Top 10 affordable supercars

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What defines a supercar? To the purists it’s about something more than sheer speed and horsepower; it’s about exclusivity, outrageous design, possibly price tag and definitely desirability.

But the lines are blurring all the time, with a hot hatch – and even hot estates – now faster and more powerful than some Ferraris and Lamborghinis of the past.

The latest Audi RS6 powers its 2.1-tonne hulk through 60mph in just 3.7 seconds – unbelievably, quicker than the mega-Porsche 911GT2.

So is the Audi a supercar? Would it draw the gawping crowd of the Ferrari LaFerrari? Obviously not, and yet…

What we’re building up to here is this: many of you will not agree with this list of the top 10 affordable  supercars (well, affordable is all relative).

You’ll say “this is a GT”, “that’s a muscle car” and other assorted put-downs, and you’ll have a fair point.

But we’re using the broader definition of a super car here – you’ll find mid-engined jaw-droppers, super-fast GTs, and even a Mercedes – all available, if you look hard enough, for under £40,000.

Mercedes SL55 AMG

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Mercedes have been producing SLs for a long time, and by now the basic shape will be familiar to almost everyone – petrolhead or not. In other words, it won’t leave any jaws dropped among passersby.

But the SL55 AMG was different from every other iteration of the breed – when it was launched in 2002, it was the fastest road car ever to come out of Stuttgart.

Costing £89,040 new, the SL55 pumped out 476bhp from its 5.4-litre supercharged V8, covering 0-62mph in 4.7 seconds – definitely contemporary supercar territory.

Without the limiter that restricts all such cars to a top speed of 155mph, it was reported that the car could hit 202mph – rapid indeed.

With plenty of earlier cars on the used market for around £15,000, it’s a spectacular car and one of the cheapest supercars on this list.

Lotus Espirit Turbo in an indoor parking space

Lotus Esprit Turbo

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The Lotus Esprit always had supercar looks and superb handling, but the early cars lacked the power to propel the car into Ferrari territory.

That all changed with the introduction of the Turbo married to a new, sleek set of clothes in 1987, designed by Peter Stevens of McLaren F1 fame.

The slippery new shape pushed the car to 60mph in a shade over five seconds – comparable at the time to a Ferrari 328 and Porsche 911.

Even faster Esprits were to follow, culminating in the outlandish Sport 350, which provided staggering in-gear performance, according to Autocar “on level terms with all but the fastest superbikes and, therefore, comfortably ahead of most four-wheeled rivals. By any standards, it is a ferociously, addictively fast car.”

An Esprit Turbo can be yours for a relatively cheap price of £25,000.

Blue Bentley Continental GT car parked in front of grey wall

Bentley Continental GT

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Is there a more luxurious way of whooshing to 60mph in under 5 seconds than in a Bentley Continental GT?

There may be, but probably not for under £20,000 for a 2004 model, which is what you’ll pay to get behind the wheel of one of these sumptuous sports cruisers.

The 6.0-litre, twin-turbo W12 produces 479lb-ft of torque at just 1,600rpm to effortlessly waft you along at breakneck speed, your ride comforted by the air suspension and traction aided by four-wheel drive.

Granted, you’ll be lucky to get the claimed 17mpg and if anything does go wrong with the engine you may need to remortgage to repair it but, if you’re prepared to take the risk, there are few cars around that combine glamour, luxury, and speed as well as the Bentley.

Jaguar XKR

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Jaguar has a proud history of producing super-fast sports cars, ever since the XK120 became the world’s fastest production car in 1948, and the E-Type followed suit two decades later.

It’s fair to say the company floundered for a while after the demise of the E-Type; the XJ-S could never hit 60mph quicker than 7.1 seconds – and that was in 1994 at the peak of its development.

The XK8 came next, boasting E-Type looks but lacking a spark until the supercharged XKR version was introduced in 2000.

These early cars are currently going for a song, with good examples available for as little as £8,000, but for the real performance, you need to look to the second iteration of the XKR made from 2006 to 2014.

About as good looking a GT as you’re likely to see on the roads, a 5.0-litre, supercharged XKR packing 503bhp and hitting 60mph in just 4.8 seconds can be yours for under £40,000 for a 2012 model, and a lot less than that for slightly earlier cars with a little less power.
All with a boot big enough for a weekend away and a set of golf clubs.

Aston Martin Vantage

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The V8 Vantage remains one of the most strikingly beautiful cars on the planet – for the money.

It was billed as a competitor to the Porsche 911, a rapid-but-civilised sports car that was equally at home driving to work and back as on the track.

More muscular than the DB9 on which it is based, the Vantage is squatter and shorter, and the positioning of the compact, 4.3-litre V8 – deep back in the engine bay – is great news for handling.

