Features

But it's still a proper, air-cooled 911 and therefore one of the most magical cars I've ever owned. Because it's an unloved variant I'm safe from the beardiness that afflicts the cult of earlier 911s and am generally treated with disdain by the driver of a 2.7RS, thankfully. Its 231bhp doesn't sound much by current standards, but because it harks from a pre-safety era it is pretty light, at around 1250kg, and therefore feels frisky and immediate. All I have to do is claim that I'm driving it ironically.

I think this is a good trick if you can pull it off - choosing a really good car that is old enough to be a bit non-grata but not so old that it has become in any way rare, 'classic', nerdy, or eligible for a Sunday collectors' cars fun run through the cotswolds. You can have a very special set of wheels that is modern enough to be useable yet old enough to be cheap.

And it may not be that difficult. One of the blokes on the Top Gear production team recently bought a BMW Z-coupe, again in excellent condition. This was a great but slightly misunderstood car, has now been largely forgotten and therefore cost him £????. But it's also almost a supercar, is excellently built and is starting to look interesting again. But only to the initiated, which is why the price is still good.

Another mate bought a Bentley Brooklands from the late 90s. This is like the Turbo R but with the normally aspirated engine, so not as quick but just as smooth, just as aromatic on the inside and just as plutocratic. It was £12,000. I do know a bit about these old Crewe cars and, having driven it and crawled all over it, I can tell you that it's a good 'un. He won't be invited to join the Bentley Drivers' Club but the knock-on effect of that is a massive saving.

Endless possibilities present themselves to the slightly cash-strapped but discerning driving enthusiast who doesn't care too much about public opinion and who hates the idea of lying under a classic all weekend. Off the top of my head I could suggest earlier Subaru Impreza, any BMW M3 between the coveted original and the last two models, the Jaguar XJ8 and even, if you're feeling brave, the Fiat Coupe or the Alfa GTV V6.

Somewhere or other is a really good and ludicrously affordable example of all of these things. As long as you're interested in cars rather than being cool, £20,000 will buy you as much motoring happiness as anyone can cope with.

I mean, any idiot can spend £80,000 on a {new} 911. And they usually do.