Top 5 least powerful rear-wheel-drive cars

MORGAN 3-WHEELER
Power: 60kW

6

OK, so there’s not a whole lot of punch in the world’s weirdest looking ‘car’, but with all 60kW fed through a single wheel, the little 175/65 15-inch tyre has a fair bit to deal with.

MAZDA MX-5 1.5L
Power: 96kW

6

Fresh from a Wheels Car of the Year victory, the entry-level version of the loveable Mazda MX-5 is proof you don’t need bags of horsepower to have bags of fun.

BMW 318i
Power: 100kW

6

Three-pot 1.5-litre turbo shared with various Minis manages just 100kW from the engine that replaces the identically powered four-cylinder still used in the BMW 1-series entry model.

MERCEDES-BENZ C200D
Power: 100kW

6

Compact 1.6-litre turbo-diesel makes it all up in torque, with a hearty 300Nm to complement the modest 100kW.

LOTUS ELISE SPORT
Power: 100kW

6

It’s all about the weight – or lack of it – in Lotus’s ageing sports car, which is as light as 852kg, enough for a perky 0-100km/h time of 6.5sec.

This article was originally published in Wheels magazine April 2016.