THE RIVALS

German, Italian, British, Japanese… Take your pick

THERE MAY BE NO OBVIOUS NEW German rivals to the Ford and Aston, but there’s a very tempting used duo waiting in the wings. First up is the E92 BMW M3, which offers the same naturally aspirated V8 and manual ’box combination. You’d actually have to try quite hard to spend £40,000 on a V8 M3 these days (outside of the GTS and CRT versions, of course), with only late models with less than 15,000 miles under their wheels approaching that figure. It loves a drink of superunleaded and isn’t without reliability concerns, but there’s something very special about that rev-happy V8, and it’s a very easy car to live with.

Over at Mercedes-benz, you’ll be surrendering the manual gearbox but getting a whole lot of displacement in return, because this budget buys you one of the Edition 507 versions of the 6.2-litre C63 AMG Coupe, with a suitably trim mileage. It won’t get you a currentgeneration C63 with the hot-v twin-turbo V8, but there are plenty of nearly new V6 twin-turbo C43 Coupes at £40,000, although clearly they’re two cylinders short of the necessary amount.

Other options? How about a very late-production, low-mileage Maserati Gransport? Not perhaps the easiest of cars to run, but there’s unlikely to be a dull moment. Talking of which, there’s always a TVR Cerbera V8, most of which will be under budget, while at the other end of the sensible spectrum it’s possible to get a nearly new Lexus RC F, which provides the high-revving, naturally aspirated V8 experience but with supreme build quality and reliability.