09 Jun 09
Renault Megane R26.R (2009-)
Never underestimate the fun you can have hustling a hot hatch along your favourite road.
With cars such as the 300bhp Ford Focus RS and the hardcore Renault Megane R26.R, the new breed of hot hatches are becoming a real thorn in the side of so-called sportcars.
Case in point: after a recent drive on a tortuous Alpine pass, we could think of few cars other than the Focus RS that could have covered the ground so quickly.
Out of the recent breed though, it's the R26.R that gets our vote for the drive of a lifetime. Ditching the back seats, sound deadening and trading glass for Perspex side windows and adding a carbon fibre bonnet, few road cars are as focused. Few could also ask for a better way to cover a few miles of your favourite sinuous B-road too.
Lamborghini Murcielago (2006-)
Lamborghini obviously followed the 'how to make a definitive supercar' recipe when designing the Murcielago. Hence the 70s-style wedge shape, scissor doors, monstrous V12 and the open gate gearchange.
But unlike all those 70s and 80s pin-ups we drooled over in our childhoods, the Murci' is a great drive, whose phenomenal cross-country pace is only limited by the width of those hips and slight high-speed edginess.
Perhaps the biggest compliment we can pay the Murcielago is how special it feels even at slow speeds - and we haven't even mention the thunderous sound it makes.
