Why is it that we are often reminded of the incredibly beautiful cars that are so closely associated with the beautiful Princesses from the House of Grimaldi? Has it somehow been divinely ordained that the ‘two’ blur together into one, or is it a law of nature as controversial as one formulated by Darwin
For anyone, let alone the esoteric, but more importantly so for those of that mindset, who have seen the movie To Catch A Thief, one of the last great movies made by Grace Kelly before taking up the reins of Princess of Monaco, can forget the scene where she is racing down the famous stomach churning, tight hairpin turns of the corniche above her future ‘pocket kingdom’ behind the whitish gray steering wheel of that metallic Sapphire Blue Alpine roadster, a mere half-century before the same winding road descending down to the sparkling Mediterranean would play such a dramatic role in her final performance in this life. Granted; parts of that scene were no doubt filmed on a studio sound stage, but the striking visual image still remains.
It was to be not long afterwards that Grace, now; Princess of Monaco would be driven through the streets of the principality on her wedding day in a sexy 1956 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud landau convertible, a gift from the shopkeepers of Monaco
With the upcoming nuptials of H.S.H. Prince Albert and Miss Charlene Wittstock, another sublimely beautiful car has been designed for the express purpose of providing Miss Wittstock with a modern day ‘carriage’ fit for a Princess.
Continuing in the long established tradition of beautiful cars and beautiful women, the two pairing together almost seems inherent in the House of Grimaldi. When you factor in the Monaco Grand Prix it expands exponentially on both levels.
Get Lexus LS 600h Laundaulet
By Don Bain
TORQUE NEWS
06/24/2011
When His Serene Highness Prince Albert II weds his fiancé, Ms. Charlene Wittstock, at the Palace on the Rocher July 2, they will then tour the principality in a custom hybrid Lexus with a space-age, see-through polycarbonate roof. The full hybrid vehicle will be able to drive nearly every inch of he tour in full electric mode, underscoring the Lexus commitment to environmental stewardship.
'Lexus is very proud to present this exceptional full hybrid vehicle to H.S.H. the Sovereign Prince of Monaco
The cutting edge conversion was created by world renowned Belgian coachbuilders Carat Duchatelet in close collaboration with Lexus engineers in Brussels
“We have 40 years experience in making armoured and extended vehicles for Heads of State, Royal Families and VVIPs around the world', explained Benoit Ceulemans, Executive Director Corporate Development, Carat Duchatelet. “However, this will be a milestone project for us. It is the first time we are publicly associated to such a prestigious project and memorable event.”
Like most design projects today, the process began with extensive computer-aided design calculations, simulations and 3-D modeling. Reinforceing the body required the very latest in honeycomb structures, Kevlar and carbon fiber technology, to maintain the vehicle's chassis rigidity and torsional integrity once the roof and pillars were removed.
Extreme temperatures are required to cure parts fabricated from composites and such components were literally ‘baked’ onto the bare chassis in a specially prepared oven. consequently, most of the vehicle had to be completely dismantled, which involved stripping some 20,000 mechanical parts, electronic components, interior features and upholstery. Re-assembly occurred under the watchful eyes of the Lexus engineering team, ensuring consistency with the original vehicle specs and capablities.
The vehicle had to be painted and polished before re-assembly. The Royal Wedding LS 600h L is finished in an elegant Midnight Blue livery, applied manually using several coats of an environmentally-friendly water-based paint.
The transparent roof was a challengingly large single piece with no reinforcements or pillars and for its fabrication Lexus located a supplier specializing in similar elements for the aerospace industry. The removable roof was built in France
The roof is a single, lightweight polycarbonate shell, just 8 mm thick and weighing only 26 kg. Fixed to the body of the Lexus through two intermediary parts, it will allow perfect visibility from both inside and outside the vehicle.The precise production of the transparent roof was performed by robotic systems, after an exhausting process used to validate shape, structural integrity and a perfect fit to the vehicle within tolerances of less than 1 mm.
The final re-assembly and finishing of this unique LS 600h L involved a team of 10 along with Lexus engineers, working full time for over two weeks to make sure every aspect of the vehicle meets the highest levels of quality.
The post-nuptial tour of the Royals will bring them from the Palace on the Rocher down to the harbour, and then along Boulevard Albert I up to the Sainte-Devote Church
We heartily wish H.S.H. Prince Albert II and his bride a long and loving union and an exceptionally delightful tour of the principality July 2.
A Carriage
Fit For A Modern Princess
SA TIMES
June 24 2011 at 01:39pm
This one-off Lexus LS 600h landaulet will be used by the royal couple to tour the principality after the ceremony.
When South African swimming star Charlene Wittstock marries His Serene Highness Prince Albert II of Monaco next Saturday (July 2), their official wedding car will be this unique, handmade, hybrid Lexus LS600h landaulet with a one-piece, transparent polycarbonate roof.
The conversion took Belgian coachbuilder Carat Duchatelet more than 2000 hours, with a lot of help from Lexus engineers based in Brussels
A modern car relies on its roof for much of its torsional rigidity, so the topless Lexus had to be reinforced with lots of Kevlar and carbon fibre honeycomb - but these composite materials have to be cured at very high temperatures, literally “cooked” on to the bare chassis in a huge oven.
This meant most of the car had to be dismantled first, with about 20 000 mechanical parts, electric components, and interior features and upholstery stripped out. Naturally, the curing oven also wrecked the paint finish so, before it was re-assembled, the Lexus was resprayed by hand in this elegant dark blue livery, using a specially made, water-based paint.
The transparent roof - a single piece with no reinforcement or pillars - was a huge challenge to design and to make. Duchatelet finally turned to a French company that specialises in supplying similar components to the aerospace industry, such as helicopter windscreens and fighter jet canopies.
First they made a template in carbon-fibre honeycomb to make sure it would work, and ensure a perfect fit, with tolerances of less than 1mm all round. Then a huge sheet of 8mm polycarbonate was heated and shaped by robotic tools to form the canopy, which weighs only 26kg complete with the two trim sections where it's mounted on the body above the boot lid and across the B pillars.
The conversion took Belgian coachbuilder Carat Duchatelet more than 2000 hours, with a lot of help from Lexus engineers based in Brussels
.
Fitting the roof, re-assembly and finishing took a team of 10 specialists more than two weeks, working with Lexus engineers to make sure all the car's systems worked properly - but the end result is a carriage fit for a princess.
On the day of the wedding the LS 600h landaulet will be used by the royal couple to tour the principality after the ceremony, mostly in fully electric mode, with zero tailpipe emissions. After the celebrations the car will be displayed at the media centre and later in the Monaco
A Unique Lexus LS600hL Landaulet
By Davey G. Johnson
Car And Driver
June 24, 2011
His Serene Highness, Albert II, Sovereign Prince of Monaco
As a progressive European, however, Albert wants to break with the Hispano-Suizas, Bugatti Royales, and all-too-richy-rich pedestrian Rollers. Albert, friends, is rolling in a Lexus. An LS600hL, to be exact, one customized by Belgian coachworks Carat Duchatelet.
Think of it as a Landaulet as conceived by George Barris. Albert and Charlene can ride in climate-controlled comfort beneath a polycarbonate bubble sourced from a French aerospace supplier, although the dome is removable, too. The car was largely disassembled prior to the top’s installation and treated to a water-based midnight blue paint job before final reassembly under the watchful eye of Belgian Lexus engineers. Who knew there were Belgian Lexus engineers? We like to imagine them as Trappist poindexters, relentlessly pursuing the perfect pint in their off hours. We also like to imagine that they’re all bald. Thanks to the efforts of those folks—and because Monaco
Benoni, Home Of Fairytales
By Jean Liou
The Independent Online
June 24, 2011
Prince Albert II of Monaco , left, and his fiancee Charlene Wittstock attend to St Jean Religious Parade, Monaco Monaco and his fiancee Charlene Wittstock of South Africa
Once a small mining town now absorbed into Johannesburg
But residents of Benoni - the childhood home of the future princess of Monaco
Until Wittstock's engagement to Prince Albert II, Benoni was already known in glossy magazines as the birthplace of Oscar-winning actress Charlize Theron, another blonde beauty who became a global star.
Wittstock moved here from Zimbabwe Durban and to pursue a swimming career that took her to the Olympics in Sydney
Still, Benoni claims her formative years. About 35 kilometres (20 miles) east of Johannesburg
Like most South African cities, yet to move beyond the crude divisions imposed by Apartheid-era urban planning, the black majority lives in townships far from view of the main roads.
The modest town centre, born in the 1880s gold rush that also gave rise to Johannesburg
Informal stalls of African markets now line the streets that look on mine dumps. An old locomotive rusts in front of a deserted museum.
Residents both black and white mill about a huge shopping centre that boasts a fake Mississippi River paddle steamer.
Wittstock lived in northern neighbourhoods that were reserved for whites when her family here in the final years of apartheid.
Roads are orderly, clean and calm. Middle class homes are surrounded by walls but without the extreme security seen in wealthier Johannesburg
“I miss my relatives, the friendly people and the Bunny Park
Indeed, the town's main attraction is a bucolic public park overrun with rabbits, a wonderland for children.
But, for all its apparent tranquility, South Africa
Mike Wittstock was held up with an AK47 aimed at his face as he was returning home one evening in February.
