20 FERRARI 550 MARANELLO
Before the sublime 599 GTB Fiorano there was the 550 Maranello (later the more powerful 575) and they’re miraculous, too: so accessible, so friendly and so practical you can’t help but want one badly – especially the 550. It’s a bona fide full-fat V12 Ferrari with a superbly positive gearchange and an almost absurdly driftable chassis. All pleasure, no pain.

Layout: Front-engine, rear-drive Engine: V12, 5474cc Power: 485bhp Top speed: 199mph 0-60: 4.3sec Years: 1997-2002

19 LOTUS ELISE
The Elise possesses an immediacy and connectedness you simply don’t experience with other sports cars. Drive one and very few other cars will seem remotely as direct. The steering, in particular, is sublimely pure and precise. And you don’t need to drive it fast for it to feel special. That comes from the immediacy of the controls and the sensational ride, almost racer- firm yet supple. S1 is a modern classic.

Layout: Mid-engine, rear-drive Engine: In-line 4-cyl, 1796cc Power: 118bhp Top speed: 126mph 0-60: 6.1sec Years: 1996-00

18 FERRARI 360 CHALLENGE STRADALE
It might be, in essence, a 360 with a loud exhaust, stripped- out cabin and stickier tyres, but the mods unleash the beast within. Driving the CS flat-out is an adrenalin rush like little else. The extra noise, bite, response, grip and braking power – those ceramic stoppers are immense – make an already addictive driving experience completely intoxicating. Blinding chassis, too. At speed, the steering becomes fluid and razor sharp.

Layout: Mid-engine, rear-drive Engine: V8, 3586cc Power: 420bhp Top speed: 186mph 0-60: 4.1sec Years: 2003-04

17 FERRARI 599 GTB FIORANO
Immediately reassuring for a car with over 600bhp driving through the rear wheels are the sense of balance and seemingly limitless reserves of poise. This, along with weighty, communicative steering that commands genuinely fast, accurate turn-in and terrific front-end bite, makes the 599 feel more agile than seems possible for a car that weighs 1690kg. And the big Ferrari gets better the faster you go. The pace preserved through fast but tricky bends is stunning, braking power no less impressive. Best of all, switch the Manettino to its ‘all off’ setting and the 599 HGTE can be held in a long, languid power-slide. 

Layout: Front-engine, rear-drive Engine: V12, 5999cc Power: 611bhp Top speed: 205mph 0-60: 3.5sec Years: 2006-

16 AUDI R8
Perhaps the R8’s greatest asset is its dynamic cohesion: the exquisite helm feel, huge grip, brilliantly judged damping and the almost vicious top-end energy of its gem-like V8 or even greater broadband slam of the V10. The bottom line is the R8 can corner at a quite ridiculous lick, all the time feeding back  information about the road surface to the rim of the wheel. Its transient responses are little short of phenomenal. It scythes through challenging ess-bends with frankly amazing speed and precision. Oh yes, and it does big skids, too.

Layout: Mid-engine, 4wd Engine: V8, 4163cc Power: 414bhp Top speed: 187mph 0-60: 4.1sec Years: 2007-

15 FERRARI 430 SCUDERIA
Phenomenal: 503bhp and 347lb ft spat at the tarmac in rapid-fire chunks of nape-tingling fury just 60 milliseconds apart. The exhaust note at flat chat is loud and penetrating enough to blow chunks off nearby buildings and curdle milk. This isn’t an engine, it’s a noise weapon: extraordinary, unforgettable, dangerous. The steering is exceptionally direct and precise. There’s a little deadness at low speed, but once it sheds that it becomes decently meaty and scalpel sharp. Although the Scuderia’s handling is at least partly prescribed by chassis electronics, the dynamic proposition it presents is pure and honest, stripped of frills and peripheral distractions.

Layout: Mid-engine, rear-drive Engine: V8, 4308cc Power: 503bhp Top speed: 198mph 0-60: 3.5sec Years: 2007-

14 FORD GT
A Mustang-based supercharged 5.4-litre V8 doesn’t sound too promising, but 550bhp and 500lb ft of torque works very nicely, thank you, chewing up long straights, belting out a bellowing, all-American soundtrack. Thumping acceleration, massive retardation and torso-contorting cornering-g flows for mile after mile in the GT. It just eats up the road. Yet the chassis feels so composed and with you. There aren’t many supercars that feel so devastatingly rapid and yet so unerringly friendly.

Layout: Mid-engine, rear-drive Engine: V8, 5409cc, s/c Power: 550bhp Top speed: 205mph 0-60: 3.7sec Years: 2004-06

13 SUBARU IMPREZA RB5 PPP
Pick of the early Scoobies and a dab hand at putting the frighteners on more exotic machinery, the almost magically talented RB5 is a deeply well sorted car. Partly it’s the way it flatters the driver’s skill, partly the way it engenders so much confidence and partly its faintly outrageous pace. Not the fastest Impreza ever in a straight line but certainly the one that feels most in tune with a twisty road.

Layout: Front-engine, 4wd Engine: Flat-4, 1994cc, turbo Power: 237bhp Top speed: 143mph 0-60: 5.0sec Years: 1999

12 FERRARI F40
Arguably the most thrilling, the most challenging and the most rewarding of all Ferrari road cars, shorn of pretty much everything that doesn’t add to its speed or dynamic acuity. Its explosive energy makes it both challenging and exhilarating in equal measure, and because a relatively small turbo engine is so much lighter than a big V12 the car’s weight distribution – and therefore handling balance  – is so much better for that. It’s also light overall for the kind of car it is, and has unassisted steering which is fantastically informative. A true great.

Layout: Mid-engine, rear-drive Engine: V8, 2936cc, turbo Power: 478bhp Top speed: 201mph 0-60: 3.7sec Years: 1987-92

11 PORSCHE 997 GT3 RS
All hunkered-down traction, nuggety bump management and lightning responses, the S1 997 GT3 RS (the very best of all the recent 911s) attacks roads that would cripple the conviction of lesser cars, digging hard into bends, nose bobbing subtly as stiff suspension and stubby profile tyres overwhelm the tail-biased masses to pile on speed through sheer tenacity and talent. But then Porsche knows the middle ground between road car and racer perhaps better than any other car maker. It’s hard to think of another road car that nails the sweet spot between raw-edged trackday tool and everyday usability with the precision of the 997 GT3. Just the right number of comfort layers have been peeled away to reveal the harder, sharper 911 beneath. And it would have made the top ten, were it not for an earlier generation of GT3 that we like even more…

Layout: Rear-engine, rear-drive Engine: Flat-6, 3600cc Power: 409bhp Top speed: 193mph 0-60: 4.2sec Years: 2007-09

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