Just like the last time, when we drove the Bugatti Veyron, it began with an e-mail from Bugatti’s PR firm: “Give me a call when you have a moment.” And then, again, just like the last time, there came the question: “We have a Grand Sport. Can you do something with it?” Let. Me. See.

And that’s how we ended up spending a day with the roofless Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport on a reference-resetting trip from Los Angeles to San Diego and back. Although you’ll read many words after the jump to describe it, we really only need one word, and we’d draw it out in the same kind of smiling stupor we get when the dentist pumps us full of happy gas: “Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh….”

The Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport is a violent, taunting, confounding and punctiliously engineered maelstrom. It is a handmade wonder built in a castle, and yet resembles a slightly squashed jelly bean. It has a $30,000 stereo, but it’s too much work to actually listen to it. The 16-cylinder, quad-turbocharged engine with 1,001 horsepower and 922 lb-ft of torque is programmed not to let you damage it, but in just one afternoon, the leather-trimmed coachwork on the doors will be a mess of shoe marks. The car’s brake rotors are chaperoned by 28 brake pistons, but using them forcefully is like begging someone to plow into the aforementioned engine. The car will cost you €1.6 million (roughly $2.24M USD), for which you get, as a soft top, an umbrella. That’s right, an umbrella. Own it and you’ll be master of the quickest accelerating production car in the world, and yet you’ll probably never remember what that acceleration is like.

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The arrival of the MKS sedan last year spurred hopes that it might revitalize Ford’s historically uncompetitive luxury brand, helping Lincoln to better compete with Cadillac, Lexus, and other aspirational marques. Most of the hype stemmed from the stunning MKR concept that debuted at the 2007 Detroit auto show; it floated the idea that future Lincolns wouldn’t be dowdy, livery-service specials like the current Town Car.

As it turns out, the MKS is indeed light-years beyond that ancient Panther-platformed barge in both styling and performance. But the production 2009 MKS came to market lacking the MKR’s exaggerated proportions, rear-wheel-drive chassis, and twin-turbocharged V-6—which then carried the aggressive TwinForce moniker. The reality of the MKS’s front-wheel-drive foundation (shared with the Ford Taurus) and naturally aspirated, 3.7-liter V-6 making 275 hp and 276 lb-ft of torque put it at a disadvantage with more powerful luxury sedans. Read more »

Do you hear that? That’s the jostling of a Prada bag and a soy latte inside the the last Mercedes CLK as it cruises into what is commonly referred to as “oblivion.” It’s being replaced by the brand new E-Class Coupe. Or rather, it’s not really a replacement; the new car is a reset of expectations from Mercedes’ middle coupe, distinguished from its CLK niece with more size, more features and more brawn, and distinct from its E-Class sedan big brother by unique architecture and body panels. Our question was: could it distinguish itself? Follow the jump to find out.

The E Coupe is roughly an inch-and-a-half longer, two inches wider and three inches lower than the CLK. Compared to the sedan, the Coupe is about seven inches shorter, four inches narrower and three-and-a-half inches lower. Notably, the E350 is close to 400 pounds lighter than its sedan stablemate, and the E550 is 340 pounds down on curb weight versus the V8 sedan. Its bespoke dimensions and body panels indicate that it should not be looked at as simply an E with two doors. When GM of product management Bernhard Glaser was asked if the E Coupe rode on the same platform as the sedan or used the same architecture, he responded twice, “I wouldn’t say that.” Asked to make some sort of comparison between the two cars, he informed us, “I would say it’s a member of the E Class family.” As such it gets all of the E-Class safety doodads we mentioned yesterday, along with the same language and general proportions, but wrapped in a stance and attitude all its own.

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There are few greater automotive thrills than hurling a Lotus Elise down a bendy back road—or around a racetrack. But it’s almost not fair to compare the intense and delightful responses of the Elise or the related Exige to other street cars because, with curb weights that hover around 2000 pounds, there aren’t really any other street cars like them.

Bigger, but No Less Special

As you likely already know, that’s where the Evora comes in. It’s massively larger than the Elise—21.9 inches longer, with a 10.9-inch stretch in the wheelbase—which puts it on par with other sports cars such as the Porsche 911 and Cayman. The Evora is roughly five inches shorter than the 911 but still manages to squeeze in similarly sized (i.e. tiny) back seats that are designed to fit very small adults or children up to about 10 years old. It also has a narrower door sill and a 2.5-inch-higher seating position, making it far easier to get in and out, which is one of the Elise’s setbacks. Two six-foot-plus males can sit in comfort without their shoulders touching, which is inevitable in an Elise. In fact, this six-foot-five driver didn’t even have to put the front seat back all the way to get comfortable. Read more »

There are many among us who harbor fetishes for the unexpected, the ironic, and of course, the stupidly fast. It’s all the better, of course, if a vehicle combines all three qualities. Not surprisingly, most of us love fearsome cargo carriers like the Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG wagon, the silly Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8, and the dearly departed Dodge Magnum SRT8. Basically, count us in for anything that has no business being fast but is anyway.

And so we were all over Subaru’s invitation to Willow Springs racetrack near Lancaster, California, to chuck a few laps in one of last year’s SEMA specials: the Forester XTI concept, which is basically a Forester crossover with WRX STI running gear. Since the car isn’t street-legal—and there aren’t enough people like us who could prompt Subaru to actually build something like this for real—this probably will be our only chance to drive it and to see if Subaru can transform the innocuous Forester’s package into something as beguiling as the STI. Read more »