Top gear have compiled a list of the 100 fastest cars....
If you've ever snoozed at 35,000ft before finding God in the back of an airport taxi, you'll understand that speed is relative. No 0-60mph here, nor 0-100-0mph, but just the cars that remind us, in the terrifying thick of it, that we are utterly alive.
Lotus 2-Eleven: In a shed in deepest, darkest Norfolk, something very potent is being brewed...
If you've ever got drunk on the heady Lotus product, the potency of the 2-Eleven will be very easy to imagine. As much as we try to deny it, the modern Lotus is governed by one simple equation: a total absence of compromise in the search for speed. This means almost no comfort, practicality or refinement. The Elise is a second car at best, the Exige a third car at a push. So the search leads inexorably to the 2-Eleven, a track-day car that can just about be made road-legal. No air-conditioning and CD players here. Let alone roofs, doors or windscreens.
Weighing a paltry 745kg (just 40kg of that being bodywork) and with 252bhp available from that supercharged 1.8-litre Toyota-sourced engine, the 60mph benchmark comes up in 3.8 seconds and 100mph is done in 9.1. Top speed is 155mph, and will cost from £39,995, with production 'scheduled to commence' sometime around now. Various specs are available from the 'Launch Edition', complete with 'three-way' colour scheme and a decal pack.
'Road Going' with front and rear lights, an exhaust catalyst and a variety of other mods to get it past Plod and the DVLA. The alternative is the 'Track Only' car, with brake lights and rear indicators only, a race seat and high-downforce carbon-fibre rear wing and front splitter. That's the purer hit of hooch, if you're mad enough to swig from either bottle.
Atom Supercharged:
Scaffolding pole meets blown Honda VTEC. The shortest route to track-day terror is via Ariel's superbly tidy and simple design.
Caterham R500:
The end-game for Chapman's Seven. 500bhp per tonne brings the past right up to Ariel's future.
Megane F1:
Unforgiving for daily use, the F1 Edition Megane remains the ulimate hot hatch here.
BMW M3 CSL:
Super-scarce and brutally focused, the CSL remains a triumph of low-volume nutterdom. If only the new M3 looked this good.
LCC Rocket:
Gordon Murray's pricey pet project remains a masterclass in design and finish. He still takes his to France every year.
Radical SR8:
The Nurburgring lap record resides with the SR8 - the closest you can get to running a road-legal race car.
McLaren F1 LM:
Murray again, and this time a true Le Mans legend. Homologation specials can only look on in bewilderment.
Westfield XI:
Fast is relative. A gentle squirt can feel like a chicane-free Mulsanne straight in the XI. Goggles on.
VW Golf MkII:
It's local knowledge that makes this the second fastest car around the 'Ring. Stripped, caged, lowered, untouchable.
Maserati MC12:
Maser's cynical GT racing project is a road car in name only. The Corsa club racer being the one worth having.
Aston MartinV8 Vantage Roadster
Yes, the M6 or SL55 AMG may boast more power but the AM V8 Vantage Roadster makes all the right noises. Few cars at least sound faster than this one.
Propulsion comes from the exact same all-alloy, 4.3-litre V8 as the Vantage coupe, with variable-inlet camshaft timing, a dry sump to drop the centre of gravity and a horsepower tally that would leave this car trailing behind in a pissing contest against the likes of the 507bhp BMW M6 and the 517bhp Mercedes SL55 AMG, not to mention the 612bhp SL65 AMG.
Zero to 60 in 4.9 seconds and a maximum of 175mph, as anyone maintaining the faintest grip on reality would agree, is quick enough for now.
So what has gone so right here? Bounce from drain cover to expansion joint, and no shimmies are sent through the door tops or windscreen surround, no shock waves quaking up through the dashboard.
The Vantage's Bond Street bodywork hides a glued and riveted aluminium chassis that lends itself well to the conversion from coupe to Roadster, with added strengthening webs added inside the sills. The result makes the Roadster impressively rigid for an open car. The huge 355mm front and 330mm rear grooved brake discs, with four-piston calipers, really should provide nothing but reassurance.
Have no doubt, for all its slight 70kg weight gain and extra craving for attention, the Vantage is an even more focused sports car in Roadster form than ever - more a way-upmarket Corvette in feel and intention than a GT of any sort.
Opel GT:
The GT looks quite the classic roadster, made modern with a strong stance and clean-cut edges. The outside panels roll over into a sharp, well-tailored dash design. The interior materials and finish are pretty good - probably better than an MX-5, which shows how far GM has come since the days when all its American interiors were made of throwaway plastics, held together with spittle and hope.
Up front is a four-cylinder, 2.0-litre turbo engine kicking out a very spicy 260bhp and 260lb ft, thanks to a twin-scroll turbo, direct petrol injection and twin variable cam-phasing. It has two balancer shafts too. It's hooked up to a five-speed manual - no need for six when the torque is spread this widely. A limited-slip diff takes care of traction, and suspension is by double wishbones.
