With the Monaco Grand Prix firing up today it felt like the perfect moment to lean into the glamour and excess that makes that race so iconic. So this week every story is dripping in the kind of wealth jet set lifestyle and old world elegance that Monaco does better than anywhere else on earth.

From Cadillac's golden age of advertising where cars almost played second fiddle to the diamonds and designer gowns to a luxury speedboat that looks like it belongs bobbing in the Monte Carlo harbour to the golden age of aviation when flying somewhere was an occasion in itself. And rounding things out we meet Cici Muldoon a physicist turned Ferrari owner living in the English countryside with a purple Dino she refuses to baby.

Four stories that capture the spirit of a day where style and speed go hand in hand.

There's something poetic about Cadillac having an F1 team racing at Monaco this weekend because if any brand was built for the glamour and excess of Monte Carlo it's this one. Long before they were chasing championship points on the streets of the principality Cadillac was busy selling one of the most aspirational lifestyles ever put to print.

The brand's vintage ad campaigns are a masterclass in selling a feeling rather than a product. Forget horsepower and engine specs. Cadillac was pairing its cars with Cartier jewelry and haute couture fashion and placing them in the kind of social settings that made you feel like ownership was a membership to an exclusive club. The Eldorado in particular became a symbol of post war American elegance and the ads around it read more like fashion editorials than car brochures.

Tech did get a look in with nods to silent engines and early air conditioning and a vast range of colors and interior options but those were always secondary to the image. Every ad felt like a scene from a Hollywood film.

Seven Seas Yachts is a company known for building over the top luxury yachts for the ultra wealthy and their latest thing is a bit different. It's smaller than their usual work but honestly just as fancy and it takes all its design cues from the Porsche 356.

They're calling it the Hermes Speedster and that name is doing a lot of work. Hermes is the Greek god of speed and wealth and travel which feels very on brand for a boat designed to zip around Lake Como between villas and fancy restaurants. It also nods to the Porsche 356 Speedster which is clearly the main visual inspiration here.

The boat is about 6.75 meters long and once you see it you totally get the Porsche connection. The curves of the hull and that wraparound windscreen look like they came straight off the car. Inside there's a wooden and polished steel steering wheel with classic round gauges and leather seating throughout. Even the Speedster badges look like they could've been pulled right off the actual Porsche.

Under the hood or whatever you call it on a boat there's a 155hp Rotax engine and the company says the hull design keeps drag low and the ride smooth over chop. It's a short article but a fun one and the whole thing just goes to show that great automotive design has a way of inspiring people well beyond the road.

Modern planes are faster and more efficient and more reliable but something seriously cool got lost along the way and this article makes a pretty compelling case for why we should care about the aircraft that came before.

The piece looks back at four legendary passenger aircraft from aviation's golden age including the Douglas DC-3 the Soviet IL-18 the Boeing 707 and the Concorde and the Lockheed Constellation. Each one had its own personality and story and together they paint a picture of an era when flying actually felt like an event rather than just a way to get somewhere.

Unlike classic cars these planes are basically impossible to own and even harder to experience firsthand which makes the nostalgia hit a little differently. A few of them are somehow still flying today in limited capacity which is wild to think about.

The whole thing is a fun reminder that function and beauty used to go hand in hand in ways that just don't happen much anymore in aviation. Worth a read if you've ever looked out an airport window and wished things looked a little more like they did in the 1950s.