Prey for the Hunted

Every man who gives a damn about how he looks should have a few wardrobe items on a mental list that if he runs across them he can act without hesitation. For me one of those items is a Barbour International Jacket. The international is the same jacket Steve Mcqueen wore at the International 6 Day Trials in East Germany in 1964.

Barbour or J Barbour & Sons as it is properly know was established in 1894 when they were fashioning oilskin overcoats for all types of tradesmens in rainy coastal England. The Barbour product and reputation have only become more revered as the company has stayed family owned for over 4 generations.

I have owned a few Barbour jackets but I have never come across the right vintage International, until recently. I sit here in the worst economy in recent history unsure of how I will scrape together money for Christmas gifts for friends and family much less pay my insane car insurance bill that is sitting on my desk, but when you come across something so perfect you just gotta say : “Fuck it”

As I am working away on my modern vintage Triumph Thruxton cafe bike I have become a bit obsessed with Triumph choppers. The example above and below belongs to Rob Howe in southern California, and I just about the prettiest damn thing I can imagine. It started life as a ‘65 Triumph Trophy and now it is a bad ass chopper so stripped down it almost looks like a bicycle.

I am officially obsessed and am trolling ebay for a pre-kit Triumph motor as we speak. Time to make a proper vintage bike for me.

Just when you think that companies had run out of tacky ways to help Rappers and Oil Magnates ruin individualize their ultra luxury cars you see something like this.  For a mere $25k (ish) a company called Alchemist will add the ultimate bling to your whip. We are talking about covering your car’s roof in 24k gold or platinum.

Sure adding gold to the roof of your car will make it marginally slower and it will handle worse,  but what it will really do is make you look like a silverspoon fed richie rich ass face who constantly needs attention and has something to prove because your daddy didn’t love you enough.

Unfortunately it is not a question of will these be popular but rather how popular. Two other questions also come to mind, how soon will it be before clever theives with sawsalls start making these golden chariots into convertibles and how long do I have to wait to see one of these on a honda civic.

Anyone who follows auto news looks forward to the annual assault of info on the Gumball 3000 rally. The Gumball 3000 Rally is the brain child of British playboy Maximillion Cooper who in 1999 invited 50 of his closest celebrity friends to have a 6 day rally driving party around Europe. That is how the Gumball Rally was born and it has been growing ever since.

The Rally is about high profile people in high dollar cars having a lot of fuck you fun. Don’t get me wrong I am fully planning on joining the Gumball ranks one day but it is equal parts cool and douche. On one hand the Gumball is a celbration of hot cars, it involves big parties and beautiful women, and it is a special kind of a "fuck you" to the law and the up-tightness of most of society. On the other hand the Gumball Rally is a vulgar display of wealth and superiority, and it is generally populated by total attention whores.

This years Gumball started in San Francisco on August 9th and is going from SF to LA, LA to Vegas, and from Vegas all the cars and Ralliers to party with Kim Jung il in North Korea, before ending their 6 day driving party in Beijing before the end of the Olympics. You can follow along with all the debachereous fun by visiting the official Gumball 300 site here , or read the blog here .

Here it is folks the Bentley Brooklands, potentially the most powerful panty magnet on the planet. The Brooklands has supercar worthy power coming from its 6.75 liter twin turbo V8 making 530hp and 775 ft/lbs of torque but at 213 inches long and weighing 5800 pounds its dimensions are more like a Chevy Suburban than a Ferrari.

But what makes this car so powerful to the fairer sex? It is not the motor, more likely it is the Bentley’s imposing silhouette and the giant Winged “B” that adorns the hood, trunk and 20″ wheels. Is this because driving a Bentley says I can spend $340,000 on a car, or is there something more?

Most people and certainly most women don’t really know how ridiculously expensive the Brooklands may be but they can feel its presence, and they can see every persons’ head turn as it rolls down the street. Most people will never know that they are witnessing one of only 550 ever to be built rolling works of art. As you in invite you future supermodel girlfriend to take a ride in your car that cost more than most people’s home will she will be forced to note of your appreciation for luxury and craftsmanship more than just the dollars in your wallet.

Will she understand that it takes 16 dead cows, 120 hours, and 43,000 stitches to create the sumptuous interior she is sitting in? Will she understand that honing the rare burl woods for the dash and trim takes over a month, or that It takes two hours for one man just to braze the two pieces of the front fender together and then smooth the join to a seamless finish?

She won’t know these details but she will feel the majesty oozing from this car, and then she will most certainly feel like going home with you! Now all we need to worry about is George Clooney buying one of these, in which case all mens’ penises will be rendered useless.

More Photos after the jump

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The Brooklyn Menswear label Yoko Devereaux has been speeding into New Yorks fashion consciousness since they arrived in 2000, and to exhibit their spring summer 2009 collection they used a back drop of fast cars  Manhattan’s Classic Car Club. The new collection aims to mix a bit or East Hampton with a dash of East Village. The looks seem to tell the story well, and the Classic Car venue adds to the luxury of the show.

With a new comic book blockbusters coming out every six months it is clear that people are longing for superheros. In todays society we face a variety of villains from terrorists waging jihad, to imperialist countries conducting wars for oil, from Coporate villains profiting from the docile middle class, to our President who has vilified everything from the constitiution to common sense during his 8 year reign. Luckily we have a superhero among us in the form of the infamous "guerilla artist" Banksy .

Banksy has made a career as an artist using both superhero cunning and superhero anonymity. His graffiti career began around 1994 and as his works started gaining attention in the early 2000’s it only served to fueled his daring. Some of Banksy’s capers include painting giant murals on the wall of the west bank separating Israel and Palestine, leaving a manequin dressed as a Guantanamo Prisoner at Disney World, and hanging his own art in both the Tate and the Louvre.

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