My heart is with Alfa and Alpine. Had the Alpine been available with a manual transmission it may have been the choice for me. The Lotus is great fun but too hardcore if you need to get a passenger in and out frequently such as a child or your partner. I did agonize quite a bit about the evora. The 5 pot in the audi is a peach, sounds almost as good as the v10 alas they stopped offering stick a long time ago. The r8 v10 spyder with stick shift is one of my all time favorites, carreraGT thrills for a fraction of the price. So that leaves the relatively porkier flat6, offered both as a coupe or convertible, pdk or stick shift, in a varied range of trims from base to GT product. Not on your list but as an open air drop-top aficionado I would take a boxster, new or used, with the flat6.