TopGear.com Awards 2022 - The Greatest Cars Of The Year Crowned

**Top Gear.com Awards 2022: Celebrating the Best Cars of the Year**

Welcome back to the Top Gear.com Awards, where we celebrate the finest cars on the planet. It’s that time of year again, and we’re here to name the winners of our prestigious awards. From hypercars to family-friendly MPVs, this year’s nominees are as impressive as ever. But let’s not give away the game too early—stay tuned as we reveal the winners one by one.

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### **1. Hypercar of the Year: Koenigsegg Jesko**

Kicking off our awards with a bang, the first trophy goes to the Koenigsegg Jesko. Christian von Koenigsegg and his boutique hypercar company have once again proved why they’re at the forefront of automotive innovation. This car is a true masterpiece, blending power, elegance, and precision engineering. Congratulations to Koenigsegg—and to ourselves for not crashing!

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### **2. Hot Hatch of the Year: Honda Civic Type R**

Next up is the hot hatch segment, which may be dwindling in numbers but not in quality. This year’s winner is the new Honda Civic Type R, a car that Chris Harris put through its paces on our test track. With 324 horsepower from its two-liter turbocharged engine, this hot hatch delivers an impressive 170 mph and accelerates from 0-60 mph in just five seconds. Chris had this to say: “Honda still has the balls to make a hot hatch when no one else seems to want to. It reminds me how well-suited these cars are for UK roads, and it’s exactly what I love about driving.”

But wait—there’s more! The Honda Civic Type R also won Chris Harris’s Car of the Year award. In his words: “It’s a car that makes me smile. It’s the right size in a world where everything seems excessive. It hits the spot, and when we filmed it at Dunsfold, I found myself behaving badly—and that’s what really matters.”

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### **3. Instant Icon Award: Hyundai Envision 74 Concept**

Our next award goes to a car whose design blew us away from the moment we saw it. The Hyundai Envision 74 Concept is nothing short of breathtaking—it even looks like a DeLorean, but in a good way! Ollie Q took this hydrogen-powered concept car for a spin at Birstallberg, one of the scariest racetracks you’ve never heard of. Despite its futuristic design, this car proved it can hold its own on track, earning it a spot in our awards.

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### **4. Sports Car of the Year: Toyota GR 86**

For those who love sports cars but want something affordable, the Toyota GR 86 is here to steal the show. Priced under £30,000, this car offers a perfect balance of power and handling. Ollie Marriage took it for a spin in Wales and was left speechless: “This thing could do that for days—that’s what I’m talking about!”

While it may not be as flashy as some of its competitors, the GR 86 is a true driver’s car, with excellent center weight balance and a heart-pounding driving experience. It’s no surprise Toyota sold out quickly when this car was announced—and it will only be available for two years.

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### **5. Noise of the Year: Pagani Huayra R**

If you love the sound of powerful engines, prepare to have your ears treated to something extraordinary. The Pagani Huayra R, with its naturally aspirated 6.0-liter V12 engine, produces a symphony of noise that leaves us in awe. This car is a beast—costing £2.5 million—and it’s hard not to fall in love with its raw power and stunning design.

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### **6. MPV MVP (Most Valuable People Carrier) of the Year: VW ID Buzz**

Now, for a bit of Ying to our Toyota’s Yang, we’re thrilled to announce the all-electric VW ID Buzz as our MPV MVP of the Year. This car is more than just a family vehicle—it’s a game-changer. With its sleek, modern design and the ability to run heating and air conditioning simultaneously, it’s redefining what a family car can be.

When we took one to meet the VW Camper faithful in Como, even the most passionate car enthusiasts couldn’t help but admire this electric marvel. It’s not just about practicality—it’s about pushing boundaries and changing perceptions.

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### **7. Moment of the Year: McMurtry Spinnaker**

The moment that stole the show this year came when the tiny all-electric single-seater, the McMurtry Spinnaker, set a record at Goodwood Hill Climb. Max Chilton piloted this car to victory in 39.08 seconds—a time faster than any car had achieved before. If you haven’t seen this footage yet, stop reading and head to topgear.com immediately—it’s a sight (and sound) to behold.

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### **8. Freddie Flintoff’s Car of the Year: Peugeot 205 GTI**

Freddie Flintoff has a knack for choosing cars that defy convention. This year, he picked the Peugeot 205 GTI—a classic hot hatch that harks back to simpler times. In his words: “It’s not as quick as a modern hot hatch, but it’s Nimble and around corners, it just doesn’t want to let go. It’s a proper car.”

While the 205 GTI may cost £45k (a bargain compared to its competition), Freddie couldn’t resist its charm—and neither could we.

