Maxim January/February 2022

The new collaboration between Panerai and Brabus unites two of the coolest brands on the planet; Panerai, the iconic Swiss-Italian watchmaker with an impressive heritage tied to Italy’s navy, and Brabus, the world-famous tuning house which creates incredible custom vehicles based on Mercedes-Benz’s most high-octane models. These include the G63 AMG, Benz’s top-of-the-line G-Wagen, which Brabus turns into an 800-hp beast worth a small fortune. Not as well known is the fact the elite German-based firm now also builds some truly badass boats under the name Shadow Black Ops, which are perfectly in keeping with Panerai’s mission to equip the Italian navy’s elite underwater commandos beginning in World War II, and which served as the inspiration for the collab. Available in a limited run of only 100 pieces, priced at $46,200…

At some point on the timeline you have to declare what you are for, against, and otherwise not concerned about. Back in the day if you stacked up enough Benjamins, your genes climbed from pond to dry land and memorialized such declarations on a shield. Future generations understood what got them there—and what they were supposed to do. Often it made it onto the seal on your signet ring too. The Herklots coat of arms, and its motto Ferio Tego, is the logo of the new luxury cigar house founded by Michael Herklots and Brendon Scott. It shows Hercules beheading the Hydra, with the words Ferio Tego below. Meaning literally, “Strike and Defend.” Gordon Gekko, Patrick Bateman, and all you boys in Barbarians At The Gate can go eat your hearts…

“Two of Chevy, one of Ford,” with a touch of titanium to add to the witch’s brew of piston mix. Pistons for the fastest motorcycle under 1000cc the Bonneville Salt Flats have ever seen. The bike in question was a highly modified 1919 Indian Scout, built by Burt Munro, an old codger from New Zealand with a dream. The collection of “Offerings to the God of Speed” in his garage underlay his mantra that, “If it’s hard, work harder; if it’s impossible, work harder still. Give it whatever it takes, but do it.” Pistons and other parts blown to smithereens, and then others cast by him to perfection. In 1967 he was 68 years old and taking nitroglycerin pills to combat heart disease, when he hit a new world record, averaging…

Days have passed in the heat haze and a blur of vintage Dom Pérignon French 75s, Boulevardiers, and Negronis. Secret chambers filled with foie gras, lavender, husky voices, and cigar smoke combined to discombobulate the senses and stream visceral inputs. Flapper dresses, live jazz, and a grizzled, tattooed chef. Gallons of Krug and Billecart Salmon. A grey gunship pulling alongside our yacht and armed coastguards boarding us to the tune of our Parisian DJ but a cloudy dream. A fairly normal summer for the yachting set off the iconic Côte d’Azur in other words, as we remember it from a few years back. Then the last hurrah for those still standing. The morning after the night before many times over, with a VanDutch 40 powerboat attending us, tied up, fueled up,…

We grow old too fast, and wise too slow” said the sign above the bar in the historic hotel in upstate New York, given a flash of new life by an artistic couple with plenty of cash—and the renovation skills of an Argentine architect-playboy renowned for his moves on the slopes (and in the bedroom). To get there, I had piloted a Ford GT through a twilight snowstorm chasing the Argentine up winding country lanes to host a meal to rival the feasts of the late, great Jim Harrison. An intersection of all the things I love: Petrol. People. And Parties. Although we were cracking bottles of legendary wines from Burgundy with a chef who would soon become celebrated the world over, one of the introductions which remained with me the…

It’s not like Olympic swimmer Caeleb Dressel came out of no-where when he won five of his seven gold medals in Tokyo last July. He had already picked up two (the 4×100 free and 4×100 medley) at the 2016 Rio games, and had been blazing a path to Japan by earning seven at the 2017 World Aquatics Championships in Budapest—and a record eight medals, including six gold, two years later at the same competition in Gwangju, South Korea. And then came the pandemic, the Olympic postponement, and the questions about how it might impact training. For Dressel, the answer was, not so much. His five golds in Tokyo put him in an elite class of American athletes. Over the past 50 years only five others have done likewise in a single…