It's easy to look back, as a car enthusiast, and see some glorious ages of motoring. The '60s muscle car era, the freedom of the '70s where you had the roads, the opportunities and the supercars to do it, the huge leaps in technology & design in the '80s with aerodynamics and power, the accessibility of big performance in 'regular' cars making giant-killing packages in the '90s without fear of penalty points, the €1 for a litre of petrol and quasi-acceptable motor tax of the early '00s..... good times.  

Mixed in with that you have specific cars that you know won't every exist again - things like the 800kg hot hatch, the 1.8 V6 coupes, the LSD-equipped non-M BMW, even cars with naturally aspirated engines and a manual 'box over the next 10-15yrs.

So there are things that are very dear to some motoring enthusasts that are dying right now.

A big one playing in my mind the last while is the normally aspirated V10. I love it. It is a true supercar engine. V8s can be lazy, V12s are the preserve of speed but not necessarily sport. But a V10 is associated in the main with one thing - mad performance cars. This is why, along with its manual gearbox, if money was no object my first purchase would be a Carrera GT.

 (video courtesy of Autocar)

Of course it's unlikely a CGT will ever be mine. Nor a Gallardo. But there is a small window of opportunity to own a normally aspirated V10 and I think, like the 800kg GTi and €1/litre unleaded we'll look back in time and go 'Wow'.

I'm referring of course to the E60 M5.

Here's a spacious 4 door car (or estate!) that integrates into your life easily enough. It doesn't demand big compromises. For what it is, it cost's bugger all to buy right now. It does cost alot to run, and an awful lot if it goes wrong. But it is a 500bhp normally aspirated V10 that, with some saving and some rationalising elsewhere, you might just be able to buy. To experience. To look back in 15yrs time after reading some effusive article on it and go 'I was there. I owned it, I listened to its F1-like wail. I felt the anticipation of pressing the M button and having a seat squeeze me into its embrace. I felt the visceral thrill of pushing the throttle to the carpet and having that V10 scream and terrorise me in a way only putting my face closer and closer to a screaming chainsaw could replicate'.

You can be sure that over time you'll forget the horrific fuel consumption and potentially bankrupting Op-Ex. But you'll be left the rich memories of a car that can never exist again bought in a sweetspot of depreciation, reasonable milage and provinance, and still manageable fuel & motortax bills. For the bulk of you, who are like myself and realistically won't afford a supercar, we are entering a window for these right about now.

It doesn't make any objective sense to try buy one of these, until you look at the stark reality that you may never do so. Right now that is a compelling argument.

I'll let Mr Needell conduct my balanced closing arguments.

(Video courtesy of Fifth Gear)