Thank Frankel It's Friday – 5 'Q‑Cars' To Rule Them All

The term’s not used these days because the cars no longer exist. In this age where appearance and perception is all, the idea of a car that doesn’t brag about its power might seem nice, but in the marketplace it would tank. Manufacturers are far more likely to do the reverse and design cars to make promises with their appearance that the specification beneath has precisely zero chance of keeping.

But earlier this week I found myself driving a Volkwagen Golf around the evil old Nurburgring. And while it didn’t look like the kind of Golf you’d find in your local Budgens car park, it sure didn’t look like a car that would lap the 13-mile track only two seconds slower than a Ferrari 599 GTB or three seconds slower than a Jaguar XJ220. The Golf GTI Clubsport S is in fact the fastest front drive road car ever to lap the ‘Ring yet it looks like an only mildly enhanced standard GTI. Which is what got me thinking of Q-cars all over again. Here then, and from times gone by, are my five favourites of all time. Including another Golf, of which you may never have heard.

5. 2002 Volkwagen Passat W8

What could be more boring and nondescript than a Passat? What better device, therefore into which to install a 4-litre, 275bhp, eight-cylinder motor? It was a great car but a slow seller and a disaster on the second hand market. The engine didn’t last long, but its design provided the basis from which the Bugatti Veyron’s 8-litre, 16-cylinder motor was derived. So it wasn’t a waste of time after all.

4. 1975 Mercedes 450SEL 6.9

If you didn’t see the little badge on the back you’d never know that this sedate saloon contained what remains the largest engine Mercedes (rather than a tuner) ever installed in one of its road cars. With so much torque you wondered if it even needed a gearbox, this ultimate S-class was not just quick by the standards of the upmarket limousines of its day, it could scare the life out of established supercars too. In a straight line at least… Re-imagined years later with almost equal success by the Porsche-built, 5-litre 500E.

3. 1986 Lancia Thema 8.32

There’s a tiny spoiler on the rear desk and some small yellow badges but really very little else to let you know this Lancia Thema – a car based on the same platform as the Fiat Croma and Saab 9000 – was powered by a Ferrari engine. Actually it was better even than that, because while the Thema has the same 3-litre V8 seen earlier in the Ferrari 308 and Mondial, its crankshaft had 90 rather than 180degree throws. So it sounded like a Corvette too. Sadly the engine was far better than the car into which it was installed.

2. 1985 BMW M5 (E28 series)

An absolute masterclass in understated engineering, the greatest Q-car ever to make it into mainstream production. There were no dramatic aerodynamic addenda, no Carlos Fandango super-wide wheels, but a sit-up-and-beg, narrow and angular three box saloon that just happened to have the engine from the BMW M1 supercar under its bonnet, except that with 286bhp, the M5 motor was even more powerful. Remember that, back in 1985, the power of the Ferrari 308 had only just been upgraded from 214bhp to 240bhp and that the visually close to identical BMW 518i has just 104bhp.

1. 1990 Volkwagen Golf Limited

You’ll be doing well to remember this, because it was made in tiny (double digit) numbers and never sold over here. But it’s the most extraordinary example of the Q-car art ever seen. When you looked at it, you saw an every day, ho-hum run-of-the-mill Golf. It didn’t even have the sporty three door body shell, but the five door configuration for those more concerned with carrying children than driving fast. There were no aerodynamic add ons save the tiny lip spoiler already seen on the standard GTI. But unlike the GTI which could always be easily told from lesser Golfs by its four headlight grille, the Limited had just two. Which is why it looked more like a base spec, 54bhp Golf than a GTI.

But while a Golf GTI offered 112bhp, the Limited did a little better than that. Using a 16-valve head and a supercharger, it not only had 210bhp – more than an original Sierra Cosworth, an E30 BMW M3 or a Lancia Integrale 16V – it also distributed it to all four wheels via VW’s syncro transmission. When it came out in 1990, point to point on difficult roads in bad weather, it was possibly the fastest car in the world.