The best affordable sports cars – driven, rated and ranked

The demise of the affordable sports car has been lamented too early. Here are the best routes to fun on a budget

If driver thrills sit at the very top of your shopping list when looking for a new motor, then there’s still nothing to beat a sports car.
True, the inexorable rise of the SUV (and its profit-tastic margins) has meant fewer and fewer affordable drivers cars of any sort, but the good news is that they are out there if you go looking.
That said, the definition of ‘affordable’ is obviously a moveable feast, especially in this inflationary times and against a backdrop where some manufacturers think nothing of launching limited run specials with price tags in the multiples of millions.
However, for the sake of argument (and please feel free to do so below), we reckon anything south of £100k these days can just about make a case for being in this list (although most cost around half that). 
Whatever their price, we’ll happily state that those cars listed below are some of the b