Best roadsters
The best roadsters offer big thrills with minimal compromises - these are evo’s favourites from past and present
Convertible sports cars aren’t exactly a perfect match for the UK’s changeable weather, but if you find yourself on the right road, roof down, at the right time, the thrills are unmatched, with no barrier to the sights and sounds of a great drive. Roadsters remain popular on our shores for the fleeting moments we get to enjoy them, but not all are created equal.
Removing part of a car’s core structure brings inevitable compromises in body stiffness and weight – usually both – but the best convertibles keep these margins to a minimum. Sometimes impressively so, in the case of supercars with carbonfibre chassis. Here's a list of our favourite drop-top performance cars of today, and from years gone by.
Best roadsters 2024
Maserati MC20 Cielo
Maserati’s new dawn got off to a stunning start with the MC20, its combination of raucous turbocharged grunt and dynamic finesse enabling it to take the 2023 eCoty crown. It’s no wonder, then, that the open-top MC20 Cielo is one of our favourite roadsters of the moment.
The Cielo is underpinned by a carbon chassis built by Dallara, which has been reinforced to mitigate the loss of rigidity from removing the roof. Weight has crept up to 1560kg (dry), and while the springs and dampers have been retuned to suit, the Cielo still captures what we love about the MC20 - namely the explosive V6 motor and wonderfully fluid chassis.
Ferrari 296 GTS
Somehow, after the brutally fast but slightly confused SF90, Ferrari pulled a blinder with its second series-production hybrid. The 296 GTB captures the noise, athleticism and sheer speed of our favourite mid-engined Berlinettas, and the Spider version adds even more drama, opening up the V6 symphony behind your head.
With the same 819bhp as the coupe, the 296 GTS feels just as intensely rapid – perhaps even more so given that it exposes you to the elements. But it’s the car’s natural balance that shines brightest, thanks to its impressively rigid structure and relatively small 70kg weight penalty over the hard-top.
Porsche 718 Spyder RS
Porsche’s entry-level roadster has morphed into an altogether more serious, hugely competent machine since the first Boxster arrived in 1996, and the 718 Spyder RS is the pinnacle of the breed. A drop-top Cayman GT4 RS in all but name, the Spyder RS gets the same 493bhp 4-litre flat-six, which revs to 9000rpm and sounds utterly sublime while doing so.
Straight-line performance is very similar to that of its hard-top stablemate, but the driving experience is a little less hardcore with more road-biased suspension and steering tuning. This is a good thing; on the road, the Spyder RS feels pure, intense and all-consuming, but without some of the harsher edges of the GT4 RS. Few – if any – modern sports cars are quite as intoxicating. As the last combustion-engined Boxster, it's a fitting send-off.
McLaren 750S Spider
Despite a new name and a £269,160 price tag, the McLaren 750S is very much an evolution of the 720S rather than a completely new car. For us, that can only be a good thing, because the 720S remains one of the world's greatest supercars.
For the 750S, McLaren has teased more power from its twin-turbocharged 4-litre V8 for peaks of 740bhp and 590lb ft, while also stripping out 30kg (the Spider weighs 1438kg and feels almost identical to the coupe thanks to its carbon construction). The suspension has also been revised to generate more 765LT-style sharpness and aggression, and the combined effect is one of the most thrilling and addictive open-top supercars you can buy.
McLaren Artura Spider
We immediately fell for the McLaren Artura when we first drove it, so much so that it made the podium at evo's 2022 Car of the Year test, sharing third place with Ferrari's 296 GTB. That a Spider version arrived later was no surprise, but we didn't anticipate the extensive upgrades that McLaren would apply to its baby supercar at the same time. The changes have made a stunningly fast car even quicker thanks to a power boost to 690bhp, with comprehensively reworked chassis systems designed to deliver more precision than before.
The revised Artura is a significant step on from what was already a brilliant car, with newfound levels of finesse and sharpness to the driving experience. The best part is that thanks to a stiff carbonfibre chassis, the Spider weighs just 62kg more than the coupe and offers the same level of excitement – if not more so with unfiltered access to the tunes from its V6.
Best used roadsters
- Lotus Elise S1
- Ferrari 458 Speciale Aperta
- Porsche 911 Speedster
- Toyota MR2 (Mk3)
- Pagani Zonda F Roadster
Lotus Elise S1
It’s not a stretch to suggest that Lotus might not be with us today if not for the dinky, lightweight hero that is the Series 1 Elise. Born from a tight budget and ingenious thinking, the first Elise set the tone for the next two decades of Lotus, rewriting just how good a small roadster can be.
The ingredients – two seats, a glassfibre body and a 118bhp Rover K-series motor – were simple, the execution masterful. Delicate across the ground yet seeping with feel, the Elise weighed just 731kg thanks to its extruded aluminium chassis; later S2 and S3 cars were heavier, but the original’s pure ethos remained. It remains one of the most absorbing sports cars at any price, firmly in the realm of evo legends.
Ferrari 458 Speciale Aperta
The 458 Speciale represents a high point for V8 Ferraris before turbocharging swept in, and supercars as a whole. The A (for Aperta) version uses the same drivetrain and chassis tech as the coupe, including a seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox, E-Diff and Ferrari’s Side Slip Control, but with the added benefit of a foldaway metal roof.
The blare from the Speciale’s 597bhp V8 was so intense that Ferrari actually neutered the Aperta slightly to make it more liveable, but most of the coupe’s character is firmly intact. The scintillating chassis balance is just as entertaining as in the hard-top, even though there is more flex in the structure and an extra 50kg in Aperta form.
Porsche 911 Speedster
A convertible 911 GT3 might sound like sacrilege, but with the 991-generation Speedster, Porsche just about pulled it off – albeit with a subtle character change. With an impossibly low windscreen and sloping rear deck, there’s no mistaking it for an ordinary 911 cabriolet, and that’s before the 4-litre flat-six fires up.
It’s one of the world’s great engines, paired to one of the finest manual gearboxes we’ve experienced. The noise is sensational, and the Speedster has the chassis to match – it’s supple yet communicative, with a more road-biased ride and handling balance that makes it just as compelling, if not more so, than a 991 GT3.
Toyota MR2 (Mk3)
You don't need to spent five or six figures for an unforgettable open-top driving experience. Just £3500 can buy one of the most rewarding small roadsters of the modern era: the third-generation Toyota MR2. The dinky sub-1000kg sports car is about as pure as they come, and feels right at home on British roads.
Sharper and more precise than the Mazda MX-5 from the same era, the MR2 goads you into using every ounce of its modest 138bhp power output, and comes alive on the kind of narrow, craggy B-roads that can catch some serious sports cars out. A light facelift in 2003 made it even better, introducing a sweet-shifting six-speed 'box and chassis tweaks to refine the MR2's neutral, poised handling. It may be over two decades old, but the MR2 delivers timeless thrills.
Pagani Zonda F Roadster
The first Zonda arrived in 1999 as a genuine contender against Ferrari and Lamborghini, and by the time of the Zonda F Roadster, Pagani had established itself as a true disruptor. Nothing could match the F Roadster’s controlled assault on the senses at the time, and we question whether anything can today.
With a naturally-aspirated 7.3-litre AMG V12 and a manual gearbox, the F Roadster is analogue in every sense of the term, but also highly advanced in its construction. Magnesium suspension components, Öhlins adjustable dampers and a strengthened carbon chassis are just some of the technical highlights, which culminate in one of the most visceral and rewarding supercars of them all.
