The new Aston Martin Valour will cost $2 million and doesn’t even come with an automatic transmission. And for that, the 110 customers who will be able to acquire a Valour are eternally grateful. Aston Martin is building this special model for the marque faithful, and each customer likely has plenty of automatic-transmission supercars in their garages already. The carbon-fiber-body Valour blends supercar power with a manual transmission for a purist driving experience on road or track.
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Anyone making a personal Top-10 Porsches list would surely have to include the 1973 911 Carrera RS 2.7 and 1974 911 Carrera RS 3.0. There’s a much bigger difference between the two than their 0.3-liter cylinder displacement. The RS 2.7 was rare, with just 1,580 made and the car not sold in the U.S. market. In comparison, the RS 3.0 was a unicorn, a homologation special for the 3.0 RSR with just 55 made. That explains the $1.6M-$1.8M pre-sale estimate at RM Sotheby’s Monterey auction in August for what many consider the best RS 3.0 extant. A car with factory provenance, it remains in original condition with just about 18,000 miles.
While Bugatti recently became a joint venture run by EV hypercar maker Rimac, fans of the marque will likely celebrate that the latest model, called Tourbillon, uses a 986-horsepower V-16 internal combustion engine. It also uses three electric motors that contribute nearly 800 more horses to the corral. So, yes, this one has EV genius Mate Rimac’s imprint all over it. The Tourbillon promises 0-60 in two seconds and a 277-mph top speed. Starting in 2026, Bugatti will build just 250 of these hyper hybrids, with a starting price north of $4 million.
BMW quickly sold out of the 1,000 M4 CSL coupes offered last year, but as consolation, it is offering 2,000 of the M4 CS, a slightly tamer rendition of the road/track coupe. It’s got the same 543-hp turbo inline-six engine and eight-speed transmission, but it’s latched to all-wheel drive in this version. The interior is a bit more civilized than the CSL’s but might still not be ideal for some daily commutes. No one should doubt, however, BMW’s claims for a 3.2-second 0-60 time and 188-mph top track speed. This very special M4 starts at about $125,000.
The Bring A Trailer online auction site just sold a 1972 Ferrari Dino 246 GTS that originally belonged to music superstar Cher. The $568,000 selling price was in in line with market trends, so it does not appear that Cher’s ownership had much, if any, effect on value. That might be because she only owned it for 15 months, or perhaps because a later restoration changed the color back to its original red from the blue that she done by famous car customizer George Barris. In any case, it was a good performance for the Dino.
Just 16 people in the world will be able to buy a Bentley Batur convertible, the latest in a series of ultra-limited coachbuilt cars from the British automaker. The two-seat convertible follows last year’s Batur coupe, of which 18 were made. The coupe was not offered in the U.S., but the convertible reportedly will be. Both are based on the Bentley Continental GT, a model that starts at about $250,000. The Baturs are in a whole other league – indeed, a whole other ball game – with pricing believed to be a bit over $2 million before personalization options.
Ferrari seems to have mastered the art of hiding models under development from spy photographers, which is why, once again, the automaker surprised the auto world with another stunner in early May. The 12Cilindri is the latest in its front-engine V-12 franchise that reigned from the late 1940s through the early 1970s and then made a roaring comeback in the mid-1990s. The name is the engine, of course, and the body is, as the saying goes, to die for. It’s on its way to America, starting in the low $400k range, with the open Spider coming later.
Orange must be the hot color this season because both Aston Martin and Lamborghini chose this bright hue to showcase their newly fortified 2025 SUVs. The Aston Martin DBX 707, an upgrade model currently, will be the sole version for 2025, featuring the 697-horsepower engine and a host of enhancements. Lamborghini, meanwhile, follows a different route for its Urus super SUV, making a new plug-in hybrid the top model, called the SE. The new hybrid powertrain kicks up a storm with 789 horsepower.
While hurricane season is just starting, Lamborghini Huracán season is ending after 10 years. Lamborghini is sending the car out with a special track model, building just 10 examples. The Huracán’s plug-in hybrid replacement is likely to be much more powerful than the outgoing model. That’s just the start of the “electrifying” news sweeping through the upper part of the premium car segment. It looks like gas engines will stick around for a while, but there will be more plug-in hybrids coming, and, yes, even an all-electric Ferrari.
