The Ford Mustang continues its reign as the world's top selling sports car. I've driven all the best ones and it's easy to see why.

Sitting atop the Mustang hierarchy is currently the baddest Mustang you can buy — the Shelby GT500. No manuals are offered here, but you do get a supercharged V8 that puts out 760 horsepower. This one’s an exercise in responsibility.

The GT500 is the one you bring to the drag strip or a track. It’ll do both superbly well. It’s even great to daily drive, you just have to be careful and keep watch over your speedometer.

The beauty of it all is that you can get one for less $80,000.

The GT350R is basically the regular GT350, except that it is even more track-focused. That means it's even louder. It has no rear seats. It has fancy carbon-fiber wheels.

It is good.

The GT350 is perhaps the best car I drove last year. From the outside, it's another Mustang, but its engine is what makes it special.

It has a 526-horsepower flat-plane crank V8. All that means is it revs faster and is much louder. It's technology that is largely used in racing, as well as in Ferraris and McLarens, which cost many times what the GT350 does.

The GT350 only comes in a manual, but it's such a nicely weighted and sharply cut transmission that even taking it to the grocery store is a joy. The only downside to this car is people will keep trying to race you on the highway. Ignore them, because that's dangerous and you are better than that.

Anyone who's seen Steve McQueen's detective thriller "Bullitt" will be familiar with a dark-green Mustang. The modern tribute is painted in that shade of green, has 20 extra horsepower over a normal Mustang GT, and includes a bunch of performance bits from the Ford Mustang Shelby GT350.

What is a Ford Mustang Shelby GT350? That's next.

The Ford Mustang is also one of the last cars you can get with a naturally aspirated V8 — a V8 that makes 460 horsepower, by the way. And with a starting price of $35,630, the Mustang GT represents a true democratization of power. You don't need to spend a disgusting amount of money on something European to get big power anymore.

The Mustang GT comes with all sorts of options, as well as a manual transmission. My advice? Spring for the Performance Pack 2. It's offered exclusively for GTs with the six-speed and you get a lowered stance, a black rear spoiler, improved steering, 19-inch wheels, a widened front splitter, and a set of performance tires.

Anyone who gives you grief about the four-cylinder Mustang because of the old trope that all American muscle cars need to have V8s doesn't know what they're missing out on.

Because a turbocharged, four-cylinder engine is inherently lighter than a big and heavy V8, the four-banger Mustang has more communicative steering over its V8 brethren. There's just so much less weight sitting over the front axle.

The result is a car that feels much smaller to drive than it actually is. It's agile and darty and plenty quick, especially when you get it with the High Performance Pack engine and the optional handling package. That gives you a fancy suspension system, a limited-slip rear axle, and a set of sticky summer tires.

Either the 10-speed automatic or six-speed manual will do here, but it's also great to have the option.