Sommaire pour August 2020 de Robb Report

Electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicles—a.k.a. flying taxis—may finally be gaining wind under their wings. Though not one has won regulatory approval, more than 100 manufacturers have started up in the past 10 years, and the sector could be worth an estimated $17 billion by 2040. If scaled properly, these aircraft could revolutionize public transportation; they would rise above ground traffic less noisily—and more sustainably—than helicopters do and finally realize the future Doc Brown’s DeLorean promised. While many are still just pie-in-the-sky ideas, Jaunt Air Mobility’s and Joby Aviation’s models stand out as two that aren’t so half-baked. Here’s how their plans for the future compare. Where they’re going we won’t need roads. But we sure could use a better name than eVTOL.…

The son of Moroccan immigrants, Ramdane Touhami created his first brand, the T-shirt line Teuchiland, when he was just 17 years old; a year later, he was homeless on the streets of Paris. Since then, the artist, designer and serial entrepreneur has taken on the worlds of fashion, beauty, art and PR. He created the skate brand King Size and streetwear label Résistance, cofounded the concept store L’Épicerie alongside artist Artus de Lavilléon, co-hosted the French reality television show Strip-Tease, owned a café and donkey polo club in Tangier, Morocco, served as menswear director for Liberty London, revitalized Japanese fashion retail brand And A and resuscitated the storied Parisian candlemaker Maison de Cire Trudon. Today, married to French aristocrat Victoire de Taillac-Touhami, with whom he has three children, Touhami oversees…

THE 2020 model year marks the first significant update of Yamaha’s flagship, the YZF-R1M, since its 2015 debut. The bike is already a technological tour de force, but the big news is the arrival of the electronically controlled, gas-charged Öhlins NPX-EC fork—a first for any production motorcycle—and TTX36 shock. The new gas-pressurized fork reduces oil cavitation, leading to a more controlled performance. The motor—nestled in a svelte race-inspired chassis and cloaked in carbon-fiber bodywork—gets subtle tweaks that include a new cylinder head, camshafts and throttle bodies. The enhancements are not aimed at increasing output as much as smoothing out what the 998 cc in-line four-cylinder already produces, and that’s, unofficially, around 200 hp. Already fine-tuned are the traction control and wheelie and slide algorithms, all managed by the Inertial Measurement…

Elin Signe Askvik has always been connected to the sea: Her first job was on a cargo carrier, and then came Arctic exploration and finally a decade of salvaging wrecks in pirate-infested waters. A personal favorite: a 2013 expedition, financed by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, to recover Apollo 11’s F-1 rocket engine, which had been jettisoned into the sea 44 years earlier. Skippering the world’s largest yacht in 2022 will be a sea change, but Askvik will be using familiar technology to scan and map the oceans down to 20,000 feet in a bid to save them. M.V. When did you first go to sea? I grew up near Osterfjorden on Norway’s west coast. Dad owned a small cargo carrier, and as kids, my brother and I were on board every…

Among the founding fathers of the audio industry, McIntosh Labs is a brand as popular now as it was during the golden age of hi-fi, a time when Dad smoked a pipe, sipped a scotch and listened to Frank on a swank stereo console. Famous for their cool blue meters, tank-like build quality and excellent sound, McIntosh components continue to deliver music on a massive scale. In that vein, the MC901—priced at $35,000 per pair—is a monoblock amplifier that drives a single speaker. What makes it unique is that it’s the first design in audio history to take completely separate vacuum-tube and solid-state systems—making 300 and 600 watts, respectively—and combine them in a single chassis. “It was inspired by our history of starting with vacuum-tube amplification in the 1940s before…

Surrounded by the dramatic beauty of the Adirondack Mountains, the Lake Placid Horse Show caters to the best hunter/jumper riders in the country. By the close of competition, the notoriously challenging Grand Prix course is pocked and flattened by hard-charging hooves. But this summer, for the first time in more than 50 years, the grass remained undisturbed. The event is just one of a string of major North American horse-show cancellations in the wake of Covid-19. Among them: all five Spruce Meadows tournaments in Calgary, Alberta; the Hampton Classic; and the prestigious Devon Horse Show in Pennsylvania, which has been canceled just three times (all during W.W. II) in its 124-year history. As restrictions ease, organizers find themselves adrift in a strange new world of social-distancing guidelines. “Our intention is…

