Feature
Why Specialist Finance Matters In A Market Driven By Passion
September 1, 2026
From great value for money, to the best tour cars and some special rarities, here are some of the best convertibles on the market right now.
With summer nearly over, perhaps now isn’t the time many of us will be spending dreaming of top-down thrills, but perhaps we should be. Now is the season for getting out into Europe, where the sun is still shining and the roads are quieter, and as the majority of people are focused on tin tops and SUVs, now could be the time to grab a good buy on that drop-top you’ve always wanted.
2021 | 5,250 Miles | £134,995
The R8 Spyder might have the least exotic badge here, but don’t sleep on the R8, because there’s a strong argument that it’s one of the best all-round convertibles you can buy for the money. Its party piece is that magnificent 5.2-litre naturally aspirated V10, here producing 612bhp and revving with an enthusiasm increasingly absent from modern supercars. Removing the roof only makes that engine more of an occasion, yet the R8 remains so easy to use it could be a mighty fine daily driver.
Better still, the roof disappears electrically in around 20 seconds. At £134,995 for this 5k-mile Performance Carbon Black example, it’s also very appealing value alongside some of the more established supercar brands, while offering all the performance and theatre. With R8 production now over and naturally aspirated V10s a thing of the past, who knows what the future holds for the last of the R8s.
2024 | 5,950 Miles | £269,995
A car we talk about a lot, the 296 is often hailed as the ultimate tour car. A hybrid V6 Ferrari might not sound like the obvious recipe for one of Maranello’s most exciting open-top cars, but the 296 GTS rather emphatically proves otherwise. Its 3.0-litre twin-turbocharged V6 works with an electric motor to produce a frankly ridiculous 830hp, but numbers only tell half the story: the compact dimensions, fast steering and playful chassis make the 296 feel smaller and more agile than many modern supercars, while remaining impressively usable over long distances.
Dropping the folding hardtop adds another layer, letting you hear that unusual 120-degree V6 without significantly diluting the coupé’s performance. The interesting bit is value. This highly specified 2024 car is now advertised at £269,995 with fewer than 6,000 miles, illustrating just how much 296s have softened from their original list price after options are considered. That might sting the first owner, but for the next one, it makes one of the most accomplished open-top supercars ever made look increasingly tempting.
2015 | 373 Miles | £157,450
We featured a Project 7 just a couple of weeks ago when talking about ‘Not Quite Supercars’, but it seemed rude to leave it out of this list. The Project 7 is what happens when Jaguar takes the already charismatic F-Type R and turns everything up several notches. Inspired by the D-Type and named in honour of Jaguar’s seven Le Mans victories, it gained the distinctive fairing behind the driver, a lower windscreen and a collection of carbon aerodynamic additions that make it look more like a concept car that escaped onto the road.
Underneath is the R’s 5.0-litre supercharged V8 turned up to 575hp, driving the rear wheels and producing exactly the sort of thunderous soundtrack you want when there’s barely a roof to speak of.
Only 250 were produced worldwide by Jaguar’s Special Operations division, making it genuinely rare. You could buy a good few used F-Type Rs for the price of a Project 7, but given its scarcity, styling and significance as one of Jaguar’s wildest modern creations, it isn't difficult to see the appeal, and it’s actually fairly attainable for such a rarity.
2025 | 2,000 Miles | £131,880
The Spyder RS might be the most compelling argument here for buying the convertible instead of the coupé. 500hp and 9,000rpm of GT3-derived flat-six, no roof, and air intakes directly behind your head. Put simply, the Spyder RS has one of the most outrageous soundtracks of any car, ever.
The roof is a bit of a faff, and there’s no manual gearbox, but it’s made for sunny days, and the PDK suits the frantic nature of the engine brilliantly. Values quickly rebounded from the premiums commanded by early cars, and at around £130k with just 2,000 miles, the Spyder RS looks like rather good value to me. As perhaps the last naturally aspirated 718 we’ll ever see, its long-term appeal seems pretty easy to understand, too.
2000 | 22,000 Miles | £199,500
Few modern cars were designed from the outset to look 50 years old. Henrik Fisker’s shape deliberately referenced the 1950s BMW 507, yet underneath was very contemporary M-car hardware, with the 4.9-litre, 400bhp naturally aspirated V8 from the E39 M5 driving the rear wheels through a six-speed manual gearbox. That combination makes the Z8 rather more than just a pretty boulevard cruiser, while its open cabin, wonderfully simple interior and relatively compact proportions give it exactly the sort of old-school roadster character that has disappeared from modern performance cars.
BMW built 5,703 Z8s, so it isn't vanishingly rare, but only just over 100 remain in the UK, and values have strengthened considerably as collectors have come to appreciate just how unusual the recipe was. At a few notes under £200,000, this 22,000-mile example demonstrates how firmly the Z8 has graduated from quirky used BMW to a truly established modern classic.
2009 | 4,703 Miles | £795,000
If the 296 is a bit polished for you, the 16M is about as raw as a drop-top Ferrari gets. Ferrari took the already brilliant 430 Scuderia and turned it into a Spider to celebrate its 16th Formula One Constructors’ Championship, retaining the 510hp, 8,500rpm naturally aspirated V8, awesomely-snappy single-clutch F1 gearbox and stripped-back character. With the roof down, every induction gulp, mechanical clatter and savage full-throttle upshift becomes part of the experience.
