My wife recently took delivery of her new Mercedes E320 wagon. It's a fantastic vehicle and although it was expensive, I'm glad we bought it for her. After years of driving mini-vans and SUVs, she wanted to drive a car again (we now have a pickup truck to pull the horse trailer). She also needed something with more than 5 seats. The E320 seats 7, has all-wheel drive and of course, is very luxurious and safe. One of the many safety features is called ESP, which stands for Electronic Stability Program. It's similar to ABS, but detects if the car is understeering or oversteering, and if it is, applies brakes to an individual wheel to bring the car back under control. Of course I had to try this out myself to see how it worked. I did two tests, the first was a skidpad-type test where I went to a cul-de-sac in a new housing development. With the ESP switched off, I could peg the throttle and hang the rear-end out, easily keeping it there with counter-steer. With ESP on it just went where I steered it - quite eerie. Meanwhile, my 11-year-old son was nervously looking out the window and saying "Dad, I think we better get out of here before the police show up." With ESP off, I drove the car in a slalom maneuver on snow, which got the car sliding all over the place. With ESP on, you could feel the brake being applied, the car would slow and just straighten out. Very impressive and very safe. My winter beater is an old Nissan Sentra. I can control the amount of oversteer on that car too. By pulling the emergency brake I can get a little sideways or very sideways - lots of fun. I enjoy that elemental feel in a car, which is what makes a Porsche so special. Porsche has a 50-year history vs. Mercedes' 100 years. Porsche sold 30,000 cars worldwide last year vs. 115,000 Mercedes sold in this country alone. Yet the Mercedes Club has only half the members of the Porsche club. The difference revolves around the philosophies of cars as transportation versus cars as a passion. I hope the new 911does not lose that passionate, elemental feel. Speaking of the new 911 design, Road & Track addressed this subject in their February issue. I like this magazine, but sometimes I have to wonder. They hired a "noted designer" to examine the 911. Basically he loved the design, especially the front end (?!?!). Who is this expert on Porsche Design? His name is Tom Kellogg. He helped design boats as well as helping with the design of the DC-10 airplane. His automotive expertise you ask? This is a quote: "I was a big fan of Lincoln Continentals and used to hitchhike to Bel Air just to watch those cars pull in and out of residential driveways" (I'm not making this up.) Oh ya, he did design one car: the Avanti. I think he should have been charged with vandalism for beating that car with an ugly stick. I'm not saying the new 911 is a bad design, just that Road & Track could have found someone more reputable to evaluate it. If you think that's strange, in the back of the same Road & Track issue, alongside ads for brake pads and wheel repair is an ad promoting videos of female models "elegantly dressed, smoking cigarettes and cigars!" (Huh?) If you want to buy some of these tapes, which cost $35 each, just call 1-888-SHE-SMOKES. (Honest, I'm not making this stuff up!) After watching my father-in-law die last month after a long battle with lung cancer and emphysema, you can be sure I won't be buying any!