The Spies Ask! - What Is The Best Sporty Car On The Market Today?

Cool styling, taut handling, crisp steering, tight shifting six-speed manual gearbox, small but punchy engine — sounds like the recipe for an engaging European sporty car that we Americans are not considered worthy of, as usual.

Actually no. The good news is that U.S. consumers are being treated to a small but decent sampling of entertaining cars from Europe and elsewhere.

Two cars introduced this year that highlight this trend — the Fiat 500 Abarth and Scion FR-S — are European and Japanese in nationality but with some twists. The Fiat is built in Mexico with an engine made in Dundee, while the FR-S is an unusual product of a collaboration between Scion parent Toyota and Subaru (itself partly owned by Toyota). Subaru sells its own near identical version of the FR-S called the BRZ.

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