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.

Audi's TT is solid, stylish, and loaded with features making it fit for the Recommended list. Like no other in its class, TT offers the all-weather advantage of available quattro AWD at a great price. Of course, 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.

Boxster sales rose 5.4-percent year-to-year in calendar 2000, then eased 4.8 percent for the first nine months of 2001. But the decline equates to only 501 units, not bad for a seven-year-old sports-car design in a turbulent market.

A facelift is due for 2004, says one well-placed informant, though we doubt the changes will be drastic; that's not Porsche's way. Meantime, two additional models are under study, though not yet approved. One is a more rapid roadster with a turbocharged 2.7-liter engine making around 350 hp, plus an upgraded chassis and unique appearance touches. The second prospect is a Boxster coupe with the regular 230-hp 2.7 and a semi-fastback profile somewhere between that of big-sister 911 and the Audi TT coupe. Stay tuned.

By early 2004, Porsche should be selling a "super Boxster" called Carrera GT that's quite similar to a recent like-named concept model. Reportedly salvaged from an aborted race-car project, the GT packs a lightweight V10 engine--Porsche's first--with close to 600 hp and 450 lb-ft of torque, delivered by a 6-speed manual transmission. The powertrain sits behind a two-seat cockpit in a high-tech body/chassis made of aluminum and carbon fiber. A lift-off roof panel provides foul-weather protection and stows in the nose for sunny days. The GT is said to be somewhat larger than a 911 Carrera at almost five inches longer, 3.5 inches wider and some 4 inches lower. Even so, targeted curb weight is a relatively light 2750 pounds. If that's achieved, and with all that power, Porsche says the GT could do 0-60 mph in under 4 sec and rear over 200 mph. A rear spoiler automatically rises from the deck above 75 mph to aid high-speed stability. Promising race-car handling are a complex all-independent suspension and very wide tires on 19-inch front wheels and 20-inch rears. Brakes should be 15-inch 4-wheel discs with Porsche's new ceramic rotors, introduced with the 911 GT2.

Sources say Carrera GT will include air conditioning, high-end audio, power windows, and leather/aluminum cockpit trim. But like most "exoticars," it won't be cheap nor numerous. Rumored price is upwards of a cool half-million dollars, and yearly worldwide production will likely be 1000 units or less.