2007 Audi TT Roadster - 2007 BMW Z4 - 2007 Porsche Boxster - Comparison

In a Corner of this morning paper's obituary section were a couple paragraphs devoted to a Mr. Dwight Wilson. Although it's always unfortunate when anyone passes away, we should all be so lucky when the time comes to be 106 years old, as was Mr. Wilson. His particular notoriety was being Canada's second-to-last remaining WWI veteran. Still, probably the most poignant departure was four years ago with the demise of another 106-year-old, Henry Botterel, also a Canadian and generally considered the last-known WWI fighter pilot. According to reports, during 1917/1918, Botterel was smack in the middle of seven confirmed dogfights in his Sopwith Camel and accrued 250 hours of combat.

Audi TT, BMW Z4, Porsche Boxster

For present-day automotive pilots, there are a few four-wheeled portals into the wind-washed and snap-g world Botterel enjoyed when he wasn't in somebody's crosshairs. While you can now forget about owning a Camel, Spad XIII, Nieuport 17, or Fokker D-VII, you could consider the BMW Z4 3.0si, the Porsche Boxster, and Audi's new TT 3.2 Quattro Roadster as A-1 substitutes. Doubt it? In banked turns, early fighters pulled about the same 0.95 g the Boxster offers. The later Fokker D-VII's BMW engine was a rotary that produced 185 horsepower and a 124-mph top speed in level flight. Sports-car numbers. Ever wonder about the origins of BMW's stylized blue-and-white badge? A propeller.

Appropriately, then, our Esalen Institute for automotive navel-gazing would be the roads that necklace the artist colony of Idyllwild, California, and descend into the south end of Palm Springs. From there we'd taxi on to the city's delightful Air Museum for a photo shoot among some remarkable historic aircraft.

With Sport cars you start at the top-the folding top. Collapsing the lids on all three of these cars is duck soup, but their differences in doing so are telling glimpses of each one's character. Putting the TT's top up and down is as civilized as it gets: press a button, and it unlocks and quickly collapses. The wind deflector rises electrically, too. The BMW's standard nonpowered soft lid is almost as easy to use: just let your hands become the motors. The Boxster's top requires power for the raising and lowering; your hand does the latching.

This old too-hot, too-cold, just-right pattern extends through the seats-kind of soft (Audi), kind of hard (BMW), just right (Porsche)-and straight into the heart of each car's driving characteristics. While their six-cylinder engines differ by a modest 10 horsepower-Porsche's 245 at 6500 rpm, the Audi's 250 at 6300 rpm, and the BMW's 255 at 6600 rpm-from there, the roads they travel to sports-car nirvana dramatically diverge.