The Ultimate Play Date: Maserati GranTurismo, Audi R8, Ferrari

This is kids-in-candy-store stuff, plain and simple. You can quit looking at the cars on this page and struggling to imagine a narrative hook that logically connects such disparate players as an out-of-production Mercedes-Benz McLaren SLR coupe and a Maserati GranTurismo-both front-engine, rear-drivers, with mid-engine superstars like a spanking new Lambo LP560-4, last year's Audi R8 4.2 quattro, and a 2007 Ferrari F430. There isn't one. This is like a rich collector's dream garage with all the doors open and all the keys in the ignition. We're playing with five cool cars that all gasoline-blooded MT readers would give their eye teeth (or $1695, if that's more convenient) to drive.

No, these stallions aren't freshly minted, factory-fettled, buffed-to-perfection press cars: They work for a living, touring the country in the service of World Class Driving. WCD gives enthusiasts an opportunity to take five of the world's hottest new exotic cars out for a spin-usually on twisty public backroads, occasionally on closed tracks. The $1695 price buys about a half hour of seat time in each of the five cars (for three extra Franklins, you can impress a passenger with your wheeling skills). Longer sessions and optional extras are offered. As WCD's 18-wheeler toy box is passing through SoCal en route to Hawaii, we've persuaded it to stop and disgorge its $1.1-million contents onto the tarmac at El Toro Marine Air Base so several of us can take a long enough stint in each car to decide which is the coolest, the best driving, the one we'd most like to own, or the one we'd soonest snap a picture of ourselves in to dress up our Facebook page-that is, you know, if we were civilian WCD customers. Since these cars don't compete with each other, we'll tell you how each compares with its closest natural rival, so you can talk like a high-roller during your World Class Driving experience.

This occasion serves as our first chance to get hard numbers on a Lamborghini LP560-4 (with only 5600 miles on the odometer, it's nearly press-car new), so we're bringing out all our latest test gear and putting all five cars through our regular battery of tests. We'll walk you through the ins and outs of our current test procedures, and we'll tell you how exotic cars perform and feel after 20,000 (Audi/Maserati), 33,000 (Ferrari), or 42,000 (Mercedes) hard miles. We'll drive them in the order we recommend you do: in ascending sticker price. Buckle up for a grand day.