Aston Martin DB9 vs. Bentley Continental GT vs. Ferrari 612 Scaglietti vs. Mercedes-Benz CL65 AMG

Basketball teams don't need a guy like Shaq down in the paint--but brandishing a seven-foot one-inch, 300-plus-pound center makes a certain point. For a quiet ride on a bridle trail, you don't need Secretariat. Most cars don't need eight-cylinder engines, either; four or six do fine. So why, then, is a big-buck exotic packing 12 cylinders still such a status symbol?

Simple: More is better and size matters. It's all about want over need, lust before logic, and all of that.

This stakes race pits four hyper-premium, 12-cylinder, front-engine gran turismo 2+2s--a back seat and two six-packs' worth of pistons are required for entry. As a group, they're fast, expensive, and thirsty: 48 cylinders, 180 valves, 2133 horsepower, a cumulative sticker price of $813,942 (including $14,200 in gas-guzzler taxes), and an average, MT-observed fuel economy that would deplete the Exxon Valdez.

Ferrari's flamboyant 612 Scaglietti is the newest to market, and, starting at $266,155, is the most expensive here by at least the price of a loaded A8. It's Ferrari's first front-engine model to make use of the aluminum-intensive chassis/body structure technology developed for the 360 Modena. The 612's curvaceous Pininfarina design, with its pointy, ovoid headlights, classic eggcrate grille, and scalloped flanks is intended to evoke a 1950s Ferrari owned by film director Roberto Rossellini. Six liters of 65-degree V-12 cranks out 533 horsepower, and nearly all 612 Scagliettis will be equipped with the latest-generation Ferrari paddle-shifter transaxle, dubbed F1-A.

Mercedes-Benz takes overkill to the extreme in the limited-edition CL65 AMG. If 604 horsepower doesn't catch your attention, then 738 pound-feet of torque ought to. You'd think any old 6.0-liter V-12 would be powerful enough, but Mercedes augments that SOHC three-valver with twin turbochargers; it's essentially a handbuilt, high-performance version of the Maybach powerplant. A five-speed automatic with SpeedShift sequential control is the only transmission available. This ultimate torquemonster comes wrapped in the elegant CL-Class coachwork we've come to know since the platform's introduction in 2000. In CL65 AMG form, it gets the top complement of luxury and electronic accoutrements, plus AMG-spec suspension and rolling-stock upgrades. It proved the best straight-line performer of this group and the second most expensive, at $186,520.