin slows, preventing the human body from cooling itself with sweat, internal cells deteriorate, and eventually organ failure occurs as the body essentially cooks itself. Without immediate treatment, survival is highly unlikely. This is Death Valley, and it’s aptly named. Situated along the California-Nevada state line, this unlikely National Park makes up the northern part of the Mojave Desert, and it’s gained notoriety as the hottest spot in North America. Of course, the desert is a place of wicked extremes and even wrapped like a giant burrito inside two sleeping bags…

The 2022 Porsche 911 GT3 Touring is for me the mechanical equivalent of a magical song tugging at my heart strings. It’s not the fastest Porsche 911, it’s not even the most aggressive version of the GT3, but it just might be the perfect choice for when a favourite song comes on the radio and you feel compelled to go around the block at least one, if not 10 more times. I may even find myself turning off the radio to listen to the sweet sounds of that 60’s inspired flat six work its mechanical melody with each stir of the manual gearbox up to it’s stratospheric rev limit. There is a raw edge to the 4.0L 6-cylinder boxer engine that drives my right foot to stand on it and…

It’s literally tomorrow in Vietnam. Meet electric vehicle (EV) makers VinFast. In case you haven’t heard of them, they mean business. Note both syllables in the name, starting with the second. In under 21 months, this wunderkompany magicked a suite of integrated factories three times the size of downtown Ottawa on a swamp two hours from Hanoi, and launched its first three models. (This during the whole pandemic/supply chain thing!) They were formed in 2017. I was there last month on a choregraphed tour of VinFast’s facilities, but it felt like years in the future. The visit was part of VinFast’s strategy to leapfrog traditional marketing techniques. And the Vin? It’s a contraction of Vietnam. VinFast is backed by behemoth Vietnamese conglomerate, VinGroup. We’ll talk more about the wider ecosystem…

Look on a map and you’ll see the Blue Ridge Parkway as a squiggly blue line that cuts diagonally across Appalachia. It twists and turns for 755 kilometres from the north-east to the southwest, between Virginia and North Carolina. The larger roads on the map are mostly straight and also diagonal, following the valleys, taking the simplest and fastest course between the mountains. Not the Blue Ridge, though. The Blue Ridge is the mountains, running high along the crest of the ridge itself. As the peaks rise and fall, so does the road, dropping as low as 200 metres but lifting up to more than 2,000 metres above sea level. Most of the parkway is about 1,000 metres high, which makes it pleasantly cool in summer and the reason why…

We’re in the midst of an electric revolution. Carmakers around the globe are electrifying their line-ups, including vehicles that run solely on battery power. This movement is less prevalent in the two-wheeled world. Conventional motorcycle makers have not yet committed to the electron because motorcycles are used primarily for leisure, especially in North America, the world’s largest market for larger-displacement bikes. Motorcycles are used mostly for fun — weekend rides in the country among friends — so travel distances tend to be greater. Because of lengthy recharge times, it’s easy to figure out why electricity has not yet infiltrated the two-wheeled world. BMW has taken a different approach by introducing the two-wheeled equivalent of the electric car: The CE 04 electric scooter. BMW joins Harley-Davidson and Vespa in offering an…

Fall is here and it’s time to cozy up with a sweater and a PSL on the porch while taking in the beautiful changing foliage. If you’re trying to squeeze in a couple of last drives up to the cottage this season, you’ll want to pack some of the gear Vicarious has curated below to stay fueled as well as look stylish through the shoulder season. GROUNDED PEOPLE GABBY Aptly headquartered in Vancouver, B.C., Grounded People is a sustainable footwear brand carrying a lineup of unique kicks made in Brazil at the world’s only 100 per cent vegan shoe factory. Founded in response to the environmentally unfriendly practices of the fashion industry, the Gabby and similar models is proof that style and sustainability can go hand-in-hand. Described as being “born…

Coachbuilding firms have been responsible for creating some of the most beautiful cars in the world and I like to think that the work we do at Radford Motors is no exception. Boasting iconic classic cars such as the Radford Mini De Ville, and the 1965 Aston Martin DB5 Shooting Brake, it would be easy to consider the coachbuilding era heyday as a thing of the past. This isn’t helped by the fact that the role of the coachbuilder in car production peaked in the early 1930s, taking a sharp downturn after the Second World War, as many firms fell bankrupt. Since then it has been largely considered an extinct artform, but this is not true at all - in fact, there’s been a massive resurgence of coachbuilding in recent…

