The Cheapest Legendary Performance Cars You Can Buy Today

BMW: E36 M3

The oft-overlooked BMW E36 M3, hit the bottom of its depreciation curve a few years ago, and although prices have risen by around 50 per cent, it’s still the a great entry point into M car ownership. You can find high-mileage examples for under £6000, but we would recommend spending a couple thousand more to find a clean example; you don’t want to end up buying a lemon like Alex…

The 3.2-litre S50B32 straight-six engine fitted to post-September 1995 M3 coupes is, as Alex describes it, “a heartless destroyer of speed limits”. With an impressive (for the time) 316bhp, the E36 is good for a 0-60mph time of around 5.4 seconds, and will go on to a top speed of 170mph (sans limiter). With clean examples hitting the £10,000+ point, now is the time to buy!

Alternatively, around £8500 also puts you in E46 M3 territory, so that’s a car well worth considering too.

2. Ferrari: Mondial and 348

Released in 1980, the Ferrari Mondial was a major disappointment. With a 3.0-litre 205bhp V8, a 0-60mph time of 8.2 seconds and a top speed of just 140mph, the Mondial was slaughtered by the automotive press, with Clarkson describing the car as a dog’s dinner.

As a result, prices are relatively low for a mid-engined car from Maranello - £30,000 should bag you a clean Quattrovalvole version. In fact, you can even purchase the exact same car as reviewed by Jezza!

But what if you want a more usable thoroughbred? Well, we’d go for a 348. Built from 1989 to 1995, the 348 was by no means perfect, with owners complaining of stiff gearboxes, vague steering and a number of reliability problems. But if you put those niggles aside, it’s still a mid-engined, two-seat, V8 Ferrari.

Unfortunately, these cars have already started to appreciate, so a reasonable spec 348 GTB will cost you north of £40,000. But on the plus side, you’re almost guaranteed to make a profit when it comes time to sell.

Maserati: Biturbo

The infamous Biturbo was designed as a usable entry-level Maserati. Earlier cars like the Bora and the Merak were truly stunning machines, but they simply didn’t produce the revenue needed to keep the Italian company afloat. This forced CEO Alejandro de Tomaso to build a scalable Italian supercar for the “common” man. What resulted was arguably the worst car in the history of Maserati.

Fans of the Biturbo like to remind us that it was the first production road car to use a twin-turbocharger setup, but that didn’t mean it was powerful. The 2.5-litre twin-turbo V6 produced only 192bhp and 220lb ft of torque, giving the Biturbo a 0-60mph time of 6.5 seconds and a top speed of 135mph; acceptable for a hot-hatch, embarrassing for GT car. Handling was equally disappointing, with copious amounts of body roll and laughably bad brakes. And have we mentioned that it’s butt ugly?

As a result, these cars didn’t sell well, meaning that clean examples are now available for under £7000.

Audi: RS6 C5

Somewhat surprisingly, the iconic Audi RS6 C5 is now one of the cheapest ways into RS ownership. With a 4.2-litre, 450bhp, twin-turbocharged V8, the RS6 absolutely decimated the competition when it was released back in 2002, with the Avant claiming the title of ‘world’s fastest estate car’.

With a 0-60mph time of 4.4 seconds and a top speed of 155mph (over 180mph delimited) the RS6 sported serious supercar-rivalling performance. So what’s the catch? Well, with any car this advanced, problems are going to be commonplace. Owners have reported issues such as cracked manifolds, blown mass air flow sensors, worn bushes and leaky intercoolers. Servicing costs are also painfully high. You can pick up cars for under £7000, but we’d invest another £7k to secure a cleaner example. If you want the limited-run Plus, expect to pay around £20,000.

Mercedes: C36 AMG

The C36 AMG W202 was the first AMG model to be sold through Mercedes’ official dealership network and was a car designed to take on the dominant E36 M3. The sonorous inline-six found in the C280 was retained, but the AMG crew bumped the displacement up to 3.6 litres. Aggressive camshafts, an increase in compression and a performance exhaust were also added to give the car 276bhp and 284lb ft of torque. Granted, the 0-60mph time of 6.7 seconds and top speed of 155mph was still some way off the M3, but it wasn’t a bad start for the iconic tuner.

Firmer suspension with a 25mm drop gave the car impressive handling, and the S600 vented disc brakes guaranteed fade free braking performance. Surprisingly, for such a historically significant vehicle, high-milage examples can be had for under £5000. And if you double your budget, you can get a mint-condition C36 for just under £10,000. What a steal!

Bentley: Turbo R

The Bentley Turbo R is what we like to call a ‘proper’ Bentley. Based on the Mulsanne Turbo, the Turbo R made use of the legendary 6.75-litre pushrod V8, with a single Garrett turbocharger thrown on for some extra oomph. Exact power figures were never released, with Bentley describing the shove as “adequate”, but it was estimated that the early cars put out around 300bhp and 480lb ft of torque.

The Turbo R was a huge vehicle (5.3 metres in length) and featured an incredibly luxurious interior. As a result, the kerb weight of 2404kg made it a bit wayward in the corners. Hefty swaybars, stiffer springs and dampers and a new Panhard bar were fitted to help improve composure. But let’s face it, a car the size of a cruise liner will never be dynamically refined.

If you want one, expect to pay around £10,000 for a clean example and £6000 for a shed.

Jaguar: XJR

If you want a luxo-barge, but think the Turbo R is a bit too ostentatious, take a look at an early Jaguar XJR. Known as the X308, the menacing Jag was sold from 1998 through to 2003. Packing a 4.0-litre, 370bhp, supercharged V8 under its long and low bonnet, the XJR could achieve 0-60mph in 5.1 seconds and would go on to an electronically-limited top speed of 155mph.

There are plenty of cars available for under £6000, but these Jags did suffer from reliability issues, so it’s vital to carry out some specific checks before you buy.

The main issue was the Nikasil cylinder bore liners, well known to degrade over time. So it’s important to perform a compression test before money swaps hands. The timing-chain slippers were also notoriously weak, so make sure these have been replaced.

Porsche: 924

The 924 is best known for being the Porsche with the ‘Volkswagen van engine’, which is a shame, because the 924 is a damn good car. Originally designed as a Volkswagen sports car, Porsche purchased the design due to the fact that it made an ideal replacement for the lacklustre 914.

With a 2.0-litre 110bhp four-cylinder it’s safe to say that the 924 was slower than it looked. In fact, with a 0-60mph time of 9.2 seconds and a top speed of 124mph it was one of the slowest performance cars of the day. But as we all know, straight-line speed isn’t everything. The car featured a truly brilliant chassis and class-leading reliability.

These cars are easy to work on, they’re cheap to run and they’re cheap to buy. £5,000 will secure you a nice example, and £15,000 will get you a mint-condition machine. And because the 924 has hit the bottom of the depreciation curve, they’re only going to go up in value!