5 Great Exotic Cars

We're driving a Ferrari F430 south along the winding Clackamas River on a midsummer Monday morning, few cars on the road save some fishermen in campers and scattered entrants in the Ferrari Challenge Rally, down to Black Butte Ranch in Sisters, Oregon for lunch. Almost too excellent for words.

The mid-mounted 4.3-liter V8 with 90-degree architecture and flat-crank sounds almost like a V12, with a high-pitched howl at 8500 rpm behind your ears that's absolute magic. Imagine 190 mph.

Making 483 horsepower, with about 1000 less pounds to carry than the SL63 AMG and 400 less than the R8, the F430 does zero to 60 in 3.6.

Handling? It'll dance on a pinhead - a hairpinhead.

Manettino is what they call the magic little switch that selects five driving modes, altering Skyhook suspension stiffness, throttle response, and transmission quickness from the 6-speed electro-hydraulic sequential. Even in rigid Race mode, we scraped the spoiler under the nose on the high-speed dips. Sparks flew. From our heart.