2000 Bentley Continental T

The baddest luxury car ever created accelerates with the linear quality and near silence of an electric bullet train. It slingshots its two Honda Civic's worth of weight to 60 mph in only 6.2 seconds and swallows the quarter mile in 14.5 at 98.3 mph. Yet, belying its tire-burning performance, this Bentley truly is the quintessential luxury machine. It pampers in an unabashedly hedonistic old-world manner, with supple and sweetly aromatic leather, near-silent operation, and a visual and tactile treasure trove of hand-polished chrome switchgear, machined aluminum, wool carpeting, and a turned-metal dashboard including the famous, red starter button.

The surprises continued as we put the Bentley through the rest of our track tests. How would you expect it to handle in the slalom? Like the QE2? So did we, but to our utter amazement, it was able to dodge the cones at a respectable 62.2 mph. The trick to convincing this massive vehicle to dance like a car half its weight is active suspension technology. If you were to spring and dampen the Continental T permanently to handle an aggressive maneuver properly at 60 mph, it would otherwise ride like a tank. Instead, Bentley has an electronic system that determines how much resistance to body roll is required and, almost instantly, re-valves the shock absorbers to handle the demands.

Anti-lock brakes? In-doobe-tably. Courtesy of large discs at all four wheels (with dual calipers at each front disc!), the hefty Bentley stops from 60 mph in a mere 127 feet-especially reassuring considering the factory says the car is capable of an electronically limited top speed of 170 mph.

So what does "T" mean? What immediately comes to mind is, of course, "Torque!" It could also stand for "Tuxedo'ed, Turbocharged T-Rex," with "Therapeutic, Titanic Traction." How about "Talented, Threatening Treat"? The truth is, in essence, it stands for all of these. If you can afford a $299,900 Bentley Continental T, it means whatever you'd like it to mean, including "Thaumaturgist," a performer of miracles or magic feats.
-Chris Walton

Ferrari 456m
398 Lb/Ft @ 4500 Rpm
What V-12s Were Meant To Be
We'd just picked up the new 456M at Ferrari's headquarters in Maranello, Italy and, flanked by two motorcycle polizei ("retained" for our needs), were being given a presidential-level escort through miles of schizophrenic city traffic that leads to the high-speed autostrada. Lights flashing, sirens wailing, traffic parting, and everyone staring, it was pretty damn cool, I must admit. After clearing our path to the on-ramp, the grinning cops gave a wave-and a wink-signifying to go ahead and do what they'd do if they were driving this $225,000 436-horse V-12, ultra-fast, ultra-rare product of the greatest sports car maker the world has ever seen.

Say no more, gents.
We hit the curvy on-ramp in second gear, planted the pedal, and lit up the 285/40ZR17 Pirellis for a good 75 feet-most of it sideways. The thrilling four-cam growl of the 5.5-liter all-aluminum engine racing toward its 7250-rpm redline almost covered up the cheers of the rapidly shrinking officers as we laid waste to a phalanx of ordinary cars in a heartbeat.

Although its 398 pound-feet of torque peaks at 4500 rpm, there's an intoxicatingly wide range of grunt in this engine, with the same twist at 1250 revs as you'll get at 6000 rpm. And when the torque begins to wane above six grand, the horsepower is still increasing, rocking you with a jump from about 340 ponies at 4000 rpm to 436 at 6250 revs.