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### **9. Manufacturer of the Year: Kia**

This year’s Manufacturer of the Year award goes to Kia, a brand that has consistently impressed us with its lineup and willingness to take risks. From the best-selling Sportage to its rapidly expanding electric portfolio—including the Nero EV, ev6, ev6 GT, and the upcoming seven-seater ev9—Kia is leading the charge in the EV space.

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### **10. Performance Car of the Year: Porsche Cayman GT4 RS**

Our Performance Car of the Year award was never really in doubt this year. The Porsche Cayman GT4 RS claimed victory at our annual Speed Week test, held at Auto Adrenalin back in September. With a best-in-class sports car engine and stunning design, this car is as powerful as it is breathtaking.

The Cayman GT4 RS may not be the flashiest car on the road, but its driving dynamics and raw power make it a true winner.

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### **11. Supercar of the Year: Ferrari 296 GTB**

Rounding out our supercar segment, we have the Ferrari 296 GTB—a rear-wheel-drive mid-engined V6 hybrid that combines petrol and electrons to devastating effect. This car is so powerful it’s hard to imagine anyone wanting—or being able—to go faster.

While its £300k price tag may not make it accessible to most, this car is a true statement of intent. It’s playful, powerful, and as sensational as it gets.

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### **12. Bargain of the Year: MG4 Electric**

Finally, for those who want luxury without the hefty price tag, our Bargain of the Year goes to the MG4 Electric. Priced at £8k less than its competitor, the VW ID3, this practical family hatchback delivers everything you could ask for from an electric vehicle.

It may not be as fast as the Ferrari 296 GTB, but it’s just as capable—and far more affordable.

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### **13. Luxury Car of the Year: Range Rover**

Last but certainly not least, our Luxury Car of the Year award goes to the new Range Rover. Jason Barlow took this car for a spin near San Francisco and was left in awe. With its next-level cabin comfort, 23-inch wheels, and sublime ride quality, this Range Rover redefines luxury.

Paddy McGuinness, a serial Range Rover owner himself, also chose this car as his Car of the Year: “It’s absolutely beautiful, ticks all the boxes, especially if you want to go off-roading in a car that costs around £140k.”

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### **Car of the Year 2022: Honda Civic Type R**

And finally, we reveal our top award: Car of the Year. For the second year in a row, it’s the Honda Civic Type R—a car that takes everything we loved about its predecessor (launched in 2017) and makes it even better. With a focus on fine details like seat quality, gearshift precision, and chassis playfulness, this is a masterclass in automotive engineering.

From its sleek design to its Alcantara accents and red interior, the Civic Type R is as much fun to drive as it is to look at. It’s no surprise that it won both Chris Harris’s Car of the Year and our overall award.

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### **Conclusion**

This year’s Top Gear.com Awards have been nothing short of spectacular, celebrating a diverse range of vehicles from hypercars to family-friendly MPVs. As we look forward to 2023, one car stands out as the one we’re most excited to drive: the Lamborghini Huracán Serato—a perfect blend of performance, off-road ability, and mid-engined V10 power.

Make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel, listen to the Top Gear magazine podcast, and check out all our social media channels for more coverage on these incredible cars. And don’t forget to pick up a copy of Top Gear magazine’s Awards Issue—it comes with a free supercars calendar!

Thank you for joining us for this year’s event. Here’s to another year of unforgettable cars—and unforgettable moments.

