This is the first-ever MotorTrend Performance Vehicle of the Year
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00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 (car engine revving)
00:05 - Hi there.
00:30 Welcome to the first ever
00:33 Motortrend Performance Vehicle of the Year.
00:36 That's right, it's the first ever,
00:38 but in case you forgot,
00:40 Motortrend has been doing car of the year since 1949.
00:44 We invented it,
00:45 and since then we've done all sorts of of the year programs.
00:49 SUV of the year, truck of the year,
00:51 we used to do import car of the year,
00:52 we used to do best driver's car,
00:55 and what performance vehicle is doing
00:56 is it's replacing that by making it bigger and crazier
01:00 with a much wider field, many more competitors,
01:03 but it's not a comparison test.
01:05 That Lamborghini that just drove away,
01:07 it's not really going head to head
01:09 with that Mustang Mach-E.
01:10 Instead, what we're doing is we're using
01:13 our six key criteria like we do for every of the year event.
01:17 Advancement in design, engineering excellence,
01:20 performance of intended function,
01:22 safety value, and efficiency.
01:25 What does this have in common
01:26 besides the six key criteria
01:27 with our other of the year events?
01:29 We are at Hyundai's world class proving ground.
01:32 We're still using Motortrend judges,
01:34 and at the end of the program,
01:35 we are still gonna vote for the 2022
01:40 Motortrend performance vehicle of the year.
01:43 So come on, join me, let's have some fun.
01:46 (upbeat music)
01:49 - You guys ready?
01:52 - Ready.
01:53 - When the judges first get on site,
01:55 the first thing we do are walk arounds
01:57 where every judge has been assigned
01:59 to research a couple of the cars in depth
02:01 and present it to the rest of the group.
02:03 - Well, it's your classic pony car,
02:05 front engine, rear wheel drive.
02:07 - Everyone gets a download
02:08 of all the most important things.
02:10 - The interesting thing about this car,
02:11 obviously, is the engine.
02:13 We've gone away from the turbocharged flat fours
02:16 that Porsche brought into the box.
02:17 There's a 718, I should say, range box,
02:19 and it came in in 2016.
02:21 That's the purest, diehard, hardcore boxster
02:25 other than the Spyder.
02:27 So they know when they get into it,
02:29 what settings are probably right,
02:30 what the specs look like,
02:31 what the performance looks like.
02:33 So you have all these things in your head
02:35 when you're ready to actually get in and drive them.
02:38 And it can also be kind of fun show and tell.
02:39 There's something really neat on a car.
02:41 It's like, come here, let me open this up
02:43 and show you and point to this,
02:44 or tell you where the stability control is
02:46 so that you don't have to go hiding
02:47 'cause it's in a corner or something.
02:48 It's both informative,
02:49 but it can also be lighthearted as well.
02:51 It was hard to talk about the BMW M3 and M4
02:53 without everyone pointing and laughing
02:55 at the front end of it.
02:55 - Oh, it's so ugly.
02:57 - Oh, the nose!
02:58 - Oh, the nose.
02:58 - Oh!
02:59 - I'm going over there.
03:00 - The kid, oh!
03:01 - It is pretty bad.
03:02 - Oh, the humanity.
03:03 - Apparently, you guys have some opinions.
03:04 We wanted to celebrate a broader range of vehicles,
03:07 so not just traditional sports cars and sedans.
03:11 That's why it's Performance Vehicle of the Year
03:13 and not, say, Performance Car or Race Car of the Year.
03:16 We know the vast majority of Americans are buying SUVs,
03:19 and there's a lot of super sporty SUVs out there.
03:21 - Braking, what was the braking?
03:22 - 100 feet.
03:23 - That's insane!
03:25 - Super car.
03:26 - Yikes!
03:26 - That is insanity.
03:28 - How do we sort of make the tent bigger,
03:30 open it up, get more performance, more fun,
03:33 different body styles, different types of performance,
03:36 but then overlay this with this process
03:39 that we're very familiar with, that people know us for,
03:42 which is our car, truck, SUV of the year process.
03:45 So this is something that we have a lot of history
03:47 and experience doing.
03:48 It's arguably the best, most prestigious award
03:50 in the automotive industry.
03:51 So we mash the two together.
03:53 Performance Vehicle of the Year,
03:56 let's celebrate performance in all shapes and sizes.
03:59 - The bad news for two thirds of these cars
04:02 is they're staying put.
