All posts by Francis Mitterrand

News

The Ford Mustang Mach-E GT California Special Arrives

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There’s something slightly rebellious about taking one of Ford Mustang’s most nostalgia-soaked badges and pasting it onto an all-electric crossover. But then again, rebellion has always been part of the Mustang brief. Now, with the arrival of the Ford Mustang Mach-E GT California Special, Ford Motor Company leans even harder into that contradiction—and somehow makes it work.

The California Special name dates back to 1968, when West Coast dealers gave the original Mustang a sun-kissed identity to match its booming sales in the Golden State. This time around, the vibe is less carburetors and chrome, more kilowatts and code—but the spirit remains intact. Think Pacific Coast Highway, just with fewer gas stops and more charging stations.

Visually, the GT/CS does just enough to stand out without screaming about it. The 20-inch Carbonised Grey wheels wear subtle GT/CS logos, while badges outlined in a new Rave Blue hue add a cool-toned contrast. The real centerpiece, though, is the hood stripe—a layered mix of grey, black, and blue, radiating outward like a stylized sunset melting into the ocean. It’s thematic, sure, but not overcooked.

Inside, Ford avoids the trap of trying to make “electric” feel sterile. Instead, the cabin leans into texture and tone. Performance seats trimmed in Navy Pier ActiveX and Miko material strike a balance between premium feel and real-world durability—this is synthetic upholstery that’s designed to be lived in, not tiptoed around. A reflective blue and silver stripe runs through the seats, while the same navy material wraps the steering wheel and center console, tying the look together in a way that feels cohesive rather than gimmicky.

Underneath the styling exercise, the broader Mach-E lineup gets meaningful tweaks. Premium Extended Range models now squeeze out a bit more efficiency thanks to lower rolling resistance tires, stretching range figures to as much as 555 km for all-wheel-drive versions and 615 km for rear-drive variants. It’s not a revolution, but in the EV world, incremental gains matter.

Safety tech also gets a boost. Ford’s Clear Exit Assist—essentially a digital lookout for cyclists, scooters, and unsuspecting pedestrians—joins the standard ADAS suite. It’s the kind of feature that sounds minor until it saves you from an awkward insurance claim or worse. Alongside it sits the usual alphabet soup of modern driver aids: adaptive cruise control, pre-collision assist, blind-spot monitoring, and evasive steering support.

And then there’s Ford BlueCruise, the company’s hands-off, eyes-on highway driving system. Already a standout in the Mach-E, it continues to expand across Ford’s European lineup, hinting at a future where long-distance driving becomes less about effort and more about supervision.

Two new paint options—Race Red and the intriguingly named Adriatic Blue-Green—round out the updates, offering buyers a chance to either shout or subtly flex.

The Mach-E was always a controversial addition to the Mustang family, but editions like the GT California Special suggest Ford isn’t interested in playing it safe. Instead, it’s doubling down on the idea that heritage isn’t about clinging to the past—it’s about reinterpreting it. And if that reinterpretation happens to come with instant torque and a West Coast color palette, well, there are worse ways to evolve an icon.

Source: Ford

Story

Inside the Lamborghini Ownership Experience

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At some point—usually long before there’s a driver’s license involved—the poster goes up. A low, wedge-shaped missile from Lamborghini, frozen mid-scream on a bedroom wall. For many, that’s where the story begins. But in Sant’Agata Bolognese, the people who build these cars would argue that’s only the prologue. The real narrative starts when the dream stops being abstract and becomes an order form, a color swatch, a stitched seam.

Because buying a Lamborghini isn’t a transaction. It’s theater.

The Atelier Where Horsepower Meets Haute Couture

The first act unfolds inside Lamborghini’s Ad Personam studio, a place that feels less like a dealership and more like a Milan fashion house that happens to deal in carbon fiber. Here, customers don’t just pick options—they curate identity. Over 400 exterior hues sit on the palette, alongside hides, Alcantara, forged composites, and finishes that sound like they were named by an art critic on espresso number four.

This is where the brand’s obsession with individuality crystallizes. It’s also where the numbers get interesting: roughly 94 percent of Lamborghinis leave the factory with at least one bespoke element. That’s not a stat—it’s a manifesto. In an era of algorithmic sameness, Lamborghini is selling the opposite: specificity.

And when the configurator finally renders the finished car—your car—it’s less like placing an order and more like seeing a thought become tangible. The machine hasn’t been built yet, but the connection already exists.

The Waiting Game That Isn’t

Then comes the part that would drive most buyers mad: waiting. About 18 months, give or take, from spec sheet to ignition.

