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Motoring journalist and author Paul Guinness has been testing sports cars for more than 20 years for leading British newspapers and magazines. Here he picks the five best open top roadsters
Click to view Top 5 Open Top Sports Cars.
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Buyers Guide and Overview |
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 For anybody who finds today’s saloons, hatchbacks, MPVs and estates just that bit too dreary for their needs, this is the time to liven up your motoring world. Buying a brand new sports car is a better idea now than it’s ever been. |
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There was a time when motoring experts were predicting the end of the sports car. That was back at the start of the 1980s, when aged models like the MG Midget, Triumph Spitfire and MGB had been killed off – and there were no new replacements in sight.
The traditional open-top sports car that had been so adored throughout the UK, Europe and the United States was, it seemed, no more. At the end of that decade, though, something spectacular would happen. Mazda, a Japanese manufacturer better known for its fairly mundane family cars , would single-handedly reinvent the sports car by launching its exciting new MX-5. And the world would be forever grateful.
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The Sensational MX-5 |
The arrival of the MX-5 in 1989 created a sensation worldwide. Here, at last, was a brand new, thoroughly modern, two-seater soft-top fun car that was also impressively affordable. The fact that it looked cute and was more fun to drive than just about anything else on four wheels was the icing on the automotive cake.
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 It was inevitable that other companies would follow suit, with models like the Fiat Barchetta and MGF appearing as the 1990s wore on. And today, the situation is even healthier, with a wide range of sports cars and convertibles on sale – designed to appeal to those car buyers bored by what else is around.
From the most affordable through to the most opulent and exciting, it’s easy to see why today’s sports cars are selling so well. These modern designs offer all the fun and thrills of their counterparts from thirty or forty years ago, but with other vital ingredients thrown in for free – such as reliability, comfort, refinement, safety and practicality. Today’s MX-5 is just as much fun to drive as its predecessor of 18 years ago, for example, but it’s now an altogether more sophisticated product.
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