Here are 18 used Noughties supercar bargains*

YOU’LL PAY: £45,000

YOU’LL LOOK LIKE: A lottery winner on their way to the Greek pillar emporium

Has the 360 finally aged out of its blobby phase and into used Ferrari temptation? Though its curves were never as universally approved as its F355 predecessor (and it was the first V8 Ferrari to shun pop-up headlamps), the 360 was stiffer, lighter and more powerful than the F355, and these days its lack of overt aero makes it look charmingly simple. The 3.6-litre V8 has proved tough, but 360s don’t like being left in store, so don’t be drawn to low mileage cars which will need expensive recommissioning. The flappy paddle ‘F1’ gearbox needs finesse (and prefers a throttle lift for smoother upshifts) but that’s the price you pay to save a bundle – 360s with the more desirable open-gate manual ask a minimum of £60,000.

YOU’LL PAY: £100,000

YOU’LL LOOK LIKE: An OnlyFans model done well

A raging bull can be yours for a whole lot less, of course. Early Gallardos (especially soft-top Spyders) with the more melodic 5.0-litre V10 are these days knocking on the £50k trapdoor. But if you can stretch the budget to the scary six figure realm, you unlock one of the best facelifts in supercardom. The LP560-4 didn’t just add power with its Audi honed 5.2-litre V10. It also heralded pointier Reventon inspired looks, some more German approved interior materials and ‘Thrust Mode’ launch control. Most candidates will get Lambo’s version of the clunky robotised manual called ‘e-gear’ which frankly isn’t much cop. But this was 2008. We thought Basshunter and The Ting Tings were cool.

YOU’LL PAY: £1.3m

YOU’LL LOOK LIKE: the smuggest person alive, with good reason

Blowing the budget on a hypercar from the rubber charity wristband era? Porsche’s racecar powered flagship is still cheaper than an Enzo because it’s more plentiful: 1,270 were built from ’03–’06. Values stayed ‘sensible’ due to a reputation for tricky limit handling and the infamous lightweight silicon-carbide clutch making traffic light stallathons a peril even in the age before rampant camera phones. But now the world has caught on to the magic of an all carbon Porsche roadster powered by a soaring 5.7-litre V10 connected to a worldie of a six-speed manual, while new bespoke Michelins and aftermarket suspension offerings have tamed the handling ‘nuances’ which even put the wind up legendary rally pilot Walter Röhrl.

YOU’LL PAY: £20,000

YOU’LL LOOK LIKE: You’ve got no imagination

Is a 911 a supercar? Not in Carrera S form, admittedly – but it is the epitome of the do it all everyday sports car. The 997 was effectively a heavily facelifted, fettled 996, but even as recently as 2004 you got feelsome hydraulic power steering, a gruff, growling atmospheric flat six, and manuals as standard in every model without having to shell out for a special edition. The reason they’re so cheap now is, besides ubiquity, the 997 inherited some of its dad’s chocolatey engine foibles, so the pre-facelift cars are susceptible to bore scoring if they’re not heat cycled. Again, don’t presume a low miler that’s trundled about town is going to be a safer bet than a well cared for moon and back example.

YOU’LL PAY: £38,000

YOU’LL LOOK LIKE: A Swiss banker who takes self defence classes

These have got to go boom sooner or later, right? The prices, not the barking 4.2-litre V8s. The R8 is the car which propelled Audi into the supercar leagues for the first time, and is up there with the ur-Quattro and TT as one of the four rings’ greatest icons. Even today it impresses because it’s frankly so un-Audi where you’d want it to be – the deft steering, the svelte damping, the playful feel – and ultra-Audi exactly where you’d hope – the cabin, the shutlines, the refinement. Yes, these days the interior plastics and hides will have gone a touch shiny, and you’ll pay 10 per cent less for the ‘R-tronic’ flappy paddle auto, but this is Ingolstadt’s 458.

YOU’LL PAY: £390,000

YOU’LL LOOK LIKE: Jeremy Clarkson

The most recent GT40 is a world away from its truly Le Mans derived 2017 successor. That was a twin turbo V6 spaceship with FIA obeying aero and active suspension. The 2005 GT was a sledgehammer supercharged V8, a manual gearbox and a pile of Fiesta switchgear. But it did exactly what the original GT40 had been built to: rub Ferrari’s nose in it. For just over £100k you got more grunt than a 360, more style, more panache, and doors that ate into the roof. Although Ford built over 4,000 and tuners have made merry with the low stress engine’s limits, only 28 GTs originally emigrated to the UK, so you’ll pay four times the RRP to own one. Still, if you break a mirror stalk, parts are cheap...

