When picturing a modern sports car, you might imagine anything from a lightweight track car or a modern hot hatchback to a mid-engined two-seater or a front-engined grand touring coupé.
For the purposes of this top 10 list, however, we can narrow our terms of reference down a bit: Caterham Sevens, Ferrari 488s, Audi R8s, Alpine A110s and BMW M cars are ranked and dealt with elsewhere. Here, we’re interested in full-sized, fulsomely endowed, dedicated sports cars with rich and enticing multi-cylinder engines priced between about £60,000 and £120,000. Only grown-up, big-hitting, multifaceted and purpose-built options get in.
Front-, mid- and rear-engined offerings are included, likewise rear-wheel-drive and four-wheel-drive layouts, and open and closed cockpits. There are plenty of routes towards the level of indulgent performance, vivid handling poise, immersive driver engagement and character you’d expect of a true sports car, after all.
10. Porsche 911
The derivative range of Porsche’s latest-generation 911, the ‘992’, has filled out quite a bit since its introduction in 2019. The car is now available in 380bhp Carrera, 444bhp Carrera S and 473bhp Carrera GTS forms, all powered by a 3.0-litre turbocharged flat-six engine; in coupé, cloth-top Cabriolet and ‘folding fixed-head’ Targa bodystyles; with either rear- or four-wheel drive; or with eight-speed dual-clutch PDK automatic or seven-speed manual gearboxes. There are also the extra-rapid Turbo and Turbo S versions of the car on offer higher up the range, which we deal elsewhere with in our super-sports car top 10 chart.
9. Porsche 718 Cayman GTS 4.0 / Boxster GTS 4.0
Yes, it’s a Porsche one-two at the top of the charts, but the German firm knows what it’s doing when it comes to screwing together a sensational sports car. No more so than when Zuffenhausen took the decision to answer the critics and return an atmospheric flat six back into this car in 2019; it created series-production 718 derivatives with prices well above £60,000 before you put a single option on them. And so, while the more affordable four-cylinder, sub-£50k 718 derivatives continue to present themselves to buyers with less to spend (and are ranked in our affordable sports car chart), Porsche’s higher-end 718s have absolutely progressed in among the bigger fish of the sports car class.
8. Lotus Emira
The last hurrah for internal combustion power at Lotus, the all-new Emira certainly has a lot resting on its shoulders. And the good news is that the Norfolk newcomer gets so much right, from its junior exotic looks, through to a chassis that maintains the decades-long tradition of Hethel handling greatness.
There are some novelties for a Lotus too, such as an interior that delivers previously unheard of levels of luxury and quality, plus all the latest gadgets and gizmos. It’s decently practical too, proving easier to get into and out of than an Evora and packing handy storage. This is an everyday usable sports car.
7. Chevrolet Corvette C8
Much has been written about General Motors’ decision to gamble with this, the eighth generation of its iconic Corvette sports car, by switching from a front-mounted engine to a mid-mounted one. There were objective reasons to do it: because it improves the car’s weight distribution and enhances its outright handling potential. And there was a more complex argument: that a mid-engined layout has become expected of an operator within this part of the sports car market, and the old C7 Corvette’s front-engined configuration made it something of a relic to the latest generation of sports car buyers.
6. Jaguar F-Type
The sales fortunes of Jaguar’s much-hyped successor to the Lyons-designed E-Type will tell you much about the development of the modern sports car market. When it was launched in 2013, we imagined the buying public would value it as a sort of prettier and more dependable modern TVR – favouring the biggest-hitting eight-cylinder engines and viewing it as a cheaper and more powerful front-engined rival to the 911.
5. Mercedes-AMG GT
With the spaceframe body structure of a supercar, a front-mounted engine from a muscle saloon, suspension tuned for maximum attack on the track and yet the practicality and luxury allure of an elegant coupé or roadster, the Mercedes-AMG GT is an even more bewildering addition to the sports car world than the Mercedes-Benz SLS was.
4. BMW M240i xDrive
Straddling the line between sports car and coupé, the fairly freshly minted 2 Series makes a compelling case for itself as a driver’s car, particularly in racy M240i xDrive guise. This is the most focused version of the two-door machine until the arrival of the all-new M2, but it shares quite a bit of its Motorsport-infused DNA with its brawnier brother.
3. Ford Shelby Mustang GT500
That’s right – another American on this Europe-centric list of driver-focused sports cars. Still, the Shelby GT500 isn’t your average Mustang. For one thing, it’s the most powerful production Ford in history, with 749bhp courtesy of the supercharged 5.2-litre V8 that lurks beneath the endless, vented bonnet. It also has a dual-clutch transmission, and bespoke suspension with unique spring, damper and anti-roll bar settings, all to make it the best-driving Mustang there is.
2. Audi TT RS
There is nothing small or unassuming about Audi’s warbling five-pot TT RS save, perhaps, its size. This range-topping compact coupé has a stonking 395bhp five-cylinder engine and, in upper-level trims, a price tag closing in on £70,000. Thanks to Quattro four-wheel drive, it can do 60mph in comfortably less than 4.0sec, and if you pay extra it will run on to as much as 174mph. That’s right: this is a 170mph Audi TT. What a brilliantly unhinged idea.
1. Lexus LC
As a keen driver, you feel inclined to make a case for the LC. It has a superbly charismatic and likeable V8 engine, while balanced, spry, involving handling makes it feel, at times, more of a natural rival for the Jaguar F-Type or Porsche 911 than the mix of two- and four-door sporting grand tourers that Lexus identifies as its true opponents. Hence its inclusion here.