Except Lamborghini has figured out how to make anticipation part of the product. Through its Unica app, owners track their car’s progress, dip into brand content, and stay tethered to the process. It’s clever. You’re not just waiting—you’re participating.

Better yet, some customers make the pilgrimage to Sant’Agata Bolognese itself. Walking the factory floor, you see the juxtaposition that defines modern Lamborghini: old-world craftsmanship stitched into bleeding-edge manufacturing. Hands and robots, leather and lasers, all conspiring to build something outrageous.

It’s equal parts engineering lesson and origin story.

Opening Night

If the build is the rehearsal, delivery is opening night.

Lamborghini calls its factory handover program “La Prima,” and the name fits. This is a premiere, complete with staging, lighting, and a reveal designed to land somewhere between goosebumps and disbelief. Whether it happens at the factory or halfway across the world, the moment is engineered for impact.

But in Sant’Agata, it hits differently. You’re standing where the car was born, surrounded by the people who made it, with friends and family in tow. The cover comes off. There it is—the exact machine you imagined months ago, now very real, very loud, and very much yours.

It’s hard not to get a little dramatic about it. Lamborghini certainly doesn’t mind.

The Part Where Ownership Actually Begins

Here’s the twist: delivery isn’t the finale. It’s the intermission.

Because once the keys are handed over, Lamborghini pivots from builder to host. Owners are folded into a calendar of experiences that range from snow-driving academies—like Accademia Neve, where physics becomes a suggestion—to full-bore track programs that encourage you to explore the outer edges of both grip and courage.

Then there are the rallies, the club events, the curated gatherings in improbable locations. It’s a social ecosystem as much as an automotive one, binding owners through shared absurdity and mutual appreciation for V10s and V12s that sound like mechanical opera.

More Than a Car, Less Than Subtle

It would be easy to dismiss all of this as excess. And sure, there’s plenty of that. But what Lamborghini understands—perhaps better than anyone—is that the car itself is only part of the appeal. The rest is narrative: the build, the wait, the reveal, the belonging.

In a world where you can spec a car online in ten minutes and forget about it five minutes later, Lamborghini stretches the experience into something deliberately analog, deliberately emotional.

So yes, the poster still goes up. But these days, it’s not just a picture of a car. It’s a preview of a story—one that, if you’re lucky enough to live it, starts long before the engine fires and doesn’t really end when it does.

Source: Lamborghini

News

Priyanka Chopra Jonas Joins Bentley

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In an era when luxury automakers are just as likely to trade in storytelling as they are horsepower, Bentley Motors has found its latest narrator—and she doesn’t come from the paddock. She comes from the soundstage.

Enter Priyanka Chopra Jonas, the newly minted global brand ambassador whose résumé reads less like a casting sheet and more like a portfolio of modern influence: actor, producer, author, entrepreneur, and global advocate. For Bentley, this isn’t just another celebrity endorsement. It’s a calculated shift toward something softer, more human—and, arguably, more relevant.

The campaign, dropping this weekend with a longer-form film to follow, leans hard into authenticity. Shot in a documentary style at Sony Studios in Los Angeles, it pairs Chopra Jonas with Greg Williams—one half of Bentley’s recently appointed creative duo alongside Mai Ikuzawa. The result isn’t so much an ad as it is a conversation, one where the car plays a supporting role rather than the lead.

That car, by the way, is the Bentley Continental GT—a machine that, much like its new ambassador, trades on presence rather than noise. It’s there in the film, woven into the background, never demanding attention but always deserving it. Think less “hero shot,” more “co-star.”

Chopra Jonas speaks of craftsmanship the way Bentley engineers might talk about hand-stitched hides or milled aluminum: with reverence for the process. “There’s an intentionality behind every detail,” she says, aligning herself with a brand that has built its modern identity on precisely that idea. It’s a neat bit of symmetry—her world of filmmaking and Bentley’s world of coachbuilding both hinge on the same principle: nothing great happens by accident.

From Bentley’s perspective, the move makes sense. The brand has been steadily expanding its roster of ambassadors, but this feels like a pivot from traditional luxury signaling to cultural relevance. Marketing Director Ben Whattam calls it “a fresh energy,” though what he really means is that Bentley is betting on personality over polish.

And it might just work. Because while the Continental GT remains a masterclass in grand touring—equal parts speed, serenity, and stitched perfection—the real story here isn’t about the car. It’s about the people who give it meaning.

In a segment long dominated by specs and status, Bentley is trying something different: letting the narrative breathe.

Source: Bentley