I'd buy an Aston Martin DB9 if I could.Hollis Johnson
- Over the past six years, I've driven dozens of high-performance cars that also embody great design.
- Not every car on this list is staggeringly powerful — and not every car is even a car — and some aren't exactly jaw-dropping in their beauty.
- But for me, each one of these cars is memorable.
Since 2014, when I moved back to the New York area from Los Angeles, I've had the opportunity to drive dozens of amazing, high-performance cars.
We're talking everything from affordable Mustangs to price-out-of-reach Ferraris. But that's the great thing about what we might broadly label as "sports cars" — we live in a Golden Age, when for under $50,000 you can buy serious speed and serious design and lots of it.
Sure, I've included more than a few cars on this list that top $100,000, and some that rip through that barrier. And yes, this is hardly a complete list. "Where's the Audi R8?" fans of Iron Man might ask. Well, I didn't dislike that ride. So consider this a snapshot.
Some of these cars have been discontinued since 2014, but you can still pick them up used. In fact, my favorite of the bunch, the Aston Martin DB9, is a set of wheels that I often think I might someday possess.
The Aston has 21 friends that I think are commendable for their combination of performance and design. Here's the rundown: