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"Only by the grace of lucky scheduling did we miss the three-day, fourth annual &amp;quot;OutSMARTing The Dragon&amp;quot; event, where dozens, perhaps hundreds, of Smart cars from across North America chug up and down the Tail of the Dragon, the 11-mile, 318-turn stretch of Highway 129 that sits partly in Tennessee, partly in North Carolina, just west of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.   After all, we picked up a 2013 Porsche Boxster S in Atlanta and were looking for a place to wring it out. Where better, we thought, than the famous, infamous Tail of the Dragon?        2013 Porsche Boxster S    Unfortunately, so did about a zillion other people, Smart cars or not. If you haven&amp;#039;t been on Tail of the Dragon in the last 15 years or so, you&amp;#039;ll find it&amp;#039;s like when your favorite little restaurant gets discovered and you can no longer get a table. Tail of the Dragon may not have jumped the shark yet, but Fonzie is sizing up the ramp. Nearly 500,000 vehicles a year traverse the little two-lane road where the speed limit is 30 mph. Since traffic declines considerably during the winter, the Tail is packed during the summer, even\u2014as we found out\u2014on weekdays.        2013 Porsche Boxster S    We parked the Boxster at the Deal&amp;#039;s Gap Motorcycle Resort, a small motel, general store and service station at the south end of the Tail, a near-mandatory stop for anyone in the area, but open only from March 1 to the end of November. This is where you get a sense of who will be joining you on your trip up and down the Tail\u2014a stunning majority of Harley-Davidson riders, many on rented bikes, here to mark the Tail of the Dragon off their bucket list. If for no other reason, stop at the Resort to see the &amp;quot;Tree of Shame,&amp;quot; where bits and pieces of crashed motorcycles and cars dangle like Christmas ornaments.        2013 Porsche Boxster S    Though outnumbered by bikers, there were some sports cars on the Tail, including a pair of BMW M3s, bristling with GoPro cameras, driven by two German tourists. There was also an older Boxster parked at the Resort\u2014the driver&amp;#039;s girlfriend kept pointing at our 2013 model. The boyfriend refused to acknowledge it.   With virtually no place to pass legally on the Tail, you&amp;#039;ll find 30-mph speed limit actually optimistic as soon as you drive up on a pack of Harley riders, which takes about four of the 318 turns. Or worse, we ended up behind one rag-tag pack of motorcycles trailed by a green Kawasaki dirt bike on knobby tires.        2013 Porsche Boxster S    Adding to the carnival atmosphere are multiple photographers stationed along the Tail, shooting photos of every vehicle that passes, and then posting them on web sites, hoping drivers and riders will log on, see themselves and order photos. Killboy.com has been here since 2001, and the shooters are a great source of information. (See many crashes? &amp;quot;Constantly, a ton,&amp;quot; one said. What&amp;#039;s the weirdest thing you&amp;#039;ve photographed? &amp;quot;A Bugatti Veyron, driven by the president of the company.&amp;quot;)   The history of the Tail is impressive\u2014part of Thunder Road, the 1958 Robert Mitchum moonshining movie, was filmed there. So were scenes from the 1971 James Taylor period piece Two Lane Blacktop, starring a 1955 Chevrolet. The road has been there for decades, but not until 1992 was it officially &amp;quot;discovered&amp;quot; by bikers and sports car enthusiasts. In 2000, the Tailofthedragon.com web site went live, and it&amp;#039;s a must for those planning a trip to the Tail.        2013 Porsche Boxster S    It&amp;#039;s also a road that can hurt you\u2014the Tailofthedragon.com site has a map with motorcycle rider fatalities dating back to 1995, and some of the succinct accounts of deaths are a bit chilling\u2014&amp;quot;August 11, 2011: Sportbike rider run over by 18-wheeler at mile marker 5.&amp;quot; It appears 2009 was the deadliest year\u2014five motorcyclists were killed in the 11-mile stretch. According to the Blount County, Tennessee, Sheriff&amp;#039;s Office, there have been 27 fatalities since 2002.   We spent seven hours on the Tail\u2014during which, incidentally, we never saw a police car\u2014but we left, realizing we&amp;#039;d learned nothing about the 2013 Boxster S, except that it putts along nicely at 30 mph.   Fortunately, there are plenty of other primo roads nearby where a car like the Boxster S can stretch its legs.        2013 Porsche Boxster S    The base 2013 Boxster has a 2.7-liter 265-bhp horizontally opposed 6-cylinder engine, and\u2014having spent a week in the car\u2014we can tell you that it&amp;#039;s no slouch. The Boxster S bumps the 6-cylinder engine up to 315 bhp, and 266 lb.