The best and worst things I’ve seen this week - 11 August 2017

LOTUS EUROPA: Lotus’s fourth-best-selling car of all time, the Europa, is an absolute stunner. With 82bhp, it’s just 7bhp up on my 1.4-litre VW Lupo, but was doubtless an absolute peach to drive.

SEAT'S CUPRA SPIN-OFF: Yes, I hear you, yet another spin-off sub-brand. But what they seem to be planning - namely road cars bearing the names Tango, Salsa and Bolero - set my heart aflutter. All Seat has to do is make them even a fraction as cool as their respective concepts.

INFINITI PROTOTYPE 9 CONCEPT: Infiniti’s latest project, pie in the sky as it is, is unbelievably cool. It’s also full of cool little details like this: “Even the concept’s name is a nod to Infiniti’s current model line-up; 9, pronounced ‘kyoo’ in Japanese, is a reference to the brand’s Q-based nomenclature.”

MASERATI 3200GT: The car whose lights every car fan on the planet surely fell in love with. Less well known was the fact that it was the first car with full LED rear lights.

2018 FORD ECOSPORT: The current-gen Ecosport has been marred by criticisms, and let’s face it, pretty challenging styling. The next one doesn’t look to improve things if this development car is anything to go by. The Edge, on the other hand, in black, with that light bar and those trapezoidal exhausts, is one of the best-looking cars Ford has made in the last couple of decades.