The tortoise strikes back?

We all have the image in our heads, no doubt etched into permanent memory by virtue of its seminal place in our motoring lives. Thrashing our first car as hard as its little 14in wheels would carry it, cornering on its mudguards, if not actually its door handles. Skinny tyres fighting for grip, tiny engine bouncing off the red line. Those were the days, eh?

And nothing seems quite so much fun any more, does it? No matter how many horsepower or how absurd the numbers attached to the benchmark sprint. So the aphorism as old as the heavens must surely be true: thrashing a light, low powered car to within an inch of its life is more fun than barely scratching the surface of a true performance car’s abilities.

Now here at Ti we pride ourselves on the scientific method, never accepting the received wisdom but instead putting it through rigorous examination. And indeed as we lined the two chosen subjects up for photos, it struck me: nobody expected this particular Spanish Inquisition.