Stoplight Specials: Top 10 Quickest Sports Cars

When you're talking about sports cars, performance can take several forms. Acceleration is just one of the useful measurements, but it gets a lot of attention because it's relatively easy to measure.

Serious sports-car fans are typically more concerned with handling qualities than full-bore acceleration. They seek a vehicle that feels truly "connected" to the road surface, with steering that is precise and responds rapidly. They favor sports cars that can breeze through tight curves and quick corners with minimal body lean, all the while maintaining a secure grip on the pavement. Even the fastest sports car isn't worth much if it behaves marginally on pretzel-shaped byways and winding mountain two-lanes; some moderately powered models are actually more enjoyable to drive because they maneuver with more precision, and it doesn't hurt if they cost less, too.

The redesigned Chevrolet Corvette's engine has grown in size and output; the 6.0-liter V-8 is now rated at 400 hp.

What makes these vehicles the quickest sports cars around? In short, big engines. Powerful engines. Lightweight construction and an efficient design also help. But in the end, it's the potent engine that determines which sports car is the quickest.

Enthusiasts pay close attention to 0-to-60-mph acceleration times and fret if the car they favor is a tenth of a second slower than a competitor. High-performance sports-car fans also take note of elapsed quarter-mile times. That's the length of a drag strip, where vehicles compete in acceleration runs. In addition to a time, in seconds, quarter-mile results include the speed reached, in miles per hour.

In real-world driving, neither accomplishment has much value. Unless you're a cop, criminal or someone who needs to get away from a dangerous situation in a hurry, there's rarely a legitimate need to accelerate from a standstill at breakneck speed.

Temptation is one big drawback of high-performance sports cars. With so much power underfoot, illegal speeds are just a stab-of-the-accelerator-pedal away. Certainly, all of today's vehicles are capable of going well over posted speed limits, but sports cars do so more easily.

Fuel consumption is another penalty that must be paid, even if you don't make regular use of a potent sports car's acceleration capabilities. There are some exceptions, though: the 2005 Chevrolet Corvette achieves estimated fuel economy of 18/28 mpg (city/highway) with a manual transmission.

Sport Sedans Blend Performance With Comfort

After a brief absence, BMW's high-performance M5 sedan returns to the U.S. market in the 2006 model year.

Cars.com classifies only a few sedans as sports cars, but they're worth considering if you value comfort as highly as raw performance. They're especially noteworthy if you need to carry more than one passenger at a time.

The Audi S4 is a high-performance offshoot of the automaker's A4 series. On a different level, Dodge offers an SRT-4 derivative of its subcompact Neon sedan. Subaru produces two high-performance versions of its four-door Impreza: the Impreza WRX and its even hotter cousin, the Impreza WRX STi. Mitsubishi's energetic Lancer Evolution may resemble the Lancer four-door sedan, but it has a very different personality.

Mazda's RX-8 is essentially a coupe, but its rear half-doors give rear-seat passengers better maneuverability when entering and exiting the vehicle than that offered by a traditional coupe.