The brilliant cars you need to drive at least once

Better known as the Jeep, it famously won the war alongside the Dakota and the landing craft, at least from Eisenhower’s perhaps somewhat partial perspective. Even so, if you ever wondered how your SUV got that way, it all started here with a name whose origins are argued about to this day. Slow, uncomfortable, indestructible.

41: Lexus LS400

We couldn’t believe it. A Toyota that rode (much) better than a Rolls-Royce, with an engine so quiet at idle you needed to look at the rev counter to know it was turning. The most remarkable luxury car of its era and still, in a way, the standout Lexus.

40: Honda Integra Type R

It is incredible to see the cult following this little coupé has earned itself. But this was Honda at the height of its engineering powers and the Integra was the greatest expression of its talent for producing brilliant driver’s cars. Some even say it’s the best front-drive machine of them all.

39: Austin 7

Our answer to the Ford Model T, the car that more than any put Britain on the road. Simple but beautifully realised, slow but still fun to drive, look at one today and see how hard it is not to smile. Drive one and your grin will stretch from ear to ear.

38: Jaguar I-Pace

Not just included here for what it is, which is a damn fine electric car but for what it represents: Jaguar doing things its way. For too long, Jaguar has followed the lead of (mainly German) others. Yet it was always at its best setting the trend, not following it, and you only have to look at the XK120, E-Type and original XJ6 to know it. The I-Pace is a return to that mindset. Long may it last.

37: Land Rover Series 1

No, it’s not the first SUV but it is undoubtedly the most influential. How funny for a car designed with straight edges and built from scrap aluminium left over from the war because it was intended as a stopgap and that was the cheapest way of making them.

36: Porsche Cayman GT4

Either generation will do, but in this case we mean the first. Much of the power deficit to the vaunted GT3 was offset by better weight distribution and lower overall mass. An outstanding driver’s car for a fraction of the price of the 911 equivalent.

35: Mitsubishi Evo VI Tommi Mäkinen

It’s a shame cars like this are no longer fashionable – few made their driver feel more of a hero. Immense power just set the scene: it was the balance and agility that made you feel like a WRC winner. Any Evo is good, but this was the best.

34: Porsche 968 Clubsport

In pure handling terms, probably still the best balanced Porsche. The lightweight Clubbie came from a time when Porsche actually charged less and not more for removing equipment, making this 968 not just a superlative driving machine but a surprisingly affordable one too.

33: Mercedes-BenzS-Class(W140)

The S-Class of S-Classes, the most massively constructed, locked-in vault Benz of them all, dating from a time when Mercedes wilfully overengineered its cars, just because it could. The S500 with its punchy V8 was the best, and was an implausibly effective driving machine too.

32: Mazda MX-5

Thirty years. That’s how long it’s been since Mazda launched its gorgeous little roadster on the road and that’s how long we’ve spent waiting for someone, anyone, to manage to better it. Some have tried, all have failed. Drive it and you’ll see why.

31: Lotus Esprit Sport 300

The Elise is a far more important car, but this is the best Lotus road car I’ve driven, with real power from its old 2.2-litre engine making the most of the best chassis then in the business. Perhaps the most lucid and vice-less mid-engined supercar that has been created.

30: Dodge Charger 440R/T

There’s a good reason they chose this for The Dukes of Hazzard TV show in the 1980s, for it symbolises all that was good about America’s greatest muscle car era. The 1968 spec cars look best, and the enormous 440-cubic-inch motor is a legend in its own right.

29: Bentley 4 1/2 Litre

The epitome of the vintage Bentley, all bonnet straps, Union flags and a cockpit that looks like that of a WW1 biplane. Difficult to drive owing to reversed pedals and a non-syncro ’box, but get it right and there are still few more pleasurable driving experiences out there today.

28: Aston Martin DBS Superleggera

All that a modern Aston Martin should be: gorgeous, stupendously fast , superb to drive and with just a hint of cad about it . A modern-day DB5, and praise comes little higher than that.

