Best of 2024 - Performance

This year we’ve reviewed dozens of cars to bring you the best content. Now we’re giving you the highlights, picking the best of the best so you can learn about the cars that made an impact in 2024.

Today we’re looking at the fun stuff – the best performance cars. As you’ll see from our list, these days performance comes in all shapes and sizes and with a variety of powertrains. Let us know your favourite 2024 performance car in the comments below.

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Porsche 911 S/T

It’s the most expensive member of the expansive Porsche 911 family, but it’s also the most driver focused variant – and that’s saying an awful lot when you consider the totality of the 911 line-up.

Designed to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the 911, the S/T cherry-picks the elements from across the family – the GT3 RS 4.0-litre engine, a six-speed manual gearbox, the GT3 Touring bodykit, etc and then packages it up in the lightest package.

The sound, the speed, the feedback all combine to make this a memorable vehicle to drive and a performance thoroughbred.

Lotus Emira

Lotus may be preparing a premium, luxury and electric future, but the Emira proved that the engineering team behind the British brand knows everything there is to know about building compact sports cars.

The Emira is set to be the final petrol-powered sports car from Lotus, while also helping to usher in this more polished new era. The result is a more grown up and comfortable sports car, but one that still has the agility and responsiveness we’ve come to know and love from the brand.

The AMG-sourced four-cylinder turbo could do with some fine-tuning to smooth it out, but overall this is a logical evolution of the brand and would likely make Colin Chapman proud.

BMW M3 CS

‘The quickest, most powerful and most capable BMW M3 in the nameplate’s 38-year history’ is how we started our review of this new halo variant of the iconic M car.

Powered by a 405kW/650Nm tuned version of the six-cylinder engine and equipped with a range of other enhancements including lightweight panels, stiffer engine mounts, all-wheel drive and a trick M differential, the M3 CS is a driver’s delight.

It also had its price upgraded too, to a cool $250k, but that wasn’t enough to stop it from being hot property for those looking to get their hands on the 94 examples allocated to Australia.

Chevrolet Corvette Z06

The American car industry woke up and chose to pick a fight in 2024. Ok, it happened a few years ago but the results of Chevrolet and Ford deciding to take on the best Europe has to offer emerged this year.

Ford created the Porsche-beating, race-bred Mustang GTD and Chevrolet pulled out the stops to create its own racing-inspired version of the Corvette – the Z06.

The Z06, which was developed by the same group of engineers who helped create the Corvette GT3 entry, is powered by Chevy’s new small block V8 that measures 5.5-litres and features a flat-plane crankshaft design, which helps it rev harder and deliver its power in a more linear fashion. Not only does it help with performance it also makes it sound more like a European supercar than the throatier growl of the 6.2-litre V8 in the C8 Stingray.

Then there’s the handling, and while our test drive was limited to a few laps at Sandown Raceway, we could feel instantly that this is a razor-sharp machine in the bends.

Now we just need to cross our fingers and wait for the Corvette ZR1 to be confirmed by General Motors Australia…

Range Rover Sport SV

‘How can a Range Rover really be a performance car?’ That’s what I asked myself as they let us loose around the Portimao circuit earlier this year. Ten minutes later when I’d finished lapping the rollercoaster circuit I was left with more questions – how did they make such a big car so fast? And handle so well? And still be capable of climbing over rocks and up and down hills?

The Sport SV is a remarkable car, a technical masterpiece that showcases all of Land Rover’s engineering prowess. An SUV this size shouldn’t handle as well as it does and yet the Sport SV felt at home on the track as it did carving the Portuguese countryside.