2007 Top Ten Hip Rides - Roadsters - Features

Roadsters

01: BMW Z4 3.0i

Think you'd be entertained by BMW reflexes wrapped in steel origami topped by...well, the stratosphere? Sure you would. The Z4 3.0i convertible manages to be both affordable and exotic, a two-seater with the flair of a sports car costing twice its price.

Chris Bangle's wildly scalloped, outr design doesn't play well amid the trimmed lawns and picket fences of Pleasantville. The rest of us, though, will appreciate that by its very nature a two-seater needs to step out; it needs compelling creases and curves to catch the sunrays, refract them through its daring aura, and radiate them back out toward all those poor souls content to motor through life in pedestrian machines. You enjoy being the center of attention. Here's a chance to sit inside the white-hot spotlight. (That chiseled interior will never bore you, either.)

Review its specifications-the 24-valve, 3.0-liter inline-six is rated at "only" 215 horsepower -and you might think the Z4 will feel less than stirring on the road. But you'd be wrong. Nobody makes sixes like the boys from Bavaria, and this one is a composite aluminum-magnesium jewel: smooth as Pashmina, eager to rev, carefully fed by an electronic throttle, and pumped up with variable valve timing. You'll direct it through a standard six-speed manual that shifts as if the lever were rowing through extra-virgin olive oil. Ah, listen to that. The open top provides welcome amplification of the engine's sonic charms.

Handling rocks, too. Even the base 3.0i sports standard 17-inch wheels and tires, Dynamic Stability Control, speed-sensitive electric steering, and twin-tube gas shocks. This is a BMW, after all. Forget track numbers: The Z4's lightweight package and tenacious suspension-combined with that spirited powertrain-are magic on coiled asphalt.

The entry fee is moderate, the driving joy huge. Why are you still sitting there?

-Arthur St. Antoine

02: Mazda MX-5

While it's unclear who killed the electric car, the culprit behind the demise of the traditional British Sports Car is living amongst us in plain sight. Mmm-hmm, the Miata, aka Mazda MX-5. Mass murderer of virtually all of Her Majesty's sports-car citizenry.

The slaughter started small, as these things often do. In 1989, the original Miata-with its zinging 120-horsepower, 1.6-liter four, nifty shifter, and moves like a Chinese acrobat-was (ironically) welcomed by the naive tweed-cappers who'd been shielding the dwindling flock of Spitfires, TR6s, and MGBs from the scourges of rust and Joseph Lucas's electrical theories. However, it took only a fraction of a mile behind the wheel of Mazda's non-self-immolating oil-tight wonder to affect a dark change of mood: "Hmm, I just might get me one of these things," they'd mutter, glancing murderously at a Spitfire dripping gas from its SUs in the corner of the garage.

Eighteen years after its debut, the eradication is virtually complete. At the moment, Mazda has sold, get this, over 800,000 Miatas. That shatters the record of 500,000 or so MGBs ever produced (over an equal production time). Statisticians will note the Miata has mutated through three generations now, while the MG merely devolved into a rubber-bumper mess. But the fact is, you basically have to Google-search MGs and Triumphs to see them anymore.

While this MX-5 Miata retains all its original genetic excellence and has buffed up on muscle (now 166 horses with 25-percent-quicker acceleration), between us, there've been a few brow-furrowing developments. For one, the top, once raiseable with your right hand at a red stoplight, now requires two. And the Power Retractable Hard Top version is a tawdry valentine to Weather Channel-addicted lily-livers. Nevertheless, the MX-5 Miata's original formula of Jinba Ittai (rider and horse as one) definitely gallops on-and in what's now an essentially one-horse race.

-Kim Reynolds