Golden Bear Sportswear offers their take on the staple piece of outerwear, the leather Varsity Jacket. Their single-stripe shawl collar version comes in a sharp black and white colorway, and features contrasting leather sleeves, Melton wool body, a fully quilted lining and welt pockets, and is finished with a ribbed collar, cuffs and hem. As is all of Golden Bear Sportswear’s items, the Varsity Jacket is manufacturing by hand in California. Pick it up now at END for about $1,120 (£705).

When storied Italian motorcycle manufacturer MV Agusta dropped out of racing and disbanded their department in 1976, the former Racing Team Director Arturo Magni decided to go solo and create his own line of bikes. But he didn’t completely abandon his MV Agusta roots, instead utilizing their bikes as the foundation for his racing machines. The legendary engineer modified the bikes by boring out the 750cc engines to 860cc, swapping out exhaust pipes and adding chain-drive conversions. The results were exquisitely engineered machines that won seven consecutive championships with Giacomo Agostini piloting.

Now, under the careful direction of Arturo’s son Giovanni, the Magni factory is firing up once again with a reanimation of their gorgeous bikes called the Filo Rosso. The Filo Rosso mimics the drool-inducing lines of the late ‘70s Magni motorcycles via hand-beaten aluminum bodywork, but adds plenty of modern tech to assure you don’t have to spend every weekend noodling with ancient, obsolete mechanics.

As did his father, Giovanni is using an MV Agusta engine as the foundation of his creation and tucks it into a double-cradle frame. The 3-cylinder Brutale 800 engine generates 125-horsepower, a ton of power for a bike that weighs in at about 320 lbs (145 kgs) — offering plenty of get-up to duke it out with most modern street bikes.

But a rocket that can’t stop is more dangerous than your pedestrian scooter, so Magni is making sure all the rest of the mechanics are in order — starting with twin-disc Brembo brakes. New Dunlop tires, 18” magnesium alloy wheels, Cerianis forks and a push-button starter finish off the thorough modernizing.

Of course what will have your entire neighborhood — and everywhere you choose to ride — suffering from apoplectic fits of envy is undeniably the design. The Filo Rosso is absolutely stunning, either with the red and silver aerodynamic fairing or without. Although the race fairing is more salient and “retro”, the naked “café racer” trim is the stuff of wet dreams. So far ahead of its time when originally made, the naked café setup actually looks plenty modern. The boxy silhouette is absolutely distinctive; you’ll have riders everywhere flipping up their visors and staring in disbelief.

No word yet on pricing, but don’t expect the Filo Rosso to be cheap. But since the production will be extremely limited, you can believe it will be worth every cent.

More looks at the Magni “Filo Rosso” Motorcycle after the Jump…

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For fans of Intelligent Dance Music, the release of Aphex Twin’s Syro album in September was a moment of great audio bliss. And now Richard D. James has released 30 more previously unreleased tracks — some are early drafts of tracks from Syro, while other are more experimental synth sounds/loops created at his studio. The latter are essentially James-created tools for other producers to use in creating their own music, which is quite a kind move by the vaunted producer. As FACT magazine notes, “Among them is a collection of over 20 completed tracks made about 12 years ago on Buchla and Serge modular synthesizers, which Richard D. James aptly describes as ‘a fucking racket’.” Well one man’s racket is another man’s paintbrush. Below are just a sampling of three tunes, but if you want more head directly to Aphex Twin’s Soundcloud page for the full stack.

Man up and have some balls with the Hello Kitty Headphones from Beats by Dr. Dre. Because with this being Hello Kitty’s 40th anniversary, your balls might just be the only thing out there which haven’t had the the HK license slapped on them yet. Yet. But fear not, with Hello Kitty being plastered across even more crap, you can finally get out there into the trenches of a man’s world knowing that you can listen to the illest, bassiest, dirtiest beats that the Solo 2 headphones can handle, all the while being able to match your pink pencil set and rubber stamp collection. Get down with the kitty for $250. Features include voice-remote, foldable phones and adorable whiskers with the cutest kitten ever.

