Most of us have dreamt of owning a supercar. But for all but a lucky few, a dream is all it will ever be.

While we might miss out on the kudos of casually dropping a Ferrari key fob on the table as if we don’t expect anyone to notice, however, we mortals do at least have access to the sort of speed you normally associate with a more stratospheric form of motoring.

Such are the wonders of depreciation, as suffered by people who formerly owned any of the following. Any of them will give you supercar levels of pace – as well as saving you the social death of casually dropping a Ferrari key fob on the table as if you don’t expect anyone to notice…

1: BMW M3 (2001-06)

The E46-era M3 has a cracking six-pot engine with 338bhp and a spine-tingler of a soundtrack. It steers and handles like a dream, and even with four people and a load of luggage on board it’ll approach a 5.0-sec sprint time. Plenty have been abused (a failed crank will make you bleed) but £8500 for a very low miler from the ’03 model year is a whole lot of fun for your money.

2: Vauxhall Monaro (2005-07)

This was a proper muscle car with a big V8 and the handling to match. Not many Vauxhalls will ever cost as much to run, but an early one with below-average miles can give you change out of ten grand.

3: Mitsubishi Evo VIII (2003-05)

A happy consequence of Mitsubishi’s ongoing war with Subaru to see whose WRC programme could yield the barmiest road car, the Evo’s blend of power, grip, steering and body control made it pretty much unbeatable from point to point. People bought them to use them, so it’s not easy to find one that’s not been put through the mill – even with FSH and all the signs of good maintenance, however, we found a 65,000-miler on offer at less than nine grand.

4: Jaguar XJ Super V8 (2003-09)

It looks like an old-school grandad Jag, but 400bhp gives the Super V8 an explosive turn of pace. It handles every bit as well, too, yet it’s as plush and cosseting as any other XJ. It’s particularly strong on reliability, too – so long as one of these has been looked after, it should repay the compliment. Ten grand gets you a low-miler from the first couple of years’ production.

5: Chrysler 300C SRT-8 (2006-10)

Another super-saloon, albeit not as classy as the XJ. With a 419bhp V8 giving it a sub-five 0-62 time, and enhanced suspension giving it the grip and balance to cope, you might forgive its typically American cabin. Perhaps surprisingly, though, this isn’t the bargain of the group – an early one needs to be knocking into six figures on the clock to scrape under the £10k mark.