My first sports car weighed half as much as a sedan I could have bought, it had a very low centre of gravity, and the engine developed about 20 per cent more power than if I had bought a sedan. And to get that performnce I built most of it.

The result was that this little Cooper sports carssports car went like the wind, cornered on rails, and thanks to an overdrive, it cruised fast as well. On top of that, it had big brakes, so it stopped very quickly.

Nowadays, the world is different. ‘Ordinary’ sports cars built by firms like BMW, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz and Nissan weigh about as much as equivalent sedans or hot hatches, are quite tall, and have the same engines, so you might wonder if it is worth buying a sports car.

Buy an alternative sports car

Well, if you buy an alternative sports car, like a Caterham or Westfield or Lotus, you will get the true advantages of a sports car. In fact Lotus sports cars are among the best, giving you good weather protection, reasonable comfort, but true sports car performance.

True, Audi has made an effort to reduce weight with its latest TT sports car, which has a body made mainly from aluminium, so it is lighter than the old model – but not that much. Also, it has front-wheel drive, and even the models with the quattro system have a four-wheel drive that only cuts in when needed, so the car drives as if it was front-wheel drive.

Real sports cars need to have rear-wheel drive because this gives better handling, particularly in extreme situations. The latest rear-drive sports cars from the big manufacturers, like the Honda S2000, Mazda MX-5 (Miata), and Nissan 350Z are good fun to drive, and much more enjoyable to own than a muscle car based on a mass-produced sedan.

However, if you want a real sports car you need something a bit more extreme like a Caterham Seven or Lotus Elise. Then, you can really have some fun! Here’s how to get cash to buy a fast car?

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