High fashion powerhouse Alexander McQueen has teamed up once again with the tennis-shoe gurus at Puma to bring us this rendition of the “Street Climb” silhouette. This take on the ongoing “McQ” joint shoe endeavor is tone-on-tone simplicity. Some touches include patent-leather paneling along the midsole, a translucent heel and the subtle McQueen logo also along the heel. Climb into a pair of limited-edition Puma Climbs for $195.

Puma x Alexander McQueen Street Climb Mid Sneaker side view after the Jump…

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With winter on the way, what better way to stay warm than with tasteful, practical driver’s gloves from Tanners Goods — the guys out of Portland dedicated to utilitarian goods made by skilled laborers who pay respect to the crafts of the past. Wait, that’s actually most guys out of Portland, but you get the gist.

Crafted from pure deerskin leather, the Tanner Goods driver gloves are especially soft to the touch, and made to mold to the fingers with wear. What that means is a clean, snug fit and no fingerprints at the crime scene. Dress perfectly for your next December jewelry heist as a getaway driver, as you maniacally grip your steering wheel with class, all for about $100. Also available in black.

More looks at the Tanner Goods Deerskin Driver Gloves after the Jump…

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Dodge’s performance arm, SRT, transplants the supercharged iron block HEMI V8 from this summer’s ludicrous 707-horsepower Challenger Hellcat — the most powerful and fastest American muscle car ever built — and shoehorns it into their four-door full-size sedan. Let the madness begin.

There is no greater luxury than power. And because of this simple metric, Dodge SRT has instantly cannonballed into the deep end of the pool. Warn the big boys, the town hooligan’s gone through puberty.

Crackling and popping with 707 horses and 650 lb-ft of brute torque from the massive 6.2-liter V8, the Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat radiates on a level unoccupied by any other sedan in the world. It’s a truly singular machine, not of this planet. Like similarly powered species — e.g. Lamborghini Aventador, Rolls-Royce Wraith, Aston Martin V12 Vantage S, Bentley GT Speed — you’d think it might be an anxious show pony. A fragile trophy to be brought out and showcased with the frequency of an aging diva. And yet, what truly makes the Charger SRT Hellcat a remarkable machine is just how livable it is. It is an exceptional daily driver.

Taking the Hellcat across two distinctly compartmentalized environs — through the suburbs of Washington D.C. and rural backroads of the Virginias, and then on the twisty asphalt of the Summit Point Raceway in West Virginia — what you experience is two temperamentally different animals.

On the backroads, dialed down to more human “Street” settings, the Hellcat drives like a comfortable quotidian commuter… one with an absurd amount of power a foot tap away, that is. But that power is tempered by firm, precise steering and enormous Brembo brakes (15.4-inch rotors with six-piston calipers) that keep you feeling secure. The suspension also deserves special acclaim, as its Bilstein adaptive shocks can be modulated to offer a more forgiving ride, or firmed up on the track to deliver terse rigidity. The adaptive dampers aren’t as fluid (or expensive) as magnetic ones, but the hydraulics are more than sufficient to change the complexion of the Charger.

“Three years ago we really wanted to push the Charger and the Challenger apart, and not just have the Charger be a four-door Challenger, or vice versa. We wanted the Challenger to be a gnarly muscle car, and it is, but we really thought we could make the Charger into a true sport sedan that can compete with the sport sedans from Europe,” explains Erich Heuschele, Manager of SRT Vehicles. “Yes we have more output, but compared to a 500-horsepopwer Jag or an AMG you have the ride comfort, the NVH. A gnarly muscle car is fun, but that’s not the car for everybody. We aimed to make [the Charger] into a legitimate, high-end sports sedan.”

Hit the Jump to continue reading the LIAS Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Testdrive…

“The 6.2-liter supercharged V8 filled the cabin with the sort of terror you only hear in Godzilla films…”

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