How to watch the Performance Car of the Year announcement

Australia’s premier performance car award will be announced on March 10, at 19:30 AEDT.

You can watch the stream live on this page or catch it on MOTOR’s Facebook and YouTube channels.

The most powerful PCOTY to date took place over four days on the roads of Victoria’s high country and at a favourite MOTOR venue, Winton Raceway, in December 2020.

The shortlist of candidates was whittled down to ten contenders released in the 12 months prior to testing. The field for PCOTY delivered a lap record for a production car at Winton, the fastest car MOTOR has ever strapped timing gear to and also included the most powerful car ever submitted for PCOTY judging.

The 10 contenders:

• Audi R8 V10 Performance
• Audi RS6 Avant
• BMW M550i xDrive
• Ford Fiesta ST
• Herrod SM17
• Mercedes-AMG A45 S
• Mercedes-AMG GT R Pro
• Porsche Cayman GTS
• Porsche 911 Turbo S
• Toyota Yaris GR

Five judges evaluated the cars against the PCOTY criteria of Performance, Dynamics, Accessibility, Liveability, Value and X-Factor. The cars were also timed on track, with hot laps driven by former V8 Supercar driver Karl Reindler. This is the 25th running of Performance Car of the Year with testing having taken place since 1996.

2021 MOTOR Shootout: the fastest cars in the country, tested on track!

Only six manufacturers have ever claimed the PCOTY crown. Porsche has won 15 out of the prior 24 events, Nissan and Audi three, BMW with two victories, and one win each for Lamborghini and Honda. Those good at maths might have realised there was a tie for first, back in 2009 when the Nissan GT-R and Audi R8 shared the spoils.

Read the full 2021 Performance Car of the Year coverage at here or grab the March 2021 issue, on-sale from March 11th.