The Best Sports Cars In 2025

Not much can satisfy like a good sports car. For pure driving pleasure, something low-down, two-doored, and preferably rear-wheel drive is still best, even in an era of ever more capable hot hatches, fast SUVs and saloons, and even EVs.

Somewhat because of the rise of those other genres (SUVs in particular), sports cars can sometimes feel like something of a dying breed in 2025. Perhaps because of that, though, the manufacturers that are keeping the faith are making them better than ever, so while it may be slim pickings in the sports car market, there aren’t really any duffers these days. Here are our very favourites on sale in 2025.

10. Mercedes-AMG SL

Previously, we’d have been hesitant to put the Mercedes SL on a list of sports cars, but for its seventh generation, the decades-old nameplate brings arguably the sportiest approach since the gullwing-doored original. It’s now developed wholesale by AMG, has 415bhp as an absolute minimum with plenty more available in hotter versions, and is the sharpest SL to drive in decades.

That said, it still has its compromises as a pure sports car that prevent it from appearing higher on this list. It’s very heavy – even the four-pot SL43 weighs 1.8 tonnes – and still doesn’t quite seem able to shake off its GT roots and commit to being a proper roadster.

9. BMW Z4

The current-gen BMW Z4 arguably spent a lot of time living in the shadow of the mechanically identical but conceptually a little different Toyota GR Supra. Now, though, the Supra’s been retired in the UK, leaving the Z4 as your only choice if you want two seats and a straight-six driving the rear wheels.

It may be getting on a bit, but it’s just been given a transformative option in the guise of the Handschalter pack. That may sound like a German word for something dirty, but it actually brings a long-awaited manual gearbox and a bespoke chassis setup. All the versions of the Z4 are quite nice, but it’s absolutely the one to get, as long as you like green over tan, because that’s the only combo it comes in.

8. Ford Mustang

While still a muscle car at heart, the Ford Mustang is arguably as close as it’s ever been to an out-and-out sports car. Here in the UK, our only engine choice is a stonking normally aspirated 5.0-litre V8, which is hooked up as standard to a manual gearbox – the only mass-produced car in the world to still offer such a combo.

The Mustang really shouldn’t just be passed off as an, ahem, one-trick pony only fit for the drag strip, either. The performance-biased 453bhp Dark Horse version gets standard adaptive suspension, bigger brakes, improved cooling and a beefed-up manual ’box.

It’s starting to get pricey, and passersby will assume you’re the kind of person who wears cowboy boots and has a vintage jukebox in your garage even though you’re from Nuneaton, but ignore them because there’s nothing else like the Mustang on sale right now.

7. Chevrolet Corvette Stingray

Also hailing from across the big, Atlantic-sized pond is the first mid-engined Chevrolet Corvette and the first to be offered in Britain with right-hand drive. Thankfully, one bit of its brash American appeal that hasn’t been messed with is the presence of a mighty 6.2-litre naturally aspirated V8.

With 475bhp, the Euro-spec car gets slightly less power than the American version, but it’s still good for 62mph in 3.5 seconds and 184mph. It’s also said to be the sweetest-handling Stingray yet. In other words, it properly takes the fight to the Porsche 911 Carrera, but you’ll only be paying as much as a 4.0-litre 718.

6. Lotus Emira

Much as we love the Lotus Elise and Exige (and the Evora, albeit not quite as much), the sports car game has moved on. Luckily, so has Lotus, and the Emira is a cracking, very modern sports car. OK, maybe it’s not quite as intense, direct and slightly scary as the hardcore Exiges, but it’s still pretty darn fun, with exquisite balance and loads of grip.

Track fiends might be tempted by the lighter and just as quick DCT-only version with the Mercedes-AMG four-cylinder, but we’ll have the one with the big Toyota-sourced supercharged V6 and a manual gearbox, please and thank you.

Oh, and while it’s not sexy to say it, the Emira’s interior is much better than Lotuses of old, which when you’re doing lots of miles in a car is actually moderately important. Shut up, it is. No, YOU’RE old.

5. BMW M2

As the only rear-drive, manual two-door left in BMW’s M performance roster, the second-gen M2 arguably picks up the mantle left over by earlier M3 Coupes. But the M2 and its instant-classic 1M predecessor have always been their own things; boosty, angry little Staffordshire bull terriers on wheels, and even if it’s grown up a bit, that’s still the case with the G87.

