Bargain Classics Pipped at the Post to Be the Best Ever Driver's Car
 |
LONDON – November 5, 2010: The £300,000 Porsche 911 Carrera RS 2.7 has been crowned the greatest ever driver’s car by Classic & Sports Car magazine after a thrilling finale in which a pair of British built ten-grand tiddlers came within a whisker of snatching the title.
The world’s best-selling classic car magazine asked more than 100 leading lights in the classic car world, from Sir Stirling Moss to Lord March, to list the three cars they had driven that had given them the biggest thrills and the most special memories.
Classic & Sports Car columnist, Le Mans ace and TV presenter Alain de Cadenet then assessed the five most popular choices at the famous Millbrook Proving Ground to make a final judgement of the most rewarding road car ever.
Though the Porsche took the title just ahead of the £2million, 238mph, 627bhp McLaren F1 and the £5million-plus pre-war Alfa Romeo 8C-2300, the affordable Lotus Elan Sprint and the original Mini Cooper ‘S’ – with all of 76bhp and a sub-100mph top speed ¬– were only fractionally behind in the final showdown.
Classic & Sports Car Editor Alastair Clements said: “For me the most exciting thing about our Top 5 was not the presence of some of the most exclusive and expensive cars ever made, but the inclusion of two that just about any enthusiast can go out and buy today.”
James Elliott, Group Editor of Classic & Sports Car, added: “It’s another great result for the Mini. This epitome of the Swinging ’60s may not have won outright this time around, but owners and fans can still be very proud of the sort of company it keeps. With three out of the Top 5 to its name and five out of the Top 10, Britain can rightly revel in its glorious motoring past.”
The Top 25
The Final 5
5. Mini Cooper ‘S’
The Mini
Cooper ‘S’ was introduced in 1963 and, relatively unchanged,
was built for a decade. The car became a legend on the Monte Carlo Rally as
well as a favourite with the Swinging Sixties in-crowd. Starting with a
1071cc engine and ending production with 1275cc, the British baby saloon
designed by Sir Alex Issigonis is still a styling and design watershed,
setting the front-wheel-drive template for the vast majority of modern
cars.
4. Lotus Elan Sprint
For many, the Sprint version is the
ultimate incarnation of the pretty Lotus Elan, masterminded by Colin
Chapman and built from 1962 until 1973. The more powerful Sprint version
– just 1353 built from 1971-’73 – had 126bhp from its
Ford-derived four-cylinder 1558cc twin-cam engine and was capable of a top
speed of 120mph. With a glassfibre body over a backbone chassis, the Elan
is fantastically light, nimble and responsive and will outperform many
modern cars.
3. Alfa Romeo 8C-2300
Revered as the most spectacular pre-WW2
car, fewer than 200 Alfa Romeo 8C-2300s were built from 1931-’34.
With a supercharged twin-cam straight eight engine (later enlarged to
2900cc for the restyled 8C from 1935) it boasted 150bhp and dominated motor
sport with a top speed well above 100mph and an astonishing 0-60mph time of
8 seconds.
2. McLaren F1
With a top speed in excess of 240mph, the Gordon
Murray-designed F1 was a plain-piece-of-paper, money-no-object exercise in
building the ultimate road car. With just 106 manufactured from 1992-1998,
the car was notable for its central driver’s seat with two passenger
seats behind it, as well as its use of rare materials such as gold, Kevlar
and titanium in its construction. It used a V12 BMW engine and scorched to
60mph from standstill in just 3.2 seconds. It is telling that, despite
never being intended as a competition car, the F1 won Le Mans against
full-blown sports-prototypes in 1995.
1. Porsche 911 Carrera RS 2.7
Built for just a year from 1972,
the Porsche 911 Carrera RS 2.7 Lightweight (RS stands for Renn Sport) was
made in very small numbers (217) and could achieve a top speed of 152mph.
Through its rarity and searing performance, it has become the most
desirable of all the myriad 911 variants and prices have rocketed in recent
years. The monocoque-bodied car was powered by a 2687cc flat-six engine,
had 210bhp and could reach 60mph in 6.8 seconds.
