Videos: Our favourite YouTube car clips we've shared in 2023

1. Porsche three-way battle

As far as motoring music goes, it really doesn’t get much better than riding shotgun with a Porsche 917 as its flat-12 chugs and whoops around Laguna Seca. This is the Gulf-liveried chassis 016, taking part in Rennsport Reunion IV back in 2011, battling other 917s and 908s on its way around the beloved Californian circuit, for 50-odd minutes no less. They are endurance racers after all…

“The fight for the lead is furious between the front four 917s,” said Ben Mile’s GRR’s managing editor when we shared this in November.

“We get a perfect view from our camera car, while also listening to that wonderful engine scream.”

2. Huayra R vs Zonda R

The V12 engine is for obvious reasons a dying breed in 2023, going into 2024. But as you might imagine, it’s not going out without a bit of a song and dance, if at all. If it’s to live on at all, it’ll be in cars like the Pagani Huayra R and Zonda R, unbound as they are by the rules of road car manufacturing and sales. But that’s a worry for another day. Today we’re celebrating the coolest videos we’ve shared all year and a comparison between two V12 greats of the last two decades is a fine way to dispense with eight minutes of your time.

“Truthfully, right from the off, we’d say the Huayra has the edge,” we said when we shared this back in May.

“Why? because it revs higher, it has a broader vocal range, giving even the Aston Martin Valkyrie and GMA T.50 a run for their money.”

3. Aston Martin V12 LMP1 around Spa

Of course, one arena V12 engines are actually returning to very soon is that of endurance racing… thank the good lord. It is of course Aston Martin doing so, as it sends the Valkyrie AMR Pro off to Le Mans for a crack at overall honours in 2025. To celebrate the announcement of a return to Le Mans for a V12, we shared clips of the incredible, if somewhat flawed Lola of a few years ago. The Valkyrie will if anything be even more special, being the first road-based car with a crack at the overall win since the McLaren F1 took it in 1995.

“The car wasn’t the most successful at La Sarthe in period,” we said when we shared this video in October.

“It finished fourth in 2009, behind Audi and Peugeot, though it was the most successful petrol-powered car. Remember, the go-to fuel in the WEC in that era was diesel…”

4. Insane time attack Audi R8

From pedigree-laden factory efforts, to home-brewed one-off insanity. This is one we shared early in the year but truthfully, we never forgot it. As you’ll see, it’s not a car you’d easily forget. It is of course an Audi R8, though one far from the V10-powered, all-wheel-drive, everyday supercar we all know and love. No, this one packs a twin-turbo RS 6 V8, a wing to make a GT3 RS feel a little shrimpy and an entirely swapped nose that turns pretty well the entire area between the wheels into a giant splitter. A crazy crazy thing.

“Its pace is as terrifying as it is to look at,” we said when we shared this video back in March.

“Though by the looks of it the driver has a decent handle on its wayward ways.

5. '90s Historic racing around the Isle of Man

Back on the more blue chip side of things, we go back to the 1990s and to the Isle of Man, though we’re not swapping four wheels for two. No, the Manx classic sees some incredible historic racing cars – familiar to those who’ve been to a Goodwood event or two – battling the streets that host the TT.

Of course, this is the 1990s, so many of these cars aren’t quite yet worth what they are today and indeed, they’re driven in a commensurate blissfully ignorant (in the best way) manner.

“Within this incredibly short two-minute clip, we see the ex-Jim Clark Aston Martin DB4GT Zagato absolutely flying along in decidedly damp conditions, laying down an alarming amount of rubber as it fires away from a corner,” said Simon Ostler, GRR’s Website Editor when sharing this back in June.

“With plenty of sideways action from a stunning array of classic cars, the Manx Classic is one of those events that just looks like an incredible amount of fun.”

6. Ferrari V12 F1 glory

It wouldn’t be a list of great videos without at least a little bit of F1 action and indeed, such content doesn’t get much better than V12 screamers of the late 1980s and early 1990s. Ferrari’s V12s from this era might be up there as some of the best-sounding ever. In support of that claim, the above video evidence.

“Such is the sound of a 1992 Ferrari V12-engined Formula 1 car that it doesn’t even have to be moving to captivate a crowd of onlookers,” we said when we shared this video back in April.

“There is simply nothing that can hold a match to the noise these things make, and this is just one of them. Can you imagine what a field of 26 of these would have sounded like as they roared away from the start line?”

7. Gurney Eagle V12 screaming around Laguna Seca

We end where we began, riding on board an iconic racing car from decades bygone, listening to 12 cylinders sing their way around Laguna Seca. Of course, here we can see wheels and a lot more of our surroundings, for unlike the Porsche 917, the Gurney Eagle is an open-wheel Formula 1 car. Hailing form 1967, it pre-dates the 917 by a couple of years too but sounds no less spectacular as it winds its V12 out at the 2021 Velocity Invitational.

Yes, it has a rev counter that reads all the way around to 12,000rpm,” said Ben Miles, GRR’s managing Editor.

“But our favourite thing is that the needle doesn’t move smoothly. Instead, it basically ticks like a clock, flicking around the dial.”

So those are our favourite videos we’ve shared in our ‘Elevenses’ series in 2023. Are there any you think we should have included? Which is your favourite? Let us know your thoughts and of course, stay with us for more epic YouTube-sourced motoring fodder in 2024.