Performance Car of the Year 2023: Nine Drivers' Cars Ranked

Introduction

Once a year, the best performance cars launched over the previous twelve months are gathered together on some of the finest driving roads in the UK, driven morning, noon and night, and scored out of 100. This is not a conventional group test. There is no circuit work and no lap times. What matters is how each car makes you feel behind the wheel, and how successfully it nails the design brief it was built for.

There are no bad cars in this field. Every contender here is excellent in its own way. But one car proved exceptional, and it earned the crown.

How the Cars Were Judged

Seven judges spent a full week with all nine cars, cross-crossing the border between Northern England and Scotland on roads they know intimately. Mixed weather, including wet and wintry conditions, meant the cars were tested on everything from smooth flowing tarmac to standing water and bumpy lanes.

Scoring was deliberately two-sided. Each judge rated how objectively good each car is as a machine, then balanced that against the emotional side: how it made them feel, how eager they were to drive it again, and which cars produced the most memorable moments of the week. The maths at the end produced three clear groups of contenders.

McLaren 750S

The old 720S was a previous Car of the Year winner, and the 750S takes everything loved about that car and sharpens it further. In an increasingly electrified supercar market it is resolutely old school: internal combustion only, with more power and much of the dynamic polish of the 765LT.

Despite having so much power behind you, it never feels intimidating. Constant feedback comes through the pedals and the hydraulic power steering, and visibility around the all-glass canopy is so good it feels like sitting in a fighter jet. Performance to match, and arguably one of the ultimate purely petrol-powered supercars of our time. A remarkable driver’s machine, and third place overall.

Porsche 911 Carrera T

The Carrera T is the lightest and most driver-focused 911 in the regular range, combining the entry-level engine with a manual gearbox, limited slip diff and sport suspension, plus a stack of weight-saving measures.

It would be easy to underestimate this car, because it is more muted than some of the louder contenders here, but so much of what makes Porsche special is present and correct. The control weightings are wonderful, the manual shift is excellent, and the flat-six crescendo, while not the most bombastic, is genuinely lovely. The main criticism carried over from the 992 generation: it feels like a big car, and that weight shows on bumpier roads.

Alpine A110 R

The original A110 narrowly missed out on the crown in 2018, and the new R promises even more with a curb weight of just 1,086 kg and trick carbon fibre parts, including carbon wheels. It is expensive, but it can punch well above its weight.

It simply feels so good. In the rain, in the dry, on bumpy roads and smooth ones, this small, modestly powerful car comes alive everywhere. It is the definitive proof that in this instance less is very much more, and it answers every complaint about modern cars getting too big, too powerful and too heavy. It could not stop the judges driving it, and it took second place, separated from the winner by less than a single point.

BMW M3 CS

After the M4 CSL disappointed the previous year, the M3 CS arrived carrying a badge shared with the winning M5 CS and M2 CS. The G80 M3 generation raised eyebrows at launch for its size, weight and styling, but it proved itself a fantastically capable all-rounder.

The CS is more special. It is expensive, has only a little more power, and despite a carbon bonnet it is only around 15 kilos lighter than the regular car. What you are paying for is the tuning and chassis work: the way it steers, rides over bumps, controls its body and its overall balance is a big step on from the M3 Competition. Ferociously fast and exotic, it landed in the strong middle order.

Maserati GranTurismo

Maserati’s resurgence has been led by the sublime MC20, and the new GranTurismo aims to build on that with a twin-turbo V6, four-wheel drive, handsome looks and surprisingly practical accommodation. It represents the traditional grand tourer recipe, in contrast to the more aggressive DB12.

As a GT car it is really rather remarkable. Those who covered big distances in it, including during the test week, agree it excels: superbly comfortable to travel in, searingly rapid, and it rides beautifully. Push it quickly on challenging roads and it starts to struggle unless the damping is wound up to its firmest setting, and it never fully masks its size and weight. The V6 performance is bullish even if the soundtrack is not a match for the MC20. The flaws placed it at the foot of the table, alongside the Aston.

