As a treat for his 30th birthday, Mankee bought himself a car that he'd been promising to own for years. It's a 1997 Caterham 7 Supersport built on a race chassis and powered originally by a faithful 1400cc K-series. Unfortunately, it was stolen in 1999, disappeared for a couple of years minus the battery and ignition barrel, and the previous owner discovered it as part of a police horde in 2001. The DVLA weren't too convinced about the car's history as it had gone missing for so long, so they kindly removed identification plates and the car became a dedicated track toy.

When PPC’s Kevin Leaper had his mid life crisis he did what most petrolheads do - he bought a Porsche. Only his crisis was a little deeper than most, so he was broke. That ruled out a 911 so it had to be a 928. In an alternative galaxy the 928 could be the ultimate Porsche; big V8, stunning looks and quirky interior. Only in the Milky Way we live in they’re been completely overlooked.

Kev’s wish list included manual gearbox (very rare), black interior and a decent service history. He bought this 928 in the dark, not noticing the interior was actually brown, and the speedo worked erratically on the way home, suggesting the recorded mileage was just that, the recorded mileage, not the actual mileage.....

When James Winstanley decided that a budget track car was to be the order of the day in 2008, a BMW E30 was the only option that was considered seriously. With a penchant for old Bavarian motors, James quickly bought the first suitable rolling project he could find within 200 miles.

Since this turned out to be little more than a textbook example of rust held together with beige carpet, it was lucky that this second car turned out to be in rather nice condition, especially considering it lived by the sea in deepest Scotland.

Track-day cars. Usually built to be small, nimble, and ferociously quick. Cars to enjoy to their limits on a piece of finely cultivated tarmac rather than the diluted and poor driving experience on the pot-hole riddled roads of the UK.

However here at PPC we like to do things a little differently. We wanted a track-day car, but one that fitted in with the magazine philosophy of a certain (small) degree of practicality. We wanted to lap the track five-up. And in style too.