I saw this topic and couldn't pass it by.These are my top ten though I'm going to sneak in more than ten by using a couple of dodgy headings to get a couple in - well you just have to do these things.This isn't a straight review so there won't be any prices etc and general data may be patchy as this is straight from my head.Some of these I've owned,some I hope to own and others are just fantasy.Also they're not set out in any particular order just the order I jotted them down in on a scrap of paper - at first I couldn't think of all ten now I've a list of some twenty odd so here goes -

1. Ford Sierra Sapphire RS Cosworth 2WD.Here's a car I've drooled over owning for years now.I never really thought that much of Sierras when I was a kid but this car is different.The XR4i with it's plastic sides never caught my imagination and the rest of the early ones were pretty dire looking cars,no replacement for the Cortina or that's what I thought at 10 or 11 when they first appeared.Then the original RS Cosworths arrived with that huge whale-tail spoiler,brought out to satisfy the homologation rules for rallying these beast never really managed to revive the sucsess of the MK1 and MK2 Escorts but you could never deny their presence.With the face-lifted Sierras came the 4-door Sapphires and demise of the 3-door version along with the barnstorming original 'whale-tails' but in their place they brought out the much more understated Sapphire Cosworths in RWD and later 4 wheel drive versions.Anyone remember Jimmy Nail in 'Spender' driving one of these.With a 2.0 16v turbocharged YBB Cosworth designed engine they were good for 150mph and a 0-60 in the mid 5 second bracket.I want one and intent selling my soul to my bank manager later this year to get one.I have driven one and they are amazing.

2. Lotus Carlton.170mph 0-60 in 4seconds and a recomendation from the police that they should be banned outr
ight(or so the legend goes).Ferrari beating performance in what is basically a large Vauxhall - give me some of that!!!.All in black with around 400bhp from a staight six turbocharged engine this car is a legend and rightly so.Never driven one and probably never will but you can live in hope.

3. Ford Capri 2.8injection.I had one of these and it was one of those cars that actually lived up to my expectations.How the Capri should have been from the word go I've had allsorts of them from an MK2 1977 R-reg 1600GL to a 1980 MK3 2000S and many others but the 2.8 was the one that left it's mark.Always remembered for the 'Professionals' the Capri seems to have got a label as a poor mans Porsche and a reputation for loose handling catching you unawares and sending you sideways at roundabouts and junctions but with the 2.8 the handling was finally tamed and I raced a 944 down the A9 and left it well behind - you cam keep your Porsches give the 2.8 anyday.The 2.8 V6 cologne engine wasn't exactly refined and with siamesed exhaust ports didn't like high revs but with 150bhp still alot of fun.Trouble was if you played with it you could actually see your petrol needle fall as it drank fuel!!!

4.Vauxhall Cavalier.Along with the Capri and Fiesta I've had more of these than the local dealership.I presently have an N-reg SRi16v which is undergoing a rebuild but it's the GSi2000 16v which I nominate here as this was a real charger.Front wheel drive,I can't be doing with four wheel drive cars,it was quick with 156bhp and handled lovely also I'll mention both one of my MK2 SRi130's a red 4-door that was a beauty of a car and also the ultra-rare Caliber I owned.These were based on the same 4-door SRi130 as above but with a smart Irmscher bodykit,lowered Jamex suspension and mine had a real nice set of Imola alloys.

5.Ford Escort.Now I've had a few of these aswell a 1984 A-reg XR3i and an A-reg RS1600i both these ca
rs featured the 1.6CVH engine with fuel injection but the RS had solid tappets and a smart twin-coil ignition system which transformed the way it drove.XR3i's were rated at 105bhp while the RS had 115bhp but the set up of the RS made it a much faster car and it's quicker then the later RS Turbo with it's 132bhp - but that's a matter of opinion.Bhp figures are far from the end of the story though and don't always show the real on-the-road picture.When I was a schoolkid all the wee lads wanted to own a black Trans-Am after 'Smokey and the Bandit' and kind of thought me a little odd when insisting that the car I wanted was a MK2 Escort but they were and still are a car that I want and have yet to own outright.I'm torn between an RS2000 with it's droop-snoot twin headlight nose or an RS Mexico with the conventional front end.Twice I've been left,money in hand,watching while someones got there before me and drove away in one of these but I WILL HAVE ONE YET!!!

