Automotive Maxim No. 3: It’s more fun to drive a slow car fast, than it is to drive a fast car slow. After “slow in, fast out” and “the left lane is for passing, the right lane is for travel,” this is one of the truest proverbs of the car world.
There are limits, however; for instance, driving a CVT-equipped Nissan Sentra at 10/10ths isn’t that much fun. It’s not just the caning of any car – it’s the spirit of the machine in question, whether or not it’s a sprightly little pony that loves to run even with stumpy little legs.
Here are a few of our favourite machines to drive with the needle in the red, yet with the speed limit still safely unbroken.
Mazda MX-5 Miata
The first-generation Mazda MX-5 Miata.
Handout, Mazda
Let’s get the obvious choice out of the way first. The Mazda MX-5 Miata, particularly the original with the 1.6-litre four-cylinder, is a deeply slow machine. It’ll get straight-line stomped by nearly any modern crossover, and a Toyota Sienna will show it taillights like the minivan was a top-fuel dragster.
It absolutely doesn’t matter. Flogging a Miata, even a bone-stock car with pizza-cutter wheels and a roly-poly worn-out suspension, is one of the most thrilling things you can do with your pants on. The steering is wonderfully alive, the curb weight is that of a roller skate and with the top down, you get to smell the bakeries and feel the breeze.
It’s all the best bits of classic British motoring without the need to keep fixing something every five minutes. So cheap, and so common, everyone should have one.
Nissan Micra
The 2015 Nissan Micra.
Handout, Nissan
I took a bit of a dig at the Sentra earlier, but it isn’t a bad car; the Sentra is merely tuned for space and comfort rather than joie de vivre. The Nissan Micra, on the other hand, is made to be cheap. In its most basic form, you don’t even get power windows or power mirrors. Air conditioning? Slow down there, Donald Trump. Maybe if you didn’t have such weird hair, you wouldn’t mind rolling down a window and letting the breeze in.
A car this stripped-out is sometimes referred to as a Quebec Special, given the province’s love of the cheap and cheerful. Perhaps there’s something in the label, as the Micra really loves to be hammered along as if propelled by Villeneuve.
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Salut Gilles! Trail-braking deep into the corner, weld your foot to the floor on exit, and move the long-throw shifter up to third, causing the revs and power to drop into the basement. Dear Lord, this thing is slow – but fun! Your passengers will be terrified, but people standing on the curb won’t even notice you crawling by.
Honda Fit
The original Fit harkens back to the days when Hondas used to be cheap, simple and fun.
Handout, Honda
There are those who lament the Honda of old – and you may count me among them. We’ll likely see a mini-renaissance for the brand with the imminent arrival of small-displacement turbocharged engines, the return of the Civic Type-R and maybe even a mini-NSX with a Honda badge up front, but the old days of sheer simplicity are long gone.
Once, buying a Honda meant you got a cross between a lawn-mower and a Formula One car. The company built both, and there was a dash of each to liven up those economy car blues. Even the most basic Honda used to be fun to thrash, though they’re more on the economy and comfort side these days.
Still, you need go no further back in time than to the first-generation Fit to find a tiny little car that did pretty much everything. It scooted through corners with ease, could fit a mountain bike in the back and sipped fuel like a VTEC-powered hummingbird.
Mini Cooper
With its turbocharged three-cylinder engine, the base Mini Cooper is more fun than the S variant.
Handout, Mini
Bigger, more luxurious, more powerful – the new Mini Cooper is a far cry from the people’s car that put post-war Britain back on the roads. Now the Cooper S comes with a 2.0-litre turbocharged engine like it was a modern Volkswagen Golf GTI. Hear me now: the regular Cooper is better to drive than the supposedly go-fast one.
Even an automatic version of the new three-cylinder turbo Cooper is really good fun. It snaps, crackles and pops like a flatulent trombonist and scoots off the line with plenty of low-end zip. Big-diameter wheels and stiff suspension? Who needs ’em. The Cooper’s a nice mix of firm and compliant, and is plenty of fun in the corners.
On the street, it might even be better than anything with a BMW M badge on it. It can’t touch its high-calibre Bavarian cousins for speed, but the big Bimmers are just so illegally fast these days, you can’t really let them off the leash.
Scion FR-S and Subaru BRZ
The 2016 Subaru BRZ takes a bit of warming up to, but the more you work with it, the better it becomes.
