The best affordable sports cars – driven, rated and ranked

Best for: Daily driving

Porsche's decision to kill-off the 718 Cayman and Boxster means the Lotus Emira's finally gets promoted from understudy to headlining star.

The traction and stability control can be rather permissive even when left on, but when the Emira loses traction, it does so progressively.

Matt Saunders, Road test editor

Since its launch in 2022 the Emira has always played second fiddle to the mid-engined marvel from Zuffenhausen, but the German cars winning margins have always been slim. Now the Lotus is the only game in town for those wanting an everday-useable sports car.

There's a choice of supercharged Toyota 3.5-litre V6 and turbocharged Mercedes-AMG 2.0-litre four-pot, and suprisingly it's the latter that's quicker in the 0-62mph dash, it's 4.0-second time aided by the swift shifts of the standard eight-speed auto gearbox. The bigger-engined machine, however, is available with a six-speed manual, which combines with its more soulful soundtrack to make it the more invigorating powertrain.

Like all Lotus models, the Emria feels particularly at home on the UK's gnarled roads, the car's blend of twinkle-toed agility and even-keeled ride making it both hugely engaging and surprisingly comfortable. It also benefits from one of the best steering set-ups in the business, the quick and feelsome rack helping the Lotus deliver a non-stop connection between the road and the driver's fingertips.

The Emira is also surprisingly easy to live with thanks to a cabin that delivers decent comfort and a surprisingly upmarket vibe. It also offers a 2+2 seating layout, although the rear seats are best reserved for your worst enemies.

Lotus has recently confirmed that there's a plug-in hybrid version of the Emira on the cards, further broadening the car's appeal. That said, with prices starting at a biscuit under £80,000 this isn't a cheap car, but if you're after a sports car that can hack the drudge of daily driving while also raising your spirits on the right road, this is now the only game in town.

Best for: Driver engagement

Anyone with a £50,000 budget to spend on something in which they just want to enjoy themselves would be remiss in the extreme to overlook one of the most direct and glaringly obvious solutions to their brief: the utterly brilliant Ariel Atom 4.

The Atom retains so absorbing a dynamic character that it can be enormous fun on both road and track, when so many of its close rivals simply can’t do both.

Richard Lane, Deputy road test editor

This lightweight two-seater is part motorbike, part car, part tubular curio. But while demanding plenty of commitment from its driver, it’s superbly involving and characterful.

Our favourite lightweight sports car (and former winner of our annual Britain's Best Driver's Car shoot-out), the Atom keeps it focus squarely on the essentials. A windscreen is an optional extra - and if you don’t go for one, a helmet is an absolute must. 

But huge pace and almost unrivalled excitement are this car’s crowning glories. The former comes from the car’s turbocharged Honda four-cylinder engine, which can be turned up as far as 350bhp in a car weighing little more than 600kg.

But the latter isn’t just about superbike-baiting acceleration. The Atom's chassis is singularly adjustable, and it can be made so easily to work every bit as well on a bumpy, flowing B-road as on a track day.

Getting on top of an Atom on the track and getting every scrap of performance from it is a challenge like few sports cars can offer in 2025. 

Best for: Value

There isn't a single area in which this fourth-generation Mazda MX-5 fails to surpass its predecessor. It's shorter, lighter, more spacious and better laid out. It's sharper looking but still disarming and not at all ostentatious. It's also faster, more frugal and even more vibrant and engaging to drive.

With its lack of needless complication, light weight and manual gearbox, the MX-5 flits inertia-free from corner to corner, feeling like a breath of fresh a

Richard Lane, Deputy road test editor

In 2018, Mazda facelifted its iconic roadster, with the headline change being a 23bhp power hike for its feisty 2.0-litre engine. A steering column that also now adjusts for reach was also introduced, addressing one of the MX-5's only ergonomic drawbacks.

The entry-level 1.5-litre MX-5 still develops 130bhp, while the 2.0-litre model makes 181bhp but also gets a front strut brace, a limited-slip differential and uprated Bilstein dampers as standard. 

Whichever you choose, rear-driven chassis poise and lots of driver involvement are guaranteed.

That’s because the MX-5 is still every inch the same zesty and inimitable car that it always has been. Its character hasn't really changed at all in three decades, and nothing on this list offers a better pounds-per-smile rating.

Best for: Thrills

The Super 3 (the 2012 reinvention, not the 1909 original) proved to be a surprise hit for the Malvern maker. Around 2500 left the factory over a 10-year production run, which for the nichiest of niche manufacturers is as close to mass production as it gets.

It aims to put a smile on your face with an experience that takes you away from the mundane and everyday, and it does so with joyful verve.

Matt Prior, Editor-at-large

Thankfully, today's Super 3 oozes the same spirit and charm of its predecessor, yet comes in a far more versatile and modern package.

The unique three-wheel layout remains the same, as do the upturned bathtub looks, but under the skin, there's a stronger monocoque construction, more sophisticated suspension and a three-cylinder Ford Fiesta engine in place of a throbbing V-twin.

Tipping the scales at just 635kg, the 118bhp Morgan is brisk, its performance aided by a snickety five-speed manual sourced from the Mazda MX-5. Yet it's the way the skinny-tyred machine tackles corners that delivers the real delight, the modest grip levels and well-balanced handling making it huge fun at any speed - but especially accessibly so on the road.

Most lightweight specials offer greater outright pace and better circuit suitability than this, and the last 3 Wheeler had a bit more character, but when all you want to do is drive on the sort of roads that most of us use every day and grab every moment of joy you can while doing so, few cars will have your heart singing more loudly.

Best for: Aural pleasure

The seventh-generation ‘Stang arrived late in 2024, and given we named it our Best Dream Car at our annual awards, we believe it's better than ever. 

