Aston Martin V12 Vanquish, Ferrari 575M Maranello, Lamborghini Murcilago, Mercedes-Benz SL55 AMG, and Porsche 911 Turbo

When it comes to changing gears, there's no accord, either. The Aston and the Ferrari use clutchless manuals with paddle shifters and automatic modes. (You can buy the Ferrari with a regular six-speed.) The Mercedes and the Porsche both have automatics with push-button manual modes, and the Lamborghini relies on a good, old-fashioned stick shift. And you know what? There's nothing to beat the feeling of a perfectly timed conventional shift. For anyone who thinks that clutchless manuals are a gimmick, they come alive on a track, where you can use your left foot for braking, safe in the knowledge that the transmission will downshift expeditiously. On the street, too, left-foot braking gives an extra margin of safety. The Porsche and Mercedes autoboxes just don't downshift fast enough, and you can momentarily lock the rear wheels with the stability systems off. Our plan was simple. No one with more than half a brain is going to drive cars like these on the ragged edge on the public road, because their limits are so high. With that in mind, we booked Quattroruote magazine's test track near Milan. Day one was spent at the track, where Sherman--"Data Don"--gathered performance figures and we amused ourselves on the handling course and by acting as Goddard's photo slaves. As you can see from the accompanying chart, our five vehicles do a lot more than most cars, and they all have a sharpness on track that will blow the mind of anyone other than seasoned Le Mans prototype drivers. That evening, we discussed the finer points of our super fleet over a glass or two of the finest Brunello di Montalcino and a pleasant meal in a local trattoria. On day two, we headed for the hills and some real-world driving. Our first call was the Autostrada del Sole, en route to Reggio Emilia from Milan. Nowadays, you get only brief bursts of massive speed as you head from the Po valley into Emilia-Romagna. The economy in northern Italy is humming, and that means that the autostrada is crowded with trucks, along with econoboxes nipping into the fast lane to get around them--and get in our way. A hundred miles in this quintet, trying to go quickly, becomes wearing. But as masters of the universe for the day, we owed it to ourselves to go fast. Kacher won the top-speed race, with an indicated 330 kilometers per hour (205 mph!) in the Lamborghini. At Reggio Emilia, we left the autostrada for the SS63, a two-lane road that narrows and twists as it goes into the Apennines. There were too many trucks for serious pleasure, but we turned off onto the white, unmarked roads that pepper the detailed Michelin maps, where the traffic is lighter, the views are picture-postcard Italian, and you can go as fast as you like over what resemble rally stages. Through towns and villages, locals cheered and waved and chatted as they saw this procession of fabulous machinery, and we were pleased to show them engines and interiors. Sherman played to the spectators by blipping the Lambo's throttle, a move that would cause annoyance anywhere else in the world but merely provoked whoops and hollers here--from grandmothers and their grandchildren alike. Our supercars really rock when you drive them hard. They pin you back into the seat under hard acceleration, and they threaten to pop your retinas under heavy braking. They also corner as if someone had mounted air foils on their roofs and smeared their tires with sticky gum. The 414-horsepower 911 Turbo was first up at the test track, blasting between corners and then crushing them into submission. This is a car that uses technology to help you conquer the road, with its simple all-wheel-drive system apportioning torque where it's needed. Lift the gas on entry into a corner, let the back end slide wide, then nail the throttle. At this point, the Turbo uses rear-engined load transfer to grip and go and all-wheel-drive traction to claw through at stellar speed. Add marvelous brakes and steering to die for, and you'll have a ball without ever worrying about falling off the road. The 911's small size makes it the easiest of these five to drive fast out on the road, yet it's as stable as the Swiss franc and rides pretty nicely, too.