This is the car I would deem Perfect For a Weekend Road Trip for Two.

While up at GM's Milford Proving Ground this week (see yesterday's post for details), I test drove the Saturn Sky and its sister car, the Pontiac Solstice. Personally I found the Solstice a little too soft looking and soft driving. The Sky, with it's stronger lines and more aggressive feel, was definitely more fun to take around the test track.

A true roadster, the Sky Redline boasts an Ecotec turbocharged 2.0L engine, GM's first direct-injection offering in North America, and the most powerful production engine in the Ecotec family, producing 260 horsepower that rockets this small, pit bull of a car off the line. Big 18-inch alloy wheels, performance-tuned suspension and StabiliTrak electronic stability control keep you tight in the curves, even at faster-than-you-should-be-going speeds. Not once did I feel like the Sky's back end was going to let loose on me. (No comment to GM's reps on how fast I was going.)

Inside, ...There's more

I spent yesterday as a guest of GM up at the Milford Proving Grounds, test driving their new '08 vehicles. (They paid my way up there, handed me the keys to anything I wanted to drive, then turned me loose on their test track. Someone's probably getting fired as I write this.)

Over the next several days I'll be posting on the cars I drove. Cars that work for different guys and their lifestyles.

Today's car is the new Chevy Tahoe Two-mode Hybrid. Perfect if you spend a lot of time hauling gear and friends around - and don't want to have to stop every few miles to fuel up.

I know. "Hybrid" brings to mind tiny little cars driven by guys with nose rings and alt-rock on their iPods. But this is 2008. And GM is planning to roll out hybrids for most of its vehicles. Including trucks and SUVs. The two-mode hybrid system is the one they designed for use on transit buses back in 2003 and is optimized for both city and highway driving. In the first mode, at low speed and light loads, the Tahoe can operate in three ways: electric power only, engine power only or in any combination of engine and electric power. When operating with electric power only, it provides all the fuel-savings benefits of a full hybrid system. About 25 percent more fuel efficiency. I'm not saying it's anywhere near close to what you'd get in a Prius, but then have you ever tried towing a boat and heading to the lake with five guys in a Prius? Exactly.

And if you think because it's a hybrid you'll have to sacrifice power, the 332-horsepower Vortec V-8 engine will change your mind. ...There's more