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The polar opposite of, say, the grip-tastic four-wheel-driveyness of the RS4. Saying that, there may be a relationship with the necessary tractive forces involved with getting that much horsepower and torque to the road, but bloody hell, it can put a smile on your face every time you crack wide that exhaust opera.

Which brings me neatly to the BMW M3. Here is a car that is perhaps the original sports saloon iconoclast, and about as safe a bet as straight bullion. This is the six-speed manual with 414bhp and a lowly-in-this-company 295lb ft of torque (147lb ft less than the C63) from its 4.0-litre V8.

The sacrifice might allow a racy 8,400rpm red line, but sacrifice it is, and you'll immediately feel that the Beemer is slower, less eager in the lower reaches, even with the 'power' button depressed and the EDC set to max.

It only really starts to get angry above 5,500rpm, and when it does, the whole car stops being an amicable dawdler and comes alive. You snatch gears just to get an extra sniff of hydrocarbons burning at 8,400rpm, to have the engine run its fingers up and down your spine. Of all the cars here, it is the one that changes direction with the most fluidity and feel.

It also shrinks intimately down around you like warmed-through clingfilm and handles so sweetly that liberties are easy to take without being punished by ritual maiming of the ego. It's a shame that the interior is so dull, the clutch and gearbox feel a bit fragile and the steering wheel is so thick - there's so much to like that the bad bits really jar.

And so to the Audi. The RS4 is here as a control, the Petri-dish benchmark for all this new and shiny speed merchandise. It isn't in total contention because the lack of newly forged 'old' A4 bodyshells available with which to RS-ify means it is technically out of production. But in a world of one-trick ponies, the four-wheel-drive RS4 has proved itself time and time again to be one hell of an all-rounder.

It hasn't got any party tricks either - the recipe of a 414bhp, 311lb ft V8 and Quattro four-wheel-drive is pretty much all you need. There's a 40/60 torque split front to rear in most situations, with up to 85 per cent thrown at the back axle if things get slippy.

There's also that gorgeous high-revving V8 under the bonnet, but essentially the RS4 deals a straight deck; it is a phenomenally fast Quattro, and the first of a generation of Audis that delivers on the driving experience as well as the paper statistics.

This is also one of the few cars that stands up to fond memory, every nuance still replicated in sensitive Technicolor, even through the cotton-wool of such a hefty drivetrain. I loved this car when it was launched.

It hasn't changed. Constant throttle and feeding in the power on the apex is the key. It understeers if you get over-excited, but tucks up without histrionics if you do overstep the mark. It feels torquier than the BMW, less so than the Merc or the IS-F.

In the wet it'll also do a bit of lift-off oversteer, or undramatic but fun four-wheel drifts. It's not the joyful power-oversteer of the other three cars here, which is a little disappointing, but I reckon that 95 per cent of the time, you'll be more than happy with Quattro. As an everyday performance car, the RS4 is a living legend.