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Performance Car of the Year

For 2022 there are two awards: a Sports Car of the Year award, in this instance for cars priced up to $100,000, and a Performance Car of the Year award for the more expensive machinery.

Both of these awards are judged not against the cars gathered, but against the time-honoured PCOTY criteria of performance, dynamics, accessibility, liveability, value and X-factor.

Motor Events A Brook 220201 4030
Performance COTY

Why the GR Yaris is one of the most bespoke cars at PCOTY 2022

It's expensive for a Yaris, but how many other performance cars at this pricepoint sit on their own unique platform?

2022 Hyundai I 20 N Main Pic
Performance COTY

Innovative tech is buried inside Hyundai’s i20 N powertrain

Baby N gains next-generation Continuously Variable Valve Duration system that adds grunt and aids efficiency

PCOTY 2022 BMW 128 Ti MAIN PIC
Performance COTY

Using facts and figures to explain the BMW 128ti’s strengths and weaknesses

Delving into the Sports Car of the Year data offers up interesting answers

Motor Events A Brook 220203 7483
Performance COTY

Missed out on the limited production Boxster 25 Years? Here's how to build your own

DIY Anniversary Special: Tick the right option boxes, and you can build a Boxster remarkably similar to our 4th-place PCOTY finisher

Audi RS 6 PCOTY 08 T Wielecki 09
Performance COTY

How the 2022 Performance Car of the Year field compares to our 2008 event

We take a look back at the last time PCOTY graced Phillip Island

2022 Volkwagen Golf GTI MAIN PIC
Performance COTY

How the Volkswagen Golf GTI’s pace shocked everybody at SCOTY 2022

Venerable hot hatch proves faster than performance icons of the past

2022 PCOTY Photos MAIN PIC
Performance COTY

Experience MOTOR’s Performance Car of the Year 2022 through the camera lens

MOTOR’s talented photography team smashed PCOTY 2022 out of the park – here are our favourite shots

PCOTY 2022 BMW M 3 MAIN PIC
Performance COTY

Want to perform the perfect drift? Buy a BMW M3

M Division’s Drift Analyser rates your slide and gives you tips to improve your form

Motor Events A Brook 220203 8364
Performance COTY

2022 Subaru BRZ: how fast is fast enough?

The new and improved BRZ posted some impressive figures during PCOTY testing but some still argue that it's not a sports car. We look at the evidence

E Dewar 220201 PCOTY 2022 Jaguar F Type P 450 R Dynamic Orange 2
Performance COTY

Is the Jaguar F-Type’s old V6 really just a V8 with two cylinders blanked?

We uncover whether the dearly departed AJ126 engine is just a cut-down supercharged Jaguar V8

2022 SCOTY Ford Focus ST
Performance COTY

The tricky diff that helps the Ford Focus ST fight torque steer

Ford’s hot hatch hero uses a clever diff that stops wheelspin and torque steer before it even occurs

Motor Events C Brunelli 220228 PCOTY 160
Performance COTY

Behind the scenes of Performance Car of the Year 2022

Hail, a cracked windscreen, a software update and Omicron... Nothing gets in the way of Performance Car of the Year

E Dewar 220204 PCOTY SCOTY 2022 Skoda Octavia RS 9th 17
Performance COTY

This neat suspension trick allows the Skoda Octavia RS to be a comfortable family car and surprising track weapon

The Czech wagon has a suspension system that you can really geek out on

Motor Events A Brook 220201 3533
Performance COTY

What makes the Mazda ND MX-5's development story special

Subtract and add lightness: how Mazda undid two generations of weight gain

Motor Events A Brook 220131 1897
Performance COTY

The Lamborghini Huracan Evo is more than an Audi R8 in disguise

An Audi R8 in disguise? PCOTY proves the Lamborghini Huracan Evo is so much more than that

C Brunelli 220228 2022 PCOTY Track Review 1
Performance COTY

MOTOR’s Performance Car of the Year 2022: the track test

One of the best race tracks in the world and a field bursting with talent – game on

A Brook 220204 PCOTY Vbox Data 9
Performance COTY

Your chance to play data analyst with the MOTOR Performance Car of the Year VBOX files

For the first time in PCOTY history, we are giving you the change to play with all our performance data from Phillip Island

PCOTY Road Loop MAIN
Performance COTY

MOTOR’s Performance Car of the Year 2022: the road test

With split awards for 2022, this year’s PCOTY road testing demanded some special treatment

Motor Events 22 PCOTY WINNER COVER LIGHTS
Performance COTY

Video: MOTOR Performance Car of the Year 2022 winner revealed

And the winner of MOTOR’s Performance Car of the Year 2022 title is…

C Brunelli 220228 PCOTY VBOX Data 4
Performance COTY

PCOTY 2022: Lap times and corner speeds

We breakdown exactly where each of our 18 competitors made, and lost, time around Phillip Island raceway

2022 Porsche Taycan Turbo S Notes MAIN PIC
Performance COTY

There’s more to the Porsche Taycan Turbo S than raw numbers

We dive into the electric Porsche’s mechanical gubbins to see how it makes the most of those crazy power figures

Motor Events A Brook 220204 8408
Performance COTY

The data behind Performance Car of the Year 2022

The eight greatest performance cars of the last 12 months race against the stopwatch

Motor Events A Brook 220204 8675
Performance COTY

The data behind Sports Car of the Year 2022

We run the hard numbers to see which small player packs the biggest punch

A Brook 220203 PCOTY 2022 BMW Alpina B 3 Sedan 8th 54
Performance COTY

How Alpina gave the BMW M3’s engine an entirely new character

The shared internals are the same, but how the BMW M3 and Alpina B3’s engine’s perform are drastically different