Lamborghini Diablo 6.0
The high-heel wearing, whip-cracking, muscle-bound leather-clad dominatrix of supercars. And please note the extra-heavy emphasis on’super’. The devil-incarnate takes no prisoners, and eco-weenies can go hug a tree.
Ferrari F355
They’ve taken to building Modenas and Enzos now, but Ferrari also used to build beautiful cars at one time. And the F355’s lines - the form and the proportion - are beyond compare.
Lancia Delta Integrale
The WRC has been witness to some pretty torrid machinery over the last few decades, and the spectacular late-1980s Integrale was more special than most. Wheel-spinning, tyre-smoking sideways action? This was the car, and Miki Biasion did it like nobody else could.
Mitsubishi Evo VII Extreme
This isn’t a car; a’saga’ is more like it. Based on a humble four-door family sedan, the Evo series is a giant-killer like no other. When this thing gets going, others just get out of the way, and rain-slick roads, broken tarmac and limited driver skills are not an impediment to Evo-velocity.
Nissan Skyline GT-R
The GT-R Godzilla defies laws of physics applicable to lesser beings. It has a host of electronics nannying the hotfoot wannabe, but what’s wrong with that? Just plant your right foot and go, and don’t be scared - the Skyline will keep you pointed in the right direction, no matter what.
BMW M3
Two doors, 338 horsepower, a racing pedigree and more driver-involvement than a roomful of bikini-clad Miss World contestants. If driving fast is a crime of passion, the M3 embodies perennial lust and instant gratification - all wrapped in one masterful package.
Porsche Ruf R Turbo
Take an evocative supercar shape, a loud, rasping turbocharged flat-six, a modicum of efficient German engineering - and sprinkle some Ruf magic on the package. The antithesis of temperamental latin lovelies, the Ruf Turbo will do the school-and-supermarket routine without complaint. And yet, when it’s time to really leave, it will comprehensively blow the doors off whatever happens to be hogging the fast lane. Hide the women and children now.
Honda NSX-R
No one does engines like Honda do, and few supercars offer the NSX-R’s quirky mix of eye-opening on-the-limit performance, and practicality. It’s not the VTEC engine’s 300 horsepower(almost) that makes the NSX extra-special. It’s the manic howl as it revs to redline. It’s the tightly-controlled oversteer. It’s the breathtaking four-wheel drifts. Who says only continentals can do’proper’ supercars?
Ford Focus RS
At one time, there was the Esc*rt Cosworth RS. But that was’then’.’Now’ is Focus RS. No four-wheel-drive here, and it’s not even the most powerful front-wheel-drive hatch. Interiors are garish, broken tarmac thumps the car off-course regularly and there is torque steer aplenty. But on a smoothly-surfaced set of twisties, the blatant, belligerent RS is on a different plane altogether.
Mazda RX8
The world’s only rotary-engined supercar - isn’t that enough to put it on this Top 20 list? Even Dr. Wankel would have been proud of what Mazda have managed to pull off with the new RX.
Subaru Impreza WRX STi
The gearshifter goes snick-snick-snick, the engine rasps in momentous crescendo, the wheels grip like leeches on a diet of superglue, and the brakes stop the car dead in its track. BLAM! WHAM! Thank you, Subaru, for this car.(And if you think it’s ugly, please buy a Daewoo Matiz)
Audi RS6 Avant
Quattro four-wheel-drive. One heavy-hitting engine. And a car that takes tarmac apart - bit by shredded concrete bit. The RS6 doesn’t cope with tricky conditions, it ignores them with utter contempt. If the wife wants a’practical’ estate, surprise her with one of these.
Holden HSV GTS
Thunder from down under. Excuse the cliche, but there is little else that would adequately describe the Aussie hotrod. Styling is extroverted(scoops and sills abound), and interiors are a bit aftermarket flash, but this is one car that has the front to laugh at M5s, and get away with it too.
Bentley Continental R Mulliner
A two-and-a-half ton coupe? That’ll be the Mulliner then. Much weight. Much power. Much comfort. Much presence. And I much worship such an ode to much excess.
Aston Martin DB7 Vantage
The Vanquish is more powerful, faster and quicker, but the DB7 is the’real’ Aston Martin. It’s classy, it’s fast and it’s sumptuous. And if this doesn’t make you attractive to women, you should seriously consider retiring to the Himalayas.
Chrysler Viper GTS-R
You’ve got to be a bit hard to drive one of these, but in a straight line, there’s precious little that’ll live with a Viper. Prodigal, in-your-face styling and performance to match.
Pagani Zonda C12S
For those who already have a couple of Ferraris(or Lamborghinis or Porsches) in the garage, and are bored of conventional supercars, the Zonda is a fruity American alternative. As fast as anything made by anyone else, and much more exclusive. Keeping up with the Joneses was never so tough.
Chevrolet Corvette Z06
What can we say about this sportscar icon that hasn’t already been said. Dramatic styling, power, handling and speed. And with the Z06, America learnt to do supercars the European way.
Mercedes Benz SL500 (last-generation)
Safe, solid, and imposingly over-engineered, the last-generation SL500 was every a bit a Mercedes Benz. The car looked like nothing else would, and went like nothing else could. Beautiful!
Jaguar XJR 4.0
What’s a Top 20 list without at least one Coventry cat making an appearance? And the XJR 4.0 is good enough to even make us forget the horror that was the E-Type.