Europe’s first Agera RS will be detailed with gold

5 September, 2016

Now, before we begin, I’d just like to let you know that, lavish hypercars aside, I’d be stoked if I simply had a wheel nut off one of these modern machines, as the vehicles themselves are truly exceptional. However, when your 1160hp Koenigsegg Agera RS, of which there is only one of in the USA, isn’t good enough, what do you do? In my opinion, anyone that holds the opinion that the Agera RS isn’t good enough as it is needs a clip around the ears. If you’re lucky enough to afford one, well, stop complaining, you’ve made it!

For those out of reach of my ear clippings, apparently the Agera RS wasn’t lavish enough. So what had to happen to step up its game? It had to be detailed with gold of course — gold everywhere. Because nothing screams wealth and luxury like gold, right? This particular example will be the first Agera RS in Europe and will be named ‘Naraya’, a name said to be close to the family of the purchaser.

The body itself isn’t your rolled steel, aluminium, or fibreglass variety either. It’s blue-tinted carbon fibre, which sits on top of the all-carbon tub. I was already weak at the knees at blue-tinted carbon fibre, however the purchaser wanted gold detailing all over the vehicle as well. This isn’t your vinyl-wrapped South Auckland gold either, it’s the real deal.

Applied over an intense two-week period, Ettore Callegaro painstakingly applied the gold to the vehicle, then worked it by hand to give it its unique texture. Several coats of clear were then applied to protect the valuable metal. The interior also features gold throughout, with the final and most impressive touch being the Naraya nameplate, which has been finished in 18-carat yellow gold alongside 155 diamonds, which are no doubt worth more than my Lexus.

Design accord

28 March, 2025

You can’t get much more of an art deco car than a Cord — so much so that new owners, Paul McCarthy and his wife, Sarah Selwood, went ahead and took their Beverly 812 to Napier’s Art Deco Festival this year, even though the festival itself had been cancelled.
“We took delivery of the vehicle 12 days before heading off to Napier. We still drove it all around at the festival,” says Paul.
The utterly distinctive chrome grille wrapping around the Cord’s famous coffin-shaped nose, and the pure, clean lines of the front wing wheel arches, thanks to its retractable headlamps, are the essence of deco. This model, the Beverly, has the finishing touch of the bustle boot that is missing from the Westchester saloon.

Motorman: When New Zealand built the Model T Ford

21 March, 2025

History has a way of surrounding us, hidden in plain sight. I was one of a group who had been working for years in an editorial office in Augustus Terrace in the Auckland city fringe suburb of Parnell who had no idea that motoring history had been made right around the corner. Our premises actually backed onto a century-old brick building in adjacent Fox Street that had seen the wonder of the age, brand-new Model T Fords, rolling out the front door seven decades earlier.
Today, the building is an award-winning two-level office building, comprehensively refurbished in 2012. Happily, 6 Fox Street honours its one time claim to motoring fame. Next door are eight upmarket loft apartments, also on the site where the Fords were completed. Elsewhere, at 89 Courtenay Place, Wellington, and Sophia Street, Timaru, semi-knocked-down Model Ts were also being put together, completing a motor vehicle that would later become known as the Car of the Century.

Europe’s first Agera RS will be detailed with gold

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