80 FORD ESCORT RS2000
Rear-drive Escorts are easy to understand, and utterly faithful with simple suspension and sublime steering. Add a super-slick gearchange and light weight and you have the ideal old-school entertainer, as any 1970s rally driver will tell you. The mk1 saw the crude but undoubtedly torquey 2-litre engine replace the highly-strung dohc 1.6 from the RS1600 for pace without pain. Valuable today, a joy forever. The mk2 version (shown here) had the iconic slanting nose and quad headlamps.

Layout: Front-engine, rear-drive Engine: In-line 4-cyl, 1993cc Power: 110bhp Top speed: 110mph 0-60: 8.9sec Years: 1975-80

79 FERRARI 612 SCAGLIETTI
It’s huge: 16ft long, 6ft 5in wide. It’s heavy: 1840kg. Few would call it beautiful. But the 612 is the incredible shrinking car, its epic V12 shrugging off the mass with a saxophonic wail, its steering precise and quick once past the rubberiness, the nose hooking into corners, the tail powering through as the F1 paddle-shift disguises the forces at work below. Curiously addictive.

Layout: Front-engine, rear-drive Engine: V12, 5748cc Power: 533bhp Top speed: 199mph 0-60: 4.3sec Years: 2003-

78 LANCIA FULVIA HF
Along with the Cooper S, a 1960s powerhouse of front-wheel-drive fun, with a snorty, revvy, narrow-angle V4, five gears and discs all round. Feels nose-heavy at low speeds; becomes fabulously poised at speed as understeer vanishes and feel floods through the steering. It’s wonderfully benign when you lift off, astonishingly adhesive for its time. No wonder it kept winning rallies.

Layout: Front-engine, front-drive Engine: V4, 1584cc Power: 115bhp Top speed: 112mph 0-60: 9.2sec Years: 1968-72

77 WIESMANN GT MF5
It’s the quality of intereaction between driver and machine that gets under your skin. The savagely loud BMW M5 V10 is real edge-of-madness stuff. As is the acceleration it unleashes in such a light car. The Wiesmann feels fantastically nimble and, mostly thanks to its terrific body control, is dynamite to hustle down a challenging road. The way it feels both sharp and supple is very classy.

Layout: Front-engine, rear-drive Engine: V10, 4999cc Power: 500bhp Top speed: 193mph 0-60: 3.8sec Years: 2007-

76 MINI COOPER S
The mk1 version of the New Mini is our choice. It’s not as BMW as Germany would have you believe, being engineered almost entirely in the UK. The supercharger, whining like the original Mini’s geartrain, is the making of the crude Chrysler-descended four-pot, and gives the Mini the muscle to match its chuckability and directness. Mini GP version is a total hoot, and both are somehow purer than today’s S.

Layout: Front-engine, front-drive Engine: In-line 4-cyl, 1598cc, supercharged Power: 163bhp Top speed: 135mph 0-60: 7.1sec Years: 2001-06

75  PEUGEOT 106 RALLYE
God, what a laugh… a tiny terror with a manically revvy 1.3, seemingly no weight, absolutely no luxuries and a tail waggier than a puppy-dog’s. Aim at bend, brake, chuck at corner, catch tail in an instant, revel in the sheer immediacy of the thing. Every learner driver should have a lesson in a Rallye, preferably a mk1 because it’s lighter. Makes today’s 500 Abarth seem stolid.

Layout: Front-engine, front-drive Engine: In-line 4-cyl, 1294cc Power: 100bhp Top speed: 118mph 0-60: 9.3sec Years: 1994-96

74 BMW E39 M5
Musclepower massively enhanced over the previous, straight-six M5, with V8 power installed to create an addictively understated hot-rod. Glorious sound, sublimely driftable handling, a proper manual gearbox, and you can take the whole family with you for the ride. Most people wouldn’t even know what it is, so you can be discreet with your indulgences too.

Layout: Front-engine, rear-drive Engine: V8, 4941cc Power: 400bhp Top speed: 155mph 0-60: 4.9sec Years: 1999-03

73 PORSCHE 959
It looks a strange mutant today but this, with the F40, was the state of the mid-80s supercar art. Twin sequential turbos, four-wheel drive with electronic torque-split and active dampers make it a technofest of efficiency; all the 911 virtues of traction and pointability with none of the vices. Well, that’s the theory; in reality it’s not as well composed nor as tactile as more recent generations of 911s. Still massively quick, of course, easily as fast as a modern Turbo… but maybe that cleverness gets in the way of real thrills.

Layout: Rear-engine, 4wd Engine: Flat-6, 2850cc, twin-turbo Power: 450bhp Top speed: 197mph 0-60: 3.7sec Years: 1987-90

72 TVR TUSCAN MK2
This is the post-2005 Tuscan with minor tweaks to calm the chassis, but it’s still an engagingly fierce beast with an explosive straight-six engine and massive oversteer potential. Power is easy to modulate, the gearshift is meaty, the steering is ultra-quick but smooth in its responses. The Tuscan is about sound, vision (it’s almost surreal, outside and in), thrust and feel. A heady mix. And a special mention for the Convertible, which felt almost like an updated Griffith, it was that good.

Layout: Front-engine, rear-drive Engine: In-line 6-cyl, 3996cc Power: 400bhp Top speed: 185mph 0-60: 4.0sec Years: 2005-07

71 MCLAREN F1
Still the most single-minded, uncompromising supercar ever built, and blessed with almost certainly the greatest engine ever fitted to a road car. Gordon Murray, hater of excess weight, lover of efficiency and creator of the F1, said at the time that it was the best drivers’ car ever. It’s not quite – the steering’s too heavy, the brakes too dead-feeling, and it can be quite an intimidating car to drive quickly. But with 627bhp to hurtle a ton, a perfectly central driving position and minimal dimensions, it is still an utterly fabulous thing.

Layout: Mid-engine, rear-drive Engine: V12, 6064cc Power: 627bhp Top speed: 240mph 0-60: 3.2sec Years: 1994-98

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