Audi RS4 (B7)

YEAR 2006-2008 PRICE £13,000-£27,000

A generation ago, we didn’t know how good we had it. For a few years towards the end of the last decade, the three main sports saloon protagonists were all powered by V8 engines of remarkable character and voice. With not a turbocharger in sight, the BMW M3, Mercedes C63 AMG and Audi RS4 all derived their motive force from atmospheric bent-eights. It’ll never happen again.

Sports saloon group tests of that era were cacophonous and rude, scored triumphantly by three-piece V8 orchestras. The equivalent triple test today is muted by comparison, each of the three cars now muffled by twin turbochargers and just one, the Mercedes, still preferring eight cylinders to six.

In many ways, the RS4 was the runt of the sports saloon litter, lacking both the dynamic precision of the M3 and the over-engined charisma of the C63. That doesn’t mean it was without its strengths, though – you simply had to look a little harder for them. In fact, the RS4 feels like a much better car in isolation than it does in the presence of its more boastful rivals. It isn’t the sort of thing you grab by the throat but, as a car to whip along a cresting, twisting country road at seven or eight-tenths, the four-wheel-drive Audi was very good indeed. That quattro drivetrain gave it a level of wetweather security the M3 and C63 couldn’t match, while its motor – 4.2 litres of high-revving V8 – was a masterpiece.

Early examples start at around £13,000. The RS4 isn’t rewarding enough as a driver’s car to keep locked away for weekend jollies, like you might an M3, but as an everyday (albeit thirsty) machine, it’s almost unbeatable at the money.