24 Jul 08
7. Mastretta MXT
Mexico. What's good to come out of it? Tequila? Drug cartels? Aztecs?
Enter the Mastretta MXT, the first-ever car designed and built in Mexico. It's a 900kg lightweight sports coupe, with a 2.0-litre Ford Duratec engine driving its rear wheels to offer almost 240bhp and 184lb-ft, a top speed of 150mph and 0-60mph in less than five seconds.
The car is constructed around a semi-monocoque chassis of bonded aluminium, with fibreglass body panels and double-wishbone suspension at the front and rear. Ok, so the orange paintwork induced nausea when it was unveiled at the British Motor Show but the bodyshape looked nice enough and with a price tag of £32,299 you can understand why some sports car enthusiasts looking for something a bit left-field might be seduced by this.
8. Nice e500
There are electric cars a-plenty at the British Motor Show, but this has to be one of the better choices. First and foremost, it's based on the Fiat 500: the trendiest city car around right now, and also a properly-engineered 'real' car with class-leading crash safety and all modern creature comforts.
What more do you want? This is a cute car with environmental credentials.
The electric conversion is carried out in Italy by a firm called Micro-Vett, which also converts vehicles including the Doblo Cargo, Scudo, Ducato and Fiorino vans from Fiat. Micro-Vett offers its own warranty for the powertrain and all the parts Fiat doesn't still cover.
Range between recharges is up to 75 miles, and top speed 60mph; not great, but an acceptable level of usability for urbanites. British firm Nice, which is handling imports to the UK, is already taking orders.
