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The 2001 Mercedes-Benz SLK320 Kompressor is a roadster for the uncommon pocket. As such, it is the perfect car. Considering its price and overall usefulness, it has no practical value except to run. And run it does!

To love it, one also has to love art, especially the art of performance — the way bodies move on stage in dance, the contrapuntal rhythms of jazz, the sheer joy of sound and motion.

There is nothing “practical” about those things, either. Certainly, a number of school boards share that belief. Witness their zeal in stripping music, dance and drama from overburdened school budgets. Art? Who needs it? Dump it.

Such thinking argues against the existence of something like the SLK320, as it does against the Dance Theater of Harlem, the New York City Ballet, Coltrane, B.B. King, Tchaikovsky and Mozart. They are baubles in a practical world.

Fortunately, that mind-set does not rule — yet. It remains okay to invest in uncommon beauty, to spend money on something that does nothing except give joy.

That is the mission of the SLK320, a substantially more powerful version of the 185-horsepower SLK230, introduced in the United States in 1998 with its 2.3-liter four-cylinder engine.

The two-seat SLK320 runs with the 215-horsepower 3.2-liter V-6 found in the larger, four-seat CLK320. It’s an oft-repeated refrain. Take a large engine and stuff it into a small car. Make it zoom! But here it’s done with class and style.

The engine sits atop one of the most responsive suspensions ever installed in a small car. It is a four-wheel independent job, enhanced with double wishbones up front and gas-filled shocks with stabilizer bars front and rear.

Slip-reduction technology, which reduces wheel spin by selective application of brake pressure, helps to keep drivers out of serious trouble on wet and icy roads. There also are traction and electronic stability controls to help maintain balance.

Still, sometimes things get out of hand, prompting the need for emergency braking. As one might expect on a car of this type and expense, anti-lock brakes are standard. But Mercedes-Benz also has installed a patented electronically controlled “Brake Assist” system designed to detect “panic” braking and then apply full braking pressure more quickly and firmly than humanly possible.

There are, of course, all of the expected luxury touches — leather seats, real wood accents, etc. But the touch that is a sublime blend of technology and art is the SLK320’s one-touch power hardtop convertible roof.

Slightly lifting a red button in the center of the floor-mounted console automatically lowers the windows, unlatches the roof, opens a rear hatch, drops the roof into the hatch and then closes the hatch — all in 30 seconds. Doesn’t matter that SLK models have been doing this for three years now. Eyes popped and people gathered whenever I did it.

Again, none of this is ne cessary. Most certainly, that roof is an indulgence. The Audi TT 225 Roadster, a lovely piece of work, has a cloth top that can be manually lowered in about 40 seconds, or perhaps faster by someone more agile. Other roadster rivals — the BMW Z3 and Porsche Boxster S come to mind — also have less technically involved tops, and they offer just as much or more performance at competitive prices.

But art is like that. Value, like beauty, is in the mind of the beholder.

Nuts & Bolts

2001 Mercedes-Benz SLK320 Kompressor Complaints: Rear vision is compromised when the roof is up. The wide rear windshield frame and relatively small windshield, coupled with the standard built-in roll bars behind the seats, create significant blind spots.

Praise: The standard transmission on the SLK320 is a super-smooth six-speed manual that can turn even the most ardent lover of automatics into a shift-clutch fan. The gearshift handle feels good in ha nd. The clutch is extremely responsive. The car allows you to drive and dance at the same time.

Head-turning quotient: Supreme neck snapper. But don’t get excited. Not everyone looking was smiling. There was as much jealousy and tongue-clucking as there was appreciation and applause.

Engine: The SLK320’s V-6 develops 215 horsepower at 5,700 rpm and 229 pound-feet of torque between 3,000 and 4,600 rpm.

Capacities: Seats two, carries very little cargo and holds 15.9 gallons of gasoline (premium unleaded is recommended).

Mileage: About 25 miles per gallon in mostly highway driving.

Price: Base price on the tested 2001 SLK320 Kompressor is $43,900. Dealer invoice price on base model is $40,827. Price as tested is $48,680, including $4,135 in options (for the AMG sport package) and a $645 destination charge. Price does not include applicable taxes and fees.

Purse-strings note: Compare with Audi TT Roadster, Porsche Boxster S and BMW Z3.