Aston Martin DB12

The DB12 is Aston Martin’s take on the super GT: a hugely powerful twin-turbo V8, a much sportier chassis than the old DB11 and a thoroughly modernised interior. On looks alone, some judges reckoned it would win this test outright.

On smooth, flowing roads where you can stretch its legs and use all the performance, it is absolutely sensational. But as soon as the roads get difficult, it shows signs of being too tough, never quite settling and struggling for traction. The verdict was blunt: the DB12 is feral, with a savage punch from its V8, and it is almost too much. Toned down by 20 percent in both power and suspension rates, it would be a better car. As it stands, the GT credentials fall short of the Maserati’s.

Lamborghini Huracán Sterrato

The Huracán has matured magnificently in recent years, and the Sterrato does the naturally aspirated V10 lineage justice in an entirely unexpected way. Instead of being hunkered down for maximum grip, this car leans in corners on longer suspension travel and rides on all-terrain tyres, built to take the supercar off-road for adventures.

It works, and it is not a gimmick. It feels so small that there is something almost hot hatch-like about it, a supercar you can genuinely play with on rough roads. It redefined for many judges what this type of car can be and the fun you can have on the road, earning a deserved place in the middle order.

Honda Civic Type R

No Car of the Year field feels complete without a hot hatch, and the Civic Type R carries the fight of the everyman performance car to the supercars, super saloons and motorsport specials. There is an uncomfortable sense, though, that the sun may be setting on this breed.

Everything you touch in here is top drawer. The Alcantara-clad wheel is neither too thick nor too thin and just the right size, the metal gear shift delivers arguably the best manual shift in the entire test, and the seats put you in exactly the right position immediately. Beautifully engineered and wonderfully exploitable, it more than held its own among far more exotic machinery.

Final Results and Buying Advice

The scores produced three clear groups. At the foot of the table sit the two GTs, the Maserati GranTurismo and the Aston Martin DB12. Both impressed as major steps forward for their respective marques, but their obvious flaws held them back. If you want a genuine cross-continent GT first and a driver’s car second, the Maserati is the stronger pick of the two.

The middle order held four cars that could all have taken overall honours in another year: the wonderfully usable Carrera T, the ferociously fast and exotic M3 CS, the beautifully engineered Civic Type R and the wonderfully crazy Huracán Sterrato. Any one of these is a fantastic choice depending on your brief: the Porsche for purists, the BMW for speed and daily usability, the Honda for affordable driver engagement, and the Lamborghini for those who want a supercar that plays as hard as it performs.

Porsche 911 GT3 RS: The Winner

The top trio was so close it came down to fractions of a point. Third went to the McLaren 750S, second to the Alpine A110 R, and the winner was the 992-based 911 GT3 RS, described simply as a force of nature, an automotive superhero brought to life.

The question hanging over the RS was whether it would be far too track-focused to work on the road. Instead, it delivered truly memorable drive after memorable drive, all with a spine-tingling soundtrack. Its track abilities were already known to set new standards, but on wet, wintry Scottish lanes it astounded everyone. The ability to tune the chassis on the fly helped, and the traction and stability control worked brilliantly, with standing water the only real stumbling block, shared by other cars in the test.

There is genuine magic in how a car with so little visible suspension travel copes with any bump or ridge it encounters. The grip it generates and the sheer confidence it inspires in the driver are something to behold, and then there is that flat-six, a constant presence that is pure music to the ears.

Conclusion

A week of driving nine of the world’s best performance cars on the UK’s finest roads produced a clear verdict: the Porsche 911 GT3 RS is Car of the Year 2023, a car that delivers on its extreme brief yet still works, brilliantly, on the public road. The Alpine A110 R and McLaren 750S pushed it hardest, and the rest of the field proved there has rarely been a richer time to be shopping for a driver’s car. Whichever of these nine suits your garage, you are choosing well.