LETTING THE DAY GO BY

A dream drive in a pair of cars from two of the world’s most prestigious automakers, Bentley and Rolls-Royce? Were the world working as usual, we’d jet to old Blighty, pick up our rides in the shadow of Big Ben, and cruise up to a hotel in an old Scottish castle with haunted rooms and a French chef. Another day in the coal mines.

But the world isn’t quite back to normal, so we’re simplifying.

We plan to meet in Beverly Hills, one of the country’s richest neighborhoods, then waft our way through tony Brentwood and Santa Monica to the ocean. We’ll turn up the Pacific Coast Highway and cruise 30 miles through some of America’s finest scenery before stopping for a picnic on the beach. We’ll take Route 101 up to Santa Barbara, a rather ordinary road with extraordinarily epic ocean views. From there, we’ll head inland on the San Marcos Pass, a PCH alternative that offers stunning scenery with more twists and turns. After a brief foray into the curves, we’ll take the back roads to our destination, the Folded Hills Winery and Farmstead.

Our rides represent the austere end of ostentation. Senior editor Aaron Gold has developed a penchant for Bentleys, so he’s chosen the Flying Spur with the newly introduced V-8, its shedding of four cylinders a portent of Bentley’s transition to greener luxury. Features editor Scott Evans, a Rolls-Royce devotee, pilots the new Ghost, freshly redesigned as a smaller, more driver-oriented alternative to the Phantom. Restrained opulence for restrained times, we suppose. We aren’t attempting to define which of these cars is superior, because once you get into the super-luxury realm, “superior”