Cars in 2023 are better than ever | Cars of the Year 2023 | GRR
Increasingly these days, the general enthusiast’s outlook on the car industry is one of negativity, motivated by a stoic refusal to let go of the glorious past as an uncertain and fast-approaching future looms large on the horizon. The trouble is that quite often part and parcel of that stance is a susceptibility to write off the present as we get ever more worked up by the oft-referred demise of the golden age of combustion power. We get so wound up by what’s to come that we forget to enjoy what we have now.
That’s a huge shame because there is still so much to get excited about when it comes to new cars. The past 18 months have seen incredible innovations in technology, engineering and design.
There’s a saying that there are no bad cars anymore and that statement does hold water. None of the cars you’ve seen launch in 2023 are going to start rotting on your driveway, neither are the door trims going to come loose as you cruise along the motorway. Luck and reliability aside, you can more or less buy any car you like and be safe in the knowledge that it’ll just work.
I’d like to argue, however, that there’s more to it than that. All of us here at GRR have come to the conclusion that the car industry is about as healthy as it’s ever been in terms of the quality and diversity of what’s on offer. To prove it, we brought together nine cars that we think deliver a message of positivity and prove that if you stop worrying about what’s to come or lamenting the loss of what once was for just a second, it’s not all doom and gloom in 2023. Far from it. This was a year that gave the best of both worlds, from boundary-pushing electric cars to screaming naturally-aspirated super sportscars.
Consider your car of choice. It’ll perhaps be focused on performance, practicality, comfort, style, or any mixture of the above. In almost every sector, we’ve seen something in the past 18 months that represents the best version of itself.
Whether it’s the Maserati MC20 Cielo – an utterly gorgeous supercar that exemplifies fiery Italian automotive culture – or the Honda Civic Type R – certainly the best Type R there’s ever been and therefore by default, is up there among the very best hot hatches we have ever seen – these are cars at the very peak of their powers.
Then you have two of the most incredible Porsche 911s we’ve ever seen in the 992 GT3 RS and the 911 Dakar. One, the ultimate performance Porsche, honed to the nth degree with a level of driver-led adjustability that to the surprise of all is as good on the road as it is on track, despite the racetrack refugee styling. The other is one of an expanding crop of off-roading sportscars that have broken cover in 2023, offering flat-six thrills for the farm track rather than race track. The 911 has above all else been a staple sportscar since its inception in 1964 but in 2023, more than ever before, the range of 911s on sale shows just how versatile the world’s most famous sportscar can be. You can buy it in rally car spec for goodness’ sake.
Even McLaren, in its relative infancy as a road car manufacturer, has come up with something truly special with the Artura. It’s provided us with a glimpse at what we can expect from supercars going forward, as we head towards hybrid and electric powertrains. Judging by what’s been achieved with this car, we have plenty to look forward to. Its hybrid V6 delivers power and personality in a way that simply wasn’t possible before.
BMW finally came good on the long-held dream of an M3 Touring, delivering in the process a do-anything performance car for the ages. Unsurprisingly. That this even exists is almost beyond belief, given the 20 years it took to arrive after that initial tease. The reality lives up to the fantasy.
Bentley is a marque very much looking to the future but not before celebrating its past. The Flying Spur Speed Edition 12, the last goodbye for the W12 engine, sends the delightful dozen off in outstanding style and is a celebration of the performance and refinement the engine is beloved for. We’re excited for Bentley’s electric future but the Edition 12 is no less than a fitting farewell to an all-time great powertrain.
The truth is that the inevitability of an electric future is not all bad. There’s no two ways about it, some of them are already very good. As we transition from the initial run of gimmicky, novelty early adopter fodder that kick-started the push towards electric power, cars like the MG4 give us cause for optimism.
It’s been rightfully lauded for its tick-every-box approach and with the hugely powerful MG4 XPower we get a glimpse at what a future hot hatch might look and feel like. There’s work to be done when it comes to the cornering – Alpine A290 and Hyundai Ioniq 5N for CotY 2024 anyone? – but the MG4 gives us hope that this current generation of petrol-powered hot hatches, headed by the likes of the Civic Type R, might not be the breed’s closing chapter.
Then there’s the Hyundai Ioniq 6, possibly my favourite electric car of 2023. Sure, some cars are better to drive but what I love about this car is the thinking behind it. Not satisfied with simply building the best cars it can within the accepted confines of current taste and technology, Hyundai has taken its ball and gone to play in a new field. Just look at it.
This kind of thinking is the reason I’m excited about EVs. The opportunities to make cars fundamentally better, more interesting and more diverse go some way to compensating for the loss of combustion engine personality. And let’s be real for a moment, the combustion engine isn’t going anywhere any time soon. Besides, the car industry is never going to be just made up of EVs, that’s an unrealistic and unsustainable solution. Their introduction is almost guaranteed to be diluted by combustion-engined cars running on sustainable fuels and hydrogen-powered alternatives.
As a fan of motorsport who grew up to the soundtrack of V10 F1 cars, of course I’m not going to sit here and proclaim the world a better place now they’re gone. All I’m saying is the car industry is a healthier and more interesting place with EVs in it, from many more angles than simply one of sustainability. And maybe, just maybe, if we get this right, those V10s might come back one day.
It is for that reason that 2023 has been one of the most interesting and exciting years in the history of motoring. The GRR team has driven so many spectacular cars over the past 12 months and everything we always loved is still right here, there’s just more now than there was before, as evidenced in our gathering. 2023’s supercars can be innovative and hybridised, raw and Italian, bewinged and track-ready. Family cars can be manual touring cars for the road, or physics-defyingly accelerative EVs; high-performance Bahnstorming wagons or indulgent 12-cylinder titans. 911s can set lap records and enter local rallies. It’s been a good year, a diverse year – one of indulgent last hurrahs and brave lunges into the future alike – and it’ll take some beating in 2024.
Be sure to watch the Goodwood Road and Racing Cars of the Year video when it launches on Friday 15th December.
Photography by Joe Harding.