It’s worth sticking with the manual, then, and it’s hard to see why you would bother with the Dark Horse either. It gets only a handful of extra power and no extra torque, and this GT drives every bit as well.

Illya Verpraet, Road Tester

That said, the Mustang ownership experience has a few drawbacks in the UK. The car’s sheer size means you have to think twice about where you're going to park it in town and what kinds of country lanes you might seek out with it. 

With its dipsomaniac 5.0-litre V8, meanwhile, you will need to factor in a greater number of visits to the pumps than your peers in their German sports cars. There's a choice of 10-speed automatic or six-speed manual - if you can, then we'd recommend the latter every single time.

The Mustang is a throwback of a sports car, needless to say, yet few direct rivals have such obvious likability. Its powertrain brings with it an appeal that engines with fewer cylinders simply don't muster and its rear-drive chassis balance is pretty peachy too.

Best for: Simplicity

For more than 70 years, the Caterham Seven in all its forms (Lotus and Caterham) has been setting a defining standard for pure driver thrills.

The Seven is more of a weekend car, or something for trackdays

Matt Prior, Editor-at-large

If you don’t care about refinement, disregard modern crash-safety tests and wonder instead what kind of sports car will entertain you most widely and vividly wherever you happen to be, this diminutive British sports car is hard to beat.

The most affordable way into a new Seven is the Caterham Seven 170, which starts at £28,990 if you're willing to wield the spanners and build it yourself.

With its 84bhp turbocharged 660cc Suzuki engine, the Caterham looks a little weedy on paper, but a kerb weight of as little as 440kg means 0-60mph can be done and dusted in less than 7.0sec, the gargling three-pot engine encouraging you all the way.

Above the Seven 170, Caterham now offers the retro-themed Super Seven 600 and Super Seven 2000. Extended front cycle wings and plenty of body chrome trim give these cars classic Seven looks, but they can still be bought and built in kit form, the latter offering 180bhp of Ford Duratec power.

Move up again and you’re into proper performance Caterham territory, where proper motorsport-ready models can be found with as much as 310bhp, sequential gearboxes, full roll cages, track-ready slick tyres and fully adjustable suspension systems.

Here, even the madcap Caterham Seven 620R could be yours, fully factory-built and ready to go, for a lot less than the price of a Porsche 718 Cayman GT4.

Cheaper Sevens get a live rear axle and lack the ride sophistication of the pricier De Dion-equipped cars, but with their skinny tyres and wrist-flick steering, they can still dance this way and that through corners, entertaining like only lightweight cars could.

You'll have to accept quite a few everyday usability compromises, but as a driver's car pure and simple, the Seven is head and shoulders almost anything on four wheels.

Best for: Interior quality

Another sports car that's not long for this world, the BMW Z4 is due to bow out in before spring next year.

Experiencing the outstanding 3.0-litre straight six with a manual gearbox opens up a new dimension of involvement.

Matt Saunders, Road test editor

The platform sibling of the Toyota Supra, the Z4 broadens the appeal of its Japanese cousin with a drop-top layout and a powertrain selection that offers a little more versatility compared to other models on this list. 

The range opens with a 194bhp variant, but the more sporty models come with 255bhp or a range-topping 3.0-litre turbocharged straight-six engine, offering 335bhp and 369lb ft of torque.

The Z4's strengths are found in its handling and ride, which have been significantly improved over its predecessor, offering great levels of stability at high speeds. 

A six-speed manual has also been made available since the start of 2024 (surprisingly, for the first time on this derivative) as part of the Handschalter Package, which also reconfigures the Z4's springs and dampers, and adjusts the model's steering mapping for a more engaging driving experience. 

It might sometimes feel more like a drop-top cruiser than an out-and-out sports car, but that's okay because in these sports car-straitened times you've got to take what you can. Moreover, in the case of the six-cylinder versions the Z4 nicely combines muscularity and musicality.

Best for: Old-world charm

We’re stretching the bounds of qualification by including this car at the foot of our 'best affordable sports cars' roster but with justifiable mitigation. Morgan currently sells its cheapest four-wheeled sports car, the Morgan Plus Four, from a whisker under £63,000.

Here is a car that retains so much of the old-school charm and sense of occasion that has historically been key to its appeal but it does so despite being based on an all-new platform

Felix Page, Deputy editor

But because it has become a modern sports car brand with all avenues catered to and because Morgan sports cars have an almost unrivalled ability to hold their value, the company can offer surprisingly affordable finance deals on its models.

Which isn’t to say that a Plus Four would be anything like a 718 Boxster or GR Supra to own. Old-world charm is what this car exists to engender. Its design is about as inimitably retro as that of any car on the road.

But under its aluminium bodywork now sits a BMW turbocharged four-cylinder engine and an all-aluminium monocoque chassis, making this the first four-cylinder Morgan in the thick end of a century not to use traditional ladder-frame construction.

With 255bhp on tap, the Plus Four isn’t backwards coming forwards, but it remains a sports car for a particular, slightly laid back stride. It’s a car from which to take in a perfect English summer’s afternoon - with a bit of gusto, but nothing like as much as you might be tempted to with some sports cars.

Narrow and zippy, it makes short work of country lanes, although its cloth hood and half doors make for noisy motorway cruising, and neither its ride nor its limit handling are quite as well resolved as you might expect for your £60,000 sports car budget.

That said, the optional Dynamic Handling Pack's Nitron dampers, uprated springs and rear anti-roll bar are well worth the extra £2,000 outlay, sharpening the car's responses and settling its ride a little.

Even with a modern chassis and a modern turbocharged BMW engine, the Plus Four remains evocative to a fault. It’s still wonderful in its leafy, unhurried element.