This is a good day to be in Detroit, especially if you like to go topless.

Porsche unveiled its 2012 911 Carrera Cabriolet today at the Detroit Auto Show, demonstrating its ongoing commitment to creating some of the sleekest, sportiest cars on the road today. Sharing the same updates given to the Carrera and the Carrera S for the new year, this beauty looks fantastic with the top down – as if it were made for the open road on a sunny day. (Which, technically, I guess it was!) The top offers smooth, superbly easy retraction with a touch of a button below the gear selector, but it can also be dropped through the use of the remote key fob. It’s a beauty to behold, but as we all know – even with global warming, that top has to come back up at some point.

And that’s where the Cabriolet truly distinguishes itself. While most convertibles lose their sleekness once the cloth top returns, the Carrera Cabriolet is designed to incorporate the car’s innate sleekness into the design of the convertible top. Gone is the boxy, bulky look that makes us keep those convertibles hidden in cooler months; the sleek new design integrates the look of a hard-top into the easy grace of a lightweight fabric top. In fact, the Cabriolet’s soft-top arch is so well designed that it looks almost as good with the top up as with the top down.

Almost.

Porsche has given us a lot of reasons to love it over the years. But now, the company is taking that love affair to the next level with the launch of its 911 GT3 racecar.

The new GT3, which boasts a unique hybrid technology created specifically for racing, has two electric motors on the front axle. Unlike hybrid daily drivers, which rely on heavy batteries, the 911 GT3 hybrid has an electrical flywheel power generator that sits next to the driver to deliver energy.

As a racecar, the Porsche 911 boasts an enviable racing pedigree that includes more than 20,000 wins, and the introduction of this hybrid at the Geneva Motor Show next month will open a new chapter for the marque.

Even better for us non-helmet wearing drivers is the hope that this technology will eventually make its way into the road-ready sports cars that we love so dearly. A girl can dream, can’t she?

One of the biggest conflicts facing many auto enthusiasts comes from knowing the atrocities that their vehicles commit upon the environment.

While I won’t drink from a landfill-clogging plastic bottle, I will happily jump inside a gas-guzzling sports car with a carbon footprint that rivals Bigfoot. I know it’s wrong.

And I know I’m not alone in this conflict.

About a year ago, I was talking about cars and biodiesel fuel with Larry Hagman (J.R. Ewing to you “Dallas” fans…) and he touted his passion for the Prius. Yep, the man who played the King of Oil in the ’80s drives a hybrid. His wife, Maj, meanwhile, confessed to absolutely loving her Ferrari – even though she knows it doesn’t fall in the eco-friendly category. Not even close. So what’s a girl to do?

Up until now, the options have either been to park it and assuage your guilt, or ignore that pesky conscience and hit the gas. But Fisker Automotive has a better plan.

The California-based car company first introduced its prototype, the Fisker Karma, five months ago at the North American International Auto Show. Since then, they’ve received some 500 orders for the luxury hybrid car, which is slated to be on the market in 2009. The company plans to hit a production schedule of 1,250 cars per month in 2010.

The numbers are impressive – this plug-in hybrid will hit 125 mph in sport mode, and tops out at 95 mph in electric (or “stealth”) mode. And the styling lets you know that this is no ordinary plug-in. With a sleek, low-slung profile, the Karma hugs the ground and stands about as tall as the Porsche 911 and is about as wide as BMW’s M-series cars.

The Fisker Karma goes from 0-60 in less than six seconds, and includes a full-length solar roof to help charge the car – and keep it cool – while it’s parked.

Inside, you’ll find all the electronic creature comforts required for today’s driver, including a built-in navigation system, DVD system and state-of-the art push-button controls. Of course, we’ve yet to see how this dream car translates from the showroom to the open road, but it looks like one of the most promising things to jump off the drawing board in quite some time.

And with a price point of $80,000, it’s easier on the checkbook than many sportsters out there – even before you start saving money on fuel.

Great styling and performance without the guilt? Now that’s what I call great Karma! Maj Hagman, I think your car is calling…