On Nantucket, vintage Broncos are the latest status symbols — restored, rare, and too nice for the beach
Greenwich, Conn. He's a man who is both an enthusiastic social critic and also delighted to be a member of the very social group he is critiquing.
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'I don't want to be that jerky Nantucket guy who says his wife bought him one for his 50th birthday,' he said, allowing himself a smile, 'but my wife bought one for my 50th birthday.'
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Lee Milazzo corrects his sunglasses while posing for a portrait with his 1969 Brittany blue Ford Bronco, parked by Cisco Beach, on July 9, 2025. Although a vintage car like Milazzo's is laborious to maintain, he isn't afraid to drive his dream car like his daily and take it through the Nantucket sand.
Ben Pennington/for The Boston Globe
If the status Nantucket car was forever an old four-wheel-drive 'beater' that you could drive to Great Point, tire pressure lowered, sandy kids in the back, the generational wealth understated, today's It Car may be that very same vehicle — but now with every single part restored, repainted, or replaced.
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The new driveway candy is a Ford Bronco, Land Rover Defender, or
'I did a vintage Broncos Day where we drove cars to
As he paraded through town, Milazzo kept one eye on the road as the other scanned for vehicular admirers. Quickly, one appeared in the form of a man who looked to be of a certain age and tax bracket, relaxing on a bench outside a boutique.
'It's my dream car,' he called out, as if on cue.
The steering wheel and gear stick of the 1969 Ford Bronco.
Ben Pennington/for The Boston Globe
In some ways, showy restored vintage 4x4s were a trend waiting to happen, as longtime Nantucketers say the island has gotten flashier (the word 'Hamptons' is thrown around). Private pools are proliferating (never mind you're surrounded by water), and real estate has gotten so pricey that one firm has to add new high-end categories that go beyond the traditional 'luxury' category to capture it all: 'ultra luxury' is for properties between $10 million and $20 million, and 'mega luxury' describes those even more expensive.
Probably no one is better positioned to see the rise of the high-end, custom-built classic 4x4 than Craig Carreau, the founder of
'We call them 'big boy toys,'' the genial Carreau said on a recent afternoon in Plymouth, as he showed a reporter around the 12-acre lot that houses an enormous garage where his crew of eight men works seven days a week refurbishing these cars.
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At the top of the line, new-custom-upholstered seats are made of calfskin leather, the soft roofs fashioned out of custom mohair, and with the push of a button, the exhaust system can be made to roar like a Lamborghini or purr like a Rolls-Royce.
One customer, a billionaire, had an automated humidor installed in the center console of his 1972 Bronco. (But don't ask for his name, as he, like many others, required that Carreau sign a non-disclosure agreement.)
The wait to get a car done by Carreau can be 18 months
or longer, what with parts that need to be sourced nationally and internationally, the labor, and, annoyingly, the other 1 percenters.
Lee Milazzo poses for a portrait with his 1969 Brittany Blue Ford Bronco.
Ben Pennington/for The Boston Globe
Not that people with automated-humidor money are known for waiting passively. Indeed, when asked, Carreau confirmed that not a few try to skip the line.
'People want to wine and dine you, or fly you over to Nantucket,' Carreau said.
Many of the cars summer on Nantucket, and like their owners, winter in Palm (with the cars traveling to Florida by flat-bed truck). Others are driven only in the summer and spend the off-season in
Carreau's climate-controlled storage garage in Plymouth for $350 per month.
The restored vintage trend on the island ramped up during COVID, Carreau said, and by now there are so many that recently two
On one hand, the vintage vehicles aren't, technically, performance cars, lacking, as they do, impressive acceleration, handling, suspension, etc. But in today's image-forward culture, perhaps they are the ultimate performance vehicle.
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As they say on Instagram: #nantucket
In a status-symbol feedback loop, the rise in wealthy Nantucketers driving vintage cars has led more companies and couples to rent similar vehicles for photo shoots, the better to borrow some Nantucket glamor.
'People are trying to chase that image of old school money,' said Nick Johnson. He started a vintage-car rental service on the island in 2020,
He's now got 14 vintage cars in his fleet, and at $1,500 for a half-day shoot, it's a good business. But there is one downside: He got into the business because he loves vintage vehicles. But now that the cars have become so valuable, including his 1970 Land Rover, some of the fun is gone.
'I'm second-guessing myself,' he said, 'and thinking maybe I shouldn't take this to the beach.'
