The road test year 2014

In order to gauge the size of that achievement, look to the list of excellent new cars that narrowly missed full marks. The BMW i8, Jaguar F-Type coupé, Rolls-Royce Wraith, Volkswagen Golf R, Renault Mégane RS Trophy-R, BMW M235i, Nissan Qashqai, Mini Cooper S and Porsche Macan Turbo all scored four and a half out of five in 2014. On that list are outstanding class leaders, technological trend-setters and some of our personal smash hits of the year.

These are the cars you lose sleep over until you can put your finger on exactly what it is that they don’t do quite as well as they should.

To their creators, we’d simply point out that perfect Autocar road test hauls are the kinds of elusive, momentary successes that reward decades of patience and hard work. Some heart can also be taken in the example of the stopped clock that is at once useless and still spot on twice a day.

For the likes of BMW, Jaguar, VW and Nissan, it might be better to be painfully but consistently close.

At the other end of the rating scale, we dusted off the two-and-a-half-star verdict three times: for the Infiniti Q50, Ford Ecosport and Jeep Cherokee.

These, as is explained in the back of every issue, are average but disappointing cars – serviceable but deeply mediocre. But ask anyone at Autocar what the most disappointing cars of the year were and they’ll mention those that scored better without hitting the hoped-for heights: the Maserati Ghibli, Porsche 911 Turbo S, BMW M4, Audi S1 and others.

Enough commiseration. Our August verdict on the 458 Speciale declared this 9000rpm marvel to be “possibly the most exciting and uncompromising driver’s car in the world”.

Another huge compliment was to come in October, with the title of Britain’s Best Driver’s Car 2014. Impressing a team of three Autocar road testers sufficiently to earn unqualified praise is a feat in itself, but for the Speciale to go on to entice every single judge in a BBDC panel of eight to rank the car inside the field’s top three speaks of a truly rare achievement.

The Speciale will be the only machine automatically invited back to contest Britain’s Best Driver’s Car 2015. We sincerely hope Maranello will see fit to send one. While they’re at it, assuming there’s a berth free on the transporter…

Alongside the BBDC extravaganza, we also enjoyed the return of an old-favourite marque comparison, as well as the reprisal of a second and the foundation of a third. 

The Autocar Sideways Challenge burst back on to the shelves in April, its remit to decide 2014’s most fun, driftable new car – as well as crown a new sideways-driving hero.

Oulton Park’s low-grip rally stage was our venue, an incorruptible Racelogic data logger provided the scores and the most sideways car, to the amazement of everyone, was Audi’s mid-engined, four-wheel-drive R8 4.2. Our victorious helmsman was endurance racer Darren Turner, who later in the year would complete his share of 310 laps of the Le Mans 24 Hours in an Aston Martin Vantage V8. Small beer by comparison.

The test we’ve come to call ‘Junior Handling Day’ came next, in July. A sunny Cadwell Park played host, along with the circuit’s surrounding roads, for the exercise that decides the year’s best-handling hot hatch, saloon or sports car available for around £30,000 or less.

Last year the Ford Fiesta ST took the spoils, its outstanding value for money winning it lots of admirers. This year the Ford got close, but it wasn’t good enough to deny Renault a worthy win with its Mégane RS 265 Cup. “The best front-drive chassis in production,” was our conclusion. “And by a faintly staggering margin.”

Then came a new ‘Best in the Wet’ comparison test in October, conducted, as luck would have it, on just about the most rain-soaked day of the year, on MIRA’s dedicated low-grip tracks. We benchmarked seven new cars on lateral and longitudinal grip and traction, plus a wet handling circuit lap time.

The winner was good enough to beat a Porsche 911 Carrera 4S into second place, when the Porsche was three times its price and competing at an unfair advantage, being the only car in the field on winter tyres. Take a bow the brilliant and surefooted Volkswagen Golf R.

Of upsets, there have been several. Vauxhall’s VXR8 GTS super-saloon landed a blow for Aussie-bred muscle over German performance hegemony when this brash, bright orange four-door beat not only a BMW M5 Competition Package but also a Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG S in April.

A new junior BMW M car entered folklore in the guise of the M235i coupé, which wiped the floor with both a BMW M4 and an Alpina B4 in August. Things went more according to the script when the Audi TT, Vauxhall Corsa and Chevrolet Corvette all failed to dominate key rivals at launch time; less so when the Mercedes C-class and revised Ford Focus both fell at the first hurdle.

Then there were the stories we’ll remember for reasons other than the new cars they described. Andrew Frankel building an AMG engine (his greatest mechanical achievement prior was changing the oil filter on his old Land Rover). James Ruppert’s tale of life, love, rust, spare loft-lagging and an original Mini Cooper.

Steve Cropley’s tour around the Geneva motor show with design legend Chris Bangle (“But do you like it?” “Next question.”). Or Goodwin, Prior, Kingston et al knocking up a Caterham Seven 160 in a weekend and then needing months afterwards to actually make it work.

There are no new hypercars due to be introduced in 2015. This has not caused an avalanche of resignations on the Autocar road test desk, not least because the quality of the lunchtime bounty at the local pie shop is as dependable as ever.

As for cars, we’ll have to settle for the likes of the new Mazda MX-5, Ferrari 458M and Jaguar XE, and with getting to know the Mercedes-AMG GT and the new Honda Civic Type R that bit better. It beats working. Thanks for reading.

The road test year in numbers

Least powerful car we tested - 65bhp, Hyundai i10

Most powerful car we tested - 903bhp, McLaren P1

Cheapest car we tested - £9295, Hyundai i10

Most expensive car we tested - £866,000, McLaren P1