What is the best car of the 21st century? It’s not an easy question to answer, but as the calendar counts down to 2025 we thought we’d have a go at finding the answer.
The challenge is defining what makes a car great and how do you narrow it down across the entire breadth of the car industry – from electric city cars to wildly powerful hypercars. Since 2000 there have been some many important and impactful new cars that have helped shape and define not only what we’re driving today but what we’ll be driving in the next 25 years.
With that in mind we’ve taken a look back at all the great cars of the 21st century and compiled this list. It’s by no means meant to be definitive, and will have a clear Australian bias, but this is the line-up we landed on.
Each day this week we’ll publish five entries in our list, counting down to the big reveal on Friday. Let us know your thoughts – what’s your favourite car of the last 25 years?
15. 2015 Porsche 911 GT3 RS
‘911’ and ‘GT3’ – six characters that say so much. There’s been three generations of 911 GT3 in the 21st century (997, 991 and 992) and all of them deserve a spot on this list. But we’ve chosen this one specifically because of what it represents.
The GT3 was inspired by racing and designed to be the ultimate driver’s car on road or track. But over time and in the constant pursuit of more speed Porsche has pushed the current 992 GT3 RS into a new stratosphere of technology and aerodynamics. This is a car that blurs the line between road and race more than anything else Porsche has ever built.
But it’s the 2015 model, the 991, that holds the highest esteem for us because it found the perfect balance between speed, driving purity and track performance. This is the car more than any other I have loved driving no matter what road or track it was on.
14. 2017 Honda Civic Type R
Speaking of the 911 GT3, this is the hot hatch equivalent. While the latest model is better to look at, we’ve chosen the visually-challenged 2017 version as it was more raw and less-polished driving experience – and that only made it more exciting to drive.
There have been dozens of great hot hatches over the decades, but none were ever as focused on performance as this one. The poise, precision and speed this Type R possessed was highly addictive and set a new benchmark for the segment.
13. 2020 Chevrolet Corvette C8
America talked a big game for decades about building a sports car to take on the best from Europe – and then it finally built one. For the eighth-generation of this American icon Chevrolet decided to pull out all the stops and converted the ‘Vette from front to mid-engined, and in doing so completely transformed the car.
Still powered by a classic American V8, it now has the handling to hold its own against the rest of the world, while remaining true to its heritage. The newer, faster and more advanced ZR1 and Z06 prove the brand is serious about taking on (and beating) the best Europe has to offer.
12. 2002 Porsche Cayenne
If you’re a Porsche purist you can hate the Cayenne, but you cannot deny it saved the company. At the time of its launch in 2002 Porsche had just two models – 911 and Boxster – which was simply not enough to sustain it financially, particularly while retaining its independence from Volkswagen.
And while the Cayenne shared elements with the Volkswagen Touareg, Porsche’s engineers did give it some unique performance and handling characteristics that helped make it appeal to buyers. For all the negative reaction to its arrival, the Cayenne became a sales hit, helped make Porsche more profitable and paved the way for a new type of luxury-performance SUVs from brands including Ferrari, Lamborghini, Bentley and more.
11. 2024 Ford Mustang GTD
Admittedly there’s probably some recency-bias with this entry, but you just cannot deny how cool this car is – Ford built a Mustang to take on European supercars.
Working with its racing partner, Multimatic, Ford turned the Mustang into a genuine supercar with a new supercharged V8, a unique eight-speed dual-clutch transaxle, carbon fibre driveshaft, carbon fibre panels for much of the body, active aerodynamics, magnesium wheels and carbon ceramic brakes.
What’s more, they did it not because they had to, but because they wanted to. That’s what makes it so special, this is a modern car built by car company executives driven by enthusiasm and passion rather than looking at lines on a spreadsheet. More of this, please.
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