Best performance cars 2024: the thrillers to buy – and avoid

Picture the scene. The sun is shining, there's no other traffic on the road, and the piece of Tarmac you're driving on is as wide and as flowing as the ribbon on a birthday cake. It's nothing short of the perfect situation for a spirited drive – so, which car would be best to tackle it?

That's where a great performance car would come in handy. These models have lots of power and the kind of agile, involving handling which is guaranteed to leave you smiling. When you're not proving you're the world's greatest driver, though, the best performance cars return to being reliable family transport – that means they need to be comfortable and practical enough for everyday use.

In practice, the best performance cars will have at least four seats, a decent boot, a compliant ride and a plush, user-friendly interior. Our team of experienced reviewers have tested every performance car on the market, both on public roads and at our private test track, over hundreds of miles.

We also take into account what matters to performance car buyers – and while it won't surprise you to learn that most people rank performance as the biggest factor here, interior quality also ranks highly on the agenda for most buyers.

Having completed our testing, our reviewers have named the BMW M3 Touring as the very best performance car you can buy in 2024. To find out why, though, and which version we recommend, you'll need to keep reading.

In this story we'll also reveal our top 10 performance cars, and point you in the right direction to read the full reviews or save money on each model by viewing the best performance car deals available right now. We've also named the performance car which we think you should avoid – and its identity might shock you.

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