2014 Rolls-royce Wraith Coupe 2d on 2040-cars

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The best cars we drove this year

Six hundred and fifty. That's roughly how many cars pass through the hands of Autoblog editors every year, from the vehicles we test here at home, to the cars we drive on new product launches, testing roundups, long-term cars, and so on. Of course, our individual numbers vary due to several reasons, but at the end of the day, our team's repertoire of automotive experience is indeed vast. But let's be honest, some cars certainly stand out more than others. So as the year's about to turn, and as we're readying brand-new daily cat calendars for our cubicles, our editors are all taking time to reflect on the machinery that made this year so special, with one simple, open-ended question as the guide – a question that we're asked quite frequently, from friends, family, colleagues, and more. "What's the best car you drove this year?" Lamborghini Huracan When I review the list of everything I drove in 2014, picking an absolute favorite becomes almost impossible. I mean, how does one delineate between the joy offered by cars as different as the Alfa Romeo 4C, Volkswagen Golf R, Mercedes-AMG GT S and even the humble-yet-wonderful Chevy Colorado? Okay fine, I'll just pick the Lamborghini. I drove the Lamborghini Huracan LP 610-4 on a racetrack, in the mountains, and along southern coast of Spain. It felt like the king of the car jungle in all of those places, sucking the eyeballs of observers nearly out of their heads as it drove by, and almost melting my brain with its cocktail of speed and grip and intense communication. It feels a little easy to say that the one new supercar I drove this year was also my favorite, but the fact is that the Huracan is one of the finest cars I've driven during my career, let alone 2014. Judge me if you must. – Seyth Miersma Senior Editor Rolls-Royce Wraith There are a couple of ways to look at the question, "What's the best car you drove this year?" In terms of what was so good I'd go out and buy one tomorrow, that'd be my all-time sweetheart, the Volkswagen GTI. Or if I'm just talking about sheer cool-factor, maybe something like the Galpin GTR1, BMW i8, or Mercedes-Benz G63 AMG. But instead, I'm going to write about the sheer opulence of being the best of the best. The hand-crafted, holier-than-thou, shut-your-mouth-when-I'm-talking-to-you supremacy. I'm picking the Rolls-Royce Wraith. I drove the Wraith for a week in April, and was really, really impressed. This car does everything, perfectly.

Rolls-Royce Cullinan and BMW 8 Series spied south of Death Valley

Recently, we've stumbled upon a number of manufacturer prototypes running around. Usually, spy photographers sit and wait for hours with cameras primed in order to get a few shots of a car. We just got lucky. First, we caught the new Chevy Corvette ZR1 convertible during a Facebook Live video. A week or so later McGraw snapped a video of a ZR1 coupe cruising in his neck of the woods. Today, our ace photographer Drew Phillips caught a BMW test fleet filling up the new Rolls-Royce Cullinan and 8 Series coupe in Baker, Calif. Baker sits along Interstate 15, about halfway between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. It's just south of Death Valley, and, being late August, suggests that BMW was doing some hot weather testing. Drew was filling up his car when the fleet rolled in. There were at least two of the new king Rolls and a single 8 Series. Both cars were wearing a full swirl camouflage wrap. It's not an uncommon place to see prototypes. Still, seeing a whole fleet roll in is quite a sight. We've seen official photos of the Cullinan before, but these pictures give us our best view of the profile and rear we've had so far. From a distance, it looks like a high-riding version of the new Phantom with a hatch in place of the trunk. The taillights are obviously just filler units. Expect the final version to look very much like the squared off LED units on the Phantom. Likewise the interior and engine should be straight from the Phantom. That means a twin-turbocharged V12, though power is likely to be sent to all four wheels. We've seen the full BMW 8 Series concept a few times now. The proportions on the production car look the same, with a long hood and even longer wheelbase. The nose isn't quite as aggressive as the concept, but we expected the styling to be toned down to meet crash and safety standards. As for engines, look for six, eight and (hopefully) 12-cylinder power under the hood. A plug-in variant is also expected. Both cars have been in development for a long while, so look for full debuts sometime this auto show season. Maybe we'll happen upon some more test mules between now and then. Related Video:

Rolls-Royce gets Inspired by Film with latest Wraith special [w/video]

"You like me, you really like me!" If Rolls-Royce could tune its exhaust note to speak those words, (in Sally Field's voice, no less) we get the feeling it would. But since it can't it has done what it does best: launch a special edition. In this case, it's called the "Inspired by Film" edition, and it's based on the Wraith. Its creation was inspired by And the World Stood Still, a rather dramatic promotional video that accompanied the Wraith's launch two years ago. The film, which you can view below if you missed it the first time around, involved 100 DSLR cameras, 36 computers and nearly a mile of cabling, orchestrated in Barcelona to capture the spirit of the Rolls-Royce fastback. It was decorated with a Gold Award by the International Visual Communications Association and was recently admitted to the National Archive of the British Film Institute. So to mark the occasion, Rolls is rolling in to the New York Auto Show with this special edition. Taking the Silver Screen theme quite literally, it's decked out with two-tone silver paint, a solid silver Spirit of Ecstasy hood ornament and grey leather with ebony and aluminum trim. The special edition will be available to order right after its debut in Manhattan, and of course comes with the 6.6-liter twin-turbo V12 churning out 624 horsepower to make the Wraith the fastest, most powerful production model in the company's history. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. ROLLS-ROYCE WRAITH 'INSPIRED BY FILM' DEBUTS AS LAUNCH FILM IS ACCEPTED INTO BFI NATIONAL ARCHIVE 31 March 2015, Goodwood The groundbreaking Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Wraith launch film, 'And the World Stood Still', has been accepted into the BFI (British Film Institute) National Archive, the world's most significant collection of film and TV. To celebrate the event, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars has created Wraith 'Inspired by Film', which will debut at the 2015 New York Auto Show tomorrow, 1 April 2015. The film, which won a Gold Award at the 26th International Visual Communications Association (IVCA) Awards, caught the attention of the BFI's Senior Curator for Non-Fiction Films, Patrick Russell, who considered it a striking piece of contemporary cinematography and so decided to accept it into the archive. "We are delighted to see Rolls-Royce's Wraith launch film enter the BFI's collection," commented Russell.