The new Mercedes-Benz halo car to end all halo cars just hit the road and track with us at the wheel.

—Monterey, California

You’ll get a chock-full version of this amazing drive experience with the new Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG in the next issue of Winding Road (next week), but we wanted to hit you with some of the fun fresh out of the aluminum Sportwagen. In a nutshell, the SLS is a clear successor to the SLR McLaren and it is clearly improved from the SLR.

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Last time we had a first drive in a new Porsche 911 Turbo was back in 2006 with the sixth-generation car on some relatively interesting Spanish roads, though the true limits were never explored. This time with the seventh generation, however, Porsche more than made up for it.

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The range-topper of the new E-Class has a lot going for it and we just jumped out of the driver’s seat, so we ought to know.

—Stuttgart, Germany

Boy, has the E-Class Mercedes ever come a long way from being the world’s taxi cab. This latest W212 four-door E-Class is a proper executive sedan filled to the gills with technology, luxury, and style. What is already an edgier base model E-Class goes to the edgy-looking extreme here in the 518 horsepower, E63 AMG and you either mind that or you don’t. We do feel the edge is a little overstated, but it’s certainly not heinously so.

This tune of the M156 6208cc big-bore V-8 engine, built from scratch by AMG, is pulled straight from the SL63 AMG that has preceded it. Not only do horsepower and torque numbers look the same between the SL63 and the E63, but the E63 also benefits from the seven-speed AMG Speedshift MCT sports transmission. Besides taking these good parts from the SL, the E-Class also gets a similar front axle overhaul as first tried and loved on the C63 AMG.

Between the surer footing and steering in front and the fresh wet-clutch tranny sans power-sapping torque converter, this E63 comports itself in aggressive ways that we would never have thought possible just a couple of years ago. The 14.2-inch compound lead brake rotors ventilated and perforated all around do great stopping services—so we’d stay away from the optional carbon ceramic discs (15.8-inch in front). That is,  unless you were wanting to track-drive the E63 with the Sports Package and delimited motor going as high as 186 miles per hour, supported by a more rigid sports suspension calibration.

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We just had some proper carnivorous drive time on the fantastic roads surrounding Germany's Nürburgring, driving the limited-run Aston Martin V12 Vantage. We were frankly expecting to be given free reign on the actual famed track, but Aston instead had us in a hotel overlooking the circuit as various teams were preparing their entries for the weekend's 24 Hours Nürburgring race. Atmosphere.

Just as well, as the local two-lanes of the Eifel region are second to none when it comes to thrashing out a performance car. And, man, can the V12 Vantage perform. It also does so in an absolute Brit-German fashion, which makes it all that much better. No posing going on here, Mac.

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Not as controversial as the Cayenne was in 2003, the Porsche Panamera four-door sports car makes sense no matter what you are, we say. We’re hot from the driver’s seat and we like.

—Elmau, Germany

We’ve personally been present at all of the Panamera events leading up to today’s long awaited drive and we can say honestly that the Porsche luxury liner has looked better and better to us with each walk-around. Whether witnessing in the clouds above Shanghai, in the passenger seat at the company’s Weissach tech center, or driving it here in the Bavarian Alps, we are now certain that the Panamera is at the very least a trueblood modern day Porsche.

Whether one likes the packaging of the car is up to the individual but Porsche board members present at this event assure us that there are more than enough individuals out there worldwide who are putting in advance orders for the Panamera. The objective yearly for the big-hatch sedan is 20,000-plus deliveries to customers, upwards of 80 percent of these buyers being new to the brand. Basically, spot-on with the original sales goals of the Cayenne (which sold more like 40,000 units annually in the first couple of years).

It's easy to get crass about the "big" differences we feel in a car that's handed twenty more horsepower and nineteen more pound-feet of torque. Big whup, right? Well, when you're rocketing along at v-max on a smooth road with no speed limit, all the little tweaks to an icon like a Porsche 911 GT3 really are quite a big whup.

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Elegance on wheels elegantly wafting o’er the Tuscan hills: that’s all the new E-class coupe wants to be and do for you.

—Florence, Italy

One of the bigger sensations of the 2009 Geneva Motor Show this past March was the long-telegraphed intro of the new Mercedes-Benz E-Class sedan (designation “W212”) and coupe (“C207”). Naturally, the sedan is solid and enjoyable, but the coupe needs to be sultry. And it is sultry enough.

We just drove four versions of the new handsome E-Class coupe that replaces the now off’d CLK-class coupe, and two of these engines will be coming to North America: the E350 V-6 CGI and E550 V-8. We also barreled through the sun-drenched Tuscan countryside in the E250 in-line four CDI and E350 V-6 CDI direct-injection turbo diesels. Of all the motors tried, the bigger diesel is easily the best powertrain for this car. And, yes, there are no plans for its sale in North America.

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