There is something about Italian cars that makes them endlessly desirable. The names help of course - consider how the words Ferrari, Lamborghini and Maserati force your mouth around unfamiliar sounds so that already you are speaking of something different, exotic and romantic. And there is the Italian body design, so much braver and adventurous than anyone else’s. The sound of the engine, the impracticality, the exhibitionism, everything makes an Italian car the stuff of dreams.

But the really strange thing about them is that everyone’s favorite is the Alfa Romeo. They may not make supercars like Ferrari and Lamborghini, they may have a reputation for falling apart at the slightest opportunity and there may be far better cars in the same class - but the Alfa has soul. We are prepared to put up with the failings because … it’s an Alfa.

You don’t believe me? I remember a Top Gear program in which they put up the Alfa 147 GTA against a Ford Focus RS and a Volkswagen Golf R32. Predictably, the Alfa lost out in all departments except acceleration. But, when it came for the presenters to choose which car they’d rather have, they all chose…

this one.

Always fancied driving a race car but never had the time, money or opportunity? Well, a small company in Britain is producing what amounts to a road legal race car and it is going to be made in the States by Brammo Motorsports.

It is called the Ariel Atom and is just a space frame, wheels and an engine - needless to say, it goes like a racer. In fact, Jeremy Clarkson says it’s more fun than a motor bike and he just might be right.

With the Honda Civic R engine, supercharged, it has over 500 bhp per ton and achieves 0-60 mph in 2.9 seconds. Top speed is a mere 140 mph or so but, as it has no windscreen (or body for that matter), it would be tearing off your face at that speed anyway.

As with all great cars, it is the handling that makes the real difference and the Atom just begs to be thrown around - as it should with so little weight and loads of power.

The American version will have a supercharged GM Ecotec engine but promises to be just as quick and as much fun. Save your pennies.

For a long time Ford in Britain were one of the most conservative of car manufacturers - tried and trusted was their motto. It was not until 1976, seventeen years after the birth of the Mini (which sent everyone else rushing to bring out similar spec products) that Ford dared to design a front-engined car with transverse engine.

Just occasionally, however, they seemed to have a rush of blood to the head and experimented with some strange ideas. The Ford Anglia of 1959 was one of these, heavily influenced by American styling and sporting a reverse-slope rear window that made it stand out like a sore thumb amongst other cars in their range.

To European eyes it looked strange and yet the car sold in large numbers. It was cheap, cheerful, nippy and handled pretty well for the time. Its great secret was the 105E engine - a little powerhouse that never gave up. But no-one seems to have told Ford; they must have thought it was the reverse slope window that made the car sell so well for, in 1962, they brought out the Consul Capri with the same feature.

The Capri flopped worse than the Edsel in America. In 1964 Ford gave up on it and concentrated their efforts on the much more conventional Cortina that was to prove their bread and butter for twenty years. The Capri name made a comeback as a cheap fastback with sporting pretensions in 1969 and this too proved very successful. But the reverse slope rear window was gone forever.

Yet those cheeky little Anglias really had something. Ask anyone who once owned one and they get a faraway, misty look in their eyes as they recall the good times they had in their Anglia.

Through the 1950s and 1960s, a horde of little cars competed at Le Mans for the Thermal Efficiency Index prize. The idea of this formula was to reward those who tried for performance without using oceans of fuel and the competing cars were invariably small, ultra-streamlined and powered by tiny engines. I have always felt that the drivers of these little wonders must have been very brave to head down the Mulsanne straight at their maximum 120 mph or so with the big cars screaming past at close to 200 mph.

A consistent entrant and winner of the class was the small French firm, D.B. - the initials indicating the partnership between two designers, Charles Deutsch and René Bonnet. When the pair split up in 1962, Bonnet started building cars under his own name with Renault supplying the engines.

And so was born one of the prettiest little GT cars ever - the René Bonnet Djet. It was one of the first production mid-engined cars and, thanks to its light weight, was as zippy as it looked. With only one liter of engine, it still managed a top speed of about 110 mph. Most were bought for racing in spite of being intended for road use.

By 1965 M. Bonnet was in financial difficulties and sold out to Matra, who continued production of the Djet and eventually rebodied it with one of the ugliest designs ever. As a result, the original Bonnet Djets are still regarded as the real thing.