COUPES AND SPORTS CARS
Best in class:
Audi TT
The first TT, in spite of all its success, was something of a disappointment with its clod-footed Golf chassis and cramped cabin. Stylish but soulless, it was. The second generation was a little better but still more hatch than coupe, but it is now, with the third generation, that the TT truly comes of age. Handling and steering are now at a level than can match the best that Porsche can throw into the ring, while even the relatively humble 2.0-litre turbo with the engine from the Golf GTI feels plenty quick enough. All-weather quattro traction also makes it one of the best performance cars for Irish conditions.
Best one: 2.0 TSI quattro S-Line.
Also consider:
BMW 2 Series
It's far too easy to look back with rose-tinted glasses at the mid-eighties E30 BMW 3 Series and compare every subsequent BMW to it. The fact is that the E30 was as tricky to drive as any other car of the eighties. Still, it's hard – very hard – not to see the compact two-door 2 Series as the E30's natural and spiritual successor, and it at least can fulfil all those wistful wishful-thinking ideals of E30 handling. The 2 Series is surprisingly practical, a hoot to drive but still comfy, refined and safe. The eighties, updated.
Alfa Romeo 4C
With Alfa in the midst of one of its periodic comebacks, it would be easy to dismiss the 4C as some kind of motor show trinket. But it's not. It's actually the bargain to end all bargains. Why? Because it's a mid-engined Italian (mini)supercar with a carbon-fibre chassis and a twitchy attitude to cornering. Want to find a rival? You'll have to upgrade to the €300,000-plus Lamborghini Huracan, while the Alfa can be had for under €70,000. And Lamborghini has never won the F1 world championship. Alfa's won it twice (admittedly in 1950 and 1951).
Worth waiting for:
Ford Mustang Yee, and indeed, haw. The Mustang, which for the last 50 years has been a true American icon, is at last going global and going right-hand drive. Yes, you'll be able to get one with a massive, profligate 5.0-litre V8, but most European versions will come with a rev-happy 2.3-litre turbo with 300hp and a fake exhaust noise system to make it sound more butch. Ford is promising driving dynamics to rival the BMW 4 Series coupe, and the first Irish car already has an order against it. Steve McQueen fans should form an orderly queue to the right.
Launches Autumn 2015
Mazda MX-5
With more than 25 years of history behind it, this will be but the fourth generation of the MX-5, and it couldn't be a more important one. Arriving at a time when sports car sales are generally on a downer (because everyone wants bloody SUVs, grumble, grumble) the MX-5 will not only have to be brilliant enough to keep up the oh-so-perfect handling traditions of its forbears, it will have to be practical and desirable enough to rekindle the global flame for compact, gorgeous little two-seaters. Here's hoping . . .
Launches Summer 2015
SUPERCARS
Best in class:
BMW i8
It may be somewhat perverse to call a car with a minimum price tag of €136,000 a bargain, but it's all about relativity. If you want to find another mid-engined, carbon-bodied part-electric supercar, you're going to have to trade up to a Porsche 918, and that's going to cost you well over €1 million once you've paid for the VRT. And it doesn't even have the i8's back seats. Swift in performance, impressively frugal even when the batteries have lost their charge and with only a twinge of on-the-limit handling vagueness to hold it back from outright greatness, the i8 is not merely the spiritual successor to the original M1, it's one of the first touchstone cars of the electric generation.
Best one: There's only one model and it starts at €135,850.
Also consider:
Porsche 911
While it possibly really ought to be shown up for the 1963 throwback that it is, especially by the BMW i8, there's still something bewitchingly brilliant about Porsche's wrong-engined masterpiece. The current 991 generation has a little more practical space inside, and is rather more refined than before, but it can still hit you with a Mike Tyson performance punch. Our favourite is the Carrera 4S with power kit, which gives you a naturally-aspirated 3.8-litre engine with a whopping 450hp. We'd quite understand if you went for the outrageously quick Turbo, though, or the show-off Targa. There's a 911 for just about all tastes.
Jaguar F-Type
The F-Type kind of cuts across two classes, really. The more basic (a relative term for a car that barely scrapes under the €100,000 barrier in its cheapest form) V6-engined versions really belong in the sports car category, but the mighty 550hp V8 R version definitely belongs here amongst the supercar royalty. Utterly gorgeous to look at, comfy and refined inside, and with the sort of explosive V8 power and noise and smoky-tyres sideways attitude that we thought had died out with TVR. It's noisy, naughty and funny.
Worth waiting for:
Mercedes AMG GT
We'll miss the gulping doors of the SLS AMG that preceded this model, but the promise of the new Mercedes-AMG GT is just too lip-smacking. If the i8 is a glimpse of the future of performance cars, then this is the last party of the old school. The styling echoes classic road and racing Mercs of old without being self-consciously retro. And if this doesn't run the F-Type V8 close for glorious noise then we'll eat our earplugs.
Launches Summer 2015
