Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG £150,000 (estimated)
For decades AMG has built a business turning hitherto staid and sober Mercedes models into sharp and savage street fighters. But good and sometimes great as these cars have been, all have been adapted Mercedes designs, so all have been compromises. Until now. At last the tuning wizards at AMG have realised their long-held dream to build a car based on nothing other than their own instincts. The SLS is every inch the modern Mercedes supercar, from the growling V8 motor in its nose to its gullwing door design.
That means it's not just fast, but also usable. Make no mistake: while this is a car of the purest sporting intent, that does not make it a mere plaything to be brought out only when road and weather conditions are right. The SLS is a car that can be enjoyed all the time, whether you're simply commuting, cruising on holiday or tearing around a racetrack.
There have been some questions about the Getrag transmission in the pre-production model but once those are sorted out the SLS will doubtless earn Mercedes-Benz and AMG membership of the established supercar class, something which the last top-of-the-range Mercedes model, the twice as expensive and less fun to drive SLR, was never able to do. No wonder Mercedes is making sure SLR production will have stopped before putting the SLS on sale next spring.
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Ferrari 458 Italia £160,000 (estimated)
Ferrari might have been off the boil on the racetrack this season, but its touch on the road has never seemed surer. For its ability to package searing performance into an effortlessly beautiful yet aerodynamically super-efficient shape, this has to be Ferrari's most accomplished standard production road car in more than a decade.
It is fast enough to out-accelerate an Enzo, thrilling enough to cash every cheque written by those extraordinary lines yet sufficiently practical to be used every day. The Italia will not only be causing headaches on the other side of Modena where arch rival Lamborghini lives, but also rather closer to home in Woking, Surrey, where McLaren is putting the finishing touches to the car it hopes is going to steal a sizable slice of sales from this very Ferrari.
To do that, merely being very good will not be nearly good enough. Indeed, having driven the 458 Italia, we can confirm the McLaren will need to be a car of quite exceptional abilities, beyond anything we have yet seen in this class of car, to replace the Ferrari as the most desirable mainstream supercar in production.
Bentley Continental Supersports £163,000
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Ninety years ago Bentley Motors was born to fulfil WO Bentley's desire to build cars of unmatched quality and performance. His vision died with the loss of the company to Rolls-Royce in 1931 but now, under Volkswagen, Bentley has a car to make its founder proud. The Continental Supersports is lighter, faster and more powerful than any other Bentley, and is the company's first two-seater since before the war.
It drives as you'd hope a Bentley supercar might: not nimble and screaming like a Ferrari, but explosive, solid and thunderous as it bludgeons its way across the countryside. Bentley has made it the first supercar on sale that can run on petrol, bioethanol or any combination of the two. Whether or not it is right about bioethanol being the fuel of the future, owners can relax, knowing they have the best Bentley production car of at least the past 70 years.
Jaguar XF S £36,900-£44,200
Who would have thought a year ago that the beleaguered Jaguar Land Rover would now be showing a small but significant profit? The turnaround has come in part because of cars such as the XF S that show you can have the pleasure of owning a Jaguar with none of the pain. The XF S is a car for which no excuses are needed: you don't buy one because it's more charming or quaint than a BMW, Audi or Mercedes, you buy it because it's better.
It's not just fast, it's frugal too and is great to look at yet even better to drive. It proves a car doesn't have to be flabby to be comfortable, nor does it need to have a stiff ride to handle properly. If you think about all the abilities you need an executive saloon to have, and all the qualities you would like in a modern Jaguar, the XF S ticks every box.
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The XF should be just the start of Jaguar's renaissance: next year we'll drive the equally good-looking new XJ. If it is as successful, those profits should be around for a while yet.
Noble M600 £200,000
When Lee Noble left the company that bore his name, many presumed it would soon join Marcos, TVR and Jensen in the graveyard of small British manufacturers killed by a surfeit of passion over common sense. They were all wrong. Instead of curling up its toes, Noble regrouped and pressed ahead with by far its most ambitious project, the M600.
In its total commitment to driving pleasure, this is a car that remains true to the Noble philosophy, while taking it to a new level. It so fast that 200mph is just another number on the dial and it has elevated Noble from comparisons to Porsches and TVRs to a point where its closest rivals today come from Bugatti, Pagani and Koenigsegg. In fact it packs a punch at least as great as a McLaren F1, a car once predicted to be the fastest in history.
The M600 is no straight-line special: it has the handling and the brakes to more than match its extraordinary performance. It may not be the best-looking supercar and its badge is far from the most coveted, but if you're looking for an ultimate driving thrill, for the money, nothing on sale does it better than this.
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BMW 320d Efficient Dynamics £26,680
Cars don't need to be ultra-fast to be exciting: they don't even need to be great fun to drive, as this BMW 320d proves. When it goes on sale next year it will be quick but hardly ferocious and, apart from its wheels, indistinguishable on the outside from any other 320d. But exciting it is, for it shows that reports of the demise of the internal combustion engine may be exaggerated.
The 320 Efficient Dynamics is a conventional diesel saloon. But by making its components super-efficient, BMW has built a 163bhp car that will do 137mph and reach 60mph in 8sec, while also giving 68.9mpg and emitting 109g/km of CO2. The last two figures are identical to those of a 55bhp Citroën C1, a car held up as a beacon of green economy. If BMW can do that by adapting an old design, think what might be possible with a clean sheet of paper.
Skoda Yeti £13,775-£22,170
It has taken 20 years, but the rehabilitation of Skoda is complete. While cars from its recent past have been competitive with their rivals, the Yeti, a mid-size SUV, is the first to set standards to which others must aspire. There's no breakthrough technology in the Yeti's strange but endearing shape, just everything Skoda and its Volkswagen parent have learnt about making desirable small cars, executed with a fluency we have not seen before in a car such as this.
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Nothing you can buy for similar money feels as well built; no rival comes with a more practical, functional or attractive interior. It's surprisingly good fun for the driver, but as quiet and comfortable as any passenger could expect. Put bluntly, it makes rivals such as the Nissan Qashqai and Toyota Urban Cruiser seem out of their depth. And Skoda knows it, which is why it's been priced above the Volkswagen Golf whose underpinnings it shares. A Skoda positioned above the equivalent VW? Shows just how far it has come.
Porsche 911 GT3 £81,194
For a certain sort of enthusiast, there is no better car than a Porsche 911, and among those is a small but vocal constituency of purists who insist the 911 GT3 is the jewel in the crown. Not the fastest nor most expensive, merely the best. The GT3 has earned this cult status not just for what it has, including a 435bhp 3.8-litre engine, but for what it lacks. There are no rear seats, no flappy-paddle gearchange, no four-wheel drive nor a convertible option. What it provides is a sharper focus on the business of driving than perhaps any other readily available mainstream car.
Unlike other 911s, its engine is derived from a Le Mans winner. Every scoop, slat, wing and spoiler of its pumped-up bodywork is there not to look cool, but to push the car onto the ground at high speeds. One of the few available options is a roll cage to turn it into a racing car.
The GT3 is not a car for everyone: if you want to cruise around Europe, a Turbo is a better bet; or if you need one car for all reasons, a standard Carrera 4 is more suitable. But if you want nothing more than the most exciting version of the world's most enduring sports car, the GT3 alone will do.