27: Lotus Elise

The car that saved the company. By going back to its roots and building something advanced but simple, fast but affordable, Lotus found its sweet spot and has been cashing in on it ever since. A landmark in the history of one of the most important and enigmatic brands.

26: McLaren 720S

Could have had any number of McLarens here, but the 720S is what it does best: a quiet, comfortable and spacious long-distance cruiser – then an axe-wielding maniac at the press of a pedal. Wonderful en route to the mountains, insane when you arrive. The most broadly defined supercar.

25: Mercedes-Benz 300SL

It’s not just about the doors, though those gullwings are quite some calling card. What it is, in fact, is the first car with a credible claim to the title ‘supercar’ and one whose combination of performance and civility in 1954 made everything else on the road seem instantly obsolete.

24: Citroën 2CV ‘AZ’

An AZ is an early car from the 1950s, with a ripple bonnet and a 425cc engine, close to the inspired original and pre-war vision for the car. One of the slowest cars on the road owing to just 12bhp, but one of the most charming too. Being unhappy and on board at the same time is not possible.

23: Ariel Atom

Any will do, though the later the better. The slowest will stir your soul, the quicker will fry your brain. The most intense driving experience a five-figure sum will buy. Our choice: the 3.5R with its sorted handling and maniac supercharged engine.

22: AC Cobra

Originals have strange steering and primitive chassis, even for their age, and far too much power for their own good. Occasionally frustrating and frequently frightening, but these Anglo-American icons are also always heart-stoppingly exciting.

21: Porsche 911 (992)

Someone considerably richer than me once said your motoring education was incomplete until you’d driven a 911 hard. But he was right, and it’s the same today. For 55 years others have tried to better it and for 55 years they have failed. Now as then it's the default choice for anyone looking to drive a true sports car every day.

20: Original Range Rover

Not the first luxury SUV (Jeep Grand Wagoneer, take a bow) but the gen redefining best. Look at all those new SUVs from Bentley, Lamborghini, Rolls-Royce, Maserati and, shortly, both Aston Martin and Ferrari. Their journeys all started here.

19: Ford Sierra Cosworth

A rear-drive Sapphire Cosworth is actually a fraction nicer to drive but loses the cartoonish presence of the big winged Sierra hatch. A racing car for the road in the truest sense, and as good to drive as such billing suggests.

18: Aston Martin DB4 GT

A posher homologation special than the Sierra and the last Aston road car built specifically with racing in mind. With the James Bond looks came monster power, little weight and cornering to remind you what your side windows are for.

17: Lancia Stratos

You’d probably hate the Stratos the first time you try it. Other cars just don’t drive like this. Sat on a vanishingly small wheelbase and designed to change direction in an instant, it is an acquired taste. But once you have it, it never leaves you.

16: BMW M3 (E30)

If a Martian fell to Earth and asked the meaning of the phrase ‘it ain’t what you do, it’s the way that you do it’, you could do no better than strap him, her or it into an original M3 to explain. Superb motor, perfect balance, sublime experience.

15: Fiat 500

Everyone raves about the Mini and rightly so. But Dante Giacosa’s Nuova Cinquecento also sat four, was far more manoeuvrable around town and was already on sale when the Mini was launched. More fun than you could possibly imagine from just 18bhp.

14: Lexus LFA

It was late in appearing and fiendishly expensive, but my goodness it was fun while it lasted. An incredible chassis powered by a V10 engine that still has a good claim to being the best used in a road car. Such a shame, then, that it never spawned the successor it so deserved.

13: Caterham Seven

As viscerally thrilling as an Ariel Atom? Perhaps not quite, but close, and it comes with a hood and even a heater if you want, so it can be used all year round. And no car is any fun parked in the garage.

12: Rolls-Royce Phantom

Having seen the complete Horlicks it made of Rover, many of us worried what BMW might do with Rolls-Royce. The answer was to create the finest luxury carriage of its era and a car as worthy of the name as any other.