His nose was broken and the car stolen, with the incident making him consider a move to Monaco
Among the small white community, where everyone seems to know each other, many are planning to watch the wedding on television on July 2.
“We all are dressing up with our wedding dresses and we will party,” said Bridget du Toit, a teacher sharing drinks with friends at a bar overlooking the Bunny Park
At Wittstock's old school, she's remembered as an ordinary girl, well behaved except for skipping class to swim, and with a funny accent when she spoke Afrikaans.
“She was very quiet. She didn't like to be in the spotlight. It's very surprising to see, when you consider the life she's going to have,” said Lyndsay Coelho, who taught her geography.
“She was very focused on her swimming. She knew exactly what she needed to do to achieve what she wanted to achieve.”
Sensing an opportunity, another local school is asking the Monaco
Fit For a Princess:
Charlene Wittstock
By Natalie Livingstone | Photographed by Patrick Demarchelier
VOGUE
June 20, 2011
The first time Prince Albert South Africa in the 2000 Olympics, Wittstock was taking part in an event in Monaco
It was not until five years later, in December 2005, that the two reconnected in Cape Town
She is retracing the stages of her romance with one of the world’s most eligible bachelors—they will marry on July 1 in Monaco —on a spring trip to New York while sitting in a Chelsea Prince Albert
After an ankle fracture three years ago, Charlene, now 33, retired from professional swimming, but she still trains at least three times a week, often with her former Olympic coach. In preparation for the perpetual camera-readiness expected of her as first lady of Monaco Zimbabwe to South Africa
“Finding my fashion feet has certainly been the biggest challenge,” she says, remembering her “trial by fire” at Monaco Monaco
At the best of times, her future husband’s tiny, ancient, and exceptionally moneyed principality is not an easy place to find your comfort zone. Though few palace pundits predicted the relationship would amount to anything, Albert had silenced skeptics by insisting Charlene decamp there. It was a testing time. Lacking any official status and unable to speak French, Charlene lived alone in a small apartment with few friends to support her; she was thousands of miles from home, and her vivacious South African wit and no-nonsense attitude were lost in translation among the notoriously frosty Monaco beau monde. “It was sometimes overwhelming,” she recalls of the solitude and jealousies she suffered as Prince Albert
Eventually, Charlene’s unassuming personality and raucous sense of humor began to win her friends—sporty and statuesque, she is the kind of woman who will joke to fellow guests at charity galas that she is the only woman in the room to have devoured her entire dinner plus two bread rolls. Through it all, Albert never wavered in his devotion, presenting her with a pear-shaped Repossi engagement ring a year ago. “I fell in love with her sense of humor, her simplicity, and the natural way she relates to people,” he says. “To me, Charlene never looks more beautiful than when she is natural—without makeup and her hair pulled back.”
Photographed by Patrick Demarchelier
Natural is all very well, but this woman has events to attend. Determined to learn from her mistakes, Charlene was advised by a coterie of palace insiders and Monaco
Wittstock has also been taken under the wing of Karl Lagerfeld, who has enjoyed bringing out a play between romantic and masculine in her wardrobe, pairing a strictly cut Dior Homme jacket, for example, with a bustier and a floating chiffon skirt. “She loves clean-cut clothes with a touch of menswear, which looks very feminine on her,” he says. As Charlene explains, “Karl took me to his workshop in Paris Monaco Monaco Palace
Grown to such an extent that Charlene has plans to inaugurate a Monaco Fashion Week. “I want to make Monaco Monaco and the movie world, and I would like to create a strong bond between Monaco
Her position as an outsider crashing the bastions of old Europe , just like her late mother-in-law, will only increase the attention of the fashion world. “I think she could turn out to be very influential to European designers,” says Michael Kors, another Wittstock favorite. “Young, stylish women in Europe often have a much more decadent point of view in the way they get dressed. Charlene has the opportunity to show that you can be athletic, elegant, and youthful; you don’t have to give one thing up.”
As for the responsibilities that come with her title, Charlene feels that her background will help. “Sport has given me drive and discipline,” she says. “It also taught me to remain humble.” For the past fifteen years she has been involved in charitable endeavors centered on swimming. “I don’t want to be a princess who sits on the sidelines; I want to be present and actively involved,” she says of her new role. “It’s a life with a purpose. It was my integrity that Albert fell in love with, and it’s a quality I will never lose.”
Tonight, however, she is off duty for once. Savoring the last days of her single life, she holds court in a black Anne Fontaine leather corset and skintight pants. Kabbalah rabbi Yehuda Berg, a trusted confidant, joins her to celebrate with Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher in tow. Harvey Weinstein pops by to say hello, and Charlene, like many a bachelorette before her, sinks some tequilas.
NR
© 2011 The Esoteric Curiosa. All Rights Re
