GT cars have always cooked up evocative images of vast journeys with a stunningly beautiful destination at the end.
These are cars designed to soak up hundreds of miles without batting an eyelid, before attacking mountain roads and stealing admiring looks in places like St. Tropez or Lake Como.
What is a GT car?
GT stands for ‘Grand Tourer’, a car that’s luxurious and sporty all at the same time. Traditionally, a GT car would be used to cross Europe to get to some far-flung, exotic destination, and the cars usually defined as GT cars fit that brief perfectly. If money’s no object, you’d probably pick from the likes of the Aston Martin DB12, Bentley Continental GT or Lexus LC500.
But, if you don't have a six-figure amount of money lying around, there are plenty of more affordable GT options that’ll happily devour mega miles and entertain you on more interesting roads. We’ve picked our favourite real-world GT cars, with some coupes, saloons, hatchbacks and SUVs in the mix.
Best GT cars
- Kia Stinger
- Alfa Romeo Giulia
- BMW 4 Series
- Audi S5
- Range Rover Velar
- BMW Z4
- Volkswagen Golf R
- Jaguar F-Type
- Audi TT
- Cupra Formentor
Kia Stinger
No, it doesn’t have a premium badge on its long bonnet, but the Kia Stinger has every other GT car box well and truly ticked. Its long, low shape is elegant and sporty, and its interior feels almost as plush as cars costing twice the price. You even get cooled, heated and massaging seats on some models – howzat for long-distance comfort?
The Stinger’s 3.3-litre, 365hp turbo V6 means you’ve got enough power for spur-of-the-moment overtakes, and has a similar thirst to traditional GT cars! It’s brawny on the motorway and playful on a twisty road. It also likes to peacock its back end out of every junction in the sportier driving modes, making you feel like a driving hero before the car steps in and reassures you that everything’s under control.
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Alfa Romeo Giulia
Let’s get all the cliches out the way early – the Giulia is an Italian stallion with style, passion and charisma. Now you’ve got the whole journey to enjoy the sculpted interior, the soundtrack – especially if you go for a Veloce or Quadrifoglio – and the knowledge that you’re in something much more exclusive than a BMW 3 Series.
The Giulia is a sports car wrapped in the body of an executive saloon, and it’ll put more smiles on your face when the road gets twisty than almost all of its rivals. Those alternatives are generally more practical than the Giulia, but there’s still just enough room for four adults and a couple of bottles of limoncello.
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BMW 4 Series
The BMW 4 Series perfectly nails the brief of ‘sporty yet comfortable’, and its high-quality interior is a lovely place to spend lots of time. All 4 Series models have sufficient power to make everyday driving fun but, if you want the GT experience, we’d pick one of the faster options.
Of course, there’s the high-performance BMW M4, which is the fastest but also the most aggressive – perhaps not what you want on a mega cross-Europe trip. Below the M4 is the M440i and M440d, with serious power outputs and urgent acceleration, but with a little more sophistication and duality. What’s more, both are available as convertibles if you’re planning to soak up the Mediterranean sun.
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Audi S5
While the standard Audi A5 is very nice, it doesn’t quite have the power you’d like in a GT car. That’s where the Audi S5 comes in, with a muscular 3.0-litre V6 diesel engine that produces almost 350hp. Much better. You might think a GT car should be petrol-powered, but the S5’s TDI lump offers great handfuls of low-down power – and will return up to 40mpg on a long cruise.
The A5’s unimpeachable build quality gives you confidence that you’ll be able to do lots of long journeys, while the crisp digital dials and touchscreen make sure you’ll never miss your exit on the autoroute again.
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Range Rover Velar
Alright, so the Range Rover Velar may feel out of its depth on a twisty Alpine pass, but it excels at comfortable cruising. Its soft leather is welcoming and expensive-looking, and massaging seats are available to soothe the boring stretches of your journey. Whether you pick one of the larger diesel engines, a petrol or even the plug-in hybrid Velar, you’ll get huge reserves of power that can whisk you up to speed quickly.
It’s pretty good at posing, too. The Velar pulls off a neat trick of looking sleek and stocky at the same time, and won’t look out of place outside the Casino de Monte-Carlo. We’d choose one with huge alloys and tinted windows if it was our money.
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BMW Z4
You’re almost sat on the rear wheels in the BMW Z4, with a long bonnet that seems to stretch to not far off the horizon. Just remember that when you’re pulling out of an awkward junction! The Z4 is a proper sports car, but doesn’t sacrifice comfort – this is a BMW after all. It comes with powerful petrol engines, rear-wheel drive – or four-wheel drive on range-topping models – and a slick-shifting automatic gearbox.
There are sports seats to keep you in place through fast corners, but an interior that’s much the same as the BMW 3 Series and 4 Series – in other words, typically German quality and the sort of tech that would’ve seemed wildly futuristic a decade ago.
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VW Golf R
The standard Volkswagen Golf is a brilliant all-rounder, and the Golf R adds blisteringly fast acceleration and grippy four-wheel drive to the mix. So, wherever you’re heading, be it a ski resort, a racetrack, a never-ending motorway or a medieval city with impossibly tight streets, the Golf R has it all under control.
As it’s a hatchback, the Golf R is already one of the more practical options on this list – with a good-sized boot and space for four fully grown adults. There’s also the Golf R estate if you need more boot space for family stuff or finest French plonk.
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Jaguar F-Type
Seeing a Jaguar F-Type is always a bit of a special occasion, so imagine how it’ll feel to have one parked outside your house that you can drive whenever the mood takes you. The supercar-like shape and 100-foot-long bonnet give it classic sports car proportions, and the F-Type’s engines are suitably sporty, too.
The range starts with a 300hp 2.0-litre engine, and winds up to a supercharged 5.0-litre V8 with an earth-moving 575hp and a 3.5-second 0-62mph time. If you can afford it, it’s almost your duty to get the V8 F-Type R – its sonorous engine note will echo off faraway mountains and will linger in the air like the northern lights. Bliss.
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Audi TT
One of the best everyday sports cars, the Audi TT is sharp and poised when you’re in the mood and relaxed when you’d rather just get home. It’s small enough to make it easy to park, but is big enough to feel confident on the German autobahn.
Every TT gets a phenomenal interior that combines tech, tight packaging and cool touches. It’s even surprisingly practical if you only have one passenger – the boot, while long and shallow, is a similar size to many hatchbacks, and you can use the token rear seats for extra storage.
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Cupra Formentor
The Cupra Formentor is our favourite sporty crossover, combining family-friendly practicality with keen handling, athletic styling and eye-catching copper accents. Copper means fast, according to Cupra.
With power outputs ranging from 150hp to 310hp, there’s something for eco-conscious drivers or for those who leave it a bit late to get back to the ferry port. There are even two plug-in hybrid options if your grand tour will take in a fair few city centres.
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