Car of the Year 2010

The following Robb Report readers were among the guests who joined the magazine’s editors and writers in driving, evaluating, and ranking the 2010 Car of the Year candidates. Norton Alderson is CEO of Universal Switching Corp., a high-tech firm specializing in switching equipment for communication and defense agencies. David Arnold is senior vice president, group […]

Winged Wunderauto No car in this year’s competition has been more eagerly anticipated than the SLS AMG. This century’s all-new Gullwing is a most deserving Car of the Year and does not disappoint in either the performance or panache departments. Contortionists will enjoy the novelty of the trademark doors; others may take a more leisurely […]

Britain’s Beauty As Aston Martin’s flagship model, the DBS Volante impresses on every level. The car performs like a sports car, rides like a grand tourer, sounds like a supercar, and takes the prize for best dressed. More importantly, this Volante version offers something the Ferrari 599—the DBS’s closest competitor—will never be able to match: […]

A Thorough Thoroughbred The 2009 Audi R8 was named Robb Report’s Car of the Year for 2008, outgunning all of the heavy artillery that Italy, England, and Germany could muster. But the 2010 Audi R8 V10 represents far more than a two-cylinder upgrade from its V-8-propelled predecessor. Its Lamborghini-sourced V-10 not only is one liter […]

Perfect 10 As a brand, Bugatti remembers the past but never intends to relive it. Three years ago, the Bugatti Veyron arrived at Robb Report’s Car of the Year competition with an unprecedented amount of hype. Along with that hype came huge expectations from editors and guest judges, but an unfortunate mishap (a short in […]

In the early 1880s, while his personal railway car was parked on a siding in Michigan City, Ind., William Henry Vanderbilt, who was traveling with two of his sons, consented to a brief interview with local reporters. The president and owner of the New York Central Railroad Company had doubled his inheritance from his father, […]

Rob Myers’ career had humble beginnings. In 1976, the sheet-metal painter and bodywork specialist from Chatham-Kent, Ontario, opened a car-restoration shop in his Canadian hometown, which is located a short drive from Detroit. Myers planned to help his customers buy and sell a few cars, but things did not work out so modestly: In 1991, […]

“If you want to build a ship,” the French pilot, poet, and author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry once said, “don’t herd people together to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.” That lesson need not be conveyed to Angelo Bonati, CEO of Swiss […]

The concept of a personal jet is certainly a seductive one, but the reality has proved less thrilling. For years, aircraft manufacturers have struggled in vain to satisfy the market’s demand for a model that combines the efficiency, power, and reliability of a turbine jet with the easy flying qualities and affordability of a high-end […]

Leica has a loyal following among professional photographers, many of whom still cling to the German manufacturer’s film models. But the company’s newest flagship camera, the M9, finally and decisively settles the argument in favor of digital capture. The $6,995 M9, the current version of Leica’s M-series rangefinder camera, features a full-frame, 18-megapixel CCD image […]

Life’s greatest gifts are often those that are least expected. The birth of a grandchild is such a blessing, as Garen and Shari Staglin, proprietors of Staglin Family Vineyard in Rutherford, Calif., discovered in 2006. The grandchild in question, however, was not theirs, but rather that of Michel Rolland, the renowned French enologist and the […]

Long before there was bourbon, rye whiskey was being distilled in the colonies. In fact, in 1797, George Washington founded a rye distillery and proclaimed it one of his most profitable ventures. Rye is literally the spirit of America. After inspiring such cocktails as the Sazerac and the Manhattan, however, America’s supply of this peppery-sweet […]

Komodo National Park in Indonesia is considered a holy grail of scuba diving, not only for its more than 1,000 species of exotic fish, but also for its relative inaccessibility. Located some 200 miles east of Bali, the 450,000-acre park—which is nearly 70 percent ocean—encompasses volcanic islands, isolated beaches, and pristine coral reefs, but not […]

Surely every seriously smitten motorcycle aficionado has toyed with the notion of perching a fine machine in the middle of the living room. Jewellike engines and shiny fittings elevate the most beautiful two-wheeled conveyances to the level of art, as in the case of the Phantom EG, the exquisite mechanical sculpture recently introduced by the […]

Familiar objects and fundamental forms are the stuff of inspiration for furniture maker Sylvan Fiss. Take the simple metal bolt that caught the 54-year-old designer’s eye last spring. To anyone else, it is simply a rod for fastening items together, but Fiss saw it as a work of art that became the impetus for his […]

Considering scotland’s abundance of storied links, it would seem ludicrous to label a new golf course as “the best in Scotland.” And yet Scottish golf-course architect Graeme Webster used that exact phrase to describe Castle Stuart Golf Links following the course’s debut during the British Open week last July. Another observer predicted, “A round [at […]

Some vocalists give their most electrifying performances during the encore. Such a performer is Lamborghini, whose second Reventón model, the Roadster, dazzles the ears and eyes. Resembling a wingless fighter jet, the Reventón Roadster has taken the automotive stage with a combination of power and precision that makes most other supercars seem like mere members […]

When a prominent Munich art collector commissioned Stefan Hemmerle to create a diamond ring for his wife in 1995, he set one condition: no flashy settings. His wife, he said, detested them. To meet the challenge of creating a piece of fine jewelry both significant and subdued, Hemmerle considered a variety of alternative materials before […]