Mustang One

Buying a new Ferrari is obviously a special experience, but there are always well-heeled folks who think even ticking all the option boxes or selecting a unique paint color aren’t enough to set their car apart from other buyers’. Because of this, bespoke bodywork has become a big business, albeit not in terms of volume but rather money and prestige. Take the recently unveiled and very outrageous Aston Martin Victor, which is very much in this vein, as well as 10 V-12 Ferraris since 2009—a roster that now includes this one-of-one, 812 Superfast-based Ferrari Omologata custom creation.

Of course, for decades, custom bodywork was the norm rather than the exception for rarified European sports and luxury cars, and several coachbuilding outfits might body the same mechanicals—for example, you could have your early 1950s Ferrari 212 Inter bodied by Touring, Ghia, Vignale, Ghia-Aigle, or Pininfarina.

Sportback fever is alive and well over at Audi. While we’re still not totally on board with SUVs touting sloped rooflines, we can at least appreciate that Audi calls these models “Sportbacks” rather than crossover-coupes. Meet the 2021 Q5 Sportback, the latest addition to Audi’s lineup.

Audi has kept largely true to the standard Q5’s design, with three key exceptions. The first is the roof, which slopes down to the taillights, modifying the shape of the C and D pillars. The spoiler is thus elongated, giving the crossover that coupe-SUV look for which so many buyers are (apparently) clamoring. There’s good news for rear passengers; Audi says folks in the back seats only lose between one-half and three-quarters of an inch of head room compared to the regular variant.

Next are the front, rear, and sides, which have all

Ford’s blobular 1995 Explorer was still nearly a year out in 1994, but the Blue Oval’s Power Stroke concept pickup gave clues to the company’s styling directive for the cars, trucks, and SUVs it planned to sell to consumers throughout the latter half of the 1990s. Besides showcasing the brand’s forthcoming design language, the Power Stroke housed Ford’s upcoming turbo-diesel 7.3-liter V-8 engine, which would soon make its way to production bearing the Power Stroke moniker.

Despite its show car status, the Power Stroke concept was surprisingly road-ready. Riding on a modified heavy-duty truck frame and featuring an interior cribbed from an F-Series pickup of the era, the truck’s only true “concept car” elements lived on its yellow-painted body. Items such as the truck’s wraparound windshield and hidden A-pillars, as well as its integrated rear fender flares (to cover the dual rear wheels), might seem common today, but this was

Not that this isn’t already painfully obvious to the vast majority of us living on the other side of the socioeconomic gulch, but it sure is a fantastic time to have a boatload of cash and a fat line of credit right about now. The current market is lousy with six-figure sports cars and super-coupes for all sorts of tastes and use-cases, especially in the competitive $150,000-$190,000 slice. In a space packed with spectacular cars like the Audi R8, Porsche 911, Mercedes-AMG GT, and Acura NSX, there’s enough divergent paths to sift through that you’ll need an in-mansion massage and custom juice cleanse to bring those stressed chakras down to baseline.

Maybe some clear, crisp air and a little vitamin D courtesy of Apollo himself will help solidify your decision. In that case, try the new 2021 Aston Martin Vantage Roadster on for size—it should fit the drop-top-sized hole in

The Toyota RAV4 has been part of the automotive landscape for so long that you forget where it came from. Remember the really early ones, available in a funky two-door convertible format? That was the early 1990s, and automakers knew SUVs were hot and were throwing all sorts of ideas at the wall to see if they’d stick. The convertible RAV4 had a bunch of strange company in America, like the Isuzu Amigo, the Suzuki Sidekick, and even the obscure Daihatsu Rocky.

But while the original RAV4 had spunk, the concept car that inspired it was considerably cooler. Meet the 1989 Toyota RAV-FOUR Concept, which debuted at the Tokyo Motor Show next to the production Toyota Sera (gullwing doors!) and the 4500GT Concept (which went nowhere!). Toyota called the RAV-FOUR a “neo-urban 4WD car”—unusual verbiage for a crossover and SUV era that was about to begin.

Like