u/NewObjective23 — reddlx

Currently have an Audi S5 Sportback as my daily and am in the market to pick up my first sports car to serve as the compliment to it. It will be used on weekends, going to car shows, on special occasions, and when I want to hit backroads. Rare track days, potentially, but mostly just needs to excel in that 6/10-8.5/10 level of driving. Want to stay around $100,000 USD or less, and obviously less is better if possible. Want to balance the experience to the cost, not just pick the most expensive thing I can get

Current frontrunners (in no particular order):

V8 Vantage manual
V12 Vantage sportshift (or manual, if I find one in the budget)
DBS auto
2014 Vanquish

Would love to hear opinions from those who have been behind the wheel of any of these on which way I should go based on what I want out of the car

Currently have a S5 Sportback as my daily and am in the market to pick up my first sports car to serve as the compliment to it. It will be used on weekends, going to car shows, on special occasions, and when I want to hit backroads. Rare track days, potentially, but mostly just needs to excel in that 6/10-8.5/10 level of driving

Requirements:

$100K(ish) budget, but cheaper is obviously nice
Looks and feels special/exotic/gives a sense of occasion
Sounds great
Relatively reliable and cheap to maintain
Manual preferred, but would take an auto if the auto isn't clunky and there either was no manual option or the manual is too expensive

Current frontrunners:

Aston Martin VH V8/V12 Vantage
Aston Martin VH DBS
Audi gen 1 R8 V8/V10
Chevrolet C8 Corvette Z06 (would need to wait a few more years for prices to drop)
Lotus Emira V6
Porsche 718 Cayman GTS 4.0
Porsche 981 Cayman GT4 (would need to really stretch the budget)

Would love to hear opinions from those who have been behind the wheel of any of these as I haven't had the pleasure to with most of them yet. Feel free to suggest something else too - open to whatever as long as it fits the criteria