Q-cars stealth sports

With the addiction of state governments to driver-derived revenue deepening, it's hardly fanciful to imagine hirlings in white vans issuing fines for cars that so much as hint that their owners might enjoy them.

Spoiler? Bright paint? Dark alloys? Turbo letter box? Even if they haven't broken a law per se, that driver is clearly committing a Thought Crime and is therefore fined three points and $185.

Short of moving to a first world country, where you must learn to drive to get a licence and the authority's priority is containing the road toll rather than tolling the roads, there is a tried and true method of avoiding unwanted attention. Buy a "Q-car". A notion derived from the British "Q ships" of World War I (anti-U boat vessels disguised as trawlers), a Q-Car is one whose nondescript appearance conceals its capability.

VOLKSWAGEN JETTA 147TSI

Price: $38,990
Engine: 2.0-litre, 4-cylinder turbo petrol
Power: 147kW/280Nm
Transmission: 6-spd DSG twin clutch auto
0-100km/h: 7.2 seconds

We argue the Golf GTI is, pound for pound, possibly the world's best car and certainly the best to be had for less than $100,000. Getting far too common to get about unnoticed, though.

That can't be said for its sedan sibling. Not as dynamically adept as the GTI (it lacks the sport suspension and understeer quelling XDL locking diff on the front axle), but a respectably big-booted, four doored device that's almost as quick in a straight line.

SKODA OCTAVIA RS

Price: From $37,490
Engine: 2.0-litre, 4-cylinder turbo petrol
Power: 147kW/280Nm
Transmission: 6-spd manual or DSG
0-100km/h: 7.3 seconds

Built near Prague, rather than Pueblo in Mexico like the Jetta, the topline petrol RS does get a taut chassis and XDL, plus more luggage space than the Golf and its choice of manual or DSG transmissions.

It also comes in two shapes - liftback or wagon - both of which preserve their anonymity despite mild bling in the form of 18-inch alloys, red brake callipers and badging. The latter hardly matters, because no one knows what a Skoda is, much less an Octavia RS.

HONDA LEGEND

Price: $79,990
Engine: 3.5-litre V6 petrol
Power: 226kw/370Nm
Transmission: 5-spd auto
0-100km/h: About 7.0 seconds

You'd be lucky to see one of these on the road (Honda sell 10 in a good a month), and would in any case look straight through it.

Shaped not unlike the Accord (the boring one, not the Euro), the heavy Honda is really more a grand tourer than mountain road menace - but its revvable V6 and - especially, its constantly torque sensing so-called Super Handling All Wheel Drive set it apart. Bloody dear for a Honda, you might say, but rather cheap for an Audi A6 quattro.

VOLVO S40 T5 R-DESIGN

Price: from $49,950
Engine: 2.5-litre, 5-cylinder turbo petrol
Power: 169kW/320Nm
Transmission: 6-spd manual; 5-spd auto
0-100km/h: 7.2 seconds

You could strap all the go fast bits in an accessory shop to Volvo's compact sedan and still it'd look as threatening as a kid in a Superman suit. Same goes for the slightly more expensive but less cramped V50 wagon, only more so.

And yet that blown five cylinder is a characterful engine and the underpinnings, shared with the Mazda3 and Ford's Focus, ensure sound, if unspectacular, handling. The S40's old now, so drive a bargain.

LEXUS IS 350 PRESTIGE

Price: $64,800
Engine: 3.5L V6 petrol
Power: 233kW/378Nm
Transmission: 6-spd sequential auto
0-100km/h: 5.6 seconds

The great advantage of the new IS variant is that it look precisely like the old one. The IS 250 is a top quality but rather sluggardly executive compact sedan with an earnest but inadequate 152kW/252Nm 2.5-litre V6.

The IS 350 adds performance to the equation, enabling full enjoyment of its rear-wheel-drive dynamics, abetted by a sequential auto with a genuinely useful manual overide. When priced against the Germans, it's the Lexus buyer who will experience schadenfreude.