Sommaire pour Winter 2023 de Vicarious

JAMES JOYCE ONCE REMARKED “a good puzzle would be cross Dublin without passing a pub.” He might be surprised to learn his words ring truer today than in his century. In Ireland, a country forged through centuries of conflict, people are quick to party and quick to laugh, with razor-sharp wit that lights up virtually any public house in the land. The quantity of pubs in Ireland, even in areas well off the beaten tourist path, speaks to their importance. For many Irish, a pub isn’t an occasional visit, it’s a lifestyle fixture that, for some, resonates as a daily ritual. For tourists, pubs offer a glimpse into Irish life: busy, loud, teeming with energy. Many pubs have stood witness to history — the country’s oldest, Sean’s Pub in Athlone, was…

MY ORIGINAL ASSIGNMENT was to cover the events surrounding the renowned Monterey Car Week and the Concours d’Elegance, in Pebble Beach, CA. Thrilled, I prepared for what is arguably the most highly anticipated event in the world of classic car collecting. For me, it was a first, a bucket list checkbox that I could simply not refuse. As if that wasn’t good enough (it was!), things somehow got even better. Knowing that I was headed to the event, Mercedes-Benz’ public relations department reached out, asking me if I’d be interested in helping it drive some of its classic cars, sourced directly from the LA private collection, all the way up to Pebble Beach, CA where it would feature them at its booth. A dream opportunity to drive legendary machines all…

IF YOU EVER HAVE THE CHANCE to drive a Ferrari in any part of Italy, it is so choice. Eight years ago, this humble servant piloted a Ferrari 488 Spider through and around the coastal town of Ravenna on a bright autumn day. Despite the chill, the occasion called for the top to be down (naturally), while the heater was set to 24 degrees C to balance out the conditions. Rumbling through the town at slow speed produced a similar reaction, one might imagine, to the pontiff being paraded around in the popemobile. The people stopped, stared and whistled, enrapt by the car itself, then amused at the sight of the driver shivering behind the wheel. This time around, the occasion was the island of Sardinia and the car was…

IF THERE’S ONE THING BMW knows well, it’s big adventure bikes. Indeed, the German motorcycle maker should know them well, since it invented the genre in 1980, when it introduced the granddaddy of all ADV bikes, the R80 G/S. It was bold back then to build a street-legal off-road motorcycle around an 800 cc horizontally opposed twin, but inspiration came from a one-off race bike based on the R80 road bike that BMW test rider Laslo Peres, built in his spare time to compete in a local German off-road championship. He finished second in that championship in 1978, which prompted his employer to build a couple of race bikes the following year, and form a team to compete in the International Six Days Trials. Those bikes went home with two…

THE FIA FORMULA ONE World Championship was founded in 1950. Over the course of its 53 years of existence, thousands of racers have given their all just to reach the starting grid. In the process, they have battled through the lower ranks, fighting for every inch of track against other equally promising drivers. They have worked diligently to prove their worth in front of potential sponsors and team principals. It’s a tireless and exhausting ride, seemingly never ending, like a roller coaster ride with no one at the controls. But if a driver does make it into F1, he or she can rightfully make a claim to being among the very best of the very best race drivers in the world, regardless of where their careers go from there. Pedro…

Dive watches have always been popular amongst the world’s top timepiece collectors and novices alike. But why? Most dive watches will never explore the dark depths of the ocean that they are built to withstand - they’re more likely to be dropped in a pool or splashed on a beach. Yet, their enduring popularity is proof of concept. Why are they so coveted? By definition, dive watches need to be water-resistant. The new Longines Legend Diver, with a 39 mm case, is water-resistant up to 30 bar, which is 300 metres. For context, Lake Ontario, at its deepest point, reaches just under 250 metres. Because of this extreme function, dive watches are engineered to perfection and solidly built. Divers also require the time to be legible underwater, and therefore dive…

YORK WILSON • Tribute to Riopelle, 1964 • oil on board • 8.5 x 10.5 inches Michael Adamson Karel Appel Brian M. Atyeo Matt Bahen David Barnett Leon Bellefleur Douglas Bentham Ronald Bloore Ronald Boaks David Bolduc Paul~&nile Borduas Alex Cameron Lynn Chadwick Cynthia Chapman Ann Clarke Kyle Clements Graham Coughtry Salvador Dali Joseph Drapell Michael Forster Marcelle Ferron Leonard Tsuguharu Foujita Joachim Gauthier Julius Griffith Fred S. Haines Ken Hall Rita Letendre Ronald Martin Jean McEwen Ray Mead Joan Miro Sakis Mits Henry Moore Kazuo Nakamura Bruce O'Neil Toni Onley David Partridge David Pearson William Rainey Gordon Rayner Walter Redinger Alan Reynolds Jean-Paul Riopelle Milly Ristvedt Otto Rogers William Ronald Anton Rooskens Joe Rosenthal Henry Saxe Campbell Scott Jack Shadbolt Paul Sloggett Michael Snow Daniel Solomon David Sorensen Jeffrey…

