IN THIS FEATURE Drag queens The pink pound The run-down Targeting the gay buyer It's different Stateside

"Men are all the same: straight, gay, bi or Thai, they all love cars." That's the verdict from fur-wrapped Sergio Almeida, who is stroking my borrowed lemon-yellow Smart Roadster, parked top-down outside the G-A-Y Bar on Soho's Old Compton Street - the heart of Britain's gay community. He is not alone. A gaggle of men have gathered around the car. "Oooh, it's lovely," says Carl Metherell. "It's the first one I've seen. It is the perfect car for gay guys. Fast, fun and funky."

Jeep Wrangler

Well that is fortunate, because the Smart Roadster was recently voted 2004 Gay Car of the Year by C.A.R - Club Auto Rainbow in France. Last year they picked a winner for the first time: the exceedingly limp-wristed Peugeot 206 CC.

"The Peugeot is girly, not gay. But the Smart Roadster deserves to win," says British columnist Adrian Gillan. "You couldn't get much gayer." Gillan, who writes for the website Outuk.com, decided that the French really didn't know what they were talking about, so he came up with a British Top 10 Gayest Cars. The 206 CC doesn't make an appearance; but, in a show of entente cordiale, the Brits also voted a Smart as their Gay Car of the Year. "The Roadster was only just coming out, so to speak, when we voted, so it was the Smart City Car that won our poll," says Outuk.com editor Mike Gray. "The Roadster would have won if we polled now."