Because the Sportka really is That Kind of Car. One that once you install yourself behind its chubby little steering wheel, clutch its alloy-headed gearlever and feel its willingness to perform way beyond its quoted 94bhp, you simply have to drive like a loon. TKoC only has two speeds; about 90mph everywhere, or else as fast as you can possibly go beyond that.

Sure, stare at a computer read-out of how quick it actually goes and you could be forgiven for sneering, but the 'Sportka effect' has nothing to do with raw data. It's all to do with how this car makes you feel, how its effervescent spirit turns every strip of tarmac into a playground. It's proof in metallic blue tin that you don't necessarily need 500bhp to enjoy yourself on British roads. And, if you were to do your negotiating on a non-SE-spec car, proof that you don't need to spend much more than ΂£9K to get your kicks on the B660.

Our Sportka, however, was a ΂£10,995 SE, and as such came specified with black-n-blue leather trim and air-conditioning. Bob Wright, the man in charge of the Ford press fleet and famous throughout the industry for speccing his cars to the max, also ticked the boxes for the optional metallic paint (΂£300), in-dash 6-CD changer (΂£200) and 'Reflex Pack' (΂£300), which gave us side-impact airbags and a turn-offable passenger front airbag. That little selection brought the total up to ΂£11,795. Personally, I'd do without the two-tone hide and metallic paint, but the air-con would have to stay.

At a magazine like evo, a lot of exotic metal comes through the car park. Which means that cars like the Sportka - though subject to rave reviews and mountains of initial enthusiasm - tend to get shoved to the outer edges of our collective consciousness ('it's a hoot, but I think I'll take the Porsche tonight'). Unforgivable, of course, except that it does lead to the surprise factor.

The surprise factor is when guys in the office who haven't driven the Ford in a while have a go and realise why they rated it so highly in the first place. It's also when contributors like David Yu and Tony Bailey, forced into having a go because it's the evo year-end Fast Fleet shindig, begrudgingly take the wheel and have their preconceptions about what constitutes a truly fun car mushed into a new, smaller, cheaper shape.

It was the same thing with the Puma - few people would really believe that it was that good - but with the Sportka there seems to be general good will. Frankly, even as one of the converted, I would have forgiven people for assuming it's some visually-enhanced form of girl's car (sorry ladies), but even in my neck of the Suffolk-Norfolk border the little blue bomber had respect from all quarters - not just the backwards baseball-cap boys, but the genuine enthusiasts, too.

One of my great regrets during my tenure of EX03 UEW was that I didn't get to go to the N΃¼rburgring with Graham Morison and a group of his fellow Sportka-owning engineers from Jaguar. The little Ford was on their company car list and was of such a quality that they knew instinctively where to take it. Other evo readers may not have had the 'Ring in their sights, but the feedback on Sportka ownership was 100 per cent positive. Universally, what appealed was the fact that you don't need to go Subaru-quick to really enjoy yourself.

Okay, so you can go briskly and have a kickin' time with just 94bhp - anything you should know about the practical side of Sportka ownership? Well, you soon don't notice - or care - that the dash is made of grotty plastic; with careful packing and the rear seats folded, you can squeeze in lots of gear; the short-ish gearing simply isn't an issue on the motorway because the ICE is plenty loud enough and the engine seldom sounds coarse; you can expect the tyres to last about 15,000 miles even if you drive in the manner that the Sportka encourages; keep an eye on the oil consumption coming up to the first service. And don't expect, no matter how carefully you drive, to get anything more than 34mpg from the 1.6-litre engine.

It's common in long-term test reports to express sadness at the departure of your four-wheeled playmate, but I'm afraid I can't avoid the clich΃© - I'm genuinely going to miss the Sportka. For its size and its price and its power output it's a top-class entertainer with a real depth of ability; if it's budget fun you're after, there's not much to touch it.