Page 78 - Sharp November 2024

ON THE RADAR
WE’RE TRACKING THE LATEST LAUNCHES FROM THE WORLD’S MOST INNOVATIVE AUTO BRANDS
By Matt Bubbers
MAYBACH ON MAYBACH
Mercedes-Maybach SL 680 Monogram Series
Maybach heard you like Maybach, and they’re putting the most amount of Maybach ever into their first two-seat convertible. We’re talking Maybach crest logos all over the fabric roof, on the door handles, the front grille, the trunk lid, on the seats, behind the seats, and even painted all over the hood. (The latter involves printing the Maybach pattern onto the hood after it’s been painted and hand-sanded, and then hitting it with two matte clear coats — and another hand-sanding.) Powering all that gleaming paint is a 4.0-litre biturbo V8 good for 577 horsepower. Grand tourers don’t get much grander.
78 NOVEMBER 2024
SHARPMAGAZINE.COM
AUTO
DREAM FACTORY
Making the Porsche 911 Speedster that never was
Luca Trazzi, an architect and industrial designer born in Verona in 1962, had a special wish. He wished for the missing 911 Speedster, a Speedster based on the 993-generation 911, a car that Porsche never actually put into production. Luckily for Trazzi, Porsche’s Sonderwunsch division exists to turn wishes into reality. (Sonderwunsch literally translates as “special wishes.”) “As a young boy, I fell head over heels in love with the puristic Porsche Speedster [...] Ever since, I’ve managed to live my passion, or more precisely, my Speedster-mania, ” Trazzi said. It took Porsche’s team more than three years to create this one-off Speedster based on a 1994 911 Carrera Cabrio (Type 993), but we’d say (and Trazzi would surely agree) it was worth the wait.