Revealed: the winner of Top Gear's fun test

As we stated at the beginning, we really didn’t plan on having winners from this test. We’d done the voting up front and ended up at Dunsfold with a mega bunch of cars, each of which was already a winner in our eyes. We’d planned to leave it there.

But as day two wore on, there were a few that we kept coming back to. Not because they were fast, or expensive, or even because they handled well, but because they delivered on the most vital and intangible of all criteria – they were fun.

Photography: John Wycherley

This feature was originally published in issue 285 of Top Gear magazine.

Ariel Atom, RR Dawn and Pocket Classics: why emotional cars are fun

Are utilitarian cars the most fun to drive?

Burnouts, drifts and handbrakes: which are most fun?

Focus RS, Audi S8 Plus and Fiesta ST: why stealth cars are fun

From Tesla to RR Phantom: why clever cars are fun

Now fun is almost impossible to quantify, but I’m going to attempt to explain it via the medium of a Caterham 620R and a BAC Mono. You see, for a while I petitioned for the Mono to be one of our finalists, but then I realised… it’s more serious-minded than the Caterham. That it’s much more expensive, better built, has a superb central driving position and so on is, for the purposes of this test, irrelevant.

The Caterham is a happier machine, has a puppyish enthusiasm whether donutting around cones or clipping apices. I mean, it’s mad as a box of frogs, has stupid “doors” and your feet won’t fit in the footwell, but, boy, does it know how to have a good time.

Others followed. The Fiesta ST may ride firmly, but it tingles with eagerness – and this isn’t even the new ST200 model. The MkIII Focus RS is as broad-minded as it is broad-shouldered, all Jack-the-Lad attitude, a wheeled Saturday night on the town. And then there’s the Porsche Cayman GT4. Underneath the track-day demeanour lies nothing but pure enthusiasm. A serious car, but it doesn’t take itself too seriously.

And that, we reckon, is the key. These four cars know how to laugh at themselves. God knows how you give a collection of mechanical parts a sense of humour, but these four have achieved it – they love driving as much as you do. None, however, has achieved it as spectacularly as our winner…

It looks ridiculous. It serves precisely no purpose. It’s bright orange. It’s an off-roader with open flanks to aid mud ingress and has only two driven wheels, it’s a super-fast lightweight with a winch and light bar. I mean, come on, the Ariel Nomad is a mishmash, a lash-up, a vanishing point of irrelevance. And the most fun car that any of us has ever driven.

My favourite moment of this whole test, even more amusing than watching Paul Horrell donut the Crazy Cart or Charlie Turner attempting to disembark the Pocket Classic, was seeing the Nomad in the long grass. It was more dog than car, a Jack Russell with a scent in its nostrils, zapping back and forth, tongue lolling out, tail waving in the air. Just plain funny. Driving it, you realise those anthropomorphic habits feed back – it’s like plugging yourself into a dog’s brain. Simple, charming, easily pleased.

Everyone loved it. As our Dunsfold daftness drew to a close, I conducted a poll, asking everyone to name their top three cars. Everyone – and I really do mean this – not only named the Nomad in their list, but placed it first. Everyone.

How is this possible? I can only guess, but it seems to me that the Nomad comes from a different mindset to almost every other car. It wasn’t built for a purpose, but rather as an answer to the question “Wouldn’t it be fun if…?”

I have no idea what followed on from there, but, wow, am I glad they followed through with it. It may not be a mindset that’ll sell millions of cars around the world, but we all need more fun in our lives. And as far as cars go, the utterly joyful Nomad is the best at delivering it.