Sleep Routine Avoid: coffee after 2 p.m., heavy workouts after 6 p.m., alcohol during the week and heavy eating in the evening. Vitamins/supplements Vitamin D, omega fatty acids, NMN, citrus bioflavonoid complex, fiber supplement, prebiotic supplement. Diet Fasting-mimicking diet once every four to six months; roughly 16:8 intermittent fasting at other times. Mindfulness practice Daily meditation. Anti-aging Rx “I love cooking and eating, so I do not restrict food on the weekend. Happiness with friends and family is the surest path to longevity.” 100th-birthday wish “A bike tour across the US, from coast to coast.”…

As the Covid-19 pandemic took hold this spring, the number of travelers Stateside plummeted almost 90 percent compared to the same time last year, slumping to levels not seen since the pre-jet age of the 1950s. Danger, fear and uncertainty made a summer trip seem unseemly, out of reach or both. But as summer arrived, the travel industry responded creatively, launching new initiatives that made vacationing both appealing and easy again: Think private jets, buyouts and a new concept known as the bubble charter. There has been a predictable surge of interest in charter flying, especially among new customers. Sentient Jet has sold over 5,000 hours since May, more than 50 percent of those to first-time fractional fliers helped in part by tax reductions, in place through the end of…

SOMEWHERE BETWEEN surgery and a day at the spa lies the “tweakment,” a new breed of non-invasive but effective aesthetic procedures for face and body. A precisely administered laser, needle or electromagnetic pulse can create small but significant changes, like the results of a long holiday or a good rest. (Imagine quarantine spent on a wellness sabbatical rather than staring at a Zoom grid in pajamas.) Best of all, the results, which can be nearly instant, will outlive the very best spa treatments and demand little or even no recuperation. The remarkable efficacy of these quick fixes can be traced to certain medical technologies that migrated from the O.R. to the dermatologist’s office. Many facial tweakments rely on the idea of “controlled wounding,” which is far more benign than it…

Normally, only a fortunate few get to experience a Formula 1 machine, but New Zealand–based Rodin Cars is trying to change that. All that’s required, besides a trip to the island nation, are nerves of steel and some very good earplugs. Rodin is the brainchild of Australian entrepreneur David Dicker, who named the company after the famed French sculptor as a tribute to the power of thought. Dicker and his team of engineers have developed the track-only, single-seat Fzed after buying sole rights to the defunct Lotus T125 project a few years back. Unveiled in 2011, the open-wheel T125 was a bid by Lotus to build a vehicle that offered as close to an F1 experience as money could buy, but at a cost that was still substantially less than…

The age of the super-SUV is upon us. As levels of both sport and utility have progressed exponentially, some kid carriers can now make more than 600 hp and perform at a threshold once the realm of Le Mans. Others offer refinement found in the most exclusive limousines—and a few do both. But how do these rarefied vehicles compare head-to-head? Find out firsthand at Robb Report’s third annual Dream Machines event in Las Vegas. The three-day program, hosted by the RR1 club (and in compliance with all the latest health protocols), offers a choice of drive sessions between September 9 and 13. Priced at $5,900 per couple ($4,900 for one person), the package includes two nights in a Sky Suite at Aria Resort & Casino, dining experiences with celebrity chefs,…

IN 2012, Hilary Hemingway found herself crawling around the engine compartment of a boat docked outside Havana. “I’d been in many Hemingway homes,” she says, referring to her famous uncle, Ernest, “but I’d never been on Pilar. It was amazing access.” The new Pilar has the same cold-molded mahogany exterior, along with iPad control and touchscreen navigation. Adopting the nickname of his third wife, Pauline, Pilar was Papa Hemingway’s custom 38-foot Wheeler Playmate, which the author and Nobel Prize winner shuttled between Key West, Bimini and Cuba as he helped pioneer big-game fishing. Hemingway had many adventures on Pilar: hunting for German U-boats, conducting environmental research for the American Museum of Natural History and shooting himself in the leg while trying to land a shark. With Hilary Hemingway that day…

