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I was sitting in the school parking lot in the Honda Pilot, and though I could clearly see my son standing outside the doorway, evidently he could not see me. When he finally climbed into the cabin several minutes later, he explained: "Sorry, I didn't see you. Despite its bright maroon paint and its huge size, this Pilot doesn't stand out, because there's so many of them." True enough. In the pick-up line at school, at soccer practice, at Cub Scouts, or wherever parents congregate, you'll find the Honda Pilot -- often several of them. The Pilot is as much a staple of suburban family life as travel sports, take-out pizza, and the vinyl-sided colonial.

Just as the Cayman, the Boxster, and the 911 share an increasingly flexible common DNA, the project 906 launched forty-seven years ago was closely related to the first-generation 911. The homologated racing car, also called the Carrera 6, featured an upgraded version of the production car's flat six mounted in front of the rear axle. Painted off-white and sporting the distinctive light yellow Perspex engine cover, our mint-condition example of the first-ever six-cylinder mid-engine Porsche pointed the way toward today's Boxster and Cayman. Its dramatic proportions are simply out of this world. At 39 inches tall, the gull-wing two-seater is lower than just about any current hardtop sports car. The 66-inch width is positively petite, but the length measures a self-conscious 162 inches, and the long-tail Le Mans version stretches an even more substantial 181 inches. Among the most eye-catching features are stacked headlights, turn indicators, and long-range driving lights covered by low-drag, flush-fitting lenses; a Kamm-back rear spoiler complemented by a brace of front splitters; a truly panoramic windshield; and two chrome, teardrop-shaped side mirrors.

The split grille on the front of Lincoln's newest car has been described by Max Wolff, the brand's hip new director of design, as an eagle spreading its wings, but we think an association with a phoenix might be more apt. That's because the 2013 Lincoln MKZ is supposed to represent Lincoln's emergence from the ashes of the past as important new player in the future, and this means not only here in the U.S. but more importantly also in China, where serious money is at stake in the country's developing luxury market.