MotorMouths

For the first time in decades – maybe ever – the Ford Mustang GT is the quickest and best-handling pony car in the land. It’s 0-60 and skidpad numbers are comparable to a BMW M3, by the way.

Whoooeeee, autobahn angels, Porsche builds some raging, road-eating monsters these days. The 911 Turbo is even better with the top down, treating you to a chorus of whooshes, burps, ticks and howls. Think of it as primal mechanical therapy.

Though obscenely expensive at roughly $273,000 and change, the Supersports beats the holy stuffing out of quadruple bypasses, hip replacements and all those overpriced items that are supposed to make you feel better.

After five years of serious tweaking, including a new aluminum engine block for 2011, Ford has finally transformed the slacker GT500 Mustang into a storming hot-rod Henry that will run with Grand Sport Corvettes.

The GTI zings to 60 in a respectable 6.1 seconds and still manages to return 24 mpg in city driving and 32 on the highway.
Thanks to the car’s precise, well-weighted steering the GTI rips happily through corners with little lean and minimal understeer.

The air is cooler and cleaner up here in the well-appointed crew cab of the 2011 Ford Super Duty. Things are quieter, too. Did I mention, incidentally, that this F-350 is one mogamba truck?

You may remember cars from the ’50s and ’60s like the Hemi-powered Chrysler 300 and the 421 Pontiac Bonneville. The CTS-V Coupe may be the contemporary spiritual successor to those classics – with the ruthless soul of a BMW M5.

This is a reconstituted, reformed Mustang – a car so startlingly different in personality that you wonder if it’s on drugs or religion, or both. Actually, what it found was a refined, pumped-up new engine, a couple of six-speed transmissions, a retuned suspension and a credible performance package.

Despite the 2011 Jaguar XJL’s robber-baron proportions, it turns in quickly and keeps good balance for a large sedan – even at slightly, uh, irresponsible speeds. I’d say Tata has added some mighty tasteful curry to Jag’s world ste.

Every dollar spent on revising the Silverado HD pickup had to be allocated carefully. While the exterior and interior of the truck remain pretty much the same, lots was devoted to the truck’s platform and power train – as they should be.

After years of building pleasantly unspectacular vehicles, Lincoln finally has a crossover in the MKT that rivals the Cadillac Escalade in presence and personality

The Honda CR-Z is good precisely because it doesn’t act or drive like another dopey hybrid. You can be green and kind of mean in a low-level, Birkenstock sort of way as you’re snicking through the six-speed transmission.