Whether it’s through their looks, badging or the clearly prescribed market sector they fall into, they leave you in no doubt about their intentions. Yet sometimes there are fast cars that catch you by surprise. These aren’t Q cars as such, more machines that, you sense, have been developed without the engineering and marketing departments getting together before, during or after the process. They’re the models that, ordinarily, a company insider might have asked: “Hmmm, okay. But who’s actually going to buy it?”

As a result, they fall outside of the normal categories, which means they weren’t bought in big numbers new and, crucially, their values have tumbled since. That’s excellent news for us because it means there are some great unlikely performance car bargains out there for the taking. Here, we pick out 10 of the best.