As a new year gets ever closer and promises a glut of new faster more desirable cars, we shouldn't forget just how spoiled for choice enthusiastic gearheads have been with a wide range of drivers' cars in 2021.
New cars, despite supply issues, continued to vie for our cash. Fast sedans, coupes, and outright sports cars, all delivered driver thrills. There were also some long-standing favorites making a last stand, the Elise for one, vanishing from showrooms making way for the eagerly anticipated Lotus Emira and Evija.
A large number of revamped, rejuvenated machinery served as reminders of how we've had good driving machines for so long. BMW, Porsche, and Nissan all upped the stakes for 2021, delivering more bang for your buck in a never-ending circle of driver demands versus manufacturers products. Before the year is out, here's a selection of the best driver's cars of 2021.
9 Lotus Exige Sport 420 Final Edition
In 2021, Lotus announced plans to reduce its model line-up, killing off both the Elise and Exige. In the process, ending the brand's most successful road car series ever. However, rather than just fade into history, Lotus aims to go out on a high with a range of final editions.
No one could ever accuse the Exige of being underpowered. Lightweight aluminum tubs glued together always felt quicker than the numbers indicated. For its final outing, Lotus bestowed the Exige with a 420 hp supercharged V6, good for a claimed top speed of 180 mph. Does the Exige still live up to its reputation? Without a doubt, every time.
8 Alpine A110S
While Lotus is busy retiring its lightweight sports cars, little-known French carmaker Alpine has picked up the baton and making a break for the horizon at incredible speeds. The A110S follows a similar path of pared-back lightweight engineering, matching the Exige in the diet stakes at 2,456 lbs.
Minimal weight makes for one of the best handling sports cars money can buy, backed up by a Renault-Nissan and Alpine-tweaked 1.8-liter turbocharged engine chucking out 288 hp, powering the A110s to 60 mph in 4.4-seconds. Speed and agility are normally bywords for a bone-jarring ride, not in the A110S, conservatively sized wheels and a more compliant suspension set-up make the whole experience more enjoyable.
7 Porsche 718 Cayman GTS 4.0
Rarely does a lower-spec performance car outshine its bigger brothers, especially when it comes to Porsche, where despite huge gains in performance and thrills anything less than a 911 just won't do? However, ignoring traditionalists can reap huge rewards. The latest 718 Cayman GTS 4.0 is a stonking driver's car.
Nestling behind the cockpit, Porsche's naturally aspirated 4-liter flat-six dishes up 394 hp and delivers its power in a lag-free surge of acceleration, 60 mph takes 3.8-seconds. Impressive performance numbers aside, one of the 718 Cayman's biggest strengths is that you can still get one of these with a 6-speed manual, no robotized auto boxes, just driver and machine in harmony.
6 Honda Civic Type-R
Get past the lunatic-attracting appearance, and the Honda Civic Type-R might just be the best affordable performance car on the market, blisteringly fast with supreme durability is, in our books, a winning combination. So good it's incredibly easy to forget that despite headline-grabbing acceleration, hitting 60 mph in 4.9-seconds, the Type-R is still just a front-drive platform.
Some Honda magic is at work here, the Type-R isn't just fast in a straight line, taking to the Nürburgring in 2017, it set the fastest lap time of any front-drive car ever. Cheap to buy and devilishly fast, Type-Rs offer the perfect blend of speed and usability.
5 Chevrolet Corvette C8
In optimum conditions, you won't find anything this quick at the same price point. Chevrolet's decision to switch to a mid-engined layout for the C8 Corvette is easily validated by a stonking 0-60 mph time of three seconds, using nothing more than the base spec Vette. Placement of the engine between the axles might have been controversial, but the impact of a 6.2-liter V8 LT2 between the axles did wonders for grip.
Better balanced, and better suspended, too, with magnetorheological dampers at each corner means grip is never in short supply. Push hard into a bend in older Corvettes and you'd never see the other side, the C8 just grips and powers out the other side.
4 Toyota Supra
Dyed in the wool purists will argue until the cows come home that this isn't a proper Supra. Sure, its DNA contains more than a hint of BMW about it, but it's how this Germ-anese collaboration drives that matters. Popping the hood across the range revealed a choice of two BMW-sourced motor options, either four or six cylinders, the latter on the receiving end of a few tweaks for 2021, so it now belts out 382 hp.
Big power numbers inevitably deliver some big thrills, 60 mph comes up in 3.7-seconds with a top speed limited to 160 mph, higher with the right tools and knowledge. Any niggling concerns over comfort are handling are unfounded, sharp precise steering delivers a genuine supercar feel without comprising its supple ride.
3 Nissan GT-R NISMO
It's rare these days any performance car remains at the head of the pack for so long, Nissan's GT-R at twelve years old is still a technological masterpiece of both engineering and performance. Since its introduction in 2009, the fast has only gotten faster and more capable, in part to NISMO's involvement.
The changes for 2021 are subtle, confined to a few cosmetic tweaks on the outside. Under the skin, it's business as usual. 3.8-liter twin-turbocharged V6 VR38DETT engines punch out 600 hp with drive going to all-four-wheels handled by a slick 6-speed automatic box. Boasting power and grip levels bordering on the insane, the NISMO GT-R can be a little intimidating, but even then, Nissan has all the bases covered with a fully adjustable suspension set-up.
2 BMW M3 Competition
No list of drivers' cars would be complete without the performance sedan that all others are judged against. The M3 is a proper sports car in a sharp business executive style suit. On the one hand, practical and affordable, on the other, it's packing a serious punch.
BMW, not content with a fire-breathing, tail-out super sedan, also offers a power upgrade. Competition-badged cars boasting a 3-liter turbocharged straight six kicking out 503 hp. The gains might be relatively small, but the M3 Competition is no slouch, needing 3.5-seconds to reach 60 mph, and flat out good for 174 mph.
1 Ford Mustang Mach 1
The original blue-collar worker's performance car has come a long way since six-cylinder motors delivered acceptable performance, dozens of hot versions filling gaps in Ford's line-up. Which brings us to the Mach 1, a mildly warmed daily driver using all the best underpinnings of the outgoing GT 350 with the latest magnetorheological damper set-up.
Normal, Sport, and Track are self-explanatory, even on the softest setting the Mach 1 responds to every driver input with a deftness that belies its 3,800 lbs mass. Brakes, too, are beefed up, six-pot Brembo-sourced items ensure diving into a bend late on the stoppers won't be a cause for alarm. The Mach 1 might be at the lower end of the range with just 480 hp, but it's more than enough grunt to be fun, fast, and usable.