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. In the spirit of this holiday season, here are four of my favourite European places to stay at any time of year and especially when the weather outside is frightful. Rival Hotel Opened on September 1, 2003, the Rival Hotel is a “dream come true” for Swedish music composer turned entrepreneur Goran Bror “Benny” Andersson. You will recognize him mostly for his work as part of the Swedish mega music group ABBA. Mama Mia, this is one amazingly sophisticated, yet splendidly simple and elegant 99-room hotel. Originally designed as a cinema in 1937, painstaking reconstruction crafted…

ROLLS-ROYCE PATRONS LIKE TO arrive in style. And to get this handful of Canadian auto journalists in the mood for an exclusive first drive of the all-electric Spectre, the R-R public relations folks thought it would be fitting to fly us from Billy Bishop airport in Toronto to a much more suitable locale. Niagara wine country should do. What better way to avoid the frustrating Toronto traffic than to soar above in a couple of Bell 206 helicopters? We hugged the shore of Lake Ontario, got a bird’s eye of Niagara Falls, then gently touched down at the Niagara Falls International Airport. Awaiting us on the tarmac were four Rolls-Royce Spectres – sleek, imperious, and dipped in some fabulously eye-catching colours. This was going to be a good day. For…

BUCKLE UP, BECAUSE WE’RE about to take you on a wild ride to the other side of the world – Auckland, New Zealand, to be exact. Why? Well, The Moto Social season just kicked off on Tuesday, October 3, and trust us, you’re going to wish you were there hanging out with The Moto Social community across the pond. So, picture this: it’s a sunny Tuesday evening in the Parnell neighborhood in Auckland, and Goodness Gracious Cafe is buzzing with the kind of excitement you can only find at The Moto Social. Yeah, we’re talking about hundreds of rad motorcycle enthusiasts rolling-in to grab a coffee, hangout, chit-chat and make new pals. The Moto Social in Auckland is structured and organized the exact same way and with the same friendly…

“EMBRACE THE IMPOSSIBLE” and welcome to the ultimate Land Rover off-road experience that is TReK! Once a year, Land Rover hosts an incredible event named TReK featuring one of their world-renowned SUVs in a remote location, as a way to fully showcase the vehicle and what it is truly capable of. For many of us, we see Land Rovers being used mostly as daily drivers and grocery getters in urban settings. While it does make sense from a luxury standpoint, truth be told, it’s a shame. Land Rover roots dig much deeper and they have a long history of off-road success. For example, their participation in the famed “Camel Trophy” which ran from 1980 until 2000, consistently highlighted the ruggedness inherent in the brand. Given that the Camel Trophy no…

TO ENTER THE WORLD of Hot Wheels – well, the world of Mattel, really – is to enter more than a world of toy fabrication. Even the name of the facility on East Mariposa in El Segundo, California – the Handler Team Center – speaks to the fact that Hot Wheels has been intertwined in the world of toys to be sure, but in the world of cars and culture as well. How? Well, it used to be called Mattel Design Centre but was changed because if you ask folks that work there, they’ll tell you that they do more than design toys; they engineer them and help integrate what they do with the many other groups they work with such as Disney, Barbie and so on. And if you…

In Walla Walla Valley—the “land of many waters”—Ice Age soils help a growing number of vintners turn those waters into wines. That’s what Kia metaphorically has been doing with its award-winning reliability, a robust EV lineup, and a new performance model that deserves attention. Let’s be clear: this column sits at the back of this gorgeous magazine by virtue of the number of automotive journalism miles on my odometer, matched only by the number of opinions I am known to have on cars. I prefer luxury and high-performance rides—shocking!—which invariably skews me in the direction of gas-powered European varieties. (A Rimac, however, is another conversation for another day.) So, when Kia recently invited me to travel to Walla Walla Valley, to drive their ever-growing lineup of EVs, I wasn’t sure…

“If you no longer go for a gap that exists, you’re no longer a racing driver.”– Ayrton Senna I HAVE BEEN A FAN of Formula 1 racing from the time I can remember setting up my first Hot Wheels tracks and driving my classic Redlines in the living room until my mother said enough. In her defense, she'd rarely tell me to quit, but would pick up a car and shoot it down the track with the best of us. She also made great sandwiches, but I digress. The names were and still are as classic as those first Hot Wheels; Clark, Andretti, Hunt, Lauda were just some from that golden era. Gilles Villeneuve was a favourite for years and he passed too soon, but it wasn’t until the era…

