2023 MotorTrend Performance Vehicle of the Year: The Finalists

The RS3 is arguably the most characterful Audi on the market, right up there with the V-10-powered R8 supercar. Where other Audi models are executed beautifully but with a sterile detachment to their moves, the RS3 sedan is white-hot. This spicy little ball of spaetzle ditches the turbo I-4 engines of lesser A3s for a unique, 401-hp 2.5-liter turbocharged inline-five and backs it up with a torque-vectoring all-wheel-drive system and sticky tires. It's little wonder, then, why our Performance Vehicle of the Year judges voted the 2022 RS3 in as a finalist.

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Here's a good chunk of what you need to know about the 2023 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 with the Z07 package: it put down the second-quickest figure eight lap time we've ever recorded. The only car to beat it is the McLaren 765LT, which makes significantly more power and torque and costs three times as much, as-tested, as this Chevy. And even then, it only beats the Corvette by 0.05 second. The Corvette is punching above its weight? Yeah, with brass knuckles. Supercars typically come with a list of tradeoffs, and the Z06's is the shortest by far.

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There are far more powerful cars. Cars that feature what's considered to be a more optimal configuration. But none of that matters when the new Honda Civic Type R is blazing its way around a track and decimating performance car expectations. Everything we loved about the previous Civic Type R, the first such model to reach our shores, has been reinforced and built upon for the redesigned 2023 model. The new car has been boosted in the horsepower and torque departments, but not dramatically so. Yet none of our Performance Vehicle of the Year judges complained, because sheer power isn't what this car is about.

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Just when it felt like the days of the sport compact car were numbered, along came Hyundai. A brand with no significant motorsports or performance vehicle history in the U.S. showed up with a new sub-brand and a trio of budget sports cars ready to take on the old guard, and leading the charge is the Hyundai Elantra N. Stop a moment and take stock. Here's a compact sedan with an overboosted motor, a limited-slip differential, and electronically adjustable dampers, one that comes with a manual or a dual-clutch automatic and retails for as little as $33,245.

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To date, there aren't a lot of EVs on the market you can point to and call flat-out fun. The kind of car you bound out of after a couple of laps on the track and cackle about how entertaining it was to chuck around. Yes, there are more powerful, more dynamically proficient, and more technologically advanced all-electric machines out there, but the 2023 Kia EV6 GT is a car that combines all of those elements in one truly riotous package.

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The 2023 Lamborghini Huracán Tecnica follows in the footsteps of the Huracáns that came before it. The slightly wilder, less practical STO wowed us last year at the inaugural Performance Vehicle of the Year competition and finished in second place, whereas our previous sports- and supercar roundup event—Best Driver's Car—was won outright by both the Huracán Performante and the Huracán Evo. Rest assured the Tecnica was a no-brainer finalist at this year's showdown, though a few flaws kept it out of the top spot. Still, what a thing!

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Strap yourself into the 2022 McLaren 765LT Spider as we did, and you'll quickly forget about its $490,810 as-tested price tag. In fact, you'll want to pawn all your belongings and sell your house just so you can keep driving it. Few cars deliver an experience like the 765LT Spider, and even fewer impress MotorTrend editors like the McLaren does. Corner after corner—whether you're on a track or your favorite canyon road—the 765LT Spider will let you push harder and harder as you accumulate more time behind its wheel; this kind of confidence in a supercar is notable.

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The 2023 Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS delivers driving thrills that had everyone talking as they climbed from the cockpit after each run at the track and on Angeles Crest Highway. With the Cayman's inherently advantageous mid-engine balance now combined with the 911 GT3's 4.0-liter flat-six engine, along with more grip compared to the standard GT4, the handling limits are at the sort of heights serious drivers dream of.

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For this 2023 Toyota GR Corolla to show up at our 2023 Performance Vehicle of the Year event alongside a McLaren, a Lamborghini, and a Corvette Z06 and be referred to as "exotic" gives you some idea of just how special the latest offering from Toyota's Gazoo Racing tuning arm is. There's an undeniable giant-slayer aspect to the GR Corolla, which helped it score big in most of our criteria.

READ THE FULL PVOTY REVIEW OF THE 2023 TOYOTA GR COROLLA