Scintillating acceleration is where it's at and just like many Autocar readers, we've been spending the last few weeks trawling the classifieds to see what we could buy if only we had the cash.

We've been tracking down the cars we could buy for less than £15,000, that can get from a standing start to 62mph (or 60mph) in five seconds or less, and it's amazing what's within reach. Just bear in mind that we've used our own images, not the actual cars advertised. The cars that you could actually buy for £15k are bound to look a bit more worn…