Madam Wheels brings women together in a sense of belonging at a moment in history when meaningful connection has become critical. The fact that we do so around extraordinary cars takes things to an exciting new level. With champagne sunsets, fine-dining and luxurious accommodation included in the mix, guests are assured of an exhilarating, addictive and utterly unforgettable experience.
“BADASS” isn’t a word that springs immediately to mind when contemplating a Rolls-Royce motor car. “Austere”, “statesman-like”, “owned-by-someone-who’s-not-me” are more the norm.
But when Rolls-Royce drapes the chrome of some its less-formal, more-powerful models with wicked dark detailing and dials up the engine capabilities, “badass” quite suddenly starts to sound more apropos. Set said vehicles loose in a Blade Runner-like landscape and convention is truly defied.Faster engines, sharper gearboxes, and dashboard and exterior options designed to deliver boardroom bragging rights – they’re just some of the appeals for the brooding, dark ones among us to whom these Black Badge beasts might appeal.
Through their British, Japanese and Singaporean lenses, we see a common story line unfolding, with these Black Bade Rolls-Royce going hard in the metropolis after dark before retiring to the calm solitude of the city limits as morning breaks. Aesthetics such as these have clearly struck a chord with the brand’s Japanese clients.
The regional director of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Asia Pacific, Paul Harris, says Black Badge variants account for a little over over 40 per cent of Ghost, Wraith and Dawn models delivered in the country. Eighteen photographs have been collated as part of the series, and are on display together for the first time at Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Tokyo. Naturally, the three life-sized versions of the Black Badge models will be parked up alongside.
I SPENT a Saturday morning just over a fortnight ago going car shopping with my niece. She’d decided she needs a car of her own and she thinks I know a bit about the subject, so she asked me to come along.
COVID-19-induced travel restrictions look like they’ll remain part of life for some time to come, especially by air. That’s bad news for those of us in Melbourne, particularly, still enduring months of enforced local isolation.
I THINK most of us can agree that evolution is a pretty good theory. You might prefer to believe a divine entity created every living thing, all in a hurry, about 6000 years ago, in which case all power to you, even though you quite possibly regard