Have Car, Will Drive

As it happens, I have quite a soft spot for hot hatches. This might suprise you, as my usual purist aproach to performance would require the engine's power to be driven through the rear wheels, and this is a class of vehicles dominated by front-drivers (as well as some all-wheel-drive cars too). However, having spent a considerable amount of time enjoying driving front-wheel-drive cars, including on some quite challenging roads, the idea of simply focussing such a vehicle for better performance is quite appealing. Of the front-drive hot hatches available in Australia today the RenaultSport Magane was aleady a top pick, so this week's announcement that we will soon receive 50 examples of the Renault Megane R.S. 250 Monaco Grand Prix Limited Edition was more than welcome.

Can you say Mini Cooper Coupe ten times fast? You'd better get practising if you want a slice of Mini's newest additional to its ever-expanding line-up. Or if you want one with a longer name, you could go for the Mini John Cooper Works Coupe pictured here. Expected in Australia later this year, the Coupe chops two rear seats and a bit of rear roof from the standard Mini to turn it into a three-box sports coupe. I can't quite decide whether I like the design of the roof or not, but it certainly fits the brand's quirky young image. Expect to see the Coupe in Cooper, Cooper S and John Cooper Works guises, as well as possibly the diesel version on Australian shores, with engines just slightly updated versions of those found in other Mini variants.

Like most small cars, the Fiat 500 is sold with an optional diesel engine in Europe. To date Australia has only had the choice of petrol-engined Fiat 500s, so when I heard that Fiat had announced the Fiat 500 Diesel for sale in Australia I was excited at the prospect of a new version of the funky Italian hatchback offering spectacular fuel efficiency while burning those long-chained hydrocarbons once reserved for trucks and tractors. Unfortunately, my hopes were soon dashed like a diesel-powered boat caught on a rocky coastline. Instead of being a diesel powered version of the miniature Italian, the Fiat 500 Diesel is a special edition of the regular petrol-powered 500 with trimmings designed by an Italian fashion house. 'Which Italian fashion house?' I hear you ask. That's right, you guessed it: Diesel.

I'm not usually a fan of convertibles. Beyond their good looks they are the epitome of style over function. However, I think in the case of the Audi R8 GT Spyder I may have to make an exception. I have always admired the R8 coupe's styling, and I was recently reminded of its beauty when I saw one in the flesh driving in the Melbourne CBD a couple of weeks ago, and then re-reminded when a silver R8 made a brief appearance on a movie I was watching on TV last night (which shall remain nameless on the grounds that it may incriminate, or worse, embarrass me).

In my ideal garage, sitting alongside my daily-driven BMW 135i would be a Porsche Cayman S. Offering the purity of a mid-engined rear drive two seater sports car, the Cayman S has an appeal that to me that its front-enginged competitors simply cannot offer. Although to me part of attraction of the Cayman S is a degree of less-is-more philosophy, the recent announcement of the release of the Cayman S Black Edition sporting more power and more features than the standard S still caught my attention.

Toyota FT-86 II Concept I have written previously about Why I Idolise Rear-Wheel-Drive , and it seems that Toyota (and strangely enough its development partner Subaru) agrees that a true driver's car should be driven by the rear wheels. Shown in its latest concept form at this year's Geneva Motor Show, the FT-86 might just be the perfect affordable sports car. The latest concept is reportedly quite close to the production model, and is a refreshing return to reality from the boy racer version that I was lucky enough to view in the flesh at the Australian International Motor Show in Sydney last October. I have followed the FT-86 since its first concept form, but it was only when Toyota's European division released production specifications this week that the reality of this car hit me: here is a real-sports car for the masses, a refreshing addition to a global new car fleet dominated by bland-mobiles and econoboxes. The production version of the FT-86 will sport a 2.0 lit...