Forget the frilly cake, and the candles and the stupid attempts at singing a happy birthday song with a bunch of journos that sing like garden toads — at Cars in Action we like a little bit more octane in our icing. Which is why we didn’t think twice about herding together ten of our favourite cars from the past ten years for our anniversary cover feature.

But since we’ve just turned ten, we couldn’t quite resist the idea of taking it all a step further and celebrating with a glut of cars that have that many cylinders. Ten years ago, we would have been able to round up no more than a single car with this engine configuration — but as a tribute to how times have changed, we figured we’d go the whole hog and find one for every year we’ve been in existence.

It’s hard to believe that one could actually find ten V10 machines anywhere in the world, let alone in our isolated little corner of the globe. Yet, here they stand. Until recently, V10 engines were the preserve of F1 cars. Now those racing machines have become V8s and, quite ironically, we suddenly have more V10 road cars than anyone would have imagined.

The Chrysler group was the first to party with its radical Viper back in 1992. Conceived as something of a modern Shelby Cobra, the powers that be decided that a thoroughly modernised version of their V10 truck engine would do most justice to that venomous creature.

Thus the original was born with a 298kW/601Nm 8.0-litre lump that would run a quarter mile in 12.9 seconds and hit 264km/h — nothing else really mattered. This was the definitive V10 banshee when CiA first hit the shelves, by which time a more powerful, and slightly plusher, 336kW version had hit the scene, along with a coupe version called the GTS.

It was only about three of so years ago that V10 cars really starting coming into the mainstream. We all remember lusting after the Lamborghini Gallardo, Lamborghini’s entry-level coupe that first crashed Viper’s party — Lambo’s answer to the Ferrari F360. With seductive, hard-edged bodylines seeming to paying homage to the ‘70s Countach, this Italian seductress stole many a heart.

It also proved more nimble and useable than its bigger Murcielago brother, yet its V10 powerplant (which was based on parent company Audi’s traditional inline-five design) thrusted it above the commonplace V8s of the time, while a rear-biased all-wheel drive system that brought outstanding handling and poise to the party. Early 2006 brought an open-top Spyder version of the Gallardo, along with more powerful 376kW engine and a lower-ratio six-speed gearbox, while last month saw the lightweight Superleggera breaking cover in Geneva.

Yet the V10 revival was not destined to remain in the Italians’ hands. Up North, the boys in Munich, Ingolstadt and Wolfsburg had their own V10 tricks up their sleeves — with a glut of entrants that would thrust ten-cylinder motoring into the more practical, mainstream arena.

Of course, it’s BMW’s M5 that first comes to mind here. Winner of our 2006 Performance car of the year accolade, this bargain supercar slayer impressed with its manic performance and technological strides, yet was practical enough to haul a family of five in supreme comfort. With an F1-derived 5.0-litre V10 sending 373kW and 520Nm through a new seven-speed robotised tranny — it easily achieved a 4.9-second 0-100km/h run at the hands of our test equipment at Highveld altitudes and yet there was so much more to this crazy saloon. We never thought much of its over-complicated iDrive interface system, yet its myriad gearbox and chassis settings — not to mention that magical M button — brought with it a Jeckyll and Hyde personality that could dice between manic supercar and supple limo at the driver’s very whim.

This brilliant engine was simply too good to be left confined to the 5-Series, so it wasn’t long before BMW’s V10 found its way into the 6-Series coupe, and even the Convertible version. Now BMW had a way to counter the likes of Aston Martin’s Vanquish, Ferrari’s 612 Scaglietti and Porsche’s 911 Turbo, with a two-door costing less than half the price.

Thanks to some further weight-shaving measures and a lower centre of gravity, the M6 proved even more poised than its M5 cousin, while its elegant styling gave it a more distinctive edge. However, with a price of over R1.1-million, it needs that exclusivity to justify its premium over the M5. The M6 Convertible hit the scene fairly recently, along with expectations that this open-top version would be better suited to the hairdresser crowd. Not so, as our first-ever Kyalami hot-lap test proved it within fractions as dynamic as its hardtop sibling.