Buy them before we do: second-hand picks for 29 May

Audi R8 4.2 FSI V8 quattro, £31,990: Sure, you can spend twice as much to get a newer V10 with an extra 100bhp and an auto gearbox, but isn’t 415bhp enough? And surely you would rather three pedals? Around £30,000 is a steal for jaw-dropping enjoyment, and the manual should protect its value.

Lamborghini Gallardo 5.0 V10, £59,990: No supercar list is complete without a yellow Lambo, and here you can grab a bargain manual Gallardo. Early 5.0-litre V10s are prone to oil pump issues, so get that checked, but the Gallardo is basically an Audi beneath so shouldn’t be crippling to maintain.

Mercedes-Benz AMG GT R, £100,000: Romping performance for you here. Even at £150,000 new, a spaceframe supercar with a dry-sump twin-turbo V8, fully adjustable suspension, track-biased tyres and more looked very good value, so this is a serious amount of car for your money.

Auction watch

Fiat Coupe 20v: The dashing yellow paint is almost as eyebrow-raising as the sub-£1000 price this Fiat Coupé sold for recently. Alas, it’s the naturally aspirated 20V version, which at 143bhp concedes 60bhp to the Turbo. It’s a little leggy, too, at 135,000 miles, and there are some holes in its service history. We’d make sure the rear coolant hose is secure: it can suddenly let go and the bonnet traps the steam, so you don’t realise until it’s too late. The car being nose-heavy puts strain on the front suspension, so we’d check all is well there, too, and search for rust. For this bargain price, though, it’s surely worth a punt.

Future classic

Volkswagen Lupo GTI, £5000: The Lupo GTI weighs a mere 960kg and makes 125bhp, so it can cover 0-60mph in 7.7sec, and it has more character than its modern equivalent, the Up GTI. However, this hot city car is becoming rare, so prices are creeping up. Tatty ones with lots of miles and low prices have long been snapped up, leaving more pristine examples that may not seem so reasonably priced but stand a good chance of not dipping further. The one we found had a respectably low 70,000 miles in almost 20 years and came with a full 12-month MOT.

Clash of the classifieds

The brief: Find me a discreet sports saloon for £10,000, please.

MARK PEARSON Phwoar! Look at my Maserati Quattroporte! It may be the length of an aircraft carrier, but that Pininfarina body still looks hot. It’ll sprint from 0-62mph in 5.1sec and on to a top speed of 177mph. That’s supercar quick, Felix, and its V8 sounds fantastic, too. This £8750, 2009 car’s interior is so good that you’ll want to move in permanently, with that Italian leather, that totally illogical switchgear and, of course, that lovely clock shaped like, er, you know, something naughty.