The big test: last chance sports cars

The German big guns are all going electric soon. If you want an old school petrol thriller, get one while they're still hot...

- OLLIE KEW

Stick a bookmark in this one. I'm S not sure how many more times TopGear will bring you a good old fashioned sports car battle featuring one naturally aspirated engine, two manual gearboxes and three completely electric free powertrains.

Progress is great of course, but these are the last dance sports cars as you know them. BMW isn't protesting any claims its new M2 is the last non-hybrid M car. Porsche has confirmed the next Cayman will be electric, with its batteries heaped in the centre to evoke a mid-engined 'feel'. And the future of all Audi RS cars, from the R8 replacement south, is e-tron by 2030 at the latest.

If you read Chris Harris' poignant column in last month's issue, you'll understand why this can provoke soul searching from car folk. Is it fair or sporting to chide the BMW M2 for having all the visual appeal of a gangrenous war wound, to mark down Porsche once again for fitting the Cayman with the gearing from an Intercity train, and to sneer that RS3s are the most obnoxiously driven cars in Europe?

There's a strong aroma of 'enjoy this lot while you can' about all of this. Buy another round. Don't think about the hangover.

Anyway, shall we cheer up? This isn't a funeral wake. These are three fantastic cars. Two of them, you'll have noticed, aren't very new. Henry V used a Cayman GT4 at Agincourt and the Audi RS3, just like a fair few of its owners, is approaching a midlife crisis. But these are the fast, fancy badged Germans that many aspire to - 453bhp twin-turbo straight six BMW plays 414bhp flat six Porsche and 394bhp turbo five pot Audi. It's actually amazing in the petrol engine's twilight that there's still so much variety.