Drive Times Five

Warning: controversy ahead. Nile Bijoux looks at the cars that have a massive following, despite them not being the greatest things to drive

Audi RS 6

Much has been made of the Audi RS 6 being one of the original ‘‘supercar killers’’, but it’s really only in a straight line. No-one will deny it’s fast but when you actually drive it, as in turning the wheel, it doesn’t feel great.

The steering offers good-notgreat feedback and errs on the side of lightness while the front-biased weight distribution and frontbiased quattro all-wheel drive systems mean any semblance of fun is efficiently ironed out.

And it doesn’t even sound all that good. I mean, BMW manages to make its twice-boosted V8 sound fantastic and so does Mercedes-AMG (for now), so Audi really doesn’t have much excuse.

Ford Mustang

The Mustang has a long and storied past, but unfortunately, it comprises more misses than hits. The original pony car was little more than a prettied-up chop-shop Falcon that happened upon a winning formula.

From the end of the 1960s it just got fatter and slower. Then in 1994, Ford decided to turn the Mustang into one of the most boring looka-like cars ever. An optional fourspeed automatic paired with an ancient 194kW, 4.6-litre V8 in the GT didn’t help things from a performance standpoint.

You could still get the Cobra version, which would tear your face off with 239kW, a number that may have been slightly inflated.

A80 Toyota Supra

Ah, the Supra. Legendary for its tunability as well as its appearance in The Fast and The Furious, but fantastically glorified to the point of stupidity.

The 2JZ straight six powering the A80 Supra was built incredibly well and could handle near fourdigit horsepower figures, but only after about $20,000 worth of work.

From the factory, the exhaust system was allegedly fitted with no fewer than three catalytic converters to play nice with emissions laws so it doesn’t even make that famous straight-six howl without some aftermarket fiddling.

MGB

The pride of plucky British motoring (Mini Cooper aside), the MGB is famous around classic car forums. However, if you look at it without rose-tinted glasses, it’s not actually that good.

It has that cool, burbly twin-cam, 1.8-litre four-pot begging to be revved, but it only really works half the time. Then you have the leaky roof (if you have a convertible), iffy British electronics, and the constant fear of rust to deal with.

In what seems like a deliberate effort to make it even worse, MG unleashed the MGC in 1967, using a heavy straight-six to completely ruin the handling of the small car, its one true saving grace.

Tesla Model S

Tesla isn’t quite at the point where it can call itself an accomplished carmaker, particularly with the Model S.

The motors and batteries are (mostly) sound, the software is quality, and the performance is undeniable, but the car surrounding all of that is a bit lacking. Inconsistent panel gaps, poor paint and finish quality and some supremely drab styling make the large electric sedan feel like a Grand Theft Auto car. Also, that performance that everybody focuses on is only really uncorked in the top-spec, twin-motor Performance version.

It’s not all bad though; the Mercedes switchgear is quite nice.