Beth Teitell can be reached at
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Motor Trend
2 days ago
- Motor Trend
2026 Lamborghini Temerario First Drive: A 907-HP Hypercar in Supercar Clothing
The 2026 Lamborghini Temerario has big shoes to fill. The car it replaces, the universally loved and praised Huracán, is the bestselling two-door Lamborghini of all time, with more than 29,000 units sold in just more than 10 years. The Lamborghini Huracán, you might recall, famously replaced the Italian supercar maker's Gallardo, the previous sales leader with about 14,000 examples sold. The new hybrid-powered Temerario's mission, then, is to at least maintain if not increase the number of entry-level super sports cars the fine folks in Sant'Agata build. But is a hybrid V-8 powertrain with three electric motors the right recipe for success? That's the multi-billion-dollar question. The 2026 Lamborghini Temerario, replacing the Huracán, features a 907-hp hybrid V-8 powertrain with three electric motors. It boasts a 10,000-rpm redline and a 2.3-sec 0-60 mph time. Priced at $389,554, it offers advanced design, improved brakes, and enhanced handling. This summary was generated by AI using content from this MotorTrend article Read Next Aside from the Urus super SUV, Lamborghini has some history with V-8 engines. It's something of a stretch, but in a sense the Gallardo was the successor to the Jalpa, which featured a transverse mid-mounted 3.5-liter V-8. Lambo dorks no doubt want us to mention both the Gandini-penned Urraco and Silhouette, both of which had V-8s and predate the Jalpa. All that out of the way, the 2026 Lamborghini Temerario's V-8 has as much in common with these previous eight-cylinders as, well, as much as it has in common with the Jalpa. Which is to say not one single thing other than having four wheels and two doors. Looking at Temerario Replacing the Huracán was always going to be tricky as the older car is simply a knockout design, one of Lamborghini's best. The Temerario isn't an all-timer, but the design has grown on us. Even the bits we're not fond of—like the hexagonal DRLs mounted below the headlights—sort of work visually, especially once Lambo design chief Mitja Borkert explains he wanted to mimic the design of the Death Star hangar bay. The Temerario's shape definitely works with some colors (yellow, orange, green, purple) better than others (Blu Marinus, like we saw at last year's Quail event during Monterey Car Week). The Alleggerita package (see below) makes a big positive difference, too. Lamborghini stretched the Temerario's wheelbase 1.6 inches compared to the Huracán's, and the roof is higher, with both changes made to accommodate taller drivers. A Disturbance in the Force Force meaning forward thrust. So when the initial Huracán LP 610-4 replaced the final-form Gallardo LP 570-4 Edizione Tecnica, the famed V-10's power increased by 40 hp, from 562 to 602. The most powerful versions of the Huracán, the Performante, STO, and finally the Tecnica, all made 631 hp (though because it was all-wheel drive, the Performante made more torque, 443 lb-ft compared to 413). The Temerario? Well, the twin-turbo 4.0-liter flat-plane-crank V-8 with an axial-flux motor wedged between the flywheel and transmission produces 789 hp and 538 lb-ft of torque. That's a massive jump over ye olde Huracán, and it doesn't even count the power output from the two front motors. Total combined system output for the Temerario is 907 hp. A brief reminder: The Porsche 918 Spyder, a legitimate hypercar, produces 875 hp. The McLaren P1 makes 903 hp. Again, this is meant to be Lamborghini's entry-level two-door! Also, because it's impossible to calculate hybrid torque accurately, we should point out the rear motor provides 221 lb-ft of torque fill when the transmission is between gears. Lambo's chief technical officer, Rouven Mohr, told us he wanted to 'elevate the car to an entirely different level.' Mohr and his team have certainly done that. Did we mention the 10,000-rpm redline? No? Well, the Temerario's V-8 (internally known as L411) revs to that number. Actually, when you use launch control, the redline rises to 10,250 rpm. Peak power arrives at 9,000 rpm, but don't pull that huge, carbon-fiber shift paddle too quickly—peak power is sustained all the way to 9,750 rpm. The L411 employs two massive turbochargers that are so big, they don't fit in the V of the V-8. Instead, they're mounted above the valve covers. Since the turbos are so large, they don't contribute much of anything below 4,000 rpm. That's where the oil-cooled rear electric motor comes in, effectively covering for the turbos until they can flow enough air. Once spinning, they crush it, with a maximum boost pressure of 36 psi. The result is a linear power curve that begins down low and climbs at a 45-degree angle all the way until 9,000 rpm. How did Lamborghini get an engine to spin so fast? For one, its race-car-inspired flat-plane crankshaft helps. The connecting rods are all titanium, helping to reduce rotating mass, the pistons are motorsports-inspired, and the DLC-coated finger followers are good to 11,000 rpm. The low-mounted engine has a dry sump with five scavenger pumps. No doubt there will still be some who lament the loss of the V-10, and we get that. However, this new powertrain is such a radical departure from the previous two decades of small Lambos, you would be wrong to dismiss it based on preconceived notions. Like the Huracán, power is sent to an eight-speed dual-clutch transmission. Like its big brother, the Revuelto, the Temerario is e-AWD, meaning there's no mechanical connection between the engine and the front wheels. Moreover, the front axle is the same one found in the Revuelto. As is the 3.8-kWh battery pack. The two front motors do bring 118 hp to the party, but torque vectoring and steering feel are their primary functions. Mohr says he feels like 70 percent of the Temerario's character comes from the front motors. One final big change compared to the Huracán: This car features a brake-by-wire system, and the front calipers have grown from eight pistons to 10. Let's Drive Lamborghini only allowed us to