MotorMouths

With all its high-g grip, straight-line zoom, and denture-launching brakes, the 458 is a new benchmark for megadollar vomit inducers. The 458 has performance that race cars could once only dream of.

The ludicrous Bugatti Veyron with its quad-turbo, W-16 gorgon is nothing more significant than the fullest expression of one man’s mania. There are more stimulating cars to drive for comparative pocket change.

The Lexus LFA does not drive like a car from a company new to the genre and eager to impress. It drives like a car from a company that has done this type of car many times and isn’t worried that customers won’t be pleased.

The Mazda MX-5 remains one of the most entertaining cars to drive at any price. Light, agile, and always ready for a frolic, it feels much quicker than it looks on paper.

The GT3 is not like other 911s. The focus is sharpened, the reflexes tapered to sashimi-slicing perfection by Porsche’s grindstone.

The special edition Boxster Spyder is suckered to the road and unflinchingly neutral, with none of the bounding and steering washout that haunts all rear-engine 911s. This is the best-handling stock Porsche, period.

The new 2011 XJ flagship has the flamboyant lines of an Italian torpedo, the driving manners of a German autobahn cruiser, and is tuned for Buckingham Palace fleet duty.

The Nissan GT-R is a joy to drive in every way that a big, heavy, and complex car has no right to be unless it’s way more expensive.

The Panamera’s cargo area even blows out to a bicycle-inhaling 45 square feet of when you fold the rear seats flat. This is the Mercedes S-class eater that Honda would have built.

The 621-hp Bentley Continental Supersports sounds wonderfully flatulent and looks slightly scary. At any moment you expect it to unfold into a giant robot and start bench-pressing 747s.

When it’s not being tossed around, the Mercedes-Benz SLS impersonates a luxury liner, with decent visibility, an imperturbable desire to track straight, and an ardent fuel appetite.

The driving sophistication is high, and some test numbers we managed to quickly extract during the Jaguar XFR’s introduction are 10 degrees north of wow.