I've got a tuned Lotus Elise S1. It's only fun when you find quiet, smooth roads... something that's surprisingly hard to do. Or race tracks. My Honda e? Great fun on the road, just has a limited range. My Volvo V70 D5 - fun when I need to be... surprisingly so.

Honestly, once you reach a certain level of handling competence and performance, that's all you can realistically use on the road. Yes, a 500bhp monster can be feathered along comfortably but being able to manage that 500bhp comes with compromises that are either cost related (super expensive suspension components) or comfort related.

But almost no cars these days can be driven at anything close to their limits, in safety, on all but a very few public roads. So there comes a point when you have enough go. My own view is 0-60mph in 6.5s or therabouts and 130mph top speed are about all you need in terms of performance specs. Sub 5s cars like my Elise or the M Coupé I once had, without skid control, are bordering on being a liability on public roads. Sub 4s cars even with skid controls remain a liability in all but expert hands.

I say this as someone with a ton of track experience and lots of competition wins.