drive the new Temerarios on a track, and while even more fun than it sounds, we have no clue how the car drives in pure electric Strada mode (it has a range of about 10 miles, so this part probably matters little), and perhaps the tiniest of teeny insights into how it behaves in Sport. But fortunately for us, 99 percent of our time was spent in Corsa (race) mode. What strikes you first and foremost is how utterly easy the Temerario is to drive. Some online tough guys will say different things, but we find that the easier a car is to drive, the more confidence the driver has in said car. This means the more confident you are, the more you are able to push the car, to test its limits, and the more fun the vehicle is to drive. Even with more power than a McLaren P1, the Lamborghini Temerario is a sweetheart on the racetrack. Power is everywhere, with the mighty V-8 providing all sorts of shove and the two front motors pulling the Temerario smartly out of corners. What surprised us was how linear the engine felt. With a fast-spinning crank, massive turbos, and motors, all sorts of sorcery goes into blending the power into a straight but rising line. The throttle feels linear, better than most normally aspirated engines, in fact. Mohr credits the LDVA 2.0 'brain' that controls all the Temerario's functionality. Whatever the case, we love keeping our right foot in it. Doing so, we saw some remarkably large numbers appear on the digital speedometer. Our favorite corner on the Estoril track is a right-hand kink that, if you're brave enough, you can take flat in fourth gear. Doing so will lead you into Parabolica Interior (Turn 6) at more than 160 mph. Get the tricky-yet-satisfying increasing-radius Turn 13 correct (aka Parabolica Ayrton Senna), and you find yourself approaching 190 mph by the braking zone at the end of the main straight. And we braked early just to be safe. The best we saw was 189 mph, or 304 kph. Lamborghini says the Temerario's top speed is 343 kph, or 213 mph. Then there's those brakes. They are excellent and perhaps the most important improvement over the Huracán. Brake-by-wire ensures that even if the brake fluid heats up substantially, the pedal feel never changes—an important thing on a racetrack. Moreover, the big carbon-ceramic stoppers are cooled so effectively that unless you're simply abusive, fade won't be an issue. It certainly wasn't during our rapid nine laps of the circuit. As far as handling goes, the Temerario is well balanced and predictable. Perhaps a bit more steering heft is needed to be perfect, but the feel is excellent. There just aren't any surprises, which again we think is a good thing. We only experienced one 'incident,' and it's a stretch to call it that, but coming out of a second-gear corner, we gave the Temerario too much throttle and were treated to an organic, progressive, easy-to-catch drift. Considering the power levels at play, what Mohr and his team have crafted is remarkable. Is the Lamborghini Temerario as sweet to drive as the Ferrari 296? Difficult to say without a direct comparison, but we'd love to find out. We suspect the answer will be, 'not quite,' but the former should beat the prancing horse in a drag race. Lamborghini quotes a 0–62-mph time of 2.7 seconds and a 0–124 time of 7.1 seconds. Seeing how the last Huracán we tested back in 2018 hit 60 mph in 2.6 seconds, we suspect these official numbers are quite conservative. More important, there's a smoky-launch mode where the Temerario performs a rolling burnout. Good times. She Is Relatively Light Lamborghini actually snuck in a second Temerario variant when no one was looking. Meet the Alleggerita pack. Pronounced as 'alledge-a-rita,' it translates to something approximating, 'She's light.' Yes, Lamborghini stated the Temerario is a "she." The front splitter, side skirts, ducktail spoiler, and engine cover are all made from CFRP (carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic), saving nearly 28 pounds. The underbody is reskinned in recycled carbon fiber. Add in a titanium muffler, some interior carbon pieces, lightened rear and rear-quarter glass, plus (extra $$$) carbon-fiber wheels for a total weight savings of just more than 55 pounds. But she's more than just light, as the new body pieces increase downforce by 67 percent and aero stability by 62 percent, the company says. The Alleggerita pack also gets you stickier Bridgestone R-compound tires. She Ain't Cheap The bad news is that the Alleggerita option is expensive. As in $49,113, and that's not counting another $20,000 for the carbon-fiber wheels. That's $458,667 before any other options. We suppose that in a world of $900K Porsche 911 S/Ts, this isn't the craziest price tag we've ever seen. Of course, the regular Temerario isn't a cheap date, either. Its base price is $389,554, which includes the destination fee and an assumed $3,000 gas guzzler tax—the EPA has yet to certify the Temerario. This makes the new-entry Lambo dearer than both the Ferrari 296 ($340K to start, 818 hp) and McLaren 750S ($351K, 740 hp). But again, 907 hp (although we can hear Chevrolet executives and engineers in Detroit congratulating themselves while saying, 'ZR1 ... '). Turns out supercars are really flippin' expensive. In other news, a fork was found in the kitchen. Should you have the necessary duckets, the Temerario goes on sale early in 2026. What Comes Next? The 2026 Lamborghini Temerarios we drove are but the starting point for this new model. The Huracán had numerous variants—Performante, Evo, RWD, STO, Tecnica, Sterrato—and that's not even counting all the Spyder (roadster) variants. There's no doubt the Temerario will follow a similar iterative strategy. In fact, Lamborghini employees were chomping at the bit to tell us about what's coming. They mostly stopped themselves, though one let slip the story about how, on a bench dyno, the mighty V-8 can produce more than 1,000 hp. 'Two-hundred-fifty horsepower per liter is totally possible,' our unnamed source said. He/she might have mentioned something about active aerodynamics, too. Sounds like an absolutely delicious recipe for a Temerario Performante, no? We'll be here for it.
