Sommaire pour Summer 2023 de Vicarious

“My first customer was a lunatic. My second had a death wish.”– Karl Benz I recently had the occasion to test drive several I different electric vehicles in successive weeks and for the most part, I was very impressed. While driving a gasoline or diesel-powered vehicle is still my personal go-to at this point, I think we can all agree there is nothing quite like the instantaneous torque you feel from behind the wheel of an EV. It is truly the closest thing to an amusement park ride we can experience from inside an automobile. Of course, for more traditional car lovers like me, it doesn’t get any better than the sweet sound of a Porsche flat-six at redline, or the rampant bark of a V12 Ferrari engine. It’s the…

Let’s get one thing straight: Every new Ferrari, regardless of how well it performs in relation to the competition or how rare it may be, is an automatic best-seller. If you’re not already in good with the fine people at Maranello, you’re not going to get your name in their order book. You’ve got a greater chance of a) dating Taylor Swift and then b) forging a long-term relationship with Taylor Swift. So the 2024 Ferrari Purosangue, the first-ever four-door/four-seater in Ferrari history, has landed… but it’s already sold out. You may be able to score a pre-loved example at some point down the road. Maybe. In the meantime, you can dare to dream about owning this mechanically masterful vehicle, which is more of a high-riding GT than SUV. Side…

You know the roads. The ones that look like pasta folded back and forth on a plate, wiggling up and down mountainsides, every turn a hairpin bend. Drivers love these roads. The Stelvio Pass in Italy. The Grossglockner Pass in Austria. The TransFagarascan Highway in Romania. They seek them out with sports cars and motorcycles, cursing the tour buses that swing wide around the turns, praising the slowpokes who veer onto the pull-outs to let others pass. On such journeys, these roads themselves are the destination. The Bonaigua Pass in northern Spain is also just such a road, threading through the Pyrenees from Andorra up to the ski areas of Baqueira and Beret. Cyclists love it because it peaks at just over 2,000 metres but they stayed away on the…

If you’re interested in fast cars, driving or any combination thereof, then the infamous Nürburgring Nordschleife racetrack has likely crossed your mind at least once. For those enthusiasts who have yet to experience this daunting stretch of tarmac, you may wonder if its reputation is deserved. Well, let me tell you: the hype is real. Nestled in the Eifel Mountains in Germany, some 90 kilometres south of Cologne, the track was constructed starting in 1925 and hosted its first race in 1927. The Nürburgring originally encompassed two separate tracks, the Nordschleife (North loop) and the less challenging and shorter Südschleife (South loop), linked together by a small connecting loop. The combined circuit, referred to as the Gesamtstrecke (total distance), stretched on for 28.265 kilometres. Modelled after famous public road race…

Left, right, and center: Be it cuisine or prickly politics, landing smack in the middle of the spectrum is a wise place to call home. It’s the safe bet, the smart choice, if not a bit beige. The naked middleweight segment is anything but vanilla these days, as nearly every manufacturer has a downright exciting option sprinkling the showroom floor. And Britain’s bringing its best to the table with the 2024 Triumph Street Triple 765 that boasts quite a few updates. IMU-enabled electronics come to the Street Triple for the first time, bestowing cornering ABS and lean-angle-sensitive traction control to its plentiful list of rider aids. Sensible revisions are followed by a 765cc triple-cylinder engine cranking out more power from midrange to redline and handling improvements. Familiar yet refreshed styling…

 FIRST RIDE Have you ever wondered what influences auto-makers to choose the names for their different vehicles? In Maserati’s case, many of their creations are inspired by wind. For example, their newest sport utility vehicle is named Grecale and refers to a strong, cool, northeasterly Mediterranean wind that blows off the coast of southern Malta. What’s in a name, you ask? It turns out there is a lot more than many of us think. The 2023 Maserati Grecale Trofeo is designed to deliver dynamic performance while at the same time offer a spacious and relaxed cabin experience for up to five occupants. The luxury SUV market gets more crowded with each new model year, so staying ahead, not just getting in the game, is extremely important. Step inside and you…

Recently, I was asked by a friend if I could recall any perfect moments in my life. There are the obvious answers here: she said “yes”, “it’s a girl” and so on. Those are great, but they often come associated with a fair amount of stress. I should know; I’ve been there. When I close my eyes and really think for a second, however, there is a stress-free perfect moment that comes right to the fore. It’s 7 AM the morning of June 18, 2006, and I’m in northwestern France. The sky is a clichéd hue of passion fruit pink, the clouds are wispy, the air is crisp and in front of me, Corvettes, Ferraris, a Lamborghini (actually I think the Lambo had been retired by then) and of course,…

“Hey Kowalski, you out there?”– Super Soul A few days before my fingers hit the keyboard for A this piece, my dad and I were chatting about movies – new ones we wanted to see and old ones we wanted to see again. Dad was feeling nostalgic for Kowalski and his high-speed delivery of a 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T in Vanishing Point (the Barry Newman, Cleavon Little original of course, and not the 1997 re-make with Viggo Mortensen and Jason Priestly). Kowalski’s run from Colorado to San Fran was only one of many movies from dad’s formative years to have a hot car, or bike featured prominently. There was Easy Rider, Bullit, The French Connection, Two Lane Blacktop, Le Mans, Gone in 60 Seconds and Smokey and The Bandit, to…

