I've seen a few very nice E39 M5's recently for around the £6000 mark. One for a shade under sounds very nice in the classifieds of this week's Autocar.

You mention long road trips when talking about the Jag, and that would be a great car for driving across to the continent in. If that's something you plan on doing or long tours of the UK then it's really the Jag or the M5 only out of that list. The M5 having the bonus of a lot more room and the Jag having the bonus of being auto for long-distance driving.

The Focus and Evo would be great for a quick blast.

Another car to consider for me would be an Impreza STi Type R. I'd take one of those over the Evo any day and Mike Lomax is selling a superb-looking one in the for sale section for only £4.5k, here it is:




A bit of a wild card suggestion as well because they always seem to get overlooked at the moment, but that means they're great value would be an Alfa GTV6. I've got one in my collection at the moment and am really enjoying it.....





Is amazing on the twisty country lanes near me. The steering is superb, equipped with 4-pot Brembos as standard, MOMO seats with great quality leather, and THE best-sounding V6 engine ever. Mine with an upgraded exhaust and Filter sounds incredible at full chat, really torquey and alive. Would get spanked by the Evo/Scooby, but feels like a little junior supercar as a package and the throttle response is great. 220BHP like the Focus, although there's more scope for reasonably cheap upgrades with the Focus. Reputation for feeble Italian electrics etc put a lot of people off, but it drives values down and would get lots of change. It's a good kinda "halfway house" between the luxury types of the M5 and Jag or the hooligan types of the Evo and RS.

Or a third other option, have you considered something like a Boxster S? No drop top on your list, but a proper mid-engined sportscar, perfect for twisty roads, beautifully built and strong performance.