Five days, ten cars and 3709kW: Our PCOTY issue is on sale now!

It’s one of our favourite times of the year, as the annual Performance Car of the Year issue goes on sale today!

Of course our 2021 round of PCOTY will go down in history as the event that almost didn’t happen. As testing takes place in the latter months of the previous year, our esteemed annual award was dead in the water as Victoria, and the world, grappled with the Covid pandemic.

But there was light between the clouds, and as Melbourne’s brutal lockdowns retreated, so did we to the hills.

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Five days, ten cars, 3709kW and a collective value worth almost $2.2 million dollars: just what the doctor ordered after being locked inside for 112 days. But this wasn’t a holiday, we were there to find out what’s the best performance car money can buy in Australia. It was the toughest-fought contest in years; introducing the most powerful car ever submitted for testing, the fastest car we’d ever strapped timing gear to, and produced a Winton production car lap record in the process.

From dusk ‘til dawn, we put these ten champions of speed through their paces on the winding roads of the Victorian high country, and at the technical 3.0km Winton Raceway. Ex-V8 Supercar driver Karl Reindler was enlisted for timed hot laps, while the judges scored each car upon each of the six PCOTY criteria: Performance, Dynamics, Accessibility, Liveability, Value and X-Factor to form the final rank.

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You can read about the full PCOTY testing and culling process, plus a behind the scenes look, in the magazine today!

We also drive the new Aussie V8 SuperUte, the highly-anticipated BMW M2 CS flagship, the updated Mercedes-AMG E63 S and the stunning modern reincarnation of the RUF Yellowbird. Plus all of the usual musings from our regular columnists, extensive long-term tests and news.

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Find the magazine in stores and on shelves now. Valued subscribers, your issue was held back to coincide with the digital announcement however should be well on its way to you now.

If you’re not yet subscribed, you can snag up to 49% off at motor.subscription.com.au