These Are the Best and Worst Vehicles MotorTrend Tested in 2022

Spend a little more than an extra $10,000, and you can order a Porsche 911 Turbo S with a dedicated "Lightweight" package: It comes with lighter glass, one-piece carbon-fiber bucket seats, a sport exhaust, and a PASM adaptive sport suspension that lowers the car by 10mm. Porsche also removes the quilted seat centers and door panels, the rear seats, some of the insulation/sound deadening materials, and the option for heated seats and a memory package. This particular 2021 Porsche 911 Turbo S also featured the $3,890 optional carbon-fiber roof that's good for saving about another 2 pounds compared to the standard steel roof. So we're looking at about a 68-pound difference altogether compared to a non-lightweight 911 Turbo S we tested previously. Indeed, our racing scales determined the lightened 2021 Porsche 911 Turbo S weighs a relatively svelte 3,550 pounds with a full tank of gas. Kills bugs, fast.

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Want to know what the slowest 0-60 time of 2022 was? See the next slide.

Every new Honda HR-V crossover is powered by the same 2.0-liter inline-four engine as the latest base-model Honda Civic sedan. As you probably expect, the engine is more effective in the front-wheel-drive Civic sedan that weighs hundreds of pounds less than our 2023 HR-V AWD EX-L test vehicle with more features and all-wheel drive.

OK, so let's compare the new 2023 Honda HR-V's 9.8-second 0-60 time to vehicles of its own size. A 2022 Toyota Corolla Cross XLE AWD is nearly a half-second quicker (9.3 seconds), while a Subaru Crosstrek with a 2.5-liter engine is a startling 2.0 seconds quicker. As if that isn't enough, the AWD Subaru is also more fuel efficient. Even against the last-gen HR-V, the new model comes up short; a 2019 HR-V Sport AWD we tested reached 60 mph in 9.6 seconds.

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It's no secret battery-electric vehicles (BEV) or hybrid electric vehicles (HEV) can be just as fast or faster than vehicles powered by gasoline alone. Of the five fastest quarter-mile performances we've ever recorded, the record-holding Tesla Model S Plaid is a BEV with a 9.34-second, 152.2-mph blast. The remaining four are HEVs:

By just 0.05 second, the Lucid Air Grand Touring Performance lands in sixth place with its 10.02-second, 145.3-mph performance. It also happens to be the most powerful vehicle we tested in 2022, or ever, with a combined 1,050 horsepower. For now that's a new horsepower record.

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What was the slowest quarter mile of the year? See the next slide.

We recognize subcompact SUV buyers are mostly unconcerned with straight-line speed, but even for those shoppers, the 2023 Honda HR-V is underpowered, not to mention less efficient than its predecessor. We often needed to pin the accelerator to the floor to drive comfortably on highways or inclines. It's noisy, too, and the continuously variable automatic transmission means the engine groans unpleasantly during acceleration. If Honda offered the HR-V with the turbocharged I-4 available in the Civic and CR-V, it would go a long way to addressing both the power and loudness.

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One glance at the exotic 2022 McLaren 765LT Spider and you know you're going to be in for a mind-blowing experience. Thanks to its aero-honed shape, dihedral doors, and absurdly low ride height, you simply know it has game. Given its svelte 3,223-pound as-tested curb weight, sticky Pirelli P Zero Trofeo R MC1 tires, vented and cross-drilled carbon-ceramic brakes, and a rear wing that flips up and acts as an airbrake, you expect it to stop on a dime. It does. Its sunglass-tossing 93-foot stop from 60 mph was the best of 2022. Impressive as this is, it's not a MotorTrend record. In the past, 11 cars have matched it, 23 have bested it. The all-time MotorTrend record is 87 feet, shared by a 2018 Porsche 911 GT2 RS and a 2016 Dodge Viper ACR.

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It's no surprise a niche of a niche off-road SUV, the 2022 Ford Bronco Raptor, wearing 37-inch knobby tires and boasting 13 to 14 inches of suspension travel, needs a lot of real estate to stop from 60 mph. In fairness, that's not what the hardcore "Braptor" is all about. From the driver's seat of the Bronco Raptor, a pond looks like a puