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I was expecting to walk away from the six-cylinder Charger believing this muscle machine -- which finally looks as muscular as its name suggests -- is best experienced with the rootin, tootin' Hemi stuffed under the hood. But after driving it, I'm whistling a completely different tune.

Is Mario Andretti the greatest race car driver of all time? That's the view here. But if he's not, you can be sure that he's filling the mirrors of the guys in front of him. Nobody has done it better for longer, in everything from front-engine roadsters to ground-effect Formula 1 cars, everywhere from the high banks of Daytona to the gravel of Pike's Peak. Not only is he the only man to win an F1 championship, the Indy 500, and the Daytona 500, but he's also the most quoted driver in motorsports history.

It couldn't have looked much worse for Porsche in 2009. The hare-brained scheme to buy out the Volkswagen Group -- intended to safeguard Porsche's independence -- had blown up spectacularly, leaving the proud sports car builder broke and at the mercy of corporate overlords in Wolfsburg. VW added insult to injury in 2010 when it sent over Matthias Mueller, a career Audi man, to serve as Porsche chairman.

Volvo might not be the first brand that comes to mind when discussing sporty coupes -- actually, for most people, it would never come to mind -- but in the Swedish carmaker's long parade of boxy cars, there was one standout exception. The Volvo 1800 was as appealing as any of the European coupes of its era, a low-slung two-plus-two that, for more than a decade, stood in contrast to the brand's utilitarian mainstream offerings.