Fuel is now costly and meanwhile governments are making big autos dearer to run. You might think this is not good news for fans of muscle cars. The answer is to follow the trend, and buy a fuel-efficient muscle car.

‘Smaller’ is relative, so if you have a big V-8, then a hot 4-liter six might be the car for you, but if you have a supercharged 3 liter car, you will want to go much smaller – say a two-litre hot hatch. The problem here is that most of these cars are front-wheel drive which are not so good for muscle cars – but there are a lot about.

The Dodge Neon SRT-4 is a good example, as is the Mini Cooper S, but which is quite economical. Both of these are good examples of fast and economical cars.

Others are the Honda Civic Type R and Mazda 3 MPS. Or, you can go even smaller with a

Get a small car tuned up

Another possibility is to find a supermini car and get it tuned up by a specialist engine tuner. Nowadays, thre are engine tuners in most countries, even Japan where the regulations are quite strict, but there are still plenty of muscle cars about. You can also make quite an old car, like a little Renault Clio go very fast with the right bits and pieces.

You need a high-lift camshaft performance air filter and freeflow exhaust system. Of course, you need to improve the suspension and brakes as well. You’ll get a lot of fun making the changes and driving the modified car as well.

A few weels ago, I was driving to a track out in the country behind a string of about 6 cars. We went round a corner, and there was an empty road ahead. I heard a roar, as someone changed down, and a little Toyota Starlet, about ten years old, jumped out and overtook the cars in front very quickly. I could see from the new exhaust pipe and fat tyres that this was a tuned up car – aid did it go! So you see you don’t need a new car to turn it into a car that is fun to drive.

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