Porsche Cayman S or Ford Fiesta ST?

The Ford Fiesta ST and Porsche Cayman S are both brilliant, says Neil Lyndon.

If a village raffle offered the prize of a drive in the new Porsche Cayman S or the new Fo

rd Fiesta ST, the tickets would probably sell out faster than a tray of Mrs Graham's home-made fudge.

People who enjoy higher performance driving might queue all day for the chance to get their hands on either of these cars. Both went on sale recently, and both have been greeted as the best of their type that has yet been made.

Lucky the man, then, who gets to borrow a Cayman S one day and a Fiesta ST the next. Sometimes, it's hard to persuade people that this counts as work.

The Cayman – with its hand-trimmed interior and its flat six-cylinder engine – is unquestionably the higher faluting. This two-door coupe may be scorned as "the poor man's Porsche", but it's the rich man's Fiesta ST.

The cheapest Cayman costs £39,694. The Cayman S is supposed to start at £48,783, but the one I borrowed worked out at more than £57,000. For that kind of money, you could buy three Fiesta STs.