Self-destruction

The car industry is ruining the car industry! To substantiate this claim, here are some facts about the cars featured in the Driven section of evo 243. Average weight: 1899kg Average power: 480bhp Average price: £98,355 Two of the six ‘cars’ were SUVS and only one of them had a manual gearbox, or is even available with one. Except it isn‘ t available at all, because it’s sold out! (The VXR8 GTS-R [above].)

Which brings me to Exhibit B: why is it that on the rare occasion a car manufacturer actually bothers to make a proper drivers’ car these days, it will be astronomically expensive and sold in tiny numbers? This results in them being snapped up by wealthy collectors, who lock them up with ten miles on the clock in a humidity-controlled garage. No doubt this doubles their value immediately, but it defeats the purpose of them being created in the first place. It also leaves the people who would actually like to

one of these unicorns feeling like our secret crush just copped off with the village idiot.

Given that the average new performance car appears to be a £100k, two-ton, 500bhp, automatic SUV that I can’t even buy if I wanted to (which I don’t), I think I’ll simply browse the classifieds and find myself a lightweight, manual car, with power you can actually use on the road. The fact I could get all of this for 90 grand less is quite incredible, don’t you think? Matt Westby