Compare the best fast family cars
High quality family sports cars from rated and reviewed dealers
Fastest family cars of 2024
Have your kids got strong stomachs? They’ll need them, as the performance of these fast family cars can turn their stomachs inside-out. It’s not so hard to find the UK’s best family sports cars that mix practicality with punch, it’s more that it’s hard on your family’s nausea levels…
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It might be ugly on the outside (although it’s somehow more handsome than the M4 Coupe) but the mighty M3 has beautiful performance that’s more than skin-deep. 510hp punch (with or without four-wheel drive) makes this one of the quickest saloons point-to-point, and you still get a decent 495-litre boot. Better yet, there’s a practical M3 Touring estate coming…
2025
Outstanding EV Award
Highly Commended
Battery range up to 360 miles
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The Taycan’s party trick is two-fold — it can accelerate to 62mph faster than most people can think (2.8secs for the 751hp Turbo S) but can also charge its battery almost as quickly, adding 170 miles of range in just 17 minutes from a rapid charger. The rear seats are a little bit small, but there’s the option of the more practical Sport Turismo and Cross Turismo estate versions.
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The E63 AMG mixes proper estate car practicality (640-litre boot, enough space for a wardrobe if you fold the back seats down), and family-friendly comfort with a proper Moon-rocket powerplant. It uses the same 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 as the AMG GT sports car, which offers a whopping 612hp in E63 S form. Effectively a race car you can move house with.
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The powerhouse RS6 gets the same front styling as the A7 coupe, so it’s arguably the best-looking Audi A6 model. More importantly, it also gets a 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 that’s shared with Porsche, Bentley, and Lamborghini and can hurl you, your kids, and your ‘big shop’ to 62mph in just 3.6secs. In the wet, thanks to quattro four-wheel drive, pretty much nothing is faster and safer at the same time.
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Want to give your family the full 1980s Audi rally experience on the way home from school? Well, assuming there’s a gravel road running to the door, you can with the RS3. Its 400hp five-cylinder 2.5-litre engine sounds just like the original Audi Quattro rally car’s, so you can pretend to be Michelle Mouton on the way to the shops. Pick from four-door saloon or five-door hatchback bodies.
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If the Audi RS3 is a little bit crazy, then the AMG A45 S is utterly nutty — Merc has squeezed 415hp from a 2.0-litre turbo engine, and it’ll propel the big-winged A45 S to 62mph in just 3.9secs. Make sure you pack your shopping carefully…
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Not the powerhouse it once was, the latest Golf R still deploys 320hp and feels faster and more biddable than the rather-too-gentle current Golf GTI. Blue paintwork is practically mandatory, and you should definitely get it with both the useful estate body and the clever active rear diff, which gives you a naughty drift mode…
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Long since the high priest of performance saloons, the M5 is still a furious race car trapped in an executive suit. Standard ‘Competition’ version is packing 625hp and selectable four-wheel drive (you can switch it into rear-drive if you’re feeling lucky) but the one to have is the M5 CS, which comes with more carbon-fibre, less weight, a better chassis setup, and evocative yellow headlights. The best M5 ever? Maybe…
Battery range up to 374 miles
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Basically a Porsche in an Audi suit, the e-tron GT is arguably better looking than its cousin from Stuttgart. Uses the same electric motors and battery, so you should get 250 miles out of a charge. Hot RS version get 650hp and staggering acceleration, but why is there no Avant estate model?
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Here’s how to move seven people with maximum drama. Take the big and hefty Audi Q7, and mix in the 4.0-litre turbo V8 from the RS6. It may be down-tuned to ‘only’ 500hp, but that’s still good enough for a 4.1sec 0-62mph time, all with a thrilling V8 soundtrack. Just watch the fuel economy, is all…
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