Most of the body's strength comes from separate steel side structures plus cross-members - a bit like a Corvette understructure. You can feel the rigidity when you drive it: the body hardly quivers, even over the lowest-budget American roads.
Trouble is, all these beams and girders swallow up so much of the car, there's hardly any room left for you, and none at all for your stuff. But hang on, roadsters are meant to be about fun, not cargo capacity. The big tyres keep a claw-like grip, so you can travel at true sports-car speeds. It's a swift, smooth cruiser, rather than a hectic roadburner.
Honda NSX-R: Purer than the driven snow. And a bit whiter too.
Probing the bods at Honda has revealed that the number of NSX-Rs in the UK has reached the grand total of one. And that was bought at a hefty premium off their press department.
Pared down, stiffened up and sharpened to the absolute limit of road-going acceptability, the NSX-R is a supercar with added focus, purified to the point of perfection. And the limited few were only ever finished in white.
Lamborghini Countach: The shape that sexualised motoring for a generation of hormonal adolescents
Mitsubishi Evo VI Makinen: Last of the proper WRC-winning Evos
Tommi won his fourth consecutive World Rally Championship in an Evo VI and this limited edition celebrated the victory. It was the last of the group A homologated Lancers - and the best. From the VII on, Mitsu's WRC performance fell away, the Yanks discovered it and everything got even tackier.
Mercedes CL63 AMG: A clipped Lear Jet of sorts. Thirstier though
There are different kinds of fast and we're picking over them all here. There's breathless supercar acceleration, there's Evo-style, cross-country pace. But the environment that Merc has always owned, and nowhere more convincingly than with the CL63 AMG, is unending, unfaltering speed.
With a 525bhp V8 upfront on an S-Class chassis, this is the only coupe to cross continents in. In a hushed whisper you sit at obscene speeds as mile after mile of derestricted autobahn disappears beneath you. And you emerge as fresh as the moment when you turned the key.
AC Cobra MkII 289
The history of Carroll Shelby shoe-horning big Yank V8s into the little AC Ace is well-documented, but the moment when it all truly came together - beautiful looks and manageable muscle - was with the MkII 289. Only 528 were ever made and you'll need to find over £200,000 to take one home today.
Toyota Supra Turbo
Three-litre straight-six twin-turbo nutter drift car tuned to 1,000bhp by loonies, but it's still great with 'only' the standard 320bhp.
BMW M6: History the Germans can actually be proud of
Far removed from the fundamentals of driving as it is, a new V10 paddle-shift M6 pales beside the original 'E24'. Fitted with a modified version of the straight-six from the M1 supercar, it was devastatingly quick throughout its production. Tough, agile, practical and understated, few cars made more sense then, and fewer do now.
Aston Martin V8 Vantage: British bulldog, with bite to match its bark
Aston's current resurgence, as impressive and commercially successful as it may be, will never quite touch the bygone coachbuilt era that spawned the original V8 Vantage. Hailed as Britain's first supercar, the Vantage was a 5.3-litre ogre with a 170mph top speed reached through an agricultural, dog-legged, ZF gearbox.
But despite brutal underpinnings, the interior was hand-finished to an extraordinary standard, with plush Connolly leather and high-gloss wood trim everywhere. Built from 1977 until 1989, the Vantage attained classic status in its own lifetime.
Jaguar XK140: Performance without the paraphernalia
For the last four years of its late Fifties production, the dominant force of Jaguar's XK120 evolved into the 140, so named after the staggering top speed it eked from its 190bhp 4.2-litre inline six. Bigger brakes, rack and pinion steering and more modern shock absorbers were all that really separated it from the 120, and both still enjoy a hallowed reputation today.
Lotus Exige S: Proper overwrought, underweight Lotus straight from the old school
The S is the latest and greatest Exige, and one of the best track cars ever made. It's been bumped out of our Track Car Specials section by the new Lotus 2-Eleven, but leaving the Exige out of this list altogether would have been a criminal act, so here it is.
The S has a Toyota 2ZZ-GE normally-aspirated 1.8-litre four with variable-valve timing - it produces 190bhp at 7,800rpm and has a throttle response sharp enough to cut human flesh. The Exige chassis is stiffer than an Elise's and gives you positive downforce at speed, thanks to a smooth underbody, a rear diffuser and that excellent rear wing. It weighs 935kg - nothing, in other words. If you want to destroy supercars on a twisty track, use this.
Renault GTA: Overambitious, under-engineered, fragile, plastic, French. Just what we need to worry Porsche
The Eighties was a motoring decade utterly dominated in the public perception by Porsche and Ferrari, but a little-known French manufacturer was trying its hardest to stick it up Stuttgart.
Alpine's GTA - badged in Britain as a Renault and sold through the company's established dealerships - was a genuine foil to the 911s of its day, with ultra-lightweight polycarbonate bodywork and Renault's 2.7-litre V6 mounted right on the rear. Handling is still legendary and pace was aplenty back then, especially from the later 3.0-litre turbo.
Audi S8
An all-but-unknown quantity until it quickly achieved cult status in Ronin's epic car chase.
