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Jaguar F-Type squares off against Porsche 911, Aston V8 Vantage with Chris Harris

Chris Harris is back on the job, taking on really really difficult car questions like: Which enormously sexy and good-to-drive, high-performance convertible is the top of the heap? As one of the hottest cars in the luxury space right now, the Jaguar F-Type S is, of course, in on the action. Competition comes in the form of the Aston Martin V8 Vantage Roadster and the Porsche 911 Carrera S Cabriolet. Sun-loving CEOs who despise test-driving need look no further.
Scroll on below for a fully featured (with a running time of more than 20 minutes) comparison video. Harris does his best to entertain - in a typically nitpicky and made-up-British-words fashion - and the moving pictures are lovely to look at. Kick back, pour a pint and get your weekend started off right.

Porsche 918 Spyder configurator goes live

That didn't take long. The debut model of the new Porsche 918 Spyder is still thronged by onlookers at the Frankfurt Motor Show, while the German sports car maker is hard at work putting the first version of the supercar's configuration page online. Considering Porsche configurators are some of our favorite time-wasters of the genre, we expect car-guy productivity to drop by a few percentage points over the rest of the day.
So, the 918 dream-maker doesn't list and prices as yet, and that's too bad. But considering the car is due to start off at $845,000 in the US, chances are good that unless you're reading this from the shallow end of your Uncle Scrooge-spec money pool, the cost of any part of the 918 is academic to you anyway.
To start, Porsche is offering twelve paint colors, three wheel choices and seven two-tone interior treatments. Standard lightweight bucket seats and a set of chairs with "firmer padding" are on offer, too. The options list is mostly populated with interior bits, though many - an anti-reflection interior, fire extinguisher, six-point seatbelts - are racing-oriented or functional. Note that Porsche is also kind enough to offer just one cupholder as an optional extra; the unit is made of aluminum and is detachable so that you won't have to carry the extra weight during racing. Also, Porsche probably puts you on some kind of naughty 'list' if you order one...

Top horsepower-per-dollar cars in 2017

Bang for the buck. That quasi-scientific statistic is bandied about by motor heads everywhere from classrooms to barrooms, though the truth of the matter is that it's exceedingly complex to measure. A fair performance-per-dollar index would include something like cross-referencing MSRP (Manufacturers Suggested Retail Price) with point-to-point times on a track or driving route, which is obviously hard to do comprehensively. But, for the sheer joy of talking about cars and playing with a big spreadsheet, there's always the horsepower-per-dollar index, which is more straightforward, albeit hilariously flawed. There are vagaries even with this simple formula, of course: MSRP for vehicles can change at a moment's notice, to say nothing of the bottom-line shifting that happens with local deals or showroom negotiation. For this list we're running with the straight MSRP wherever possible, and as recently reported as we can get it. All the vehicles on this list are 2017 models, and all trims are reported where the lowest price and differing power levels intersect. Some choices were made for personal preference and some for sanity, avoiding things like all 48 trim levels of the Ford Transit, all with the same horsepower). If this list were a simple top ten, or even a top fifty, you'd be bored to tears with all the red, white and blue that is represented. Following perfectly with conventional wisdom, American cars really do lead the world where hp/$ is concerned. So, for the sake of variety (and the sheer joy of seeing a minivan 'win' one round of this thing) I've sorted out some top five and bottom five lists for broad power categories. Let's dive in. Less Than 100 Horsepower Okay, okay, this is hardly a category we'll grant you. But we've often tried to click off all the sub-100-hp cars on sale in the US, and making this list gave us an excuse. It also illustrates that none of these smallish vehicles bring cheap horsepower to the table - for that you'll need a motorcycle. The segment-leading Chevy Spark (above) asks just over $139 for each hp, and that Smart Fortwo Electric Drive has hp on sale for about the same price as its very distant family cousin, the Mercedes-Benz SL65 AMG (insert your favorite Smart joke here... we know you want to).