Auto News 5

The Big Lancia racing TOWARD US flashed its lights furiously as we hustled through Firenzuola, just north of the famed Futa Pass on the route of the Mille Miglia. Was there a cop ahead? Do they do that in Europe -- flash their lights for cops? Then again, I was at the wheel of a 2012 CLS550, the second generation of the swoopiest four-door Mercedes-Benz ever built. That first CLS-which debuted at the 2003 Frankfurt motor show and went into production a year later-has sold more than 170,000 copies worldwide. Some 64 percent of its European buyers chose it, Mercedes says, because of its stunning good looks, and it spawned a number of luxury four-door-coupe competitors, including the radical Audi A7. It was just as likely that Mr. Lancia was flashing his recognition of the rare 2012 CLS sighting (it goes on sale in January in Europe, summer in the States). The three-pointed star adorning the CLS's massive grille is the size of a gladiator's belt buckle. It makes for an impressive face, one you can neither miss nor fail to recognize. Flash-flash, indeed.