Audi RS4
Another Audi. They do Q-cars like no other, jamming a V8 into a small saloon.
Maybach 62S
Bigger than a block of flats, but a 612bhp bi-turbo V12 will drag it to 60mph in 5.2 seconds.
Lotus Carlton
A 377bhp twin-turbo Vauxhall with 176mph top speed? Someone was on the loopy juice.
Lancia Thema 8.32
Ferrari engine in an Eighties' Italian rust-bucket? At least no one's going to nick it.
BMW M5 Touring
Remove the limiter and you have an estate car capable of 200mph. Now put it back on.
Subaru Forester XT
Pace and ride height are a peerless B-road combo, and only other farmers have a clue.
Chevy Impala FBI
Upgraded powertrain, handling and brakes make being a security goon quite rewarding.
Volvo 850R
Favoured by our own law for its mixture of grunt, load space and history teacher image.
VW Passat W8
270bhp and four-wheel drive in a car even accountants find boring. Perfect.
BMW M3 E30: The original M3 defined the genre - thank God it was good
The first BMW M3 was built as a homologation special. As such, it ranks as one of BMW's best-ever translations of racing technology to the road - buy an E30 and you're getting the basis of the car that F1 journeyman Eric van de Poele won the DTM with in 1987. This is what makes the E30 so extraordinary - not that it handled so sweetly, with a poise and delicacy that few could match.
Nor that the four-year production run sold out in one year. Nor that it made up to 220bhp from its compact 2.3-litre engine. No, what sets the E30 apart is that it laid the precedent, the benchmark, for every 'M' car since. The chief reason the next M3 needs to be quite so good as it has to, is this.
Lancia Delta Integrale Evo: Five times world rally champion - not slow then
It's the export figures of the Lancia Delta Integrale that speak volumes. Nearly half of the 10,000 built were shipped abroad - despite Lancia's iffy reputation outside Italy. And the later Evo versions were the fastest of the lot.
215bhp and 231lb ft aren't to be sniffed at, even today, but back in the early Nineties that was enough to send the 'Grale chasing supercars. Add to that, massive grip and sublime steering, and you've got one of the fastest A-to-B cars ever.
Corvette Z06: Fast American that cuts it on the track and the road.
We'll avoid the cliches about the leaf spring rear suspension here. After all, Corvette has made them carbon on the Z06. Instead, you need to concentrate on the sheer grunt of this thing. 198mph, 505bhp, 3.7 seconds from 0-60mph. That's seriously quick no matter what's buried under the rear arches.
But the Z06 does more than straight line speed, because, finally, the Americans have created a car that also goes around corners. The Corvette is practically unbeatable in its class at Le Mans (five wins since 2001) thanks to the simple design which makes reliability so good. Final proof? It lapped the TG track in 1m 22s.
Honda Civic Type R
The new Type R is still causing debate amongst fans of its predecessor, for whom a procrastinated launch created angst akin to a horny teenager anticipating the loss of his virginity. It looks more extreme, but it's softer, no faster, and a tad less involving. Still, it places here due to that deft blend of mad styling, solid performance and great tractability.
Honda Integra Type-R: Superlatives aren't enough for the first R
This is probably the best-handling front-wheel-drive car of all time - a fact that should guarantee the Integra R a spot in this list. The Integra has shades of the Peugeot 205 GTI in the way it tightens its line on throttle lift - it encourages you to push hard with one of the sharpest turn-ins of any car. Add to that a ripping 187bhp, 1.8-litre, VTEC four that revs to 8,500rpm (the best four-cylinder engine ever? Not much argument here) that returns over 30mpg even when thrashed, plus a comfy, roomy interior with scarlet Recaro racing bucket seats, and you have a fast, affordable car that sits with the greats, no matter how expensive or exotic.
Daihatsu Cuore Avanzato TR-XX R4: Crazy Japanese mini-car, even crazier name
Look at the spec before you laugh too hard. Four cylinders, intercooled turbo, 4WD, independent suspension all round, 0-60mph in 8.5secs. Interesting, eh? We won't mention that it's only a 659cc engine because it's far more important to talk about how this 130cm-wide car handled.
It handled really well, that's how it handled - putting its gutsy little dollop of torque down hard onto the road and shooting out of corners fast enough to put repmobiles under serious pressure. No wonder so many were snapped up for rally duty. The Daihatsu Cuore Avanzato TR-XX R4 has now reached near-cult status and, with a name like that, who could be surprised? Felt insanely fast.
Audi R8: A conservative supercar? Time will tell
So new is the R8 that barely anyone round here's actually driven it. It is fast, we know that much, but it's also controversially styled and the first foray by a less than exotic marque into some seriously uncharted high-end waters.
The reality is though, Audi really knows how to go quick these days, and there's precious little wrong with its packaging either. This or a V8 Vantage? Depends if you're a gambling man. One thing's for certain, you'll see a lot more of these around, in part because they won't be always getting mended.
