'SCUSE ME WHILE I KISS THE SKY; There will be no purple haze on the days you drive this Saturn.(Saturn information)

Byline: MARK VAUGHN

That high-powered turbocharged Saturn Sky Red Line shown at New York ("Big Time in the Big Apple,'' April 17) sounds mighty promising, with 260 hp and 260 lb-ft of torque. Problem is it doesn't come out until this fall and we haven't driven it yet. But don't let that stop you from reaching for the base Sky, which we drove just a few days ago. It shares a basic chassis and powertrain with its Pontiac Solstice fraternal twin but has more standard features as well as slightly softer shocks.

Now hang on, slightly softer can be good. In fact, it had us asking ourselves a very interesting question: Is the more comfortable Sky a better handler, or are we just getting soft ourselves?

After much consideration and lots of driving, we say yes to both. The purpose of a sports car suspension is to keep as much tire on the ground for as long as possible, something the Sky may do better than the Solstice. We have no empirical data to back that up, only a week of driving it around Los Angeles, seeking out empty, twisty roads.

To find empty, twisty roads in Los Angeles meant lots of time late at night on Mulholland Drive. We had to time it so we would be up there after the retired Hollywood moguls had already walked their poodles and gone in to watch Jake and the Fat Man, but not so late that the most recent 14th runner-up on American Idol would wipe us out on his or her way to a newly bought McMansion.

It was at these times that we were surprised-pleasantly and thoroughly so-by how well the Sky tracks through Mulholland's third-gear sweepers. Pick a line, ease the wheel over and the Sky sets to it-no undulatory shenanigans as the uneven pavement rolls past underneath.

The main difference in the Solstice/Sky suspensions is the Sky has shorter jounce bumpers, which allow for more uninterrupted wheel travel. The actual wheel travel itself is the same, but on the Saturn it is not interrupted as soon by the jounce bumper and can therefore progress more softly and smoothly than it does on the Pontiac. The springs and sway bars are the same.