If you can get around the slightly challenging looks, you’ve got a fantastic chassis, a straight-six sending 454bhp to the rear wheels, and a manual ’box, all as it should be in an M car. There should be an even faster Competition version soon, too. Excellent.

4. Porsche 911 Carrera

With the Porsche 911 Carrera growing bigger, heavier and becoming more refined, some have accused it of straying into grand tourer territory. But drive one hard and you’ll soon discover it’s still a pure sports car. Not only that, but it’s one that can dice with supercars quite nicely.

A switch to turbo power for the 991.2-generation car may have irked the purists, but Porsche has made the 9A2 3.0-litre engine even better for the 992. The unit is incredibly responsive for a turbo engine, and it sounds brilliant in its upper reaches.

Whichever version of the 992 you go for, you’re unlikely to be disappointed, even if it’s the new hybrid GTS. Purists will likely be swung by the new Carrera T – the only Carrera, for now, available with a manual – although you’d be hard-pressed to go wrong with the basic car, either.

3. Mazda MX-5

We were already big fans of the ND MX-5 when Mazda facelifted it in 2018. What the Japanese company did to the car, however, went beyond the usual nip and tuck – instead, it went down the route of good old-fashioned N/A tuning for the 2.0-litre SkyActiv-G engine.

New pistons, con-rods, valve springs and more raised the rev limit to 7500rpm – 700rpm higher than before – and the power from 168 to 181bhp.

Even with the extra grunt, the MX-5 remains a low-powered, lightweight riposte to the class, and although the cheapest variants have been discontinued, it is still very affordable.

2. Porsche 718

The Porsche Cayman and Boxster twins – prefaced with 718 since the current generation’s introduction – finally seem to have been allowed to step out from the 911’s shadow. In fact, we’d argue that, as the 911 has become bigger and more comfort-oriented, these are now better as pure sports cars.

Any version of the 718 is a corker with a gorgeous chassis, but the basic ones are a bit let down by their slightly uninspiring turbo four-pot engines. There’s no such concern if your budget can extend to the GTS 4.0, whose free-breathing flat-six is one of the very best engines in any car on sale today – supercars included. Then there’s the small matter of the very hardcore but, in the right circumstances, transcendentally brilliant GT4 and Spyder RS versions.

Supposedly, the 718 is to die this year to make way for an electric successor, but rumours are beginning to emerge that its life could be extended. Good.

1. Alpine A110

The reason the Alpine gets so much praise heaped upon it isn’t because it’s any faster or more capable than its peers. In fact, it’s one of the slowest cars here.

No – the Alpine A110 is the best new sports car you can buy today because it disrupts the trend of ever-more powerful, heavier and over-tyred coupes. It gives you just what you need, and no more. As a consequence it’s seriously light, and a joyous thing to throw around.

It’s like a very modern, more cosseting Lotus Elise. And if you really must have more power, there’s the A110 S, which adds more power and ability without completely screwing up the recipe. A more hardcore R exists as well and though it’s impressively capable, we still think the standard car does it best. We suspect the same will be the case for the even more serious Ultime run-out special.

Yep, run-out special – the A110 will soon fall foul of safety rules and Alpine’s largely electric future strategy, and will be taken off sale in the next couple of years. This is very sad, because there haven’t been many cars like the A110 before, and there likely never will be again. It’s an utterly unique, singularly brilliant car, and that’s why it tops this list.

What about the rest?

If you’re wondering why certain cars were absent from this list, here’s why. 2024 was not kind to the sports car market, with the Toyota GR86 and GR Supra meeting their ends in Europe, and the Jaguar F-Type being discontinued altogether.

Folk in other countries can also buy the GR86’s identical twin, the Subaru BRZ, but that’s never been available in Britain in second-gen form.

The MG Cyberster is a reasonable crack at a somewhat attainable electric sports car, but we’re not yet convinced it’s worthy of a place on this list.

Cars like the BMW M4 and Mercedes-AMG CLE 53 occupy a strange place. They’re undoubtedly sporty, especially the BMW, but share more with everyday saloon cars than proper sports cars, so we’re hesitant to put them on the list.

Then there’s the question of the kind of low-volume, ultra-light stuff handmade in British sheds – Caterhams, Morgans and the like. We love them, but unlike everything else on this list, they’re not exactly viable daily drivers unless you live somewhere where it’s always sunny and only do about five miles a day, so they probably belong on another list. The only possible exceptions are the latest aluminium-chassised Morgan Plus Four and Six, but even they lack a few basic amenities that everything else here has.