Our road test team gets to drive exciting new metal almost every week. They can't all be winners, but of the ones that did impress, which stood out the most?
We've already asked the wider editorial team which cars stood out for them over the past twelve months and why, which you can read elsewhere. This list is more focused on the cars themselves. If it made the cut below, you know it's something very special indeed.
Caterham Seven 170 R - Matt Prior
Whisper it, but the Caterham Seven 170, my favourite car of this year, actually isn’t my favourite Caterham to drive. But I’ve decided that doesn’t matter.
When Caterham set out to revive its cheapest and least powerful model, fitted with a small threecylinder turbocharged Suzuki engine, it decided to do something special with it. It decided to make the lightest Seven it has ever produced. And that is the kind of idea that I can get behind every day of the week.
Specifying the engine and the fivespeed gearbox that all Caterhams drive through these days was presumably the easy bit. It’s the rest where the firm had to be brutal, either designing the lightest-possible version of something – fashioning the rear wings, narrower than other Caterham wings, out of carbonfibre– or not fitting parts at all.
There are two versions of the 170, the R and the S. With the S, you get a windscreen, a heater, the full weather gear and suchlike, plus carpets and some plush seats. In the R, you don’t (although Caterham’s options list means you can put comfort equipment back in).
In its lightest-possible form, the 170R weighs no more than 440kg. I didn’t find it an instant hit. I liked it when I drove it around Sussex and Kent, but its appeal didn’t truly come alive until I tested it at Trac Môn and on the surrounding Welsh roads.
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No justice in the market.... Abroad for NY rented a new Hyundai Tuscon. Hate it excruciatingly annoying ugly boring car with a nice digital display. Sells by the boat load. Whereas Alfa Romeo sell hardly any when they make interesting cars that admittedly don't have a nice digital displays. Looking forward to driving mine home and giving this appliance back.