Car group tests

Performance Car of the Year 2012

28 Nov, 2012 10:00am

Which is the best driver's car of 2012? We count them down from 10 to one

Welcome to Britain’s best Performance Car of the Year contest. Over the past 12 months, a bumper crop of fast cars has gone on sale, ranging from great-value pocket rockets to mid-engined exotics. In celebration, we’ve gathered together 10 of the best for our annual high-octane shoot-out.

We’ve rated each contender for handling on the road, performance, desirability and price, before going against the clock at the challenging Anglesey circuit in Wales.

We've also been in search of cheap thrills with eight performance bargains and gone for a drive on the wild side in a pair of crazy racers for the road. Buckle up...

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Submitted by Old Fred on Wed, 2012-11-28 17:15.

Nice to see the Toyota GT86 making it to the drivers car top spot, GT86 offers fantastic value for money as well.

Congratulations Toyota

Submitted by An Anglesey circuit driver on Wed, 2012-11-28 20:58.

Sounds like they didn't put the exige in race mode on the track...or forgot how to drive! It has amazing traction according to every other review.

Submitted by Ant on Thu, 2012-11-29 10:03.

Can't believe they didn't have the M135i there.

Submitted by dado on Thu, 2012-11-29 16:00.

no megane rs the best hot hatch and the benchmark for others,so unfair

Submitted by Richard Bodicoat on Sat, 2012-12-01 11:21.

Toyota GT 86 "Performance car of the
year" that’s some Statement, well where is the performance ?, 0-62 in 7.5sec is slow in this day And age, pick a 1980's hot hatch and it would easily rival this.
Next, drivability, it must be a huge task to extract the performance from this car, put you boot down in 4th gear at 30 mph and nothing happens, that’s because the measly 205nm of torque doesn’t arrive until 6400 rpm. The focus with a 1.0 litre engine produces 200nm of torque on over boost and most of that is available from 2000 rpm. Most modern diesel cars would out perform this in every way.
Enough said!

Submitted by john on Sat, 2012-12-08 18:11.

well you wouldn't put your foot down in fourth, you'd do it in second. Slightly daft argument. Have you ever driven a car?

Submitted by Dastbootja on Wed, 2013-03-27 09:33.

looks like there's a little more bias for the Ford again here.... AE get it right!

Next: 1st Toyota GT 86