Ford Escort Mexico: You don't have to own a fast car to make ladies in short skirts like you, but it sure does help
Built to celebrate the Escort's first, third, fifth and eighth places in the 1970 London to Mexico rally, the MkI Mexico brought performance to the masses. The Mexico was the Escort Cosworth of that generation and owners were the envy of their neighbours in Seventies suburbia. The power stats weren't incredible - 87bhp and 92lb ft - but what marked out the Mexico was the fact that it was such an affordable package.
After all, the launch price was a paltry £1,150. And once you'd bought one, the fun didn't stop, because the Mexico was so simply designed and engineered that home tuning was almost compulsory.
The Weber twin-choke carburettor was easily tuned to give more power, and there was little doubt about an Escort's reliability after it completed the 17,000-mile rally. But nothing makes you feel faster than the envy of your neighbours. For that, the Mexico delivered.
Dodge Charger
The purists are squealing 'get it out, it's crap' but the cars in this line-up needn't be absolutely fast: feeling fast is enough. Gripping the huge thin-rim wheel, stomping the fat throttle pedal and hanging on as the 425bhp 426 Hemi fires you down the road should feel fast enough in a '67 Charger. Trying to haul the 1,500kg car to a halt using shoe-polish-tin drum brakes will confirm the feeling.
If you've ever snoozed at 35,000ft before finding God in the back of an airport taxi, you'll understand that speed is relative. No 0-60mph here, nor 0-100-0mph, but just the cars that remind us, in the terrifying thick of it, that we are utterly alive.
Lotus 2-Eleven: In a shed in deepest, darkest Norfolk, something very potent is being brewed...
If you've ever got drunk on the heady Lotus product, the potency of the 2-Eleven will be very easy to imagine. As much as we try to deny it, the modern Lotus is governed by one simple equation: a total absence of compromise in the search for speed. This means almost no comfort, practicality or refinement. The Elise is a second car at best, the Exige a third car at a push. So the search leads inexorably to the 2-Eleven, a track-day car that can just about be made road-legal. No air-conditioning and CD players here. Let alone roofs, doors or windscreens.
Weighing a paltry 745kg (just 40kg of that being bodywork) and with 252bhp available from that supercharged 1.8-litre Toyota-sourced engine, the 60mph benchmark comes up in 3.8 seconds and 100mph is done in 9.1. Top speed is 155mph, and will cost from £39,995, with production 'scheduled to commence' sometime around now. Various specs are available from the 'Launch Edition', complete with 'three-way' colour scheme and a decal pack.
'Road Going' with front and rear lights, an exhaust catalyst and a variety of other mods to get it past Plod and the DVLA. The alternative is the 'Track Only' car, with brake lights and rear indicators only, a race seat and high-downforce carbon-fibre rear wing and front splitter. That's the purer hit of hooch, if you're mad enough to swig from either bottle.
Atom Supercharged:
Scaffolding pole meets blown Honda VTEC. The shortest route to track-day terror is via Ariel's superbly tidy and simple design.
Caterham R500:
The end-game for Chapman's Seven. 500bhp per tonne brings the past right up to Ariel's future.
Megane F1:
Unforgiving for daily use, the F1 Edition Megane remains the ulimate hot hatch here.
BMW M3 CSL:
Super-scarce and brutally focused, the CSL remains a triumph of low-volume nutterdom. If only the new M3 looked this good.
LCC Rocket:
Gordon Murray's pricey pet project remains a masterclass in design and finish. He still takes his to France every year.
Radical SR8:
The Nurburgring lap record resides with the SR8 - the closest you can get to running a road-legal race car.
McLaren F1 LM:
Murray again, and this time a true Le Mans legend. Homologation specials can only look on in bewilderment.
Westfield XI:
Fast is relative. A gentle squirt can feel like a chicane-free Mulsanne straight in the XI. Goggles on.
VW Golf MkII:
It's local knowledge that makes this the second fastest car around the 'Ring. Stripped, caged, lowered, untouchable.
Maserati MC12:
Maser's cynical GT racing project is a road car in name only. The Corsa club racer being the one worth having.
Aston MartinV8 Vantage Roadster
Yes, the M6 or SL55 AMG may boast more power but the AM V8 Vantage Roadster makes all the right noises. Few cars at least sound faster than this one.
Propulsion comes from the exact same all-alloy, 4.3-litre V8 as the Vantage coupe, with variable-inlet camshaft timing, a dry sump to drop the centre of gravity and a horsepower tally that would leave this car trailing behind in a pissing contest against the likes of the 507bhp BMW M6 and the 517bhp Mercedes SL55 AMG, not to mention the 612bhp SL65 AMG.
Zero to 60 in 4.9 seconds and a maximum of 175mph, as anyone maintaining the faintest grip on reality would agree, is quick enough for now.
So what has gone so right here? Bounce from drain cover to expansion joint, and no shimmies are sent through the door tops or windscreen surround, no shock waves quaking up through the dashboard.