YOU’LL PAY: £25,000

YOU’LL LOOK LIKE: You weigh your socks when dressing for a track day

With Lotus currently caught in a Chinese EV identity crisis of its own making, it’s sorely tempting to just take the ostrich approach to the company’s current woes and bury your head in one of these brilliant lightweights. The Exige was the Elise’s hard-top hardcore stablemate – more butch in the bodywork, with stickier tyres and by this time, bulletproof Toyota power in the back. Because Lotus barely changed the recipe between the S2’s arrival in 2004 and its morph into a V6 semi-supercar in 2012, there are plenty to choose from, a thriving modification scene (supercharger anyone?) and you’ll be as quick as a Porsche GT3 for a third of the price.

YOU’LL PAY: £70,000

YOU’LL LOOK LIKE: You get Porsche Design homeware vouchers for Christmas

OK, you’ll accept no substitute? Then the cheapest way into 911 GT3 ownership will be a gen-2 996 – the second 911 to wear the badge, but the first to get Andreas Preuninger’s guiding hand. As a result it’s actually better than the gen-1, which enjoys inflated prices because it’s genesis. Later cars get a 20bhp boost to 381bhp, wider tyres, beefier suspension and upgraded brakes. All were manual. Those were the days. The Mezger engine won’t throw a bearing like the standard 996, but look out for poorly repaired crash damage, like creases or fresh welds in the floor (under the carpet). Another telltale? Resprayed panels to hide gravel rash. Oh, and wear gloves – there’ll be a lot of sweaty DNA in that suede steering wheel. Eww.

YOU’LL PAY: £250,000

YOU’LL LOOK LIKE: You’ve got racing boots to match your carpets, haven’t you?

Following the banshee 360 Challenge Stradale, the 430 Scuderia – or Scud, as everyone seems to call them – was yet another high watermark for Ferrari’s fusion of flamboyant fury and F1 derived tech: an extra 20bhp, weight down by 100kg, with 60ms gearshift speeds and shorter gear ratios. The highly strung gearbox is where you need to spend your money, making sure the fluid has been changed as Maranello prescribes. Though Ferrari never revealed how many Scuds it actually made, the fact prices never fell from its £179k RRP and are now over a quarter of a million suggest that – like the CS and Speciale – it’s well on its way to being a modern collector’s must have.

YOU’LL PAY: £20,000

YOU’LL LOOK LIKE: James Bond. In your dreams

We could’ve equally easily gone for a leggy DB9 or a DB7 here – early 2000s Astons are extremely cheap. Maybe it’s the Ford switchgear. Maybe it’s the running costs. Maybe it’s that although individually gorgeous, most Astons from this period all look alike. But if you’re prepared to be brave, that’s all to your advantage, because you could have one of the most achingly beautiful cars ever made on your drive for less than a new Ford Puma. Vantages succumb to rainwater leaking into the boot, paint bubbling around the front pillars and the cabin’s now very dated tech wise. And you might fancy investing in a faster post ‘08 model with the upgraded 4.7-litre V8. But what a noise. What a shape. And what a badge.

YOU’LL PAY: £35,000

YOU’LL LOOK LIKE: The left-back for Wigan Athletic F.C.

Conti GTs are also cheap as chips these days, because they weren’t especially rare, and when they go wrong they need a bigger financial bailout than Lehman Bros. We’re not just talking early W12s in rubbish specs here. £30k unlocks the GT Speed, which was once the fastest Bentley ever: 600bhp, 0–62mph in 4.3secs and 202mph. But we can top that. Just sneaking into our 2000s timeframe is the 2009 Supersports – the ‘lightweight’ GT with 621bhp, a 3.7secs 0–62mph time and a 204mph top whack. If you can afford its appetite for fuel, tyres, brakes and tax, it’s a steal. But beware: servicing that hemmed in W12 is a complex (and therefore pricey) job.