04:03 The good news is for about a third of 'em,
04:06 they are now finalists and they're moving on.
04:09 First, we're gonna start on one of the best roads
04:12 on planet Earth, Angeles Crest Highway.
04:15 From there, we're moving on to Willow Springs
04:17 International Raceway, specifically to the streets of Willow.
04:22 (upbeat music)
04:24 - I absolutely love Angeles Crest Highway.
04:33 I mean, it is one of the best driving roads
04:35 in the world, frankly.
04:36 When we do proper tests like this,
04:37 we get this thing shut down,
04:39 because that's really the, really the only safe,
04:41 proper way to do it.
04:42 And that really is a little freeing.
04:45 It's safe to drive quickly, within your limits, of course.
04:48 You really can drive without endangering anyone
04:51 and without having to worry about endangering anyone
04:54 and just evaluate the car.
04:56 - It was like a second and third gear kind of thing
04:59 for most cars, especially the higher horsepower cars.
05:02 But there were a couple, you know,
05:03 a couple of slow speed corners
05:05 that you were able to kind of, you know,
05:07 really wind down and then just power out.
05:09 Again, as you kind of get that feel back and forth
05:13 and just, you kind of get in tune with the road.
05:16 These are the kind of cars that like,
05:18 absolutely do that kind of next level thing for you.
05:23 - So all of the years have a real world driving component.
05:27 For Performance Vehicle of the Year,
05:28 we wanted to, you know, sort of level up on that.
05:31 Realizing that these are high performance vehicles,
05:33 we wanted to go to a stretch of road
05:35 that a lot of enthusiasts, a lot of car people know
05:38 and respect as a place that people can
05:41 sort of enjoy the drive.
05:42 So we went to Angeles Crest Highway.
05:44 Again, super famous mountain road in Southern California.
05:48 We were there to evaluate real world driving,
05:50 the bumps in the road, the real curves,
05:53 not to go all out.
05:54 We had track components for that.
05:55 So, you know, safety first,
05:57 but really to get out there
05:59 and feel how these cars handle on real surfaces
06:03 versus a test track was important to us.
06:05 The Streets of Willow track was utilized
06:09 for that full on limit handling driving.
06:13 We took our finalists out there
06:14 to sort of do the final sort of evaluation,
06:17 what these vehicles really feel like
06:20 when you're all the way at the limit
06:22 in a safe and controlled environment.
06:24 Oh, it absolutely has to,
06:27 it has to sing in all aspects.
06:30 It has to have an engine that really gets after it.
06:34 It has to have performance
06:35 from a ride and handling standpoint
06:39 that is performance based.
06:41 And it has to be able to get around a track
06:43 and be able to brake well,
06:45 to be able to get into the corners
06:47 and get out of the corners with force.
06:50 And then it has to be able to make you feel
06:53 like there's something extra there.
06:55 And I think that's the thing
06:57 about Performance Vehicle of the Year.
06:58 To me, that's a little bit different
07:01 than the other of the years.
07:02 There's kind of this it factor,
07:04 I think with performance vehicles
07:05 that you don't necessarily get
07:08 with a point A to point B car.
07:10 That kind of that extra feeling that you get
07:13 that you're in tune with the vehicle,
07:15 that you feel like you can drive this thing
07:19 to the best of your abilities
07:20 and maybe even beyond that
07:22 and be able to do it really well.
07:25 - Winner debates tend to go one of three ways.
07:27 Sometimes you come in and do an of the year
07:29 and you have absolutely no idea what's gonna win.
07:31 There's a lot of really good cars
07:33 and it's gonna be a long discussion
07:36 to figure out which one rises to the top.
07:38 - And does it work on rear wheel drive?
07:41 Does it work on all wheel drive?
07:42 Does it work on Evo, Evo rear wheel drive,
07:45 Perfomante, there's all these other ones.
07:47 This one is a very special car,
07:48 there's a very specific thing.
07:49 - That's no SPO motor.
07:51 - Yeah, it's the same as strada motor
07:53 if you don't like in general a Ferracon.
07:54 - It's not even a manual.
07:55 - Unstrada.
07:56 - Unstrada's a street motor.
07:57 - Yeah, but like the street motor's bad.
08:00 - Look, we've given the best driver's car
08:02 to two Huracans that have the strada motor.
08:05 I'm saying we've given our top fries
08:07 to two of the same thing.
08:09 Sometimes you know that there's only two cars really
08:13 that are in contention.