The Vantage's Bond Street bodywork hides a glued and riveted aluminium chassis that lends itself well to the conversion from coupe to Roadster, with added strengthening webs added inside the sills. The result makes the Roadster impressively rigid for an open car. The huge 355mm front and 330mm rear grooved brake discs, with four-piston calipers, really should provide nothing but reassurance.
Have no doubt, for all its slight 70kg weight gain and extra craving for attention, the Vantage is an even more focused sports car in Roadster form than ever - more a way-upmarket Corvette in feel and intention than a GT of any sort.
Opel GT:
The GT looks quite the classic roadster, made modern with a strong stance and clean-cut edges. The outside panels roll over into a sharp, well-tailored dash design. The interior materials and finish are pretty good - probably better than an MX-5, which shows how far GM has come since the days when all its American interiors were made of throwaway plastics, held together with spittle and hope.
Up front is a four-cylinder, 2.0-litre turbo engine kicking out a very spicy 260bhp and 260lb ft, thanks to a twin-scroll turbo, direct petrol injection and twin variable cam-phasing. It has two balancer shafts too. It's hooked up to a five-speed manual - no need for six when the torque is spread this widely. A limited-slip diff takes care of traction, and suspension is by double wishbones.
Most of the body's strength comes from separate steel side structures plus cross-members - a bit like a Corvette understructure. You can feel the rigidity when you drive it: the body hardly quivers, even over the lowest-budget American roads.
Trouble is, all these beams and girders swallow up so much of the car, there's hardly any room left for you, and none at all for your stuff. But hang on, roadsters are meant to be about fun, not cargo capacity. The big tyres keep a claw-like grip, so you can travel at true sports-car speeds. It's a swift, smooth cruiser, rather than a hectic roadburner.
Honda NSX-R: Purer than the driven snow. And a bit whiter too.
Probing the bods at Honda has revealed that the number of NSX-Rs in the UK has reached the grand total of one. And that was bought at a hefty premium off their press department.
Pared down, stiffened up and sharpened to the absolute limit of road-going acceptability, the NSX-R is a supercar with added focus, purified to the point of perfection. And the limited few were only ever finished in white.
Lamborghini Countach: The shape that sexualised motoring for a generation of hormonal adolescents
Mitsubishi Evo VI Makinen: Last of the proper WRC-winning Evos
Tommi won his fourth consecutive World Rally Championship in an Evo VI and this limited edition celebrated the victory. It was the last of the group A homologated Lancers - and the best. From the VII on, Mitsu's WRC performance fell away, the Yanks discovered it and everything got even tackier.
Mercedes CL63 AMG: A clipped Lear Jet of sorts. Thirstier though
There are different kinds of fast and we're picking over them all here. There's breathless supercar acceleration, there's Evo-style, cross-country pace. But the environment that Merc has always owned, and nowhere more convincingly than with the CL63 AMG, is unending, unfaltering speed.
With a 525bhp V8 upfront on an S-Class chassis, this is the only coupe to cross continents in. In a hushed whisper you sit at obscene speeds as mile after mile of derestricted autobahn disappears beneath you. And you emerge as fresh as the moment when you turned the key.
AC Cobra MkII 289
The history of Carroll Shelby shoe-horning big Yank V8s into the little AC Ace is well-documented, but the moment when it all truly came together - beautiful looks and manageable muscle - was with the MkII 289. Only 528 were ever made and you'll need to find over £200,000 to take one home today.
Toyota Supra Turbo
Three-litre straight-six twin-turbo nutter drift car tuned to 1,000bhp by loonies, but it's still great with 'only' the standard 320bhp.
BMW M6: History the Germans can actually be proud of
Far removed from the fundamentals of driving as it is, a new V10 paddle-shift M6 pales beside the original 'E24'. Fitted with a modified version of the straight-six from the M1 supercar, it was devastatingly quick throughout its production. Tough, agile, practical and understated, few cars made more sense then, and fewer do now.
Aston Martin V8 Vantage: British bulldog, with bite to match its bark
Aston's current resurgence, as impressive and commercially successful as it may be, will never quite touch the bygone coachbuilt era that spawned the original V8 Vantage. Hailed as Britain's first supercar, the Vantage was a 5.3-litre ogre with a 170mph top speed reached through an agricultural, dog-legged, ZF gearbox.
But despite brutal underpinnings, the interior was hand-finished to an extraordinary standard, with plush Connolly leather and high-gloss wood trim everywhere. Built from 1977 until 1989, the Vantage attained classic status in its own lifetime.
Jaguar XK140: Performance without the paraphernalia
For the last four years of its late Fifties production, the dominant force of Jaguar's XK120 evolved into the 140, so named after the staggering top speed it eked from its 190bhp 4.2-litre inline six. Bigger brakes, rack and pinion steering and more modern shock absorbers were all that really separated it from the 120, and both still enjoy a hallowed reputation today.
Lotus Exige S: Proper overwrought, underweight Lotus straight from the old school
The S is the latest and greatest Exige, and one of the best track cars ever made. It's been bumped out of our Track Car Specials section by the new Lotus 2-Eleven, but leaving the Exige out of this list altogether would have been a criminal act, so here it is.