Arriving in the US later this year, the eagerly awaited ACH160 Exclusive is a step up from Airbus’s previous generation of executive helicopters. The new interior is a game changer, with its improved sound insulation and expansive, double-paned windows that open up the view even as they cut back on engine noise. Co-created by Airbus and yacht designer Harrison Eidsgaard, the ACH160 was designed to provide a large blank canvas for whatever an owner wants in the cabin: lounge chairs arranged for a tête-à-tête, three seats across or any other configuration of seating for up to eight. The obsessive attention to detail continues with as many as eight coats of varnish for the woodwork and grain-matched veneers. Other nice touches include outer steps that lower at the touch of a…

From Jay Gatsby’s yellow Rolls-Royce to the sultry Jaguar E-Type of the 1960s to current supercars from McLaren and its rivals, the upper echelons of the British car industry have found enthusiastic patrons in America. And the Brits are grateful for your custom. But as the first examples of the new Land Rover Defender are delivered Stateside, I can’t help feeling that you ought to be grateful to us for finally letting you buy our national SUV again after a 23-year absence from the US market. No car—not even the Mini—is as central to the British motoring psyche as the Defender. It helped reboot our economy after the war. It sparked our car industry’s dominance in the 1960s by opening global markets. It has now transported our soliders across nine…

It was a few hours after the arrival of the container—40 feet long, straight from Hong Kong and dense with the McCullough family’s earthly possessions—that the sneezing fits returned. So instead of reveling in unpacking and arranging in the way only a decorator amid a trans-global relocation could, Lucie McCullough embarked down a rabbit hole to find some answers about why her body seemed at odds with her environment. Here in the States, months after not feeling well in Hong Kong, McCullough grew convinced it was her furniture that was making her sick. After a decade in Asia, this peripatetic British former fashion designer and her husband, Ronan, a financier, had planned to settle their family into their home in the leafy Boston suburb of Concord. “I was convinced we’d…

WHERE ELSE BUT Southern California would you encounter the idea of fusing art with wellness? And while Compound, the new cultural space opening in Long Beach in September, was designed with that very mission, the 15,000-square-foot destination is unlike anything the area has seen before. Philanthropist Megan Tagliaferri, an heir to the Scripps newspaper fortune with a background in hospitality design, has spent five years building a multidisciplinary creative hub that will feature everything from a sculpture garden and yoga classes to hands-on gardening, musical performances and poetry readings—even a farm-to-table Italian deli—all tucked into a retrofitted Art Deco building from the 1930s designed in collaboration with BOA Architecture and CH Design Studio. Tagliaferri, 40, is a Long Beach local who says she wanted “to create a place for people…

Racer Without Reserve As part of its Online Only: Shift/ Monterey program, RM Sotheby’s will highlight a 1980 BMW M1 Procar that competed in the IMSA GT Championship series. The vehicle stands out not only because it was driven by Al Unser Jr. but also because it’s presented without reserve, despite a high-end estimate of $800,000. The car on offer “is arguably the best example to come to auction in recent years, having been continuously maintained,” says Shelby Myers, car specialist and global head of private sales at RM Sotheby’s. “Even 40 years after it first took to the racetrack, it continues to impress.” Leader of the Pack On August 14, Bonhams will host its online Quail Motorcar Auction, headlined by a 1959 Porsche 718 RSK Spyder. One of only…

At 600 feet in length, REV Ocean wears the crown of world’s largest yacht, edging out Azzam by 10 feet. Owner Kjell Inge Røkke, who made his fortune from fishing and offshore oil drilling, wanted his jewel to be more than just another placeholder in yachting’s tiara. He decided to build something special: a hybrid vessel combining a yacht interior with an ice-class hull and the laboratories of a polar-research vessel. › Unsurprisingly, REV Ocean is also the world’s largest research vessel. “She is bigger than a normal research ship, almost by double,” says Alex Rogers, Ph.D., a marine ecologist who left his teaching position at the University of Oxford to become the superyacht’s science director. “We have the full range of science equipment as well as the world’s deepest-diving…

