20 summer-ready classic roadsters for supermini money

Sub-£15k summer roadsters

Summer is approaching and the lockdown is easing, meaning now is the perfect time to hunt down a classic for the sunny months.

We’ve assumed a notional £15k budget for our 20-strong collection of roof-down, rear-wheel-drive sports cars.

That’s barely enough money to buy a new supermini these days, but plenty to bag you a bona fide classic roadster.

1. Austin-Healey ‘Frogeye’ Sprite

Price guide: £12-20,000

You’d need double our £15k budget to get into a Healey 100 or 3000, but that doesn’t mean the badge is entirely out of reach.

The Mk2-on Austin-Healey Sprite and its MG Midget alter ego are huge fun, simple to work on, and cost well under £10k. But we've pushed the budget a little higher to include the classic Mk1 ‘Frogeye’ Sprite.

These things have more character than a Mel Blanc demo tape and there are loads of tuning options out there if the standard 948cc A-series feels a bit ploddy.

And stick with us for another affordable way to put a Healey key fob in your pocket later in our list…

2. Caterham

Price guide: £12-25,000

If you like your sports-car thrills blue-steak raw, you can’t go wrong with a Caterham. Lotus Seven dealer, Graham Nearn, bought the rights to the fibreglass rocket in 1973 after Lotus had pulled the plug, and it’s changed very little since.

You don’t need a mega-power R500 or Superlight R to have a blast in a Seven – even the more humble versions that suit our budget will plaster a grin on your face.

3. Triumph Spitfire

Price guide: £5-18,000

This pretty Herald-based two-seater still turns heads, and the modest performance means those admirers will get plenty of time to take a good look.

Handling improved through the generations, but Triumph never did get round to building a Spit with the fastback GT6’s straight-six. Still, there are plenty of home-brewed versions out there if you like the idea.

4. Fiat 124

Price guide: £7-16,000

Fiat’s Pininfarina-designed everyman roadster was a real looker until US-crash legislation saddled it with bumpers that made a late-’70s MGB look handsome.

Factor in a zesty twin-cam motor and it’s still a winner – provided you can live with its left-hand-drive-only layout.

5. Mazda MX-5

Price guide: £3-10,000

It might have started as a Brit sports-car tribute act, but the MX-5’s a classic in its own right these days.

And while it beats an original ’60s roadster hollow for reliability, it sadly doesn’t fare much better when it comes to rust.

6. Reliant Scimitar SS1

Price guide: £4-7000

The Scimitar SS1 was the last design to come from the pen of the legendary Giovanni Michelotti, the man responsible for beauties like the Spitfire, though you'd be hard pressed to tell.

But get past the awkward lines, and this plastic-panelled two-seater is worth serious attention, particularly in rapid turbocharged 1.8-litre form.

7. Mercedes-Benz SL (R107)

Price guide: £14-25,000

Hunt around carefully and you might still find a decent, though not mint, classic R107-model SL.

But buy carefully. They dissolve like soluble aspirin in water, and you’ll be needing a few of those pills if you have to fund big body repairs to a bad one.

Fancy something newer? Its R129 replacement is excellent value, but just as likely to land you with big bills.

8. Jaguar XJ-S convertible

Price guide: £12-20,000

£115k for an E-type roadster or £15k for its increasingly admired successor? We wouldn’t dream of suggesting the XJ-S is as desirable, but it looks fantastic value right now.

Forget the targa-top XJ-SC, ugly post-’91 facelift cars and gruff ‘sixes’: a 1990-’91 V12 convertible is where it’s at.

9. TVR Chimaera

Price guide: £11-17,000

Never as cool as the hairier Griff or wildly styled Tuscan, the Chimaera is massively underrated.

The Rover-derived V8 gives you the reliability later TVRs with the marque’s own straight-six engine can only dream of, it’s surprisingly practical, plus it is massively cheaper than its sister cars.

But watch out for the usual TVR chassis rot problems.

10. BMW Z3 M Roadster

Price guide: £12-20,000

If you like the idea of a TVR but don’t like the smell of glue, bag yourself a Z3 M Roadster for around the same money.

You can forget about Lotus-like steering tactility, but performance from the 321bhp M3 coupé’s motor is electric (0-60mph in around 5 secs), and the noise is pretty epic, too.

11. Sunbeam Alpine

Price guide: £10-18,000

The Rootes Group’s second crack at a sports car with the Alpine name feels more urbane than outright sporty, but it does have the cachet of being a Bond car.

Sean Connery drove one in a spectacularly unconvincing green-screen chase sequence in his first 007 film, 1962’s Dr No.

12. Alfa Romeo Spider

Price guide: £7-20,000

Original Duetto boat-tail Spiders are way out of our budget, but the later Kamm-back S2 and S3 cars are almost as pretty and a whole lot cheaper.

Compared to Brit sports cars of the period, the engine options are surprisingly extensive: choose from 1300, 1600, 1750 and 2000cc versions on the S2! And it goes without saying, but check carefully for the dreaded tin-worm.

13. Porsche Boxster S

Price guide: £6-10,000

The original Boxster is a standout bargain in a market full of overpriced older Porsches, many of which aren’t half as much fun to drive.

Values are so low it makes sense to go for the top 3.2 S. You get more power and better brakes with the S, but also a six-speed ’box to close the Grand Canyon-like chasm between ratios the weedier 2.5 and 2.7 suffer from.

14. Triumph TR6

Price guide: £13-22,000

You should still find a usable example of Triumph’s straight-six brute for our £15k budget, though the really good ones cost considerably more.

Most of the period fuel injection gremlins should have been sorted by now, and experts say not to fret over the supposed 25bhp difference between early CP-code and later CR versions sold in the UK.

15. Honda S2000

Price guide: £7-12,000

Like the hyperactive result of a torrid affair between an MX-5 and a Honda Firebalde super bike, the S2000 features a 237bhp in-line four that’s capable of spinning to a bonkers 9000rpm thanks to Honda’s legendary VTEC valve wizardry.

16. Lotus Elise

Price guide: £11-18,000

The car that saved Lotus over 20 years ago remains one of the purest driving experiences today.

Both simple (power comes from a lowly Rover K-series engine) and, at the same time, incredibly advanced (the chassis is made from glued aluminium extrusions), it manages to make supercars feel flat-footed and un-engaging on a good road.

Original S1 cars are slightly more exciting to drive than sexier-looking S2s, but they’re all a riot. Crash damage is all-too common, so buy carefully.

17. Jensen-Healey

Price guide: £7-14,000

This mostly-forgotten tie-up between two British sports-car greats (three, if you count the 2.0-litre Lotus-sourced engine) won’t ever win you ‘prettiest car’ at the local classic show, but it’ll certainly give you plenty to talk about.

And if the styling is a little ungainly, the 50:50 weight distribution means the handling certainly isn’t. An interesting big-name classic for less than £15k.

18. Fiat X1/9

Price guide: £4-12,000

If you’re struggling to scrape together the last £290k you need for that Ferrari Dino 246GTS, but want some 1970s mid-engined Italian fun, take a look at Fiat’s little X1/9.

The pretty Bertone wedge isn’t massively quick in either 1300, or later 1500cc versions, but the chassis will keep you amused, and with two boots, they’re surprisingly practical.

19. Toyota MR2

Price guide: £2-5000

If you like the idea of the Fiat but not the idea of being blown away by ice-cream vans from the lights, try the underrated MGF (from just £1k!), or its even sharper contemporary, the Mk3 Toyota MR2.

The MR2’s just about quick enough to capitalise on the excellent chassis, which feels much pointier than the lauded original Mk1 MR2’s, and is fun enough to distract you from the woeful luggage space: there’s no boot, just a couple of cubbies behind the seats.

20. MGB

Price guide: £8-15,000

Come on, you didn’t really think we’d forgotten about the B, did you?

Despite losing fans fed up of fixing kingpins to the MX-5, there’s still plenty of love for the B, and plentiful support to keep one on the road, too.