08:14 You start driving one, you go like,
08:15 no, it's just gonna be these ones.
08:17 And sometimes it's just, you drive it
08:18 and you know like, nope, this is the winner.
08:19 We're gonna go through the entire process,
08:22 we're gonna be rigorous, we're gonna make sure,
08:23 but you just get a feeling after you drive it
08:26 like yeah, no, this is gonna go all the way.
08:29 And this year we had a great finalist field
08:32 but it really was like two cars
08:34 that were the ones that are really gonna fight for the win
08:38 and then a bunch of other cars that, you know,
08:40 were almost good enough to be as good
08:42 as those other two cars but weren't quite.
08:44 - I like the much torque vectoring on this thing.
08:46 It's like you really lay on that thing out of a corner
08:48 and you really feel it pushing that outside wheel.
08:50 - Just looking at like top speed,
08:52 different parts of the track,
08:54 you get all the performance of the CT4V Blackwing
08:57 for $135,000 extra.
09:00 - It was a great conversation.
09:01 The team was great.
09:02 We made some really smart calls on the track usage.
09:04 We ran it backwards in the backwards configuration
09:06 which is safer for everyone.
09:08 Overall it was a great experience
09:10 and I'm glad, you know, honored to be able to take part.
09:13 - I'm right there and it's neck and neck.
09:14 Because it's not track car of the year,
09:18 the performance vehicle of the year,
09:20 it has all that other stuff
09:22 that goes along with it every day.
09:25 So there's value in that.
09:27 - We have a consensus, 911 GT3
09:30 is our performance vehicle of the year.
09:32 (upbeat music)
09:35 - It's hard to say that any 911
09:38 since the 1965 original is an advancement in design.
09:42 Most feel the 992 generation is a small step backwards
09:46 compared to the previous 991.
09:48 But as Porsche GT boss, Andy Pruinger has said,
09:52 the GT3 is always the best looking 911.
09:55 He's still not wrong.
09:57 And of course, look at that glorious gooseneck wing.
10:00 In terms of engineering excellence,
10:03 the GT3 is a home run because not only does it feel
10:06 like a super performer capable
10:08 of setting one incredibly fast lap,
10:10 it feels bulletproof as if it could set 25 laps
10:13 that would be identical in pace.
10:15 If there's one piece of criteria that the 992 GT3
10:19 literally nails its performance of intended function.
10:22 After all, the GT3 is intended
10:25 to be the ultimate driver's 911.
10:27 Guess what?
10:28 It totally, absolutely, most certainly is.
10:32 This is the 911 that calls to you, that beckons to you,
10:36 that begs you to jump inside.
10:38 This is the one driver's car
10:40 that you cannot get out of your head.
10:43 While we can't comment on the current 911's passive safety
10:46 as no one has bothered to crash test one,
10:48 we can tell you that in terms of active safety,
10:50 the GT3 is pretty good.
10:53 Especially if you count world-class brakes
10:55 and a freakish ability to change direction,
10:57 thereby avoiding a crash as part of active safety.
11:01 Yeah, okay, it's kinda weird to say
11:02 that a $200,000 car is a good value
11:05 until you look at the fact that it's competing
11:07 against the Lamborghini STO and the AMG GT Black Series,
11:11 both of which cost over $335,000.
11:16 While not designed with efficiency in mind,
11:18 the GT3 is light and only has six cylinders
11:21 instead of eight, 10, or 12.
11:23 If you could somehow keep the revs below, say, 5,000,
11:27 you might even beat the EPA estimates.
11:30 The 2022 Porsche 911 GT3
11:33 is our inaugural performance vehicle of the year
11:36 for many reasons.
11:37 It excelled at the proving ground, up in the canyons,
11:40 and out on the racetrack.
11:42 The GT3 showed us that classic attributes,
11:45 like a manual gearbox and natural aspiration,
11:47 not only die hard, but deserve a seat
11:50 at the modern sports car table.
11:52 Speaking of sports cars, the new GT3 has made the jump
11:55 from sports to supercar.
11:57 The competition was close,
11:59 especially that Lamborghini STO,
12:01 but as I said in my notes about the Porsche,
12:03 if it's not second, it's first.
12:06 Turns out, it's first.
12:07 Congratulations to Porsche and the GT department.
12:11 The GT3 is Motor Trend's 2022 performance vehicle
12:16 of the year.
12:17 (upbeat music)
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