The Bugatti Veyron of boats

XSMG's £1.3m diesel-powered superboat - the XSR48 - a is easy to drive, a joy to own - and very, very fast.

I thought I'd never see the day, says Hugo Andreae in Motorboat & Yachting. Ever since XSMG said it was going to build a £1.3m superboat, the XSR48, it seemed to be heading for a fall. Three years later, the boat had only ever appeared in luxury lifestyle magazines, and it looked like the credit crunch would finish the project off for good. But no. The boat has finally made it into production and been handed over to journalists for testing.

Like the best supercars, "theatre is everything", says Andreae, and that's just what you get on this boat too. You press a button before getting on board and the small transom gate raises and the lights switch on. The space-shuttle-style seats all five of them cost over £10,000 each. You get linked headphones to talk to your passengers over the noise of the roaring engines.

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