Welcome

Welcome to the 2018 TopGear Magazine Awards, a celebration of the very best from another year on planet car. Unlike others, we refuse to shoehorn the year’s finest cars into a set of predefined categories, repeated on an annual basis, leaving us struggling to find worthy winners for seven different SUV sub-genres and, if we’re honest, a load of unworthy winners. This isn’t sports day and there are no prizes for effort – we reward results. A TopGear award winner represents the best of the best, a car that delivers more than just transport, a car that will improve every journey, make you smile every morning and possess a fitness for purpose that elevates it above the competition.

While the past 12 months has seen every manufacturer struggle to present a credible vision of the automotive future – note the ubiquitous deployment of blue highlights (visual shorthand for ‘it’s electric’) and a phalanx of autonomous mobility solutions in ever more bizarre size and scale (yes, we’re looking at you, Renault EZ-Ultimo) – our award winners prove that the creativity and quality of engineering in our world has never been stronger. And despite the obvious challenges that lie ahead, this industry continues to prove it has the talent to deliver.

From the back-to-basics simplicity of the Suzuki Jimny to the no-compromise (unless you count aesthetics) McLaren Senna, this industry and our winners continue to surprise and delight. Want a last blast of naturally aspirated supercar excess? We give you the Lambo Aventador SVJ. Need a home-grown and credible rival to the dominance of Tesla? Step forward Jaguar I-Pace. Looking for a car so beautiful in every facet of its design and fabrication that an engineering prototype can make us weak at the knees? Singer has you covered. In short, when you ignore the mediocrity and celebrate the best, then the class of 2018 is a fitting testament to the most vibrant and creative business in the world.

While defining the future of the automotive landscape is arguably a greater challenge than deciding which of our award winners should be crowned the TopGear Car of the Year, it wasn’t easy and the competition was fierce. But one car was unanimously praised, a realworld hero that oozes joy in every fibre of its being, every mile of its use and one we at TopGear are delighted to crown the 2018

TopGear Magazine Car of the Year.

Enjoy the issue.