YOU’LL PAY: £300,000

YOU’LL LOOK LIKE: An L.A. dentist’s personal trainer’s plastic surgeon

McLaren didn’t stop making the F1 because no one wanted it. McLaren called time on the world’s greatest supercar because it had a BMW V12, and that irked Mercedes who powered the F1 cars. Inevitably the two brands collab’d on their own megafast spaceship, and the result was... confused. McLaren wanted an all carbon lightweight road racer, Merc the ultimate super GT. We got a car with a bonnet that ended in a different time zone, an underwhelming plasticky cabin and carbon brakes so numb it felt like the pedal had pins’n’needles. So, not a great car – but a very interesting one. A car with a story, and Gordon Murray’s fingerprints on the chassis. And compared to a Carrera GT, Enzo or Zonda, a 2000s hypercar bargain.

YOU’LL PAY: £5–10m

YOU’LL LOOK LIKE: The envy of a driver of anything else on this list...

Pagani revealed its first car in 1999 and evolved it into the C12 S in 2002. Even with the credibility of ex-Lamborghini engineer and composites obsessive Horacio Pagani at the helm and a bespoke AMG V12 behind its bubble canopy, there were those who were sceptical Pagani would be yet another boutique flash in the pan. But the company is still very much here today, and it owes all that to the pinup success of the Zonda. It looked like a steampunk spaceship, sounded like Pavarotti’s wedding night and, most of all, under the theatre and lunacy, it was a proper driver’s car. Plus, Pagani couldn’t stop evolving it, and now does a roaring trade in having original cars sent back to the factory to be upgraded with bits of Cinque, TriColore, 760RS and so on. So much so, that the rarest Pagani of all is the untouched C12 S. A 2000s icon – we can dream...

YOU’LL PAY: £47,000

YOU’LL LOOK LIKE: A pillock when you pronounce it ‘Zee’, not ‘Zed’ Oh-Six

You’ve got to really want one. You’ve got to point at the magnesium engine cradle, the magnesium roof and carbon (and, ahem, balsa wood) floor, and whine it’s 70kg lighter than a regular C6 Vette. People will mock. The interior is a joke. But if you can deflect the ‘think how much Porsche 911 you could’ve got’ ire, the Z06’s thunderous 7.0-litre, 505bhp pushrod V8 will make all right with the world.

YOU’LL PAY: £65,000

YOU’LL LOOK LIKE: You miss the 1970s

Lotus only made 48 of these. It took the last gasp V8 Esprit, stripped 80kg from its waistline and added decals and wing in a vain effort to distract you from the fact it was a 1970s antique underneath. The engine was remapped to offer a brighter power delivery and... well... the Esprit had had its day. As the millennium dawned it was getting left in the dust by the 360, the Gallardo and the 911 Turbo. But if you prize rarity and something built for Britain, by Brits, in Britain, this is a last of the line unicorn.

YOU’LL PAY: £20,000

YOU’LL LOOK LIKE: The doorman at Claridge’s knows you by name

Like our friend the Conti GT, Bentley’s four door has plummeted in value because it takes bottomless pockets to run and deeper tolerance to put up with people sneering ‘it’s just a gilded Volkswagen’. The Spur was hand finished to a high standard in Crewe, and delivers 200mph with no unseemly fanfare. Yes, the VW coil packs like to go wrong and it looks like a Toyota Avensis at the back. But it’s so much more dignified than thrusting German uberbarges. Come on you Spurs.

YOU’LL PAY: £40,000

YOU’LL LOOK LIKE: You pray to the gods of warning lights

Pop-up headlamps. Need we go on? Alright then. A Pininfarina penned V12 with four seats. You’d like the open-gate manual, but it doubles the price: for this cash it’ll have the slushy GM four-speed auto. Many foibles have been diagnosed by now, from stretching throttle cables to all manner of engine fluid leaks and damper seepage. Pub fact: the 456M featured Ferrari’s first use of non-structural carbon fibre: ‘98 onward cars get a lightweight CFRP bonnet. Sounds great, until you discover it’s a five figure bill to replace it...

YOU’LL PAY: £60,000

YOU’LL LOOK LIKE: You know people who can make people ‘disappear’

The 612 followed the 456’s lead in all areas including depreciation, which means it’s close to dipping below £60k. It’s a true four seater with a spacious boot (so it should be at over 16-feet long) and though the piggy eyed, slab sided styling wasn’t Pininfarina’s finest, the front-mid engined balance and rapidfire paddleshift won plaudits at its 2004 launch. Issues to watch for: overdue cambelt services (run!) worn plastic switchgear, plus the digi-dash screen can pack up.