BUDGET GROUP TEST

Sub-£30k cars, a 300 spending cap for for food, bed and fuel roadtrips needn’t cost the world... as we set out to prove

- OFLIC RIADE

ON THE FIRST NIGHT IT COSTS ME £32.25 TO SLEEP IN A TENT. Curse the thirst of the Toyota GR86. Actually curse myself - if I had been able to resist the £2 lunchtime cake I reckon it would be Tom Ford here in the pop-up tent, and me in the cosy caravan.

I've only got myself to blame. The Toyota GR86 is that rarest of things - a good value sports car. There's so few of them around now. The easy thing would have been to cast a net out, pull in all cheap fun cars costing less than £30,000 and see which one is best. But oh no, that wasn't enough. I wanted to find out not only if these affordable cars are fun, but also if you could have fun affordably. So we're on a budget roadtrip: three days for less than £300 each including fuel for the car, ourselves, a place to lay our heads, some side trips and a share of the running costs.

We're each championing a car. But that would ordinarily mean we couldn't swap around. Not ideal on a group test. So we're permitting that, and if you've thought this through like I have, you'll have realised it means we can attempt to scupper each other. Cane someone else's car and watch the economy plummet. We'll all be doing it so it'll even out.