Alexandra Cheney

Performance-led grand tourer meets continental cruiser in the Speedback Silverstone Edition, a bespoke automobile from David Brown Automotive, a Silverstone, England-based small-batch manufacturer. Employing the original chassis, transmission and suspension from a Jaguar XKR, Brown Automotive then custom-builds the aluminum body to house the 601 hp, 5.0 liter supercharged V8 vehicle. With its sleek, extended side skirts, enlarged side vents […]

For those unfamiliar with the finer milestones in car design, the name Pininfarina sounds oddly proverbial. Born Battista Farina, the postwar design magnate and coachbuilder focused on the drafting and construction of new car bodies for the likes of Ferrari and Alfa Romeo throughout his career. At home, he was the youngest boy of 11 children and quickly garnered the […]

Sliding into the not quite camel — but darker than sand — supple leather seat feels like being handed the reins to a realized spaceship. There are no touchscreens in the Chiron but rather mindfully placed, if not inordinately large, buttons. Bugatti engineers claim they’re an integral part of the timeless beauty that runs throughout the brand’s portfolio. In reality, […]

Cross 30 inches of water or ascend a 60-degree slope, but make it luxurious. That’s the objective of Mil-Spec Automotive, the brainchild of CEO Adam Mitchell, president Chris Van Scyoc and CIO Ian Broekman, three midwestern men capable of restoring a quarter-million-dollar, military-grade Humvee, but each of whom fail to meet the age required to hire a rental car. Each […]

Elite Traveler’s motoring writer Alexandra Cheney takes you on a journey through the best luxury cars on the market at the moment, from state-of-the-art hypercars to the most spacious sedans. Undoubtedly, the premium luxury segment is in a decisive moment. Stricter global emissions standards continue to force automotive manufacturers to refocus their research and design energies into electric and fuel […]

The browns, greens and blacks of the layered hills and coast-hugging roads of Big Sur brilliantly offset the deep blues and bright whites of the vast Pacific Ocean and its crashing waves. It’s a familiar scene to those acquainted with California’s Central Coast, as much a state of mind as a locale. Enter the A8, Audi’s flagship sedan, which matches […]

Words like sleek, stunning and extraordinary come easily to the lips of those viewing Speedtail, McLaren’s low-drag, 1,035-horsepower, gas-electric hybrid powertrain Ultimate Series vehicle. Its list of lengthy superlatives include: first-ever Hyper-GT and most aerodynamically efficient, perfectly symmetrical and fastest-accelerating McLaren. A proclamation: The Speedtail is a testament to the current and future technological accomplishments at McLaren. Speedtail clocks zero […]

This story originally appeared in the January/February 2019 issue of Elite Traveler. Utility vehicles continue to gain momentum as the world’s favored family car, so automobile manufacturers remain resolute in diversifying the sector. A trio of first drives demonstrate the breadth and depth of possibility; from impressive off-road capabilities to bespoke refinements, Rolls-Royce, Jaguar and Bentley are on a mission to […]