The fastest accelerating cars for £50,000
We've already covered the fastest accelerating cars you can get on a £10,000 and £20,000 budgets; now it's time to take a look at what you can get with £50,000 to splurge. That is enough to get your hands on the type of lightweight sports cars that used to be acceleration specialists before the baton was handed to the instant torque and huge horsepower figures of the latest EVs. Covering everything from family hatchbacks to mid-engine supercars, these are the fastest accelerating cars you can buy for £50,000.
Lotus Exige 350 Sport – 0-62mph in 3.9 seconds
The Lotus Exige 350 Sport is something of a porker in Lotus circles, tipping the scales at 1,125kg. It's less of an issue when you consider this Exige has the 3.5-litre supercharged Toyota V6 from the Evora and weighs a whopping 200kg less than a comparable Porsche Cayman.
While the Lotus and Porsche are comparable as two junior, mid-engined sports cars, that's about where the similarities end. The Lotus is a much rawer experience, with steering that chatters like a telesales person and reactions that seem telepathic. Even the gear change, often a Lotus Achilles heel, has been reworked to be tight and precise. Oddly for this list, you'd buy a Exige 350 Sport because it feels like a gateway supercar – doing 0-62mph in just 3.9 seconds is just the cherry on top.
MG4 Xpower – 0-62mph in 3.8 seconds
No car quite sums up the EV revolution like the MG4 Xpower – a seemingly average family hatchback that can launch itself from 0-62mph quicker than a Ferrari F40. It needs just 3.8 seconds to hit the benchmark sprint.
Sadly, the Xpower is also stereotypically EV in that its performance is annoyingly one dimensional, the excitement you'll have for driving it ending as quickly as the car accelerates. It's boringly well-behaved in bends, refusing to get out of shape no matter how hard you try. Still, most don't want their family cars to transform into tyre-shredding monsters and will be happy with the MG's practicality and comfort.
BMW M760Li xDrive – 0-62mph in 3.7 seconds
In amongst a list of exotic metal and overpowered EVs, the BMW 760Li xDrive cuts an unlikely profile – few would know this big luxury saloon is one of the quickest models on BMW's fleet. Four-wheel drive and a twin-turbocharged V12 mean the 760 can storm from 0-62mph in 3.7 seconds while you stretch your legs out in the generously proportioned back seat.
Unsurprisingly, the 7 Series is no sports car, but its chassis has more prowess than an EV saloon with the same performance thanks to its rear-biased four-wheel drive, active, and four-wheel steering. But really, the BMW is a car that completes huge mileage in extreme comfort and with vast quantities of power waiting in reserve when needed. It does that job very well indeed.
Porsche 997 911 Turbo – 0-62mph in 3.7 seconds
The Porsche 997 911 Turbo is probably one of the best sports cars ever. A car that seamlessly blends analogue mechanical feel with just the right amount of electrical intervention to let you explore the car's performance without worrying you'll spear headlong into a hedge. Turbo versions add huge performance to the tantalising mix courtesy of a pair of variable geometry turbines that prevent lag and mean the 997 can get from 0-62mph in 3.7 seconds and top 195mph.
But the 911 delivers this performance with rock-solid surety that makes supercars with similar performance seem ramshackle. The 911’s precision is a joy to behold, four-wheel drive makes the performance massively exploitable and it’s rear-engined physics are a joy to master. If only the exhaust sounded a tad fruitier.
Zenos E10S – 0-62mph in 3.7 seconds
To the uncultured eye, the Zenos E10S might have the look of a 1990s kit car with a sporty body draped over the drivetrain of a scrapped Ford Sierra. Still, people in the know will tell you the Zenos is in fact a deeply impressive, mid-engine sports car built by folk who used to work at Lotus and Caterham.
Power comes from the same 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder found in the old Focus ST producing 250PS (184kW) or 280PS (206kW) if you can find a car optioned with the factory-fitted power increase. Find one of those, and your Zenos is good for 0-62mph in 3.7 seconds. The Zenos weighs just 725kg thanks to its aluminium spine and carbon fibre body panels and features trick components like pushrod suspension that inject it with a rock-solid character that differentiates it from less substantial feeling British sports cars.
Porsche Taycan 4S – 0-62mph in 3.7 seconds
The Porsche Taycan 4S might match the acceleration of the 997 Turbo, but the cars couldn't be more different in every other way, despite what Porsche has done to inject heart into its EV. But what no one can argue is that the 4S is quick, with two electric motors thrusting the big saloon from 0-62mph in just 3.7 seconds.
It's best to forget about 911 comparisons and take a second hand Taycan for what it is – a high-tech saloon with a beautiful cabin that oozes quality and suffers depreciation that means you can scoop a nearly new (barely worn-in) example for less than half the price its original owner paid a few years earlier. A Taycan for the weekdays and a 911 for the weekends? Sounds good to us.
Radical SR1 – 0-62mph in 3.6 seconds
The Radical SR1 takes a thoroughly modern approach to quickly going around a track. With a spaceframe chassis, no windows, doors or windscreen, and the lightweight engine from a Suzuki Hayabusa, it tips the scales at less than 500kg including the driver. The result is a four-wheeled missile that can accelerate from 0-62mph in just 3.6 seconds.
Acceleration misses the point of a car designed to compete in Radical's own race series because the SR1 can pull 2G in corners and has a sequential gearbox that shifts through the gears with barely any let-up on the throttle. One major flaw in our thinking is that the Radical isn't road legal but, on the bright side, the SR1 Cup is one of the cheapest ways for amateurs to compete in a genuinely high-performance race series.
Nissan GT-R – 0-62mph in 3.5 seconds
The Nissan GT-R might be more than 15 years old, but age has not diminished its performance, even against the current crop of ultra-fast EVs. A budget of £50,000 is more than enough to get your hands on a clean example of Nissan's Porsche 911 Turbo beater, which can get from 0-62mph in 3.5 seconds thanks to a twin-turbocharged V6, physics-bending four-wheel drive, and a fast-shifting twin-clutch gearbox.
Unlike many cars here, the GT-R combines scorching performance with everyday usability, thanks to having four seats and a boot. Whether it's unique enough is another matter. The Nissan hasn't got the tactility of its Stutgart-built rivals and its shunty drivetrain and noisy differentials give it an agricultural flavour.
Caterham 620R – 0-62mph in 2.8 seconds
The Caterham 620R accelerates from 0-62mph quicker than a torch lights up the wall in front of you – taking just 2.8 seconds to complete the sprint milestone as you flat-shift through the cogs of its six-speed sequential gearbox. Fast really doesn't do it justice.
It's no mystery why the Caterham is so quick. It’s supercharged Ford Duratec engine serves modern hot hatch power to a chassis that weighs less than 600kg, the combination giving the little Caterham a 588PS (433kW) per ton power-to-weight – that’s more than a Bugatti Veyron. But while the Veyron makes huge speeds easily accessible, in the 620R – which has no electronic aids, not even power steering, you feel every one of those miles per hour. It's a brute that needs to be bullied but, if you're up to the task, few cars will be quicker around a circuit.
Tesla Model S P100D DualMotor – 0-62mph in 2.5 seconds
It seems only right that our list of the fastest accelerating cars you can buy for £50,000 should be topped by the Tesla Model S, a car seemingly earning its bread and butter flogging a long list of noisier and more expensive supercars in drag battles. Even now, it seems crazy that a large luxury saloon can accelerate faster than a supercharged flip-flop like the Caterham 620R.
Of course, the Model S delivers very few of the thrills of a Caterham 7 in the corners, but its straight line performance is so intense (0-62mph takes just 2.5 seconds) it'll still be taking your breath away long after you get used to the speed of other performance cars. The Model S is pretty good in corners, too, and quiet and comfortable. Our primary concern would be the range you can expect from a five-year-old EV.
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List
Tesla
Radical
Porsche
Nissan
MG
Lotus
Caterham
BMW
Zenos
Model S
SR1
Taycan
911
GT R
MG4 XPower
Exige
620R
M760Li
E10S
