Truly great British track cars | Six of the best

The British car industry ebbs and flows like the nation around it. Sometimes it is bursting with imagination, enthusiasm and expertise; other times it descends into self-doubt and stagnation. Mass production and marketing of a mid-range hatchback is apparently beyond our reach. But we do two things better than anyone else: very high-quality luxury and very lightweight track cars. Lotus, thank goodness, is the only company that has tried to go from one to the other – but let’s put that strategic nonsense aside, let’s celebrate the period when they turned out to be beautiful cars, as if they were no harder to make than 2H pencils. Almost all of them worked on the track as standard, but the 2-Eleven actually focused exclusively on the work. And boy did it show. Its successor significantly increased power (and price), but the supercharged original already delivered fun, speed and rawness in spades. This one is also street legal. Bingo.

While it would be wrong to view Lotus as some kind of cautionary tale, it’s hard not to think of Hethel’s travails when the subject of Ariel’s growth rate comes up. ‘We don’t want to get too big’ is the refrain often heard in Crewkerne. But the unwillingness to take on too many staff or customer orders has never equated to a lack of ambition or innovation: Ariel has both coming out of his ears. Consider the evolution of the Atom, which in its current form is, pound for pound, perhaps the fastest and most exciting car in the world. Granted, that doesn’t make the 4 cheap to purchase, but with 350 hp from the upgraded Honda Civic Type R engine, you’ll put cars three times as expensive to shame on a track. Or the road for that matter. This one, from 2020 and with less than 5k on the odometer, has it all going on.

Between the weight of the Lotus-China crisis and Ariel’s self-imposed agility sits Caterham, as timeless and ostentatiously spry as Dorian Gray. But this one has not stood still either: the Seven itself may be as old as time, its maker has moved to a brand new factory and – thanks to the Japanese owners – a new electric car is on the horizon. Still, to the British public at large, Caterham only means one thing, and that’s not a bad way to corner a market. People have been building, racing and loving the Seven for half a century, and there are no signs of stopping. You could buy virtually any 147 currently for sale on PH and you’d be a winner, but we opted for a rarity: a custom F225 from Premium Power. As the same suggests, this buys you more power from the 2.0-litre Duratec, and given the lack of screen we assume it’s no stranger to the track. ‘Visceral’ says the seller. No joke.

Can it really be almost a quarter of a century since the Noble M12 arrived? Incredible. While it wasn’t Lee Noble’s first sports car (that honor went to the M10 of the late ’90s), it was the one that best typified what he was trying to achieve. The M10 drove nicely but looked strange; the M12 was even better from behind the wheel, looking like a proper shrunken supercar. Everyone was captivated by its presence, V6 turbo performance and sublime handling – the M12 truly was the British mid-engined lightweight at its best. Things got better and better in the early and mid-00s: the 2.5-liter V6 was replaced by a 3.0-liter and the M12 evolved into the epic M400. This early 2.5 has seats from the ‘400, which is cool, and it’s sold with a new service and a full tank of gas. From a dealer right next to Brands Hatch, no less…

2026 will mark 15 years since the world first saw the BAC Mono, and nothing like it has happened since. The combination of unashamed driver focus with exquisite detail and finish was – and remains – unique. Cars designed so explicitly for track use are usually not very nicely put together; those with such lavish option lists are usually not single-seaters with 550 hp per tonne. Still, the Mountune-powered Mono has seduced everyone who has driven it over the past fifteen years, and in that time the BAC has become even faster and more purposeful. As the company went from strength to strength, expanding into America and recruiting former McLaren man Mike Flewitt as chairman, this Mono is, by BAC standards, almost a touring spec, with its wide body, electronic handbrake and improved sequential software. But it also features an Inconel exhaust, a spare set of slicks and carbon wheels, just in case intentions were ever in doubt. “Intense” probably doesn’t even come close to describing it.

Oh, to spend £140,000 on a car like the Mono just for the track. Not really feasible for many of us. While the £25,000 this almost new Great British Sportscars Zero costs feels considerably more attainable. Especially because the depreciation will not really be comparable to that of a conventional new car. This 4,000-mile 2024 car looks a lot like the Zero we drove earlier this summer, with the 2.5 Duratec meaning some useful extra torque over the engines normally found in cars like this. It also benefits from a cage, semi-smooth Nankangs plus a pretty serious seat and harness combination. The carbon goodies such as the front arches also contrast nicely with the yellow. If our recent experience is anything to go by, a well-sorted Zero will be a riot: fast, agile, beautifully balanced and thrillingly raw. Not only is it more affordable than the other big British sports cars, but it also looks a lot like…