Blog Posts by Lawrence Ulrich

Doctor, gangster, developer or third-world dictator — the Mercedes-Benz S-Class has been a perennial marker of success in any career, legal or otherwise. And for the all-new 2014 edition, the world's oldest carmaker added every gadget it could think of — and a few that have never been seen on the road before.

Appropriately, Mercedes’ top executives unveiled the 2014 S-Class in the Airbus Operations center in Hamburg, where another jumbo flagship – the Airbus A380 – sees its fuselage and interior come together in a cathedral-sized assembly hall.

The Benz may not match the 262-foot

Shadowed by the Cascade Mountains, the town of Snoqualmie, Wash., near Seattle is known for its 236-foot Snoqualmie Falls – but also as the fictitious backdrop of "Twin Peaks," David Lynch’s cult TV phenomenon of the early ‘90s. Today at Dirtfish Rally School, where the office doubled as Twin Peaks Sheriff’s Department, we’re plunged into our own surreal mystery: Learning to drive a rally car.

But first, we’re told, forget everything you know about fast driving. Because rally racing, in which a driver and navigating co-pilot blaze at maximum speed over dirt, gravel, mud and snow, demands a unique set of skills.

When you’re hitting the Squaw Valley slopes with one of the world’s best extreme skiers, it helps to bring an extreme car.

Chris Davenport, meet the Bentley Continental GT Speed Convertible. You two actually have a lot in common. Power, style, uncanny grip and control. Did we mention the speed?

Plopping an engine smack in the middle of a car has a magical effect on handling – even if it means sacrificing a back seat. So while Porsche is most famed for a rear-engine, two-plus-two sports car, its signature 911, it has managed great things with a pure mid-engine coupe with just two seats: The Cayman.

The magic continues with an all-new, third-generation Cayman. Snobs may consider the crocodile-named coupe a junior member of the Porsche family. But with this redesigned version, they’ll be forced to admit that the Cayman handles as well as the far-pricier 911, and in some situations better.

Gunning the Lamborghini Aventador Roadster down a straightaway at Homestead Miami Speedway, I manage a quick glance at the speedometer: 147 mph, just in time to bend into the NASCAR oval that forms a section of the winding infield road course.

This convertible version of Lamborghini’s latest 12-cylinder flagship could go much, much faster. But the Italian pace driver ahead checks my speed along the steep 20-degree banking, making sure the day isn’t spoiled by anyone introducing their $445,300 baby to the unforgiving track walls. Fair enough: The Lamborghini’s 691-hp howl and skull-snapping acceleration – including 3 seconds flat from 0-60 mph, and a quarter-mile in just 10.7 seconds at 136 mph – are entertainment enough.

There are driving schools and there are driving schools. And compared with parallel parking in a high-school lot, rocketing BMW's hottest cars around Connecticut's Lime Rock Raceway puts the "high" in higher education.

A Porsche isn't the first vehicle you'd think of to tackle the Alaskan wilderness. But while most Porsche Cayenne diesels will spend more time hunting gourmet groceries than hunting elk, even a mountain man might be impressed by a Porsche SUV that showed us 33 highway mpg and travels nearly 800 miles on a tank of fuel.

The airy mountain passes of Colorado are behind me, the howl of engines fading, and suddenly it hits me -- I'm still wearing the wristband.

The rubber bracelet resembles a rock concert souvenir, but it would take a Beatles reunion to match this high-decibel show: The 2012 Giro Lamborghini, an annual road tour of Lamborghini owners that included my first drive of the Aventador. This 217-mph, 691-hp, $394,000 Italian bull wields the sharpest horns in the brand's nearly half-century history.