11: Volkswagen Golf GTI (Mk1)

Not the first hot hatch, but the car that perfected the art and set the template for others to follow. Simple, strong, fast and fun, it seems staggering that no one had thought of it before. An absolute icon of pragmatic car design.

10: Lamborghini Miura

I know, Miuras are meant to be rubbish to drive. But there’s not a petrolhead who’s seen the film who has not dreamed of slipping down into that unimprovable shape and making like the man in the opening credits of The Italian Job. Just without the bulldozer bit.

9: Alpine A110

For once a sequel that improves on the original and, in the meantime, changes the way a complacent world thinks about sports car design. One of very few true icons of our age and one of the finest driver’s cars yet conceived.

8: Mini (original)

Became both a fashion accessory and a Monte Carlo rally winner, a film star and a runabout for millions. Simple, spacious, affordable and fun, it was also the first to perfect front-wheel drive. Few cars of any size have been more important.

7: Peugeot 205 GTI

Enough people have done enough tests over the years for it surely now to be unarguable that the 205 GTI is the defining hot hatch not just of its era but of any era. A dizzying blend of performance, practicality and outrageous handling, wrapped up in landmark styling for an affordable price. And there’s not much better than that.

6: Ferrari LaFerrari

I’d rather drive a P1 around a track and I’d rather use a 918 Spyder every day but, as a thing just to get in and drive, the LaFerrari was and remains the most engaging and accessible of all the hypercars.

5: Lotus Elan (original)

At least within the confines of the road car design, there is no greater expression of Colin Chapman’s genius than his original Elan. Beautiful, tiny, ultra-light and fast, it was handling from which lessons can still be learned today that set it apart.

4: Porsche 911 GT3 RS (997 Gen 2)

The best version of the best sports car. This is a car you can use, with performance whose full range can be enjoyed, with exceptional handling and also a fine ride. As exciting as you’d want or need a road car to be.

3: Jaguar E-Type

A design landmark: one became a permanent resident of the New York Museum of Modern Art, alongside the works of Picasso, Monet, Cézanne and Degas. And it delivered on those looks. At least as fast as an Aston DB4, and less than half the price.

2: McLaren F1

The greatest supercar this country has produced. Moved the global boundaries of road car performance further and faster than any other. Commercially unsuccessful when new, its speed, scarcity and race record meant it would in time acquire the status of true automotive legend.

1: Ferrari F40

There have been times – rare ones, I concede – where briefly the Ferrari F40 is superseded in my mind as the greatest road car I’ve driven. It happened a few years back with the LaFerrari, and many years before with the McLaren F1. But once time is allowed for true perspective, there it always is. The F40. 

Twist the key and press the little rubber button. Mayhem breaks out behind you. Anyone who says a turbo engine can’t sound good has never listened to one of these. It’s growling and gurgling, spitting and popping, and that’s just at idle. If its looks don’t intimidate you, the noise will.

You need to respect this machine, but also to trust it. Unlike other Ferraris made around that time, 288 GTO included, the F40 is remarkably faithful on the limit, so if the boost arrives a trifle suddenly at the exit of a corner, you can be reassured that, first, the chassis will tell you the moment traction is about to break and, second, the steering will round up any movement at the back without even the need to lift.

1: Ferrari F40 – continued

It’s number one because of all the thousands of cars I’ve driven doing this job, it’s the one I think of most. It’s the one I most miss being in, the one I most don’t want to get out of. Speed and grip? They’re incidentals. It’s about the sense of occasion, the totally immersive driving experience; it’s every crackle from the engine, every scrape from the gearshift, every snatched breath and every tick of the bodywork as you sit at journey’s end, unable to take in what just happened.

And yes, it is also that this is Enzo’s last car. I know he was difficult, know too he cared little for his road cars and even less for those who drove them. But I don’t care. The F40 has his defiance, his iconoclasm and, though I never met him, what I imagine to be his spirit, too. It is, to me, still the most exciting road car in the world, if now far from being the fastest. I don’t know how you get to drive one before you die, but believe me, it’s the one you should covet above all the rest.