Newsweek
2 days ago
- Newsweek
Lamborghini Huracan Turns Into Fireball After Scary Crash
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. At a GT World Challenge race, Lamborghini driver Georgi Donczew was involved in a terrifying accident that developed into a fiery wreck. Donczew was fighting side by side with a BMW car when his car made contact, went into a spin, hit the side of the fence, and caught fire as it lost control. Red flag 🔴 A huge accident for the Grasser Lamborghini. Fortunately, driver Georgi Donczew is out of the car immediately. 📺 | #GTMisano — GT World Challenge Europe Powered by AWS (@GTWorldChEu) July 20, 2025 As the car rode the barriers, it simultaneously caught on fire and became a fireball that shot across the track. The Lamborghini came to a standstill while still engulfed in flames, but Donczew managed to run out of the car and into safety while a red flag was called on the race. Climax Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO (2) Zhou Bihuang of China and Ralf Aron of Estonia leadsTeam KRC BMW M4 GT3 EVO (89) Ruan Cun Fan of China and Maxime Oosten of the Netherlands and other... Climax Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO (2) Zhou Bihuang of China and Ralf Aron of Estonia leadsTeam KRC BMW M4 GT3 EVO (89) Ruan Cun Fan of China and Maxime Oosten of the Netherlands and other cars during the race 2 of GT World Challenge Asia at Sepang More Photo byThe BMW driver, Darren Leung, was battling with the Huracan and addressed the collision after the fact. "I was glad, as soon as I went down, I saw Georgi in the garage, and he was uninjured," Leung said. "We just kind of exchanged a few words about how scary that moment was. I just think it's one of those things. "I didn't expect him to come from a blind spot and come across the front of me. It's such a high-speed corner. That does stuff to the aero in these cars. It does quite a lot. "I did lift, I lifted as much as I could without losing the car myself, and he obviously had a bigger lift. "It looks like I'm trying to go for a move there, but really, I'm trying to give him the space after he came across the front. There wasn't really anything else I could have done. "The most important thing is that he's okay. If you look at the lap before, I gave him plenty of space in the high-speed section. "Unfortunately, for me, that was the situation that resulted in the tiniest of touches between us which had the biggest consequence. Again, I'm glad he's okay." The on-track battle that led up to the collision was purely a racing incident, but it is a reminder of the constant threat drivers face, even the most skilled. Luckily, Donczew walked away from the scene, but when the car was sitting on fire and he didn't immiedately come out, concern grew for his safety. His health being intact is also a testament to the modern safety precautions, including the fire-proof race suits, that protected him amid the flames.
Bloomberg
2 days ago
- Bloomberg
The $380,000 Lamborghini Temerario Balances Precision and Pure Thrill
Last summer I got a speeding ticket driving the Lamborghini Revuelto from Los Angeles to Carmel, California. Traffic citations are rare for me, but I got a little carried away in the Revuelto. The $664,799 V-12 1,001-horsepower hybrid was so fast, and so much fun to drive, the $400-ish penalty felt like a small price to pay for experiencing such joy on the open road. So I was eager to drive the $382,654 Lamborghini Temerario this week in Estoril, Portugal. I wanted to feel joy! The new 907-horsepower V-8 hybrid replaces the V-10 Huracán, which ended production in 2024. But I like to think of it as more like the younger punk sibling of the Revuelto, since it shares a similar plug-in hybrid powertrain and a near perfect power curve that red-lines at 10,000 rpm, beating that of the 9,500-rpm Revuelto.
