If you were wondering what would be the perfect modern-day interpretation of a classic British sportscar, wonder no more because Britain’s oldest car magazine Autocar set about answering that.

The recipe for a perfect British sportscar is surprisingly simple. It has to be light, it has to be fast, and it has to be affordable. If it’s a drop-top, then so much the better. Based on these simple rules, Autocar Editor-at-large Steve Sutcliffe dreams up his own ultimate driver’s car for the 21st century.

He calls it the British Sportscars 1 – or ‘BS1’ for short. It is an open-top two-seater, mid-engined, rear-driven car, which is built from a combination of aluminium and steel in a spaceframe chassis and features glassfibre-reinforced plastic and carbon fibre body panels. It weighs less than 1000 kg. For powertrain, Steve says a Volkswagen 3.0-litre V6 turbodiesel engine would suffice, with power output of 250bhp, 350lb ft. It would also have a paddle shift gearbox and no ESP.

The big torque will help the car to hit 60mph from stand still in 4.5 seconds. It does 0-100 mph in 10.0 sec and has a top speed of 147 mph, while returning 66 mpg and 199 g/km CO2.

The absolute best thing about the BS1 is the price, which is £35,000. It really is a perfect sportscar, so we don’t have anything like it in the market today? How hard can it be making a car with this simple specs?

Commenting on his blueprint Steve Sutcliffe said “As the world of cars gets ever more complex and produces machines that are increasingly sophisticated in their design and engineering, there’s still a desire for something at the other end of the scale.  A sports car that’s simple to understand and interact with. And, most of all, dead good fun to drive.”

“It will look low, wide, mean and beautiful, and will be utterly irresistible to its intended audience,” said Steve.