On the Autobahn, a New Mercedes and the Bhagavad-Gita

Travel Blog  •  Jim Benning  •  07.13.06 | 1:10 PM ET

imageLos Angeles Times Pulitzer-winning car columnist Dan Neil recently took a new Mercedes-Benz CLK 63 for a spin on the Autobahn near Stuttgart, maxing out at the car’s 155 mph limit. Even if you’re not a big car buff—I’m certainly not—Neil’s writing is so spirited and compelling, it’s hard not to get drawn into his transcendent Autobahn experience. “In the words of the Bhagavad-Gita,” he writes, “I am become death, destroyer of bugs.”