LAUNCHED IN 2016, Genesis, the luxury spin-off of Hyundai is really hitting its stride. The brand began with three sedans, a dicey proposition in this SUV-obsessed era in which we have been living. But the inherent quality of those cars, particularly the G70 sport sedan, kept the fire stoked until a second wave broke in 2020. At the turn of the decade, the inherent potential of Genesis started to gain real traction as the class-competitive GV80 and GV70 utility vehicles were introduced. Then came the first of the brand’s electrified offerings, the Electrified G80, followed by the Electrified GV70 and GV60. These vehicles have resonated so strongly, the Genesis share of Hyundai’s global sales reportedly surged to 5.4 per cent in the first quarter of 2023. In comparison, it took Lexus…

https://www.vicariousmag.com/road-test-porsche-718-cayman-gts-4-0/ READ THE FULL REVIEW I AM A SELF-PROFESSED sports car nut. I could say enthusiast, but "nut" is probably closer to the truth. As an unbiased automotive journalist with more than 25 years in this business, I am not supposed to tell you that. But this is Vicarious and we strive to be authentic. Plus, if I do find a fault in any vehicle I drive, sports car included, I will be the first to tell you. I don’t own one, it’s not in my current personal wheelhouse and possibly never will be. However, given what I do for work, I do have the opportunity to test drive them throughout the year and every time I fall head-over-heels in love. Ask me to choose my favourite sports car, as…

IN THE HEART OF TORONTO, Canada, The Moto Social celebrated a significant milestone this past September – the completion of its 11th full season. With Andrea Lothrop, Cecilia Lai, Dan Lim, Darren Cerkownyk and Kevin Bryan at the helm over the past few years and with an incredibly dedicated core team of community members, friends and supporters, the 2023 season went off without a hitch. As the co-founders and global overseers of The Moto Social, Samantha and I can’t help but marvel at the incredible journey we’ve embarked on over the past decade. What started as a simple idea in 2013 has blossomed into a genuine and grassroots community-building initiative, transforming the city of Toronto into a warm and inviting hub for motorcycle enthusiasts. Each year, from May to September,…

https://www.vicariousmag.com/test-ride-2023-ducati-diavel-v4/ FIRST RIDE MOTORCYCLING LOVES its categories; if we’re honest about most bikers, that melds with many of our meticulous mindsets. Studying the definitions of each class and learning what makes a machine tick can fill any gearhead’s mental garage. And we, the ever-faithful motorcycle fanbase, blissfully live by those rules. But what happens when a manufacturer lets a designer’s pen slip outside those stone-carved lines? Like a kid with a colouring book, we learn that rules are only made to be broken, and that’s what the 2023 Ducati Diavel V4 is here to prove. A cruiser is long, low, and American V-twin powered—so it must be; a sportbike is uncompromising, racetrack-focused, and never the twain shall meet—Amen. 11 years ago, the Diavel demonstrated that these worlds do not live…

https://www.vicariousmag.com/first-drive-2024-audi-sq8/ FIRST DRIVE THE OPPORTUNITY FOR TRAVEL is something we here at Vicarious can take for granted. But much of that travel is within a four to eight hour flight window. Unless, of course, the request comes to drive the 2024 Audi SQ8. No ordinary location would do. To get behind the wheel of Ingolstadt’s newest SUV would mean taking a few flights to Cape Town, South Africa. Hmmm. A total of twenty-five hours there and twenty-seven back with layovers included. Sounds like the perfect trip. So, it was off to Africa and some quality time driving the new Audi SQ8 and Q8. The 2024 Audi SQ8 shares DNA and more with the current Lamborghini Urus. It’s a family connection that Audi takes full advantage of, even though it detunes…

VIRTUAL MOTORSPORTS enthusiasts rejoice — Ubisoft has just released the third instalment in the popular The Crew open-world online racing series called The Crew Motorfest. Available on multiple platforms, the game takes place in tropical Hawaii where players get to collect and pilot over 600 vehicles including motorbikes, cars and even planes and boats in almost every type of environment imaginable. Vicarious caught up with creative director David Votypika to chat about what people can expect from the latest title. The following interview has been edited for length and clarity. How would you describe The Crew Motorfest to someone new to the franchise? The vision for The Crew Motorfest is a celebration of car culture, set in one the most beautiful places on Earth: Hawaii. The festival offers a never-seen-before variety…