Goodnight, and see you next time!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhello and welcome to the top gear.com Awards 2022 it's that time of year again where we name the very finest cars on the planet according to us most of them are over there looking very shiny indeed but I don't want to give away the game too early which is why the camera is looking at the messy bit of the studio I haven't really thought this through have I never mind we've got 19 trophies to hand out we're all busy people so let's just crack on with it shall we and we start with the bang our first award is hypercar of the year and it goes to the Koenigsegg yesco take a look at this if you're unaware of Christian bomb Koenigsegg and his Boutique hypercar company for a treat foreign congratulations to the yes go and congratulations to me for not crashing and our next award is hot hatch of the year a segment that's dwindling a bit in numbers but not in quality if our next winner is anything to go by and that winner is this the new much less ugly Honda Civic Type R and here's what happened when Chris Harris Got His Hands On One at the Top Gear test track stop settings delinquent more power than ever before 324 horsepower from a two liter turbocharged engine okay that's only a few more horsepower than the old one but it'll still do 170 miles an hour for the 60 in five seconds I mean how much more do you want that's immense for a little hot hatchback Chris Harris there proving there's still nothing quite like some old school hot hatch hoonery but don't leave the stage yet Civic Type R because there's more you've won another award you are also Chris Harris's Car of the Year not exactly a surprise after seeing that clip is it but here's Chris to explain why my car of the year for 2022 is the Civic Type R reasons why first of all I'm I'm just so happy that Honda still has the balls to make a hot hatch no one else seems to want to make them anymore and it reminds me just how well suited that type of car is to to UK roads in fact many roads I love the nod to its Heritage the the red interior the Alcantara the little metal gear lever it's a car that makes me smile it's the right size in a world where everything seems a bit excessive and overpowered it just seems to hit the spot I I loved driving it and when we filmed it at dunsfold I found myself behaving badly and that's what really matters next up is our instant icon award which goes to a car whose design blew us away the moment we looked at it and it goes to this gorgeous thing here this Hyundai Envision 74 concept how ridiculously cool is this it actually looks like a DeLorean a little bit doesn't it except actually good and it doesn't just look tasty either no it can handle itself on track as Ollie q discovered foreign welcome to bilsterberg probably the scariest racetrack you've never heard of so a good place to drive a Priceless concept car which they've only got one of drivable in the world I'm an old army base and I'm in a hydrogen-powered weapon yeah prices concept car so what if you set it up to drift I'm gonna try and drift it three and a half million views that videos had on YouTube or qtube as we like to call it now and from one sports car to another except this one you can actually buy theoretically and for under 30 grand because our sports car of the year is the Toyota gr 86 and here's Mr Ollie marriage getting to grips with one in Wales wow wow wow wow oh my God it could do that for days that's what I'm talking about this the center balance this thing's got is brilliant so on track what a little thing this is but my word why did it take Toyota so long to sort it so long in fact that they've now said it can only be on sale for two years next for a bit of Ying to our affordable Toyota's Yang it's time for our noise of the year which comes via the extravagant rear end of the track only 2.5 million pound Pagani Huayra R via it's naturally aspirated 6 liter V12 have a listen to this foreign foreign good Lord next up it's by far the best title of the night the MPV MVP of the year genius now I happen to think that mpvs are due a big big comeback and this bus slash fan slash people carrier is the one leading the charge yep the winner is the all-electric VW ID buzz and here's a reminder of what happened when we took one to meet the VW Camper faithful in Como you can keep your Ferrari 296 or your Lotus Amira this is probably the most significant car of 2022. why because it has the ability to change our perceptions of what a family car can be it almost looks futuristic but sleek and modern it's really really nice being able to run the heating all the time on the air con all the time as a camper you know great options there yes it's got the modern nuances which I really like but it's still got very much the reminiscence of the original foreign and now for our moment of the Year nope not when Jeff from accounts but the national anthem at the Christmas party although that was undeniably impressive it's when this tiny all-electric single-seater fired up its fans that sucker it down onto the road and Max Chilton fired out of the Goodwood hill climb in 39.08 seconds faster than any car that had ever gone before if you haven't seen the footage of that full run get to top gear.com immediately and nope we haven't fast forwarded the footage if you hadn't heard of the McMurtry spearing before the Goodwood Festival of speed this year you have now moving on to Freddie flintoff's favorite new car of the year once again he studied the rules and then ignored them completely but here's Freddie to explain why he picked a Peugeot 205 GTI my car of the year for 2022 is the 205 GTI it's almond and I know people say it's not a new car but it's a wrestler mod and I must admit out of all the cards I've driven this series it's the one I've had the most fun in I wanted one when I was 19 20 couldn't get insured and it's the first time I'd driven one and it was an absolute treat when I got in it did not let me down around the track at dunsfold it was beautiful no gizmos none of all the high-tech stuff just a proper car it wasn't as quick as a modern hot hatch um but the thing about it was it was Nimble and around corners it just didn't want to let go it just stuck and it kept going the more I pushed it I think I better drive it might have got a bit more out of it as well one downside to the 205 GTI tournament is 45 Grand bought with the price of cars nowadays when you can get a peuge or estate for 60 Grand I don't think it's too bad next up it's a biggie our manufacturer of the year now this goes to a manufacturer that's impressed us with the consistency of its cars there's also taken a few little risks along the way and the winner is here you've