“I don’t like nostalgia unless it’s mine”– Lou Reed In the late summer of 1985, two incredibly pivotal things happened in my life. The first was that the movie Back to the Future debuted in theatres. Seven-year old Matt was already a fully-fledged ‘car-guy’ in training but I had never before been exposed to that wedge-shaped hunk of Northern Irish stainless steel known as the DeLorean. The fact that it was a time-machine was secondary: it was the gullwing doors, the matte-silver texture of its skin, the pixelated rear lights and those incredible, finned, cast wheels that captured my attention. The scene where Doc Brown remotely heats up those rears via a brake-stand (before sending Einstein one minute into the future)! Well, I saw “some serious shit” right there and…

Roadside Chic is all about finding those hidden gems, the places that provide a perfect balance of comfort, luxury, exceptional service and the opportunity to do as much or as little as you want. Here are four exclusive getaway destinations that we believe offer not only a welcome end to your journey, but an equally inspiring route to get there. FAIRMONT PACIFIC RIM Vancouver is unique in so many ways to the rest of Canada. A large port city that offers easy access to the vastness of the Pacific Ocean, requiring only a slight detour around Vancouver Island, it highlights a coastal ambiance that is world-renowned for its west coast splendour and ethnic diversity. All this set against the western edge of the majestic Canadian Rockies and it’s no wonder…

There’s a spot on the Sea-to-Sky Highway in British Columbia that’s about 20 minutes out of the bustling metropolis of Vancouver. If you were heading North to Whistler and beyond, you wouldn’t know it was coming; you just round a bend…and there it is. A vista of sometimes azure, sometimes emerald waters of the Howe Sound, surrounded by the frosted peaks of the Coast Mountains range, rising out of the grey-blue below. From this perspective, it appears cradled by the evergreen trees that line the cliffs on the way down to the waters that are sometimes empty, sometimes host to the gleaming white of a BC Ferry or even a merchant vessel on its way to the deep-water port in Squamish, BC. It’s a sight that no matter how many…

If you need expert advice on a certain high-performance car, you could do worse than ask someone who’s driven said car in anger around a bunch of Grand Prix tracks. But there’s really only one guy who fits the description—he’s F1 pace driver Bernd Mayländer. Another catch: Given that he’s the wheelman for the entire 22-race season, he’s too busy to take your calls. Nevertheless, we managed to catch up with Mayländer during this year’s Canadian Grand Prix, sitting down for a fireside chat in the Aston Martin hospitality area. The place was a hive of activity: The team were on a break in between sessions, but there was concern etched in many a brow. Team owner Lawrence Stroll was in one corner, greeting VIP guests and, no doubt, making…

In the early seventies, Kawasaki was struggling in the North American market. Their small displacement, two-stroke machines weren’t finding favour with North American riders. Triumph, BSA and Harley-Davidson continued to have a dominant presence but, more importantly, rivals at Honda had taken a massive leap forward with their revolutionary CB750. Affordable, reliable, quick and good handling, the CB750 was definitely a target on their board, but Team Green was aiming for a bullseye. They needed something bigger, faster and better than a 750cc clone. They needed the Z1: Project ‘New York Steak’ was born. Then-president, Yoji Hamawaki was quoted as saying “We knew that in America the best meal on the menu was New York steak. In our minds, the Z1 was going to be the best motorcycle we could…

It’s hard to keep a good icon down. Particularly when the faithful are clamouring for a storied career to take flight once again. In the case of the new Ford Bronco, an SUV that is seemingly so right in its execution, the shouts for revival couldn’t go unanswered. If you haven’t spent the last 57 years living under a rock, actually even in that scenario you have probably heard the name Bronco, you knew like everyone else the day was coming when a new version of this hallowed truck would come to life. Here it is and it was worth the wait. The second launch in the Bronco series, the first being the Ford Bronco Sport which is in essence a somewhat rugged version of your more typical sport utility…

This is a supercar comparison test. And it’s not. Because the two supercars under consideration are the same car. Specifically, the all-new Ferrari 296 GTB. Why a comparison, then? Simple, really: This supercar is two rides rolled into one. THE BEAST The honour of being the first driver to take to the Circuito Monteblanco west of Seville in Spain falls to me. But it’s still relatively early in the morning. No matter how strong the café con leche, I’m not ready for the assignment—not really, at least. Under normal circumstances, yours truly opts for the road portion of a supercar drive event first, the track activities thereafter. All the better to familiarize yourself with the car before attempting to wring its bespoke neck. But beggars, choosers, etcetera. So I’m ushered…