The sports car may have been the dream of so many hot-headed youngsters, but usually the elevated price tags that come with top-of-the-line sports models preclude all but the greatest exponents of Celtic Tiger wealth from owning anything serious. Of course, many people will have achieved a level whereby they can afford a sports car later in life - it's just that a very flashy coupe (say, for example, a Lotus Elise) may look out of place around a softening, receding, expanding middle aged man.

However, the same is true of the opposite end of the scale - a teenager behind the wheel of an S Class does seem faintly ridiculous. It is important to find the appropriate car for your age, and it is a measure of where the wealth is that, while there are some Ferraris (and at least one Lamborghini) on the streets of Dublin and beyond, the majority of expensive cars are larger rather than faster.

What is perhaps surprising is that there are a number of (relatively) younger people electing to drive these larger cars.

For example, it is not entirely unusual to have a person in their early to late thirties driving a new Bentley. This is perhaps due to the fact that the Bentley Continental is slightly sportier than its more traditional counterparts, although it might interest Bentley drivers to know that the famous marque is returning to its roots with the new Bentley Brooklands.

Still, people shouldn't get too excited - the manufacturers are strictly limiting production to a mere 550 vehicles - and the first tranche sold out almost immediately.

But there is a lesson in the Bentley Continental for all luxury car manufacturers - and that is that the newly moneyed people of Ireland (and beyond) are looking for something that is both sporty and comfortable.

It is a lesson which was well received by BMW (with the 6 Series) and Mercedes Benz, which released the ultra-chic large coupe in the shape of the CLS in 2004.

Never one to rest on its laurels, Mercedes is upping the ante with the impending arrival of the CL class - the V8 500 CL will be a larger and more impressive car than even the sleek, curved CLS.

Even Rolls Royce, the almost forgotten byword in luxury autos, has its own version of the large coupe - the Phantom Drophead Coupe is probably the last word on the large sporty number.

Having said that, Maybach's S models could argue the point - although it is a point that would be largely lost on the overwhelming majority of motorists for whom such arguments are well, well out of reach.