-ft. of torque, compared to the base engine&amp;#039;s 206 lb.-ft. That extra torque, coupled with the optional 7-speed Porsche Doppelkupplung dual-clutch transmission, hereafter referred to as the PDK, gives the feeling of much more than 315 horses, from a dead stop to well into the triple-digit top speed.   The 2013 Boxster S is a sweet, viceless car, but this powertrain is the heart of the package. There are a lot of &amp;quot;variables&amp;quot; in this engine\u2014VarioCam Plus variable valve timing and lift, Variable Resonance intake manifold\u2014and at full acceleration, preferably with the top lowered, the exhaust note is just intoxicating, as all these variables line up and create a yowl that had the locals peeking out their front doors, expecting something far more exotic.        2013 Porsche Boxster S    We hesitate to mention this because it seems so out of character, but as we climbed steep inclines at normal speed, the exhaust sound changes to one that mimics a Dodge Ram truck with a Cummins diesel, and we mean that as a compliment. The sounds this Porsche makes are just fascinating.   Inside, our Boxster S had plenty of room for two adults\u2014width, after all, is nearly 71 in.\u2014with ample cubbyholes for storage. Most sports car owners would be happy with the space in the Boxster&amp;#039;s front or rear trunk, but combined, the nearly 10 cu. ft. seems downright generous.   The seats in the test car were superb, but they should be, as the leather-covered Adaptive Sports Seats were a $5265 option\u2014on top of the $2455 Porsche charged for the leather, plus another $730 for seat ventilators. If you get the idea that the Boxster S&amp;#039;s window sticker can add up quickly, you&amp;#039;re right: More about that in a moment.        2013 Porsche Boxster S    On the highway, the Boxster S serves up a surprisingly supple ride, unless you insist on hitting the &amp;quot;Sport&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;Sport Plus&amp;quot; buttons. We used Sport in the mountains, as Sport Plus stiffens up the ride considerably and makes the PDK shift in such an aggressive manner that the car seemed nervous. Sport Plus is useful on a racetrack\u2014and it worked quite well during lapping sessions at Barber Motorsports Park during the Boxster&amp;#039;s initial press introduction\u2014but in any other application, unless you are 18 years old and insist on cranking the stereo up to 11, and keeping your foglights on all day, you will likely find Sport Plus too busy and high-strung for daily driving.   In the hills, steering is spot-on, with just the right feedback and effort. The big brakes\u201413-in. vented rotors up front, 11.8-in. in the back, both with 4-piston calipers\u2014are linear in feel and stayed cool even during track sessions. The 20-in. Pirelli tires\u2014an inch larger than standard on the S\u2014were quiet and grippy even in the rain. At just over 3100 lb., the Boxster S feels particularly light on its feet. We shifted the PDK manually on occasion, but when it&amp;#039;s left to shift on its own you&amp;#039;ll be startled by how perceptive the PDK is. With no need to shift manually, you can turn your full attention to the winding road, and at times, it needed all the attention we could spare. (This may be a good place to apologize to the driver of the John Deere 6D tractor on Highway 19, and we hope you had time to go back and get your cap.)        2013 Porsche Boxster S    The power soft-top lowers quickly\u2014you can even raise and lower it while moving at slow speeds\u2014and stows beneath a hard cover. With the top down, wind buffeting is moderate, even with the porous diffuser in place. That diffuser limits your rear view, which is already trimmed by the Boxster&amp;#039;s high rear haunches. With the top up, you&amp;#039;ll rely heavily on mirrors and be amazed at how quiet it is inside. This may be the quietest soft-top convertible sports car we&amp;#039;ve driven.   For our 800-mile trip, we averaged nearly 21 mpg, and that includes a lot of spirited driving. We genuinely like the 2013 Boxster S, and consider it to be, for the first time, a legitimate alternative to a 911. At the starting price of $60,900 ($11,400 more than the base Boxster), plus $950 in shipping, it&amp;#039;s almost a bargain. But our loaded-up Boxster S listed for a sobering $88,585, and you can option out a Boxster to over $100,000\u2014which moves it into legitimate 911 territory.   Aside from one makeover, this is the first genuinely new Boxster since its 1997 introduction. To say it&amp;#039;s a success is an understatement. But watch those options closely. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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