Technically the word “Highlands” shouldn’t be capitalized unless talking about the council area. But Scotland’s famously heathery hills, crags and mountains evoke such emotion, we’ll break the rule. History buffs and lovers of romantic TV programs from Outlander to Hamish Macbeth stifle the more famous sites during tourist season. So what! The Highlands tumble across over 25,000 square kilometres. Hikers can visit dozens of times and never tread the same path twice. Recently for 3 ½ days, I visited and explored the Highlands solo around the town of Aberfeldy, Perthshire. DAY 1: “Burn” is a Scots noun for a biggish stream. Around 1:30, I arrived later than expected at the burnside cottage belonging to my wife’s relatives (thank you!). After a wrong turn at Perth, I ended up following a…

We love concept cars. Ever since the automobile was a thing, concept cars stirred our emotions in a number of ways; we liked looking at them, we liked sitting in them if we could and while we probably were never going to actually own one, it was a nice thought, wasn’t it? Plus, there was always a chance that some of the cool stuff seen on a concept – a wheel design, a headlight shape perhaps, a colour – would make its way to a car that we could actually buy. After all, that was the goal of a concept: to show what could be done, or to plant a seed of an idea that hopefully would rest comfortably in a buyer’s subconscious, popping out once they carried themselves across…

We never expected that a simple idea like this --to regularly bring motorcycle riders together in Toronto --would catch on and turn into a global phenomenon. In the spring of 2013, Samantha and I set-out to accomplish one thing—to build a stronger sense of community within Toronto’s motorcycle scene. We had been working in the motorcycle industry for just over half a decade at this point. Sam was managing a boutique Italian motorcycle dealership and I was selling motorbikes at BMW Toronto. Over that time we discovered a common pain point that we shared with many of our customers: we all wanted a more approachable, more inclusive and more low key social space to meet actually likeminded riders. Most bike meets we checked out were too rowdy and unapproachable and…

FIRST RIDE Oxymorons can be as fun as they are confusing. Take Texas Hill Country, for example. There are reliable, known incongruencies there. Texas is as flat as the cow patties dotting its fields – it’s the sixth flattest state in the union – and yet, the Balcones Fault – a 300 million year old crack in the Earth – created a rift between two plates that caused the lands on the north side of the Colorado River to kink and twist, seemingly out of nowhere. It’s the kind of thing that can make a rational mind itch, but it has created some of Texas’ best riding roads. Climbing a ridge of Mount Bonnell towards Volente, the 2023 Indian Sport Chief I’m riding feels both confident and eager to munch…

Jason Stoller, co-owner of LaVine Restorations, a prominent vintage-restoration shop located in Nappanee, Indiana, knew of this car for a long time. “He’s into European sports cars, but he knew this car was sitting in a tobacco barn in Kentucky for something on the order of 40 years, buried up the axles in mud.” Despite that, they pulled the dilapidated 1930 L29 Cord out with a skid steer and began the arduous process of restoring it. “Most of the wood in the body had to be replaced,” Stoller exclaimed. “A lot of the components were unusable and had to be manufactured or found new, old stock.” Shawn Coady, the Cord’s new owner, helped LaVine Restorations restore the neglected barn find. “He took the [L29] parts book, published by Cord, and…

EPOCH Bar & Kitchen Terrace proudly serves produce-forward cuisine guided by the seasonal offering of our local purveyors. We nod to the food and beverage trends of the past and reimagine them. We are inspired by the gastropub movement that shook the culinary world in the 90s. Our concept redefines pub culture and pays homage to innovative international dining. Our cocktails respect a notable past full of tradition, but with modern interpretations. We are inspired by the storytelling around us – from the vibrant film industry to the ultimate storyteller, Mother Nature. We tell these exceptional tales through creative mixology. It’s about time… let’s live it! EARTH-TO-TABLE FARE Helming the kitchen at EPOCH Bar & Kitchen Terrace, Chef Jeff Crump is a Canadian slow-food pioneer and founder of Earth to…

 ROAD TEST The Lamborghini Huracán Sterrato is the culmination of a series of one-off teases and concepts that Lamborghini has been dangling in front of enthusiasts for a few years – a high(er) riding, knobby-tired and off-road ready take on the car that’s helped Lamborghini increase its market share by leaps and bounds over the last few years. Of course, another vehicle that has been helping in that cause is the Urus SUV. Coupling the knowledge gained in developing that – much of the Urus’ team pivoted to the Sterrato (“dirt road”) --with a successful mid-engined supercar platform like the Huracán has culminated in a super-car-slash-buggy that has the chops to obliterate both the warm tarmac at the Chuckwalla raceway in central California, and the desert that surrounds it. To…

The town of Cologne, Germany --or “Köln”, to use the German nomenclature; its proximity to the Belgian border earns it the distinction of being called two different things, depending on the native language being used --is bit of a diamond in the rough situation. It is Germany’s fourth most populous city; its sights range from a cathedral that is one of the most revered sites in the German catholic world to a hotel that was formerly a water tower (no surprise that it’s part of Hilton’s offbeat “Curio” line of hotels) and its geography is a mix of pleasing wide-open green spaces dotted with water features that serve as welcome ways to divide up the various neighbourhoods. It doesn’t have the international intrigue that surrounds Berlin (although Bonn, just south…

All you want to do is gaze at the mountains, but down here, you can’t take your eyes off the road. The snow on the peaks has an icy sheen to it, polished blue by the relentless ocean wind, and then around the next corner could be a pothole ready to crack your wheel rim, or an animal about to smash your windshield or worse. So you keep your eyes on the Road to the End of the World and slow down at every curve to appreciate the vista. Of course, you don’t want to slow down. You’re driving a powerful Porsche Panamera, and the empty road seduces you into driving faster. This is the e-hybrid version of the V6 sedan, which can use only its electric motor for speeds…