MotorMouths

The 20111 Mulsanne doesn’t look like a retro car, but it is. It is not a skin-deep styling homage to an iconic ancestor. Even though it drips with 21st-century technology the new Bentley, which replaces the flagship Arnage sedan, is old-school to its very soul.

The Phantom Coupe might be the sportiest Rolls-Royce ever – faster than a Porsche Boxster to 60 mph – but it is first and foremost a luxury car.

The 2010 Porsche Panamera is big, fast, and comfortable; a genuine four passenger Gran Turismo capable of loafing across continents in giant 130 mph bounds.

Like every great Rolls-Royce, the Ghost is a paragon of effortless motion, uncannily smooth and silent, with a ride like a magic carpet. But it doesn’t wallow like a drunken water buffalo the moment you swing it into a turn.

Meet Cadillac’s monster new CTS-V. Cadzilla, if you will. Locked, loaded, and gunning for Europe’s heavy-hitting sport sedans-BMW M5, Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG, Audi RS6.

“Super,” “luxury,” “sport,” and “sedan” don’t often appear in the same sentence. Not that long ago, the idea of a super-luxury sport sedan would have seemed a total contradiction in terms. But the Bentley Continental Flying Spur Speed pulls off the near-impossible.

The Viper ACR is raw. It’s wired. And it’s probably the best weekend racer yet from Detroit. A road car you can drive to the track, hot lap all day, and drive back home, tires, brakes, and ego intact.

The chic Continental GT might be a quicker, more agile, more sophisticated coupe, but the majestic Brooklands is the real Bentley.

The Rapide is the perfect Q-ship. To the rest of the world it’s an Aston Martin for sharing; the car in which 007 would take his aged parents to church on Sundays. To the enthusiast, though, it’s still a sports car.

Edgy, rakish, pumped, the Cadillac CTS-V Coupe is stylistically confident and extroverted, like an American performance car should be. It doesn’t need to excuse itself by wrapping up in the Stars and Stripes. By anyone’s standards, it’s a damned good piece. Period.

The Ford F-150 Raptor is the Porsche 911 GT3 of pickup trucks. The 6.2 engine is a $3000 option. Worth the money? You betcha.

The $29,495 Buick Regal Turbo is a wonderfully subversive sport sedan whose punchy, 220-horsepower blown Ecotec four and supple, yet buttoned-down, chassis puts Acura’s homely TSX on notice, and seriously makes you wonder whether an Audi A4 is really worth the money.