We are living through a high period for the super sports car. Never before has there been such a varied and exotic mix of offerings available within this swollen niche of the performance car market, each car with its own blend of qualities and mechanical subtleties.
The list of 10 cars below features everything from hardcore hooligans to more forward-looking mid-engined hybrids. There's a car for all tastes in this segment, but the ones below are our picks of the bunch.
1. Ferrari Roma
The Roma is a new mould of more affordable Ferrari that feels very much like an old one. The classically beautiful, V8-powered, front-engined, two-plus-two-seater coupe shares its platform with the Portofino but has looks and handling appeal way beyond the reach of that convertible relation. It is perhaps most alike Maranello's popular 550 Maranello of the late 1990s in spirit, although not technically in every way: a compact, temptingly attainable, daily-usable sporting GT (which also ranks highly in our super GT top ten, by the way) with the performance, excitement factor and handling vivacity of a proper Ferrari, but a cabin and character you could really put miles on.
The Roma's 3.9-litre turbo V8 gives it in excess of six-hundred horsepower and a top speed within a whisker of 200mph; and yet this is the modernPrancing Horse in relatively laid-back guise, and so it's the car's surprisingly comfortable and sophisticated-feeling interior that really strikes you, which is easy to berth, well equipped with the very latest technological mod cons, and tempting to simply spend time in.
2. Porsche 911 Turbo S
Porsche's brutally fast, incomparably usable, four-wheel-drive performance icon is back for the '992' generation, and once again ranks as one of the quickest point-to-point car on the planet. Four-wheel drive and new twin-turbocharged engine tuned to 641bhp contrive to deliver a 2.6sec 0-62mph time and a top speed comfortably north of 200mph. And as with other Porsche 911s in the current range, you can also expect a first-class cabin with tangible luxury allure, and a degree of under-the-radar subtlety absent from some of the more extrovert cars on this list.
And that's a large part of the appeal with the Turbo S, which is also available in cheaper, slightly less rapacious'Turbo'-badged guise as well. Despite it's manic pace, it doesn't shout everywhere it goes, and its ability to swallow big distances and plenty of luggage also makes it an authentic alternative even to GT-leaning rivals such as the Aston Martin DB11.
Naturally, it'll thrill like few else on a B-road, too. Intuitive steering and just a hint of that rear-biased weight distribution give the driver options, though admittedly the Porsche still isn't quite as playful or involving as some on this list.
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3. Aston Martin Vantage
Aston Martin took a giant leap into true blue driver's car territory with the new Vantage. Never before had Gaydon departed so clearly from its traditional preference for fairly laid-back, long-legged, old-school front-engined GT sports cars than it did here.
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