Welcome to 2025, glad you could make it. Last year we got behind the wheel of some truly excellent vehicles. The Lamborghini Revuelto won our inaugural Cool Car Cup award for being, well, extremely cool, while we deemed the Honda Civic Hybrid, Lexus GX, and Chevrolet Colorado ZR2 Bison the Best of the Best in their respective categories.
But what were the most memorable cars we drove in 2024? Not necessarily the fastest, fanciest, or most impressive from a technical standpoint, but the vehicles we couldn’t stop dreaming of long after our time behind the wheel had passed.
These are just a few of them.
Aston Martin Vanquish
Photo by: Brian Silvestro / Motor1
Aston Martin has finally gotten its shit together.
The company’s smallest car, the Vantage, is an excellent all-rounder sports car with stunning looks and real track prowess. Its SUV, the DBX, can finally compete with rivals thanks to a modern and tech-friendly interior. But neither stole my heart like the new Vanquish.
Photo by: Brian Silvestro / Motor1
I went to the Vanquish’s international press launch earlier this year, giving Motor1 a first taste of Aston’s new V-12-powered flagship. While it’s not as light on its feet as the Vantage, the bigger, longer Vanquish is blindingly fast and well-suited to corner-carving. This car feels like it was built to eat miles at a breakneck pace, with a suave cabin and an agreeable attitude that encourages triple-digit highway cruising.
Then there’s the noise. The 5.2-liter twin-turbo V-12 made headlines for its 821-horsepower rating, but the real joy comes from the sound. Twelve-cylinder engines are an absolute rarity these days, even in high-hp exotics. So hearing one is always a treat. And despite the turbos, there’s a healthy volume too. This isn’t some muted, distant growl. Smashing the throttle delivers a big roar to your ears, even with the windows up. As it should be.
— Brian Silvestro, Deputy Editor
BMW M1 Race Car
Photo by: BMW
I’m pretty lucky. For three of the last four years, BMW has invited me to race one of its classic cars during Monterey Car Week at Laguna Seca. In 2021, it was the E92 M3 GT. In 2022, it was a 3.0 CSL. And in 2024, they let me drive the M1. And what a thing it was, I can still hear the induction of the M88 inline-six buzzing in my ears as it hit 8,000 rpm. And I wasn’t even pushing it that hard. This is a hugely expensive car that didn’t belong to me, there was no chance I was going to risk my life savings.
Driving the M1 was amazing, but the race was also surreal. Being on track during the Rolex Reunion is pretty cool in itself, considering there are spectators all around just interested in seeing these cars in motion. However, my class was stacked with cars like 935s, Dekon Monzas, and Greenwood Corvettes. It also had a certain CEO of McLaren Racing, Zak Brown, in his Group 5 BMW 320i Turbo. And he started right in front of me.
Photo by: BMW
My entire goal was simple: Beat Zak. He may have made that car really wide and difficult to pass, but I eventually got by and pulled away after a good battle. It was just a blast, and a drive I’ll remember for a long time.
— Travis Okulski, Director of Editorial – Automotive
Dodge Challenger Hellcat Redeye
With Dodge turning the new Charger into a six-cylinder, all-wheel-drive, automatic-only shell of its former self, I now look back on the brand’s outgoing muscle cars with more fondness. And I’ve never been a big muscle car fan to begin with, but something about the now-deceased Dodge Challenger Hellcat—specifically the 807-horsepower Black Ghost I spent a week in—has me longing for the glory days of the Hellcat engine.
The supercharged 6.2-liter V-8 is an icon. And now that it’s gone (except in the Durango), it will go down in the history books as one of the best engines to ever come out of Detroit’s Big Three—if it hasn’t already. The feeling of driving around in a nearly 17-foot-long land yacht with 800 hp on the dash is a feeling no six-cylinder or electric powertrain can replicate. Not even with artificial exhaust notes pumped in.
And that’s not to say I’m an EV hater, or even all that disappointed that the new Charger has moved to a smaller inline-six. The electric Charger should be plenty quick, and based on what others have said about Stellantis’s new six-cylinder engine, the Sixpack should be plenty of fun.
But nothing will replace the Hellcat V-8.
— Jeff Perez, Managing Editor
Ford Ford Ranger Raptor
Photo by: Andrew Link | Motor1
It was hard to walk away from Motor1‘s off-road truck showdown earlier this year with a clear, outright winner in mind. I enjoyed the Chevrolet Colorado ZR2 Bison’s unmatched off-road capability and the Toyota Tacoma Trailhunter’s snarling snorkel hissing right outside the passenger window. But it’s the Ford Ranger Raptor I haven’t stopped thinking about since.
Out of the three, the Ranger would be the one I’d buy because it felt like a street truck in disguise. It was light and nimble with its Fox shocks hustling around the tight, curvy roads that lined the Catskill Mountains. It felt physically smaller and easier to handle than the other two. Part of that feeling is thanks to the low dash and Ford’s un-truck-like interior that I was fine with.
Photo by: Andrew Link | Motor1
The Raptor also felt quick, and I loved the twin-turbocharged 3.0-liter V-6 engine under the hood, which might have been because it makes 405 horsepower and 430 pound-feet of torque. It also sounded terrific, especially in Sport mode with the open exhaust, making for an engaging driving experience you wouldn’t expect from a pickup truck.
