By: Star Motoring Staff
Johannesburg - As the countdown continues to our Best of the Best awards ceremony on December 7, our judges have been hard at work sorting through the lengthy list of cars launched in South Africa in 2015.
At the end of each year our publication's team of motoring journalists selects an overall winning Best of the Best vehicle as well as victors in the categories of Small/Budget Car, Family Car, Performance Car, Luxury Car, and Adventure Vehicle. There is also a Best-Styled Vehicle voted for by readers.
From the more than 70 all-new or upgraded vehicles that have been launched in SA this year, we've come up with a shortlist across numerous categories. These are the performance cars; use the links at the bottom of the story to see our finalists in other categories.
PERFORMANCE CARS
Audi RS6
Batman’s family car. With space to lug the family and the labradors, coupled with Ferrari-frightening pace, quattro traction and livid looks, the Audi RS6 Avant is one aspirational beast. Its appealingly bipolar personality extends to its driving characteristics; it’s brutally fast and loud when you want it to be, but also remarkably civilised to drive around town – granny could knit in the back seat without dropping a stitch.
BMW i8
The future called, and it wants its supercar back. It was a tall order for BMW to create a performance car with such stunning looks and super-efficiency at the same time, but the i8 nailed the challenge. As a plug-in hybrid it can cruise around with absolutely no emissions, but with help from its 1.5 turbo engine it’s also got the pace to hang with some seriously high-calibre machinery.
Jaguar F-Type R AWD
Channeling that monstrous 405kW of power through all four wheels of this British brute, the new all-wheel drive version of Jaguar’s fastest F-Type is a more well-behaved beast than its two-wheel-drive counterpart. The extra grip tames the angry rodeo bull without diluting the fun, and that supercharged 5-litre V8 has one of the best roars in the business.
Mercedes AMG-GT
Merc’s new sportscar, available in GT (340kW) and GT-S (375kW) versions, is a silk-coated sledgehammer with looks to kill. Powered by a gorgeous-sounding 4-litre turbo V8, this is a sophisticated sportscar that can switch between civilised cruiser and race-track brute at the turn of a dial. Both versions have double-wishbone suspension at both ends, but the S is set apart by an electronically-controlled locking diff on the back end, which is more responsive than the purely mechanical one on the standard GT.
They also offer reasonably good value for money as supercars go.
Porsche Boxster Spyder
This lightened and most powerful version of Porsche’s topless two-seater gets a bigger 3.8-litre flat-six engine to extract even more fun out of that brilliant chassis.
It’s a car that marries ride quality, grip, predictability and throttle response in that special Porsche way, while the soulful engine sound also adds to the million-buck experience.
Both the transmission and the soft-top roof are manually-operated, making it a car for true purists.
VW Polo GTI
Though it seems like a goldfish in a shark-infested pond in this group, the Polo GTI has a piranha-like bite supplied by its 1.8-litre turbo engine.
The little hot hatch makes our performance-car shortlist because of its very appealing bang-for-buck: it’s 100 grand cheaper than a Golf GTI but just 0.3 seconds slower from 0-100km/h.
Star Motoring