Only 499 were produced, and UK cars are rarer still, with just 48 UK right-hand-drive cars, which has turned the 16M into one of the most collectable modern Ferraris. This sub-5k-mile example is advertised at £795,000 — an extraordinary figure when you could buy around eight regular F430 Spiders for that, but indicative of just how highly collectors now regard Ferrari’s limited-run, open-top cars.
2012 | 21,532 Miles | £279,950
If 16M values have gone way too silly for you, how about its contemporary rival? Long before the Performante badge appeared on the Huracán, Lamborghini applied it to the ultimate open-top Gallardo. The Spyder counterpart to the Superleggera, the LP570-4 Performante maintained the weight-saving measures, more focused chassis and the glorious naturally aspirated 5.2-litre V10 while removing the roof.
The result is a wonderfully old-school Lamborghini: compact by modern standards, noisy, physical, and equipped with a six-speed E-Gear transmission that adds plenty of theatre even if it lacks the polish of a modern DCT.
Only around 180 were produced worldwide, making it massively rarer than a 16M, and yet, until around a year ago, they were changing hands at barely more than £100,000. People have caught on recently, and values have rocketed, but at £279,950 for this example, it’s barely more than a third of its rival from Maranello.
2023 | 3,690 Miles | £389,995
At the opposite end of the Ferrari spectrum from the 16M sits the SF90 Spider. Where the 16M is noisy, mechanical and relatively simple, this is a thousand-horsepower technological assault, combining a twin-turbocharged V8 with three electric motors and four-wheel drive. It is savagely fast — absurdly so on the road — and its retractable hardtop means you can experience all that performance with nothing separating you from the outside world.
There’s something wonderfully excessive about a convertible capable of hypercar-rivalling acceleration, and this Atelier example in stunning Viola Hong Kong with yellow accents certainly doesn't hide itself away.
SF90 values have taken a sizeable hit from the enormous sums highly optioned cars like this could cost new. They’re not cheap, obviously, but the performance-per-pound calculation is pretty darn impressive.
2018 | 930 Miles | £439,995
The 675LT Spider is one of those rare convertibles where very little (if anything) was sacrificed in pursuit of open-air driving. It took everything that made the 675LT Coupé special — reduced weight, sharper responses, more downforce and 675hp twin-turbo V8 — and added a folding hardtop without blunting the car’s fundamental character, thanks to its rigid carbon fibre tub. The result remains one of the most intense and involving road-going McLarens, but with the added benefit of amplifying the turbo whoosh and whipcrack gearshifts with the roof stowed.
Just 500 Spiders were produced, the same number as the Coupé, but Spiders have always commanded a premium. After an initial and sustained dip in values, 675s (like so many limited-run supercars) have been riding a wave recently as buyers value their rawness and significance as the first modern LT. The best low-mileage cars are now firmly collectable and increasingly difficult to replace.
2018 | 23,000 Miles | £342,990
If you prefer your Lambos with a V12, this is for you, and few cars make more sense as a Roadster than an Aventador. The coupé is already pure theatre, so removing two lightweight roof panels and exposing you properly to its 6.5-litre naturally aspirated V12 simply completes the experience. In S form, that engine produces 740hp at a screaming 8,400rpm, while rear-wheel steering makes this generation noticeably more agile than the original Aventador. The ISR gearbox can feel brutal compared with a modern dual-clutch transmission, but arguably that only adds to the drama — every shift reminds you that you're driving something with a fairly serious attitude.
23,000 miles is pretty substantial in Aventador terms, and for me, refreshing proof that somebody actually enjoyed the thing. At nearly £350,000, its asking price reflects the fact that naturally aspirated V12 Lamborghinis have become increasingly prized since the Aventador bowed out, especially now SVs have soared out of realistic reach.
2019 | 3,750 Miles | £289,990
The 991 Speedster feels like Porsche raided the very best parts bin it had and then took the roof off. Based around GT3 hardware, it combines a 510hp, 9,000rpm naturally aspirated flat-six with a six-speed manual gearbox, rear-wheel drive and that wonderfully distinctive double-bubble rear deck. Porsche deliberately conceived it as a purist, driver-focused model, drawing heavily from both the 991 GT3 and 911 R, and the result is every bit as good as you’d imagine.
Production was capped at exactly 1,948 cars in reference to the year the original Porsche 356 appeared, so it’s rare but perhaps not as rare as you might think, given how infrequently you see them. The uncomplicated recipe of a manual gearbox, GT engine and limited production has ensured Speedsters remain significantly more valuable than mainstream 991 Cabriolets or even other 991 GT3 models.
2018 | 880 Miles | £450,000
The Vanquish Zagato Speedster is all about exclusivity, beauty, and making every journey feel like an event. Underneath sits the familiar Vanquish S hardware, including Aston’s glorious 5.9-litre naturally aspirated V12, producing around 595bhp, but the real attraction is the bodywork penned in collaboration with Zagato.
The twin rear humps, steeply raked screen and complete absence of a conventional roof make it look more concept car than production Aston, while this particular car’s Q Special Caplan Roadster Green over bronze leather specification suits it beautifully, especially with the bronze details of the Villa d’Este Pack.
Just 28 Speedsters were built worldwide, with this believed to be one of only seven right-hand-drive cars, making it comfortably the rarest cars here. At £450,000 it’s serious money for a Vanquish-based Aston, but with just 880 miles showing and that level of rarity, you’re buying something closer to rolling artwork than simply another convertible.
