Fancy a smart, sporting, two-door, four-seat coupe of lively performance, with a supremely comfortable interior, for about the price of a new Vauxhall Adam? And what if all this was wrapped up in an elegant body that allowed you to express your zeal on the public highway without drawing unwanted attention to yourself, and that was then adorned with one of the most glamorous badges in the whole history of motoring?
Sound good? Step forward, then, the Maserati Biturbo. Yup, that's right, the Maserati Biturbo. Okay, straight away I can sense there's some doubt hanging in the air here. In fact, I can hear you laughing. I'm fully aware that, over the Italian firm's 103-year history, this is not the most popular sports car ever to wear that trident badge. Indeed, if one were to believe everything one reads, or even everything one sees on certain television programmes, this Biturbo let the side down badly, with its dodgy reliability, poor handling, rust-prone body and that boxy and unsexy exterior.
But is that being entirely fair to the Biturbo? Viewed another way, it's a stylish car of considerable chic, a civilized car, with a shape that hints at the four-door Quattroporte and the Lancia Delta of the same period - and they were both designed by Giugiaro, for Heaven's sake! The interior is still, even today, extremely attractive, with soft and cosseting leather just about everywhere, that gorgeous clock on the centre console shaped like a, er, thing, and those amazingly inviting seats.
Look under the bonnet and there's a surprisingly efficient 192hp 2.5-litre V6, the first ever twin-turbo production car engine, with three unequal-sized valves per cylinder. Legend has it that when the big boys at Maserati were planning the Biturbo they took a look at the then-current and mega-successful Formula 1 Renault V6 engine and decided that two tiny turbochargers were the way to go; as for the three valves, well they cost less than four and were very nearly as good.
Whatever you think of it, the bottom line is this lovely looking black 1990 Biturbo, with its delicious interior, pert rump and a mere 26,000 miles on the clock, could be yours for £14,995, and although that's not the cheapest one around it could just be one of the best.
MASERATI BITURBO
Price: £14,995
Why you should: Rare, different, interesting, Maserati
Why you shouldn't: £15K still buys lots of E30 3 Series too
See the original advert here.