got the Sportage smashing it in the sales charts and then this lineup of electric cars that's rapidly expanding and leaving all the competition in the dust things like the Nero EV the ev6 the ev6 GT with 570 horsepower and just around the corner the seven-seater ev-9 it's all go moving on to our performance car of the year award which was never really in doubt since this car claimed victory at speed wheat which is our annual performance car of the year test that this year took place at Auto draw mosque back in September and the winner is this the ridiculously talented and ridiculously noisy Porsche Cayman GT4 RS and here it is letting its hair down in the Czech Republic speed week in 2022 deep breath for the big name is the Porsche 718 Kevin gc4 RF Portia have taken the best all-round sports car in the world the Cayman dropped in the best sports car engine in the world from a GT3 and the results are unsurprisingly spectacular so why is the Cayman RS here well let's ask the car yeah pretty good argument it makes some good points right time for a little less speed and a bit more sensible as we announced the top gear.com family hats of the year which goes to this the new voxel Astra now voxels have been as Bland as cold porridge for quite a while now but it's amazing what a full design rethink can do isn't it the new mocha looks fantastic this new Astra arguably looks even better I mean how is this even a voxel it's quite hard to tell isn't it with the blacked out badge at the front I actually want one they've got petrol engines diesel engines this one is a plug-in hybrid and there's a full electric version coming next year okay next award Supercar of the year and it goes to this the Ferrari 296 GTB a car that came a very close second to the Cayman GT4 RS in our recent speed week test what is it well it's a rear wheel drive mid-engined V6 hybrid that uses a combination of petrol and electrons to such devastating effect it's hard to see how any human could or would want to go any faster and just a warning about this next clip if you don't like seeing tires go up in smoke you might want to look away now the Ferrari 296 GTB the entry-level mid-engined hybrid Supercar entry-level Supercar with 800 horsepower this thing is just so playful and so bloody powerful Sensational car this is but if I have one bad thing to say about the 296 it's not very affordable but don't worry that's where our next winner comes in because the top gear.com bargain of the year is this the mg4 electric not quite as quick as the 296 granted but it does absolutely everything you could possibly want from a practical electric family hatchback and get this like for like in the long range spec that you actually want this thing costs about 8 000 pounds less than a VW ID3 see what we mean trust the Chinese to put the cap firmly among the pigeons our next winner with prices starting from 99 375 pounds isn't exactly bargainous but it is very luxurious which is why the new Range Rover is our luxury car of the year here's Jason Barlow wafting around in one somewhere near San Francisco to think the original Range Rover had a cabin you could hose out well theoretically I'm not sure how many people would have done that that was a lovely car to drive still is but this is next level I mean listen to that exactly you could drop a pin on a show pile carpet that would make more noise than that even on 23-inch Wheels the ride is pretty Sublime and that's not all because Paddy man of the people McGuinness a Serial Range Rover owner himself has also picked this car as his car of the year his Paddy to explain why my car of the year 2022 has got to be the Range Rover absolutely beautiful ticks all the boxes especially if you want to go off-roading in a car that's going to cost you around about 140 Grand you never will but it's got the capabilities me and Chris took it off-roading and it's so capable but it's just a beautiful thing to waft about in the seats are so comfortable it's got everything that car it it really does sort of uh tick all the boxes now if you're the type of person who's a little bit fed up with bigger faster heavier SUVs being literally everywhere what have I told you that there was a car that had genuine off-road ability but all the speed and excitement of a mid-engined V10 Supercar yeah well that car now actually exists which is why the car we're most looking forward to driving in 2023 award goes to Lamborghini Huracan Serato roll the tape foreign now we like hurricanes here at Top Gear they have the looks they have the handling and they have the noise you don't have fight most of them being four-wheel drive is the ability to drive down a really bumpy back road at speed until now because the Lamborghini Huracan Serato is a special stage Lamborghini that is in my humble opinion just about perfect just two Awards left and the next one is our American Car of the Year a piece of forbidden fruit that you can't buy in the UK you can only buy over the pond and it goes to the Ford F-150 Lightning and all-electric version of America's best-selling truck and it is so much more than just ripping out the engine and putting in a load of batteries instead it's just a better F-150 full stop so here's what happened when we drove one across Texas thank you that's the thing about a 40-minute EV charging stop isn't it always end up with some things you don't need do you think America's ready for an electric truck um no are the traditional like people from Texas they like the power of a motor but you know this has got 580 horsepower north 60 4.3 I don't believe you let me see the keys thank you and now it's time for the one we've all been waiting for the top gear.com car of the year 2022. previous winners include the 458 Italia the BMW i8 the Fiesta ST oh and last year the Hyundai i20m and yep it's another hot hatch winner we quite like them around these parts because the 2022 car of the year is this the Honda Civic Type R it's a car that takes everything we loved about his predecessor launched in 2017 and just makes it a little bit easier on the eye and it's a car that sweats the fine details the quality of the seats the gear shift the playfulness in the chassis it's a total masterclass from top to bottom so a huge congratulations to Honda and to all our other winners here a fine crop I hope you'll agree and all that's left to say is make sure you subscribe to the YouTube channel make sure you listen to the Top Gear magazine podcast check out all our social media channels and top gear.com for loads more information on all our winners and make sure you pick up a copy of Top Gear magazine the awards issue not least because it comes with a free supercars calendar yeah thanks for watching good night\n"