The S has a Toyota 2ZZ-GE normally-aspirated 1.8-litre four with variable-valve timing - it produces 190bhp at 7,800rpm and has a throttle response sharp enough to cut human flesh. The Exige chassis is stiffer than an Elise's and gives you positive downforce at speed, thanks to a smooth underbody, a rear diffuser and that excellent rear wing. It weighs 935kg - nothing, in other words. If you want to destroy supercars on a twisty track, use this.
Renault GTA: Overambitious, under-engineered, fragile, plastic, French. Just what we need to worry Porsche
The Eighties was a motoring decade utterly dominated in the public perception by Porsche and Ferrari, but a little-known French manufacturer was trying its hardest to stick it up Stuttgart.
Alpine's GTA - badged in Britain as a Renault and sold through the company's established dealerships - was a genuine foil to the 911s of its day, with ultra-lightweight polycarbonate bodywork and Renault's 2.7-litre V6 mounted right on the rear. Handling is still legendary and pace was aplenty back then, especially from the later 3.0-litre turbo.
Audi S8
An all-but-unknown quantity until it quickly achieved cult status in Ronin's epic car chase.
Audi RS4
Another Audi. They do Q-cars like no other, jamming a V8 into a small saloon.
Maybach 62S
Bigger than a block of flats, but a 612bhp bi-turbo V12 will drag it to 60mph in 5.2 seconds.
Lotus Carlton
A 377bhp twin-turbo Vauxhall with 176mph top speed? Someone was on the loopy juice.
Lancia Thema 8.32
Ferrari engine in an Eighties' Italian rust-bucket? At least no one's going to nick it.
BMW M5 Touring
Remove the limiter and you have an estate car capable of 200mph. Now put it back on.
Subaru Forester XT
Pace and ride height are a peerless B-road combo, and only other farmers have a clue.
Chevy Impala FBI
Upgraded powertrain, handling and brakes make being a security goon quite rewarding.
Volvo 850R
Favoured by our own law for its mixture of grunt, load space and history teacher image.
VW Passat W8
270bhp and four-wheel drive in a car even accountants find boring. Perfect.
BMW M3 E30: The original M3 defined the genre - thank God it was good
The first BMW M3 was built as a homologation special. As such, it ranks as one of BMW's best-ever translations of racing technology to the road - buy an E30 and you're getting the basis of the car that F1 journeyman Eric van de Poele won the DTM with in 1987. This is what makes the E30 so extraordinary - not that it handled so sweetly, with a poise and delicacy that few could match.
Nor that the four-year production run sold out in one year. Nor that it made up to 220bhp from its compact 2.3-litre engine. No, what sets the E30 apart is that it laid the precedent, the benchmark, for every 'M' car since. The chief reason the next M3 needs to be quite so good as it has to, is this.
Lancia Delta Integrale Evo: Five times world rally champion - not slow then
It's the export figures of the Lancia Delta Integrale that speak volumes. Nearly half of the 10,000 built were shipped abroad - despite Lancia's iffy reputation outside Italy. And the later Evo versions were the fastest of the lot.
215bhp and 231lb ft aren't to be sniffed at, even today, but back in the early Nineties that was enough to send the 'Grale chasing supercars. Add to that, massive grip and sublime steering, and you've got one of the fastest A-to-B cars ever.
Corvette Z06: Fast American that cuts it on the track and the road.
We'll avoid the cliches about the leaf spring rear suspension here. After all, Corvette has made them carbon on the Z06. Instead, you need to concentrate on the sheer grunt of this thing. 198mph, 505bhp, 3.7 seconds from 0-60mph. That's seriously quick no matter what's buried under the rear arches.
But the Z06 does more than straight line speed, because, finally, the Americans have created a car that also goes around corners. The Corvette is practically unbeatable in its class at Le Mans (five wins since 2001) thanks to the simple design which makes reliability so good. Final proof? It lapped the TG track in 1m 22s.
Honda Civic Type R
The new Type R is still causing debate amongst fans of its predecessor, for whom a procrastinated launch created angst akin to a horny teenager anticipating the loss of his virginity. It looks more extreme, but it's softer, no faster, and a tad less involving. Still, it places here due to that deft blend of mad styling, solid performance and great tractability.
Honda Integra Type-R: Superlatives aren't enough for the first R
This is probably the best-handling front-wheel-drive car of all time - a fact that should guarantee the Integra R a spot in this list. The Integra has shades of the Peugeot 205 GTI in the way it tightens its line on throttle lift - it encourages you to push hard with one of the sharpest turn-ins of any car. Add to that a ripping 187bhp, 1.8-litre, VTEC four that revs to 8,500rpm (the best four-cylinder engine ever? Not much argument here) that returns over 30mpg even when thrashed, plus a comfy, roomy interior with scarlet Recaro racing bucket seats, and you have a fast, affordable car that sits with the greats, no matter how expensive or exotic.