The 380bhp lump can propel the car to 60mph in 5 seconds, with top speed at 175mph, but it achieves all this with the minimum of fuss, until you hit 4000rpm, when, as Motortrend magazine noted, the “Aston turns to Astonishing” and the exhausts begin to growl.

You can get a 2006 car for comfortably under £30,000 which, if 16mpg doesn’t concern you, is a lot of car for the cash and is a great option for those looking for a budget supercar.

Red Honda NSX at a car event

Honda NSX

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Aside from the Nissan GT-R (at a push), the second-generation Honda NSX is the only offering on our list that’s considered a bona fide supercar. The only real problem in the eyes of the Instagram generation is that the big H-badge on the front is entirely… well, un-Italian.

In fact, the fact that the NSX is built in Ohio rather than Japan makes it decidedly American too. It’s also possibly a little on the expensive side for a ‘mere’ Honda hybrid. Perhaps that was the problem from the start.

Launched in 2016 to rave reviews, we think it’s something of a travesty that the sales figures just didn’t reflect the hype. Have a guess as to how many of these were sold in the whole of Europe last year? Three. Not three thousand or three hundred. Just three.

In fact, poor sales in the UK for the first few years meant that the NSX hasn’t been available brand new since 2020 either. The good news is that although there are only one or two around, you can still pick up one of these on a classified ads site – if, of course, you can stomach the 120K+ price tag.

But – and this is a rather large and important objection – we all know that there was always going to be a good degree of rarity value, which for some happens to be one of the most important criteria for a proper supercar.

Add that to the ability to induce drooling in any Japanese car fan, as well as the small matter of 573 horsepower (600 from the Type-S variant) from its twin-turbocharged V6 and trio of electric motors, and what you’ve got is perhaps the ultimate Japanese hybrid. What with sky-high fuel prices at the moment, we may even see the NSX making a comeback. You never know.

Nissan GT-R with trees in the background

Nissan GT-R

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Described as a supercar for the PlayStation generation, the Nissan GT-R competes head-on with modern mid-engined supercars for pure point-to-point pace and would beat many of them through the corners.

The car is a technological masterclass that uses electronically-controlled four-wheel drive to deliver incredible levels of grip, allowing the power from the twin-turbo, 3.8-litre V6 to be unleashed in devastating fashion.

The Nissan achieves a 0-60mph time of just 3.5 seconds despite its bulky frame and hefty kerb weight of 1,725kg, and the car isn’t the easiest to live with thanks to its hard ride and slightly tacky interior compared to European rivals.

But it’s built for speed, grip, and pure fun – and for about £40,000 for a 2010 model, there isn’t another car on our list that beats it in pound-for-pound performance.

Silver Porsche 911 Turbo parked in front of a building

Porsche 911 Turbo

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Some will say that the Porsche 911 is way too common and “everyday” to be a supercar, but when it comes to the Turbo, they’re surely wrong – at least, if performance and fun factor are any measure at all.

The eternally under-rated 996, unfairly derided by Porsche purists for its fried-egg headlights and water-cooled engine, is a highly useable performance beast, in Turbo form producing 414bhp from its 3.6-litre engine.

Top speed is a blistering 190mph, hitting 60mph in just 4.2 seconds – not bad for a car that left production a decade ago, to be replaced by the slightly more refined 997…

A 996 Turbo can be yours for as low as £30,000.

Lotus Exige S

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Want a lightweight, stripped-back sports car with outrageous performance and handling? Then, ever since Colin Chapman started building cars for the racetrack, all eyes have been on the Lotus factory in Norfolk.

The Exige S delivers everything you’d expect from a Lotus – blistering pace from a supercharged 3.5-litre V6 engine lifted from the larger Evora propelling the car to 60mph in just 3.8 seconds, and the visceral, low-to-floor thrill of a car that darts left and right with incredible precision.

The most hardcore offering from Lotus, the Exige is a very special thing to drive, and if you look really hard you might find one for £40,000.

Audi R8

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The Audi R8 caused a sensation when it was launched in 2006 – a genuine everyday supercar that’s as easy to drive as an A3 but will turn more heads than any Porsche or BMW.

The early cars can now be bought for around the £40,000 mark (it was £77,000 new in 2006), and for that you’ll get a mid-engined 4.2-litre, normally aspirated V8 capable of hitting 60mph in 4.6 seconds on its way to 187mph.

At the time, it was ranked as superior to Audi’s Italian thoroughbred, the Lamborghini Gallardo, for £30,000 less, and the car has aged so well that only relatively minor cosmetic changes have been made to the design since.

The new, 5.2-litre V10 model puts the old car’s performance in the shade, with 602bhp compared to the original car’s 412bhp helping push the 0-60 time down to 3.2 seconds – but at £130,000+ it doesn’t make it into the “affordable” category just yet.

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