6.Vauxhall Astra GTE.This is the car that changed this die-hard Ford owner into a Ford/Vauxhall enthusiast.I borrowed one for a weekend when my XR3i was off the road and had to admit that in every way it was a better car.The most important way was the engine it may have been just an 8v 1.8 giving just 7bhp more than the XR but it revved and revved and wanted to rev more.At the same time my best mate's sister bought one and after a year and a half of nagging she sold it to me.This thing was magnificent it would rev to 7000rpm and still go.It was a MK2 with the LCD dashboard that would read upto 125mph and then stop even though the car had another useful 1000rpm to go.I came round a corner one stormy night to be blinded by a police car facing me with it's full beam on - too late I saw the tree blown down across the road and piled into it at about 60mph.That was the end of my GTE but it changed my car owning outlook completely.

7.Ford Fiesta.These dink
y little cars were what I learned to drive in - on the road that is because me and a few mates at age 12 used to rod spares and repairs cars around fields etc.My first car was a 1978 T-reg (SST178T) MK1 1.1L and although it quickly gained an XR2 'kent' engine with a 1300 g/box was a great car to start your car-owning career with.4-speed box,no head rest and a foot operated pump for the washers,life was frugal with the 'foosty' but fun.Bedecked with spotlights,rubberised hatch spoiler and I also put one of those black plastic louvres on the back window it was an agonizingly bright shade of 'signal yellow' and would go straight off the clock with the needle pointing vertically down.I always wanted a MK1 1300S and an XR2 but never got one I had many MK1 1300's L's,GL's,Ghia's and also a MK2 XR2.The MK2 while a nice little motor just lacked the style of the MK1 mind you with the full sports exhaust and manifold and a brace of DCNF's it was pretty damn quick and handled like it as permantly on rails - Henry Ford II was reputedly quoted as saying these cars were 'demented roller skates' and he wasn't far wrong.

8.Ford Cortina.I had a V-reg MK5 2.0GL in the same eye-aching yellow as the Fiesta what with blacked-out
rear lights and chrome weller wheels this thing looked cool in a way the later Sierra never could.Never mind the fact that the boot floor was about to fall out this thing had it all.I blew the rear-diff after a day.I took my Mum down to the post office in it and on the way back smoke poured out from underneath I'd spent the first night of ownership doing reverse wheel-spins and burn-outs to impress the local girlies and over loaded the thing I suspect - still I put on a new axle and even won one of the girls so that was good.Plus there was far more scope for fun and games with said girl in a Cortina than ever possible with a Fiesta!!!!

9.'69 Chevrolet Camaro.This is the first o
f my fantasy cars.The shape and lines to these cars is truly amazing - especially the ones with the hideaway lights.The style also inspired the MK3 Cortina which is a car in 2-door trim I would love to get my hands on.Later Camaros don't have the same style and their cousins the Pontiac Firebirds and Trans-Ams just don't appeal in the same way.

10.'70 Plymouth Roadrunner/Dodge Charger/Challenger.The Roadrunner is just an achingly beautiful car.For me it's the highest expression of that whole American muscle car thing and although everybody who loves muscle cars has their favourite this has to be mine - a true stunner and with a Hemi engine a true racer an'all.Yee Ha!! To all them good ol' boys - anyone remember the 'Dukes of Hazzard' well I couldn't do this with out a mention of the 'General Lee' a '69 Dodge Charger.At age 9 or 10 a saturday moring wasn't complete without the 'Dook boy's,Roscoe P Coltrane and long-legged cousin Daisy'.The film 'Vanishing Point' is a favourte of mine so I've got to get a word in for a '70 white Dodge Challenger - go Kowalski!!!Oh yes while I'm at it I loved 'Starsky and Hutch' and the famous red Ford Torino GT with the white stripe which probably started the whole muscle car thing for me and probably my love of funk music aswell with that wah-wah guitar music going on in the background and 'Huggy Bear' of course.For what turned out to be a bit of an anti-American like me I did love American cars and TV shows as a kid.I've often thought of owning an American car and they're not as bad a move economically as you may first think I saw one recently and the way it dwarfed an old MK2 Granada made me realise that they actually look pretty stupid on our roads.