Daihatsu Cuore Avanzato TR-XX R4: Crazy Japanese mini-car, even crazier name
Look at the spec before you laugh too hard. Four cylinders, intercooled turbo, 4WD, independent suspension all round, 0-60mph in 8.5secs. Interesting, eh? We won't mention that it's only a 659cc engine because it's far more important to talk about how this 130cm-wide car handled.
It handled really well, that's how it handled - putting its gutsy little dollop of torque down hard onto the road and shooting out of corners fast enough to put repmobiles under serious pressure. No wonder so many were snapped up for rally duty. The Daihatsu Cuore Avanzato TR-XX R4 has now reached near-cult status and, with a name like that, who could be surprised? Felt insanely fast.
Audi R8: A conservative supercar? Time will tell
So new is the R8 that barely anyone round here's actually driven it. It is fast, we know that much, but it's also controversially styled and the first foray by a less than exotic marque into some seriously uncharted high-end waters.
The reality is though, Audi really knows how to go quick these days, and there's precious little wrong with its packaging either. This or a V8 Vantage? Depends if you're a gambling man. One thing's for certain, you'll see a lot more of these around, in part because they won't be always getting mended.
Ford Escort Mexico: You don't have to own a fast car to make ladies in short skirts like you, but it sure does help
Built to celebrate the Escort's first, third, fifth and eighth places in the 1970 London to Mexico rally, the MkI Mexico brought performance to the masses. The Mexico was the Escort Cosworth of that generation and owners were the envy of their neighbours in Seventies suburbia. The power stats weren't incredible - 87bhp and 92lb ft - but what marked out the Mexico was the fact that it was such an affordable package.
After all, the launch price was a paltry £1,150. And once you'd bought one, the fun didn't stop, because the Mexico was so simply designed and engineered that home tuning was almost compulsory.
The Weber twin-choke carburettor was easily tuned to give more power, and there was little doubt about an Escort's reliability after it completed the 17,000-mile rally. But nothing makes you feel faster than the envy of your neighbours. For that, the Mexico delivered.
Dodge Charger
The purists are squealing 'get it out, it's crap' but the cars in this line-up needn't be absolutely fast: feeling fast is enough. Gripping the huge thin-rim wheel, stomping the fat throttle pedal and hanging on as the 425bhp 426 Hemi fires you down the road should feel fast enough in a '67 Charger. Trying to haul the 1,500kg car to a halt using shoe-polish-tin drum brakes will confirm the feeling.
 Renault 5 Turbo: The first ever mid-engined hot hatch, and brutally fast too The later front-engine front-drive Renault 5 GT Turbo was a Max Power favourite, but the original mid-engined rear-drive R5 Turbo of 1980 was the boss, winning outright in the 1981 Monte Carlo Rally. Without those quite excellent side scoops the engine would overheat and explode - they cool the urgent little 1.4 turbo, which produced 140bhp in standard form and anything up to 350bhp in the Maxi. Renault revisited the mid-engined theme with the Clio V6 in 2001, and although that thing tended to oversteer like a ******* on throttle lift-off, it was tame compared with the 5 Turbo. Think early 911 and then some...  Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera: ridiculously expensive, fearsomely loud and way more orange than any car ever needs to be This is a silly car. It's EasyJet orange, it has a deeply stupid four-point racing harness when inertia-reel seat belts would have done, and its boot is so small that a small boot is just about the only thing that will fit into it. It's only two-10ths of a second faster to 62mph than the 'standard' Gallardo, but costs around £26,000 more. For which Lamborghini has removed some stuff in return for an extra 9bhp. Wow, knock yourselves out, guys. At £2,888 per brake horsepower, this is a fiscal sleight-of-hand Gordon Brown himself would be proud of. The Superleggera weighs 1,330kg, 100 less than the existing car, and sound-deadening material has been stripped out in the hunt for lighter weight. It should be noisy as hell in here, but it's perfectly tolerable. The cabin is trimmed in tactile Alcantara instead of leather, and there's carbon fibre on the doors, dashboard and transmission tunnel. Even the interior-door grab handles have been replaced with slimline Alcantara straps, with little carbon-fibre inserts to offset wear and tear. There's no radio, and a CD/satnav combo is an option. This is one of those cars that warps time as it accelerates, but it feels closer in spirit to a Caterham R500 than, say, a Murciélago. Its performance is massively urgent, rather than massively muscular. A power-to-weight ratio of 392bhp per tonne puts it within shouting distance of the real lightweight heavyweights, if you know what I mean, and well clear of direct rivals like the 911 GT3 RS (302bhp per tonne) and Ferrari Challenge Stradale (though the upcoming 430CS should match it).  