Curves California Review – Embodiment of Cool, Soulful, California Driving

Curves, the German driving magazine has been on a road trip, sending Stefan Bogner, photographer and auto enthusiast, to the US to travel Highway 1, what they describe "without a doubt one of the most beautiful roads in the world."

Taking soulful driving to the next level, the last leg of the most iconic road trip in the United States, begins in the auto city of Los Angeles, and travels north along the Pacific Coast Highway.


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Curves California is an homage to road trips, to California dreaming, to songs, and music and imaginations that brought many to explore the beauty and majesty of this golden coastline.

"This is the precise moment the leading actor in a road movie heads for the Promised Land. You have to turn off the eight-lane highway in the cauldron of Los Angeles onto Mulholland Drive, then onto Highway 1 at the Pacific coast. The places all sound like song titles, Malibu, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz. Then there's San Francisco and you can be Steve McQueen for a half an hour." Stefan Bogner, Curves California

Throughout the bi-lingual 256 page book, the reader is treated to a international traveler's viewpoint of the coast hugging, majestic driving road. The specialty tomb captures more than the scenery as the team drives a sponsored Porsche 911 Carrera 4S across two states, California and Nevada, through open road, big cities, the mega wattage of Las Vegas, the silence and solitude the desert, of Yosemite, and back to the Pacific Coast Highway.

The images, which feature breathtaking images of everything iconic about the west: The mystery, the illusion, the surreal, the magnificent. The authors also added their thoughts and where text is provided it appears in a dual column of English and German.

"After a few miles at the wheel, it all slots into a mystical screenplay. This is flow power, California cruising, the straights talking the form of meditative fast before the next bend, like a telescope focused on the object of your desire. And then there it is – you devour it. It devours you. There is so much to discover, and you want to see it all – tradition, future, ever ahead. Your California. Your vehicle. You. Soulful driving. Let's go." Stefan Bogner, Curves California

For those just wanting to cruise, with no time constraints, the book is divided into section with Los Angeles, San Francisco, Yosemite, Las Vegas, Palm Springs and each of these intro sights are accompanied with a brief author's overview of the encounters along the road between each destination. A driver's journal.

Curves California, soulful driving, beckons the reader to vicariously ride with, or drive as we are along in imagination and behind the wheel of a very sleek, sporty, "man this baby must corner like it's on rails," Porsche 911, as they cover all the mapped, expected, and unusual, and unexpected, spots along the way.


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And from the eye of an international tourist, even as a car enthusiast who has heard of the impressive scenery, the mix of deserts, cities, the unusual, the iconic, the historic, familiar and breathtaking. The pages, not super glossy, present almost a natural element. This is the most breathtaking traveled stretch of road in the world and this is what it looks like, really.

As our authors travel, we can see from the pictures that in addition to documenting the trip from the road they have a support team following. In order to capture the vastness, we see some of the photos are aerial, possibly drone possibly helicopter, and still we see the landscape and magnitude.

Images of this amazing road trip fill the pages. We see southern California beach culture, sparkling, gleaming sun-drenched cities, imposing and iconic bridges and buildings known around the world even if their location isn't, long stretches of desert road filled with extraordinary vegetation rolling into remarkable terrain Valley of Fire, of course the Grand Canyon, Death Valley.

"We watch as the prolific green wilderness is devoured by red-hot parched apocalypse. At the border of Nevada, we no longer known how to spell the word "curve". We continue onwards into the desert and then with a mixture of shock and awe, through Las Vegas. Mojave Desert, Joshua Tree as a Palm Springs, we finally regain our belief that this dust fest will come to an end. Back in Los Angeles, we let our 911 roll down to the shore by Venice Beach. We pause for breath and start the whole thing over again. Rewind, repeat. California forever." Stefan Bogner, California Curves

Oversized Curves Soulful Driving California is a bi-lingual soft cover book with over 299 photos and six MairDumont Maps with an additional 120 pictures.


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From Delius Klasing publisher, Curves, born on an Alpine Pass, has published specialty books highlighting road travel in Switzerland, France, Northern Italy, Austria, and Pyrenees and now California joins the elite group. A full-size pull out map of the road less traveled as well as restaurants and lodging stops along the way.

Delius Klasing is one of the leading special-interest publishers in Europe.  Aside from books, Delius Klasing also publishes 17 luxury magazines including YACHT, Europe’s largest water sports magazine.  The company’s mission and passion is to provide readers with enthusiasm and expert content, like they have been doing for over 100 years.

For more information: www.curves-magazin.com

Images courtesy of Curves-Magazine at http://www.curves-magazin.com/magazine/curves-usa-kalifornien/

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