This class features an interesting mix of hard-core performance models and more luxurious touring convertibles. Our Best Buys give you a little of both worlds. The Chevrolet Corvette is fast, comfortable, and reasonably affordable. Unlike previous models it doesn't beat you up with a hard ride, and it will cruise quietly at highway speeds. Our other Best Buy, the Mazda Miata, is a bare-bones roadster with few frills and average acceleration, but for weekend fun on a twisty back road it's hard to beat.

If you don't mind spending a few more bucks, we recommend you take a look at the Mercedes-Benz SLK. The Mercedes offers an interesting mix of performance and luxury. It also has a retractable hardtop, making it more of an all-weather car.

Now in its sixth model year, Boxster remains on an upward sales curve in the U.S. However, the curve flattened in calendar 2000, sales rising 5.4 percent to 22,410, vs a near 31 percent year-to-year gain for calendar '99.

Boxster should see no major change for the next couple of years, after which it will be "significantly restyled," according to one industry source. For 2002, we expect the S model's 6-speed manual transmission to become standard for the base Boxster as well.

Porsche is known to be mulling two new Boxster models, though neither is definite at this time. One is a higher-performance roadster with a turbocharged 2.7-liter engine making around 350 hp, plus an upgraded chassis and unique styling touches. The second prospect is a Boxster coupe with a normally aspirated 230-hp 2.7 and a fastback roofline that produces a look somewhere between that of big-sister 911 and the Audi TT coupe.

Meanwhile, sources close to Porsche say the company is almost certain to sell a "super Boxster" all but identical with the recent Carrera GT concept roadster. That would mean a V10 engine, Porsche's first, with upwards of 560 hp, mounted behind the cockpit in a lightweight structure made at least partly of carbon-fiber. Porsche pegged the concept's 0-60 at under 4 sec; the production model should be close to that, if not lower. Price is being tipped in the vicinity of--hold on--$350,000, a Porsche record, so the "super Boxster" obviously won't be a common sight. No word yet on name, timing or exact specifications and equipment.