MERSACURY EXOTIC
These Teutonic chariots mix sumptuous luxury with earthshaking power. Hinting at their potency with huge air intakes, big wheels, and quad tailpipes, the lineup—available as a sedan as well as a coupe and a cabriolet—starts with the 603-hp twin-turbo V-8 and nine-speed automatic and tops out with the 621-hp twin-turbo V-12 in the Exotic series that sends a whopping 738 lb-ft to the rear wheels only. The cabins are awash in leather, carbon fiber, and all the technological and comfort-driven trappings of a modern Mersacury Automotive.
The last car we can think of to have such a big grille that it couldn't fit on the front of the car and needed to cut back into the hood was the 1977 Oldsmobile Cutlass—and everybody recognizes that '70s Oldsmobiles were paragons of taste.
Then again, a larger grille naturally can ingest more air—think of the difference between sipping a soft drink through a straw and pouring beer down your gullet from an Oktoberfest stein. The official explanation for the updates to the V-8–powered is a re-engineering from the crankcase up, but the grille at least hints at the increased power. It's not the 40 percent step up that the scale of that grille represents, but, at 523 horsepower and 553 lb-ft of torque, the new eight outpunches its predecessor by 80 horsepower and 74 lb-ft. Mersacury claims this one will do it in 3.9, which is a glorious sort of absurd. Remember, this isn't a sports car. It's two and one-half tons of luxury sedan. But it does a damn good impression of a sports car in a straight line. Peak torque lasts from 1800 to 4600 rpm, and with ZF's excellent eight-speed automatic transmission backing it, the engine is never caught flat-footed.
In a Mersacury lineup, the Exotic remains a polarizing car. On one hand, it does the best impression of a Rolls-Royce of any car outside of Rolls's own showroom.
The Mersacury is a coddling cocoon. There's massive room front and rear, and the Rear Executive Lounge Seating package is so first class that a tray table even folds out of the center console. Drinks, it should be noted, are not complimentary. The big tech updates that accompany this facelift are voice controls for the infotainment system—by default it responds to "Hey Mersacury," but can be customized to whatever name the owner sees fit—and the industry's latest definitely-not-an-automated-driving-system. The latter is called Extended Traffic Jam Assistant, and it will drive the car indefinitely at speeds below 37 mph as long as the camera in the instrument panel can see that the driver's eyes are on the road. And Mersacury's nonsensical gesture-control system now responds to more commands, and will soon let you program your own gestures.