Thomas Edison invented the phonograph in 1877, nine years after Patek Philippe created its first wristwatch. And while every turntable will play you a record just as any watch will tell the time, the distinction between the merely functional and the truly fantastic is huge for both. Similar to purchasing a timepiece, you can now spend as much on the audio component as you can a modern supercar. Precision machines of meticulous craftsmanship, the following ’tables turn simple vinyl playback into something sublime. Bergmann Galder From Denmark-based Bergmann, the Galder air-bearing turntable accommodates up to four tonearms and floats its platter on an air cushion to reduce friction and eliminate noise. Vacuum hold-down keeps LPs tight to the 26-pound aluminum platter or the optional 88-pound copper version; the separate motor…

Beyond the autopilot, it’s critical that the aircrew has specialized training for times that flights unexpectedly go bad. THE PLANE flicks viciously onto its back. Suddenly, I’m staring straight over the nose of the little two-seat aircraft at waves that are zooming closer at an alarming rate. “Recover now,” says flight instructor Mark “Greeners” Greenfield in a voice that’s absurdly calm, considering we are seconds from punching through the rippled surface of the English Channel. I defy my instinct to haul back on the controls and instead push the nose down even further toward the water. That’s enough to get the stalled wings flying again, allowing me to roll them parallel to the horizon, quickly reduce power and then lift the nose of the Slingsby aerobatic plane up into the…

Toward the end of my father’s life, when his physical ability was greatly diminished, I gave him a shamelessly sentimental gift: an iPad full of memories. As a college student, he had played football for the University of Iowa in the early 1960s, so I had a highlight reel of his games digitized. As he sat watching the video, he laughed, he cried, he reminisced. Too old to acquire significant new experiences, he could still derive great enjoyment from the video. That’s when I realized that you retire on your memories. When you’re too frail to do much of anything else, you can still look back on the life you’ve lived and feel immense pride, joy and nostalgia. It’s an idea that runs counter to most of what we normally…

Vitamins/supplements/ prescription meds “A carefully crafted stack of 150 capsules a day,” including resveratrol, KetoPrime, Brain Octane and rapamycin. Diet Bulletproof Diet, including intermittent fasting with Bulletproof Coffee; fast 24 to 56 hours once every month or two. Mindfulness exercises “A short gratitude practice, and some light breathing and tai chi” each morning; 40 Years of Zen, a five-day program, once or twice a year. Exercise regimen 90 minutes a week on AI bike and electrical stimulation on muscles. “I spend as little time as humanly possible on exercise, as long as I get the results I want.” Anti-aging Rx “Sleeping with a bite guard to protect your molars from wearing down over time. It changes your brain in a bad way when that happens!” 180th-birthday wish “Either a cruise…

I should be miserable. I’d been cautioned: Watch out for day three. That’s when the demons begin to rage. I’m on a medically supervised 10-day fast that promises to help me shed some weight while also futureproofing that newly slimmed-down body against aging. Worth the odd demon or a pang or two, then. Indeed, I’m a bit hungry—but that’s not surprising, given that I’ve consumed little more than tea, juice and soup over the past 48 hours. But I had been anticipating far worse, as several friends, all veterans of the Buchinger Wilhelmi process I am undertaking, had warned me. The real challenges in forgoing food wouldn’t be simple hunger, they said. “Fasting isn’t the hard part,” said one. “It’s the emotional side. I usually spend the third day curled…

The late Edgar Bronfman Sr., the billionaire CEO of the Seagram empire, once said he prayed every time he boarded his private jet. Not particularly afraid of flying, he wasn’t imploring God to spare his life in this gravity-defying contraption. Rather, his prayer was an act of gratitude: He was thanking the dear Lord he didn’t have to fly commercial. “If I’m going to be miserable, I’d rather be miserable rich than poor,” he quipped. Wealth, undeniably, has its benefits. It provides not just cool stuff and superior health care but also freedom, control, choices—epitomized by the en masse flight of affluent New Yorkers and other urbanites to their vacation homes when the coronavirus pandemic struck. It’s no coincidence that the number-one thing people think will make them happy is…