Enthusiasts love sports cars. Even though they're slowly being phased out in favor of all the crossovers and SUVs that seem to be seeping out of every automaker's stone jar, there's so much to like about them. Great performance, decent pricing, great looks, and some of them are surprisingly easy to live with every day.
Various automakers from various regions of the planet have shown that they can make a solid sports car, and this includes the British. Reliability and maintenance woes aside, British automakers have made some of the best sports cars of all time, and some weird ones, and they're just begging to be taken for a spin.
10 TVR Sagaris
Before TVR went under in the 2000s, even after the Russian cash injection that happened a few years prior, they managed to churn out one more fantastic and fantastically bonkers sports car; the Sagaris.
It was built from 2005 to 2006, with only 211 produced. While no one really dared to call it beautiful (in case it threw its glass rear spoiler at them), it was certainly distinctive and very, very striking. The hood with its rows of slashes on either side hid a 4.0 liter naturally aspirated I6. The incredible Speed Six engine put down 412 hp and 349 lb/ft of torque to the rear wheels, allowing the featherweight fiberglass-bodied Sagaris to accelerate to 60 in 3.7 seconds and reach 185 mph. It was also possibly the only TVR in the 2000s that wasn't a horror movie in the corners.
9 Lotus Elise
Back in the 1990s, Lotus was struggling a fair bit. They changed hands multiple times, with GM, Proton, and other brands taking controlling stakes in the company within years of each other. The Elise, which has been with us for 25 years, immediately got Lotus back in the game, and it quite literally saved the brand.
The Mk2 Elise was even better than that, mostly thanks to what was found under the engine cover. Over the years, Lotus developed a very bad reputation for reliability (or lack thereof), so they just pinched a 1.8 liter 4-cylinder from the Toyota Corolla and called it a day. As well as the engine being bulletproof, it did wonders for the 1,896 lb Elise, and not a single person who has driven it has said that the driving experience is anything short of spectacular.
8 Sunbeam Tiger
Back in the 1960s, Carroll Shelby was immediately noticed by everyone by sticking an American V8 into a British sports car, the AC Ace, which then became the AC Cobra. He also did something very similar with another British sports car of a similar vein; the Sunbeam Tiger.
Named after another exotic animal, and otherwise based on the less popular Sunbeam Alpine, the Tiger was also partially designed and engineered by Carroll Shelby, whose original Shelby Daytona just went up for sale. Around 7,000 of these were built between 1964 and 1967, and they all used a Ford V8 mated to a Ford 4-speed manual transmission. The engine was stuffed under the hood quite tightly, making some maintenance work difficult. If you look past that, the driving experience was fantastic.
7 Triumph Spitfire
When it comes to British sports cars, there is one name that reigns supreme; the Triumph Spitfire. Built from 1962 to 1980 and designed by the famed Michelotti, the Spitfire was the darling of TVR's lineup, and even though it was unpredictable, it was one of the best cars the brand ever made.
At its core, the Spitfire wasn't really all that special. It used the same platform as the Herald and GT6, but that meant it wasn't all that expensive to build, so it represented good value. Even though the engines weren't all that powerful, they still had plenty of shove to get the lightweight Spitfire moving. Not to mention, they're pretty cheap on the used market no matter where you look. It really does honor its fighter jet namesake.
6 Jaguar E-Type
It's been called the world's most beautiful car dozens of times, most notably by a certain Enzo Ferrari. It's also widely regarded as one of the most special cars ever made. It's easy to see why, as the Jaguar E-Type was a truly brilliant car, if a little unpredictable at times.
Built from 1961 to 1975, the beautiful exterior designed by Malcolm Sayer hid the incredible and sonorous "XK" I6, with 3.8 or 4.2 liters of capacity. There was also a V12 option, though that version is especially rare. It was available with a variety of different body styles, and it was truly incredible to drive. Companies like Eagle, who are still building improved and refined E-Type replicas to this day, are a testament to this car's legendary status.
5 Morgan AeroMax
Morgan isn't exactly a conventional automaker. They use wood in the construction of a lot of their models, and their cars don't exactly follow modern trends of design. But they're all extremely visceral, pure, and fun to drive. The AeroMax is a different story, though.
The AeroMax was originally an evolution of the Aero 8, and was sold throughout the late 2000s in tiny numbers. The exterior design was gorgeous, featuring a characteristic boat tail rear end and a general shape hearkening back to the 1930s. Opening the two-piece hood revealed a BMW V8 in varying capacities, which produced a lovely sound.
4 Austin-Healey Sprite
Cars like the Austin-Healey Sprite remind people about the joys of driving. This is as close to the purest and most comprehensive driving experience as you can get. It was revamped and redesigned several times, though the first generation bugeye/frogeye version is the one most remember.
Like the modern Caterhams and Lotuses of the world, the Sprite was all about the driving experience, as it didn't have all that much power. Despite weighing a measly 1464 lbs, the 0.9-liter engine made only 43 hp, giving a 0-60 time of around 20 seconds. Once you hit the first corner, however, the horsepower didn't really matter.
3 TVR Cerbera
Anyone who's spent even a little bit of time with a TVR knows that they aren't exactly slaves to convention. After all, what other car out there has required its occupants to press a button on the dashboard to open the door? One TVR model that never seems to get any attention, save for the totally insane Speed 12, is the Cerbera.
Built from 1996 to 2006, the Cerbera was the first hardtop TVR ever made, and the first with a 2+2 seating layout as well. Power came from a variety of TVR-built engines, ranging from the 4.0 liter Speed Six I6, all the way to a 4.7 liter N/A V8. The most powerful Cerbera made 440 hp, and combined with the 2,425 lb weight, 0-60 happened in 3.9 seconds, with a top speed of 193 mph.
2 Ariel Atom
First introduced in 2000, the Ariel Atom was a different kind of car. One that no one had really ever seen before. In fact, calling it a car was really playing around with the term, as it had little to no bodywork at all.
Built by a small UK-based automaker counting only 7 employees, the Atom is widely regarded as one of the best performance cars ever made, simply because of how much the driver is connected to the road and how much they can see and feel when they're driving it. A variety of different engines powered it, most notably the 4-cylinder from various Civic Type R generations. There was even a V8 version that could tear apart your face at speed.
1 Jaguar XK120
It would seem as though Jaguar couldn't stop making beautiful cars during the 20th century. Along with the drop-dead gorgeous E-Type, there was the arguably even more beautiful XK120, sold from 1948 to 1954.
It was a sports car at heart, effectively a successor to the SS 100. Power came from a 3.4-liter XK I6, producing 160 hp with 80 octane fuel in the tank. The XK120's aerodynamic shape and aluminum body panels (in some versions) made it the fastest production car in the world at the time, topping out at 120 mph, or even more if the windshield was removed.