KONA N, THE BARBARIAN

TO SHAKE DOWN WHAT WE CONSIDER THE FIRST AFFORDABLE PERFORMANCE SUV, WE MAKE A TRIP TO THE CHEROHALA SKYWAY.

-  EZRA DYER

ON THE CHEROHALA SKYWAY, sometimes the corners go on for so long, it feels like you're driving up the side of a spiral ham. There are no gas stations, no convenience stores, and no apparent reasons for this 43-mile ribbon of pavement to exist. It connects Tellico Plains, Tennessee, with Robbinsville, North Carolina, two places that their own residents might admit never needed connecting. They weren't until 1996, when the skyway was completed after 34 years of construction that cost about $100 million.

The whole thing actually started with a joke in the late '50s, when a Kiwanis Club organized a wagon train across the mountains. But you know how jokes get out of hand-someone makes an offhand comment, and next thing you know, you're kicking off a three-decade construction project. Or perhaps someone at Hyundai says, "We should make a 286-hp Kona that terrorizes Volkswagen GTIS," and before they can say, "Just kidding," the factory is tooling up for the Kona N, which hits 60 mph in 4.8 seconds, pulls 0.95 g on the skidpad, and has an exhaust that sounds like a stand-up Jet Ski powered by illegal fireworks. It's just the thing for a road that looks like the best sections of Virginia International Raceway on shuffle. For 43 miles.

The Cherohala's remoteness means most of us will face a healthy drive to get there. But it offers a drive that's worth the drive, and the Kona N can rein in its wildness and play the part of reasonable transportation when you just need to get somewhere. Cork up the active exhaust, set the adjustable dampers to their softest setting, tell the transmission and differential to relax, and click off the miles. Then, when you get to where you're going, undo all of that and let the N show its true self.