— Anthony Alaniz, Associate Editor
Hyundai Ioniq 5 N
Photo by: DW Burnett / Motor1
It’s easy for us enthusiasts to dismiss electric performance cars as a passing fad or a mere simulation of the real thing. I felt that way, too—until I spent a week with the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N.
Finished in matte Performance Blue with a chunky rear wing, the Ioniq 5 N looks like a Hot Wheels at 180x scale, and that’s the vibe it brings to the party. What impressed me the most was the car’s split personality. In EV mode, it’s a quiet, comfortable, and spacious daily driver.
Photo by: DW Burnett / Motor1
But hit the N switch or turn on the virtual shifting and engine sounds via the (admittedly confusing) digital menu, and it becomes a bona fide rally car ready to huck around on your favorite back road.
Before driving the I5N, I rolled my eyes at the thought of fake gear shifts and a virtual engine note. I’ve only owned one automatic car, and I’ve turned off the pumped-in sound in nearly every sporty car I’ve tested. But, boy, did the Ioniq 5 N prove me wrong. By the second spirited corner, I was grinning and giggling like a maniac, and the smile never wore off. The future of performance cars is bright, no matter what shape or fuel they may take.
— Maddox Kay, Automotive Social Media Editor
Hyundai Ioniq 5 N (Again)
The band plays on; I will go down with this ship. I voted for the Ioniq 5 N to win Motor1’s inaugural Cool Car Cup and raved about the EV masterpiece in my first-drive review. Even though the Lamborghini earned our performance-car crown for 2024, I cannot let go of this silly Hyundai.
It’s just that good.
It’s not just the Ioniq’s outright pace or the leap-forward moment for performance EVs which the I5N engenders, it’s how the thing handles, how it makes me feel. Few cars on the road today offer more masterful calibration—steering, braking, turning, or going balls out. But even fewer offer you joy from behind the steering wheel.
At its ragged limits, the I5N provides a tossable, adjustable chassis just perfect for stretching a smile across your face. Sure there are the usual EV drawbacks. That means four-figure tire bills, range sacrificed for performance, and charging infrastructure that isn’t exactly racing to catch up with demand. You must consider those factors.
But also consider this: In a field with thousand-horse Lamborghinis and a handful of sport-car stalwarts, the car I wanted to take home had a Hyundai badge on the nose.
— Kyle Kinard, Executive Editor
Porsche 718 Spyder RS
Photo by: Dean Smith
There’s nothing quite like waking up on the other side of the Atlantic tired and jet-lagged, then expected to drive on the wrong side of the car on the wrong side of the road. Especially when that car was nearly $200,000 of Porsche 718 Spyder RS. But whatever trepidation I had was quickly brushed aside.
I had this ultimate Boxster for a week, using it to go to the Goodwood Festival of Speed, visit a handful of cool spots in England’s Motorsport Valley, and up to North Wales, where you’ll find some of the best driving roads in the world. With a little over 900 miles and 27 hours on the trip computer, I drove it far more than anything but my own car this year.
Photo by: Dean Smith
What a privilege. Not just to take it up to Snowdonia, where the sparse landscape and fast-flowing roads provided a perfect stage for one of the best chassis in the world, and God’s Own flat-six amplified by intakes inches behind your head, but to use it like a normal car. One imagines most Spyder RS owners using this on special occasions—or just for going to Cars and Coffee—keeping mileage down and values up, but there’s a perverse joy in treating it like it’s any other car. When, plainly, it is not.
Yet nothing will beat the Spyder RS on a great road. The throttle response, the way the sound changes ever so subtly as you twitch your right foot, the way the car talks through the seat and the steering, the way ABS blends in and out so smoothly—I could go on and on. With EV adoption going the way it is, this may not end up being the last gas-powered Boxster. That doesn’t take anything away from what is one of the world’s greatest sports cars.
— Chris Perkins, Senior Editor
Porsche 718 Boxster
Photo by: Jeremy Cliff / Motor1
We all know great cars can make a road trip something special. But the trip can also make the car special. When I slipped behind the wheel of a Porsche 718 Boxster Style Edition last spring, I wasn’t overly excited about covering 1,200 miles through the Midwest. Don’t get me wrong, the 718 is a joy in pretty much any form, but the Style Edition is, frankly, more about style. Drop a styleless, silver-haired, middle-aged guy into a small sports car with prominent white wheels and bold Porsche branding…let’s just say the stares I got at the first fuel stop made me a bit awkward.
And then I hit the racetracks.
Photo by: Jeremy Cliff / Motor1
I didn’t race. These ghost tracks were way older than me and long retired from active duty. Hell, Lynndale Farms was a freaking subdivision, but damn if it still felt special with the elevation changes, the front straight, and the esses. A couple hours south at Meadowdale Raceway, I parked the Porsche next to the water tower where engines howled 50 years ago, then walked through the woods on the track’s remains. At Wilmot Hills—a place you can still visit for skiing adventures—I banked the Boxster through a hard right at 15 mph, imagining Joseph B. Swanson Jr. going three times as fast in 1961, driving his Porsche 356 to glory.
Visiting these old race tracks was special. But doing it in the Boxster elevated the trip to something surreal. A half-century ago, cars like the Boxster carved these old corners. It’s as close to time travel as I’ve ever been, and when I finally returned home, I’d bonded with the Porsche in a purely illogical, emotive manner. I was ready to start another journey. And another. And another. All with the 718 as my companion.
And really, isn’t that what being a car enthusiast is all about?
— Christopher Smith, Associate Editor