Porsche 911 GT3 For 40 years, Porsche engineers have honed and improved the 911. Yes, they could have moved the engine to the front decades ago, but where would the challenge be? Thanks to their fetish for sticking with a plan and honing and improving it, what they've ended up with is one of the most accomplished and characterful cars ever. It may have started out as not much more than a sporty VW Beetle in 1964, but it has evolved - just as we evolved opposable thumbs to be able to peel bananas and build Porsches. And now this, the new 911 GT3 RS, is the most complete and exciting supercar on Earth. Standstill to 62mph takes 4.2 seconds, and you're doing 100mph in 10 seconds dead - all thanks to the RS's 415bhp 3.6-litre flat six. But figures are just figures, numbers on a page. It's the way the engine does its job that blows me away. You can potter off down to the shops and it never bites. But for God's sake, don't go shopping in it. Just because you can, doesn't always mean you should. Please, please beat this car mercilessly until you think it can take no more. It revs with a furious, charging energy - it thrives and revs, and it never, ever feels anything other than urgent when you push it on. As the last flat-six 911 GT3 RS, the car you're looking at is probably a classic already.  Aston N24: Normally an advocate of cars that waft and high-quality leather seating? You could be swayed by a hard-riding, stripped-out racing Aston N24. The car has been designed for track-day enthusiasts and for endurance racing at the 'Ring, but will also be eligible for the GT4 racing series, where it will be up against 911s and lightweight Lambos. With a little fettling, the N24 can be made road-legal under single-vehicle-type approval rules, but more of that in a minute. It costs £78,720+VAT, but as proper teams run as a business and will be able to reclaim the tax, Aston is able to boast that its stripped-out V8 actually costs less than the fully kitted road version. Body-wise, the N24 is the same as a normal V8 save for the different sill panel and the gappier grille, which a candid Aston man says is made by removing some of the slats from the normal grille. Power is raised from 380 to 410bhp, through secondary air injection, freer-breathing catalysts and the abandonment of important ancillaries, such as the aircon compressor. Although the suspension is the same, new squidgy bits lower the car and stiffen it up. The din, of course, is tremendous. The fat tyres tramline at low speeds, the roll cage interferes with three-quarter vision, and the ride is, as I suspected, on the lumpy side. But once the Aston is on a roll, it becomes tremendously of-a-piece and jolly good fun. It's a great way to remind yourself what's really going on when you drive. Deceptive, too: I expected it to feel as though it was going faster than it actually was. Turns out the opposite is true.  Porsche 964 RS: Only for the seriously hardcore Some sort of spiritual descendent of the legendary 2.7 Carrera (No. 48), the 964 RS has found its own place in the burgeoning catalogue of Porsche performance specials, this time as an uncompromising track day tool. With thinner glass, lighter body panels, uprated suspension and more power, this was a purchase few people made lightly. All that bespoke stuff ensures that running costs remain terrifying to this day, but you'll still get done by at least one every time you lap the Nürburgring.  Porsche Cayman S: Not 911-quick, but brilliant all the same Imagine a world without the 911. One without all that heritage, and where no one had ever convinced themselves that bolting an engine into the tail-end of a sports car was a fine idea. Given free rein, Porsche's engineers would certainly have come up with this instead, the Cayman S. The flat-six is mid-mounted, for ideal weight distribution and sweet handling responses. Few cars feel so keyed in as this one, with great steering feedback, perfect brakes and a stirring engine. And only the existence of the 911 prevents it having more than 295bhp.  Porsche 356 Carrera One of the few pre-911 Porsches with the grunt to take on Jags and Ferraris of the Fifties, with a complex dry sumped, air-cooled, four-cam, flat-four lump revving away noisily out back.  Porsche 924 Carrera GT: One 924 you won't see propped up on bricks in a council estate. Turbo power, 911 wheels and bespoke bodywork make for a rare and discerning choice.  Porsche 928 GTS OK, this one's become a bit of an embarrassment with time, but it'll have its moment again. The GTS was the daddy, with 345bhp from a 5.4-litre V8.  Porsche 911 2.7 RS: Still the one to have for the purist Among the Porsche cognoscenti there is but one 911 that remains a sacred cow, that no one has a bad word to say about lest they end up in a shallow grave, the imprint of a driving boot on their bloodless face. The 2.7 RS appeared in both Touring and Lightweight form, the latter weighing under 1,000kg and yet developing well over 200bhp. In mega demand these days and oft faked, sorted examples make six figures with ease.  Porsche 968 Club Sport: Front-powered and stripped to the max If Porsches should be all about driving rather than city-boy strutting, one of the finest actually doesn't have its engine parked up the rear. This is the stripped-bare early Nineties 968 CS, with skimpy front bucket seats, rigid suspension and fat 911 Cup alloys. The UK-only Sport was much the same, but stuck the rear seats back in. Most will be shagged by now.  Porsche 959: Born to rally, demonic on the road and 20 years ahead of its time Climb into a 959 and confusion could set in that you'd entered a mid-Eighties 911 instead. Focus on the plain dash though, and you'll see a speedo that reads beyond 200mph and a switch to electronically adjust damper settings. This is the real deal, the most sophisticated supercar of its time, with twin sequential turbos, four-wheel drive that can split 80 per cent of torque to the rear, and insane speed: try 0-60 in 3.7 seconds.
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