Brendan McAleer, Driving
Neither one of these cars is perfect and that makes them interesting to drive. With a 200-horsepower flat-four engine that’s low on torque, yet lacking something higher up in the rev range, the two-plus-two Scion FR-S and Subaru BRZ twins take some warming up to.
The more you work at it, however, the better they become. That’s the joy of a car that’s not really fast – without either power to cover up a flubbed line or all-wheel drive to claw back from a missed apex, you need to keep on top of momentum.
Finding the sweet spot in a FR-S or BRZ is a thing of beauty, and while keeping it in that 5,000 to 6,000 rpm Goldilocks zone requires a bit of plate-spinning, know that all your heel-toe tap-dancing is as much fun here as it would be in a Chevrolet Corvette. Less power just means more is asked of the driver – just as it should be.
Toyota Yaris
It has the face of a Mexican wrestler, but the 2015 Toyota Yaris is one of the cheapest and lightest new cars money can buy.
Handout, Toyota
The Toyota Yaris currently comes with a front end resembling a masked Mexican wrestler. As an economy car with a four-speed automatic transmission and so few horses under the hood that you’ll grow to name every one – “This one’s called Tim; Fred will arrive 500 rpm later” – it’s pure econobox.
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And yet, because it weighs so little and has such a short, chuckable wheelbase, the Yaris clotheslines boredom and gives it a half-Nelson. Pogo’ing this thing through a couple of corners is hilarious fun and real scrape-the-doorhandles stuff. It’s the least expensive car Toyota makes, and maybe the most interesting to drive.
Mazda CX-3
On paper, the 2016 Mazda CX-3 is the recipe for a yawn. On the road, it’s a Miata with a backpack.
Handout, Mazda
Less horsepower than a base Mazda3 doesn’t sound like a very interesting start. And wait, a crossover? Automatic only? Boring. Zoom-zoom-nap-nap, wake me when the next Mazdaspeed car comes out.
But show the front-wheel-drive Mazda CX-3 even a couple of spaghetti strands of tarmac and it absolutely comes to life. On downhill sections, you can carry plenty of speed through the corners, and the high-compression four does like to stretch its legs a bit.
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Paddle shifters wake things up, but even left to its own devices Mazda’s six-speed automatic is a lively affair. On paper, the CX-3 is a recipe for a yawn. On the street, it’s a Miata with a backpack.
Ford Fiesta Ecoboost
Even with a tiny engine, the Ford Fiesta and its 1.0-litre EcoBoost engine is a hoot.
Clayton Seams, Driving
The Ford Fiesta ST might just be the most fun you can have for less than $30K. It’s got a scrappy turbocharged engine, darty reflexes and seats that grip. It’s immense fun and having a manual as the only transmission option, it’s an enthusiast’s favourite.
Also manual-only: the three-cylinder Fiesta Ecoboost, with an engine displacement smaller than a carton of soy milk. A penalty box for the thrifty? Well, yes and no.
That turbocharged 1.0-litre engine is as excitable as a three-legged puppy, so stir up the boost and take it for a walk. The reason the Fiesta ST is so good is because the regular car upon which it’s based is plenty of fun, so even with a tiny engine, it’s still an entertaining drive.
Citroën 2CV
The Citroen 2CV has the build quality of a garden shed and the roll characteristics of a Napoleonic sailing ship – the perfect recipe for fun!
Allen Watkin, Wikimedia Commons
It looks like a snail and that’s no accident. With a suspension as soft as a Louis XIV throw pillow, the Citroën 2CV has the build quality of a garden shed and the roll characteristics of a Napoleonic sailing ship.
Despite the peasant people’s-car origins, it simply demands to be driven with maximum élan. It’s so slow, the only way to keep up with modern traffic is to drop anchor with your right foot and rally that thing like you’re channeling Michèle Mouton.
Autozam AZ-1
The Autozam AZ-1 looks like a small bird of prey with its gullwing doors open.
Brendan McAleer, Driving
You were expecting a first gen Volkswagen GTI to round out the list? Well, that’d be a good choice too, but here’s a real curveball: a 63-horsepower, Japan-only kei-car with gullwing doors, mid-engine construction and turbocharging.
All kinds of JDM cars have filtered through to Canada under our 15-year grey market laws, but the Autozam AZ-1 has to be one of the rarest and oddest. It weighs about the same as a Lotus Super Seven, with quick steering and a chassis developed on British B-roads.
It’s like a fun-sized Ferrari and demands to be flogged. Just keep the air conditioning off (it uses a quarter of the available power), the steering wheel cranked and your right foot hard down.
