The Puma simply blew away the competition and many more expensive coupes, leaving it as the only choice for those who enjoyed driving without paying enormous prices.

As a used buy, the Puma is only more appealing thanks to strong build quality and fine reliability, so long as it's not been got at by a boy racer.

Based on the Fiesta chassis, Ford firmed up the suspension, beefed up the brakes and dropped in a bespoke 1.7-litre petrol engine with a cylinder head designed by Yamaha that incorporated variable valve timing to make the most of its modest capacity.

The result was a car that was nippy on paper and a hoot on the road. The perfect gearchange of the five-speed manual 'box means you're always in the right gear to access the power and the engine loves to rev, even though there's sufficient power lower down the rev band. Forget the 1.4 and 1.6 models - the 1.7 is where it's at.

Forget hot hatches, too. The Puma will see them off and its handling prowess will keep them behind on any road.

This is a car you can take enormous liberties with - in the right conditions - and it will (just) let you get away with it. Wondrously accurate steering and a superb feel contribute to this.

About the only thing we can level a criticism at with the Puma is that the rear seats are too cramped for anyone but children but frankly, this just seems like a whinge when a car has such God-given talent. No wonder used prices are holding up so well.

The Puma Racing was a rally-bred rarity and even more fun to drive, but the unforgiving ride and extreme nature of this wide-bodied machine made it slow to sell and as a result, it's now very sought after.