Fast-Car Nation: A Buyer's Guide - 2000 model sports cars - Evaluation

I like the looks of a lot of BMW vehicles, but I'm less keen on the protruding, raptor snout of the Z3. Happily, however, this superb driving car's aggressive, retro look is more than matched by its capabilities. Anyway, once I'm inside the car, all I can see is the road ahead--and the string of cars left in my wake.

INFINITI Q45

For car enthusiasts, the Infiniti story is a straightforward tale. For a luxury vehicle, the Infiniti originally had a rather aggressive orientation as regards performance, technology (for instance, an active suspension), design (the first iterations flaunted their absence of a faux grille), and even advertising (who can forget the ill-fated campaign introducing the marque, which deliberately eschewed showing the car itself?). Infiniti, the luxury division of Nissan, entered the market the same year, 1989, as Lexus (Toyota), but did not enjoy comparable commercial success, despite fine reviews in Road & Track, Car & Driver, Automobile and other car magazines. Over time, the marque shifted the performance-luxury balance more toward the latter quality: to employ a Teutonic metaphor--less BMW, more Mercedes. Today, the flagship Infiniti Q45 has a list of standard amenities longer than the shadow Michael Jordan cast on the NBA: front-seat side air bags, eight-way driver and front-passenger seats, power-operated rear sunshade, a traction control system and viscous limited-slip differential, Bose 200-watt, eight-speaker AM-FM-cassette and in-dash CD player, and on and on.

So extensive are the Q's standard features that few options are offered (six-disc CD autochanger, heated seats, and an in-vehicle communication system that provides the owner with one-touch calling for emergency assistance). All this luxury is married to a potent V-8 (266 bhp at 5,600 rpm; 278 pound-force feet of torque at 4000 rpm) that provides sufficient performance for any reasonable--and certainly every legal--drive in this country.

Five days of driving the Q45t (Infiniti's sports version, which comes with a sports setting for its foul--speed automatic transmission, larger wheels and enhanced tires) left me thoroughly impressed, particularly with the t's electronically modulated shock control, which uses real-time, independent four-wheel shock absorber damping to minimize body movement in hard cornering. Perhaps when I get a little older and calmer, shifting from Hendrix's guitar to Joe Henderson's sax, I'd buy this car; till then, I hope my parents do and that they then let me drive it.

LEXUS SC 400

Sometimes life confronts you with tough choices: Stay or go? Fight or flight? The brunette or the dark-skinned blonde? ... Oops! I mean, red wine or white? The same is true for the car critic: The Lexus SC 400 or the SC 300? Sure, the 400 has the 32-valve, 290-bhp V-8 kickin' out 300 pound-force feet of torque when the tachometer reads 4000 rpm, along with appointments luxurious enough to appeal to the late King Farouk, but for 14 grand or so less, the 225-bhp V-6 with the short-throw five-speed manual transmission is definitely my choice.