It’s impossible not to see the appeal of a sports or supersaloon. They combine the practicality, usability and in most cases ubiquity of a family car with the engaging handling and firecracker powertrains of much more interesting machines.

This makes the high-performance saloon (or long-tail hatchback in a few cases) deeply desirable, and in many cases represents the ultimate everyday car. Within the broad bracket of a sports and supersaloon are many different forms, with everything from compact and balanced like the Jaguar XE to all-wheel-drive hot-rods that will comfortably overcome most high-end supercars at a drag strip or on track.

At the very extremity exists cars like the Jaguar XE SV Project 8 or Alfa Romeo Giulia GTAm – stripped out, caged up models that use their saloon chassis as a necessary delivery method for their extreme capability on road and track. Yet these ultimate four-doors were brief glimmers of brilliance in the car market, so here we’ll focus on saloons that are on sale right now.

> Best supercars 2023

Typically the German manufacturers dominate this arena, with BMW M, AMG, Audi and Porsche all featuring some superb high-performance saloons at various levels of performance, price and capability.

Even better, despite the challenges facing traditional high-performance cars in 2023, the sports and supersaloon still has an immediate future thanks to electrification. This means that this list will likely look very different in 12 months’ time as hybrid…