One of the ideas I've been thinking about for a number of years was taking a 73/74 Morris Mini ragtop, putting a K20A2 Type S VTEC, supercharger, take the lower chassis of a Rav4 and make it All Wheel Drive and add Air Conditioning.
Based on some preliminary calculations, I suspect I should be able to get pretty close to a 0-60 in under 3 seconds and should be in the 30mpg range and would be comfortable enough to be a daily driver. I've seen a similar race-lightened mini without AWD turning 0-60 times of 3.14-3.2 seconds.
I did drive a new mini a few years back - Turbo with the paddle shifters. Even though the 6 speed was available, I really think I would still opt for the automatic with the traffic in South Florida.
The Abarth is another one I was looking at, but, for now, I'll stick to theory.
Oh, here's Florida sticking it to us.
HOV/Express lanes are free for Hybrids that get 30+mpg. Prius and the other hybrids are allowed to use those lanes free.
However, if you bring a grey-market Bluetec Diesel Smart Car down which gets 70mpg and is considered VLEV, since it is not a hybrid, it doesn't qualify for the free pass that the other less economical hybrids get even if you were to use Biodiesel.