Top 10 Hardest Car Acts To Follow

Like Messi at Barcelona, Daniel Craig as Bond or Jay-Z doing a headliner, there are acts you just don't want to have to follow on stage in life. Works the same for cars too, so here's CT's Top 10 Hardest Acts To Follow...

10. Ford Focus RS

The first Focus RS was a pretty awesome hot hatch, but Ford managed to go one better with the big-bodykitted mk2. It’s five-cylinder turbo engine put 301bhp through the front wheels, and no mainstream hot hatch has had the balls to follow it yet. The RenaultSport Megane and Astra VXR sit around the 260-270bhp mark, while Audi and VW resorted to all-wheel-drive with the RS3 and Golf R. Even the new Focus ST makes do with an electro-front diff and ‘just 247bhp’. No-one up for the big three-oh-oh boys?

9. Ferrari F40

If not the greatest supercar ever made, probably the greatest Ferrari. It still makes everyone weak at the knees: schoolchildren, middle aged blokes, journalists – and it’d probably kill the elderly at fifty paces. The lightweight, 470bhp turbocharged V8 F40 is a minimalists supercar way more true to being a lightweight than a Gallardo Superleggera or 430 Scuderia. Ferrari themselves resorted to bunging an old F1 engine into the F50 to try and beat it, but it was uglier, no faster, and a convertible, so much, much less cool.

8. Honda Integra Type-R

Sometimes a bit forgotten in these parts, the Teg, because you can’t get them imported any more. The old Type-R Teggy stuck a revvy VTEC engine in a blender with a wedgy coupe body and what is still agreed to be the best front-drive chassis - ever. Maybe that’s why Honda wants us to forget – how the hell do you follow something this painfully , well, right?

7. Ford Mustang

Still the fastest-selling car ever, still the star of the greatest car chase ever (sorry Bond) and still the essential pony car. The original Sixties Mustangs looked the best, sounded the best, and started a legend. You don’t even need the Ford bit – this is a one-name show, like Prince, Madonna, or er, Justin. The bloated later ‘Stangs Ford tried to better it with, really were terrible machines. You’re probably thinking ‘Ah, but the batshit crazy 662bhp 2012 GT500 is much better’. Yeah, to drive, no doubt. But it has to crib all its styling from its great granddaddy. What does that tell you?

6. RenaultSport Clio 200

Probably the best hot hatch on sale today. Why? Naturally aspirated 2.0litre engine, manual box, simple bodystyle. The next RS Clio has none of those things, and a bigger marketing gamble than supporting Lance Armstrong right now. You’d have forgiven Renault for barely changing the hot Clio recipe, but they’ve binned it completely. Your move, Frenchies…

5. BMW 5-series (E39)

The old old Five was the best saloon car in the world when it went on sale in 1995, and still the best when it died in 2003. It gave birth to the best supersaloon: the E39 M5, and sold like Kate Middleton’s holiday pictures. When it was replaced by the crazily styled E60 5-series, the old car’s second hand values jumped. People actually wanted the old car back. And even though the current Five is more restrained and better quality than the Bangle car, it’s still not as dominating as the Nineties king.

4. Mini

Okay, so you could argue that 'you couldn’t build a car this small today', but I say ‘bollocks’. Smart and Toyota successfully punt the ForTwo and iQ, and the new BMW Mini brand has got the imagination to show us the Rocketman concept. But no-one dares copy the iconic original – they keep sidestepping the landmine. Not bad for 1959, is it?

3. McLaren F1

No car before or since was built with such attention to detail, such lack of compromise. The Veyron is faster but way heavier, way uglier, and way, way less of a driver’s car. The MP4-12C has the same seating arrangement as an MX-5, and turbos, which is kinda cheating. The F1’s true successor, the P1, gets KERS boost, shedloads of aero and around 300bhp more. It’s certainly more car. But is more better?

2. BMW M3 (E30)

This is the car that started the performance coupe and saloon trend. The real Ultimate Driving Machine. BMW has made great cars since, and plenty of great M3s: the E46, the CSL, the E92 Competition…but the E30 has to be supreme. One letter and one number, and one of the hardest legacies to live up to in the world.

1. Peugeot 205 GTI

Not the first hot hatch, but often called the best. Pretty, cheap, dangerous, fast, fun, and irreplaceable. Peugeot hasn’t just missed the target with its successors: the 206 and 207 GTi are full-on friendly fire, turning people away from French hot hatches and into German ones. ‘Can it live up to the 205’ is the greatest motoring cliché, alongside ‘nuggety handling’ and Clarkson’s ‘in the wooooorrllld’ sign-off. I’m actually nervous for the 208 GTi...

NB: Honourable mention goes to Jaguar. It look them 50 years and at least three aborted attempts to finally chase up the E-type, but the Jaguar F-type looks good enough to get the job done. Can't wait to find out if they've followed the E-type up with a roof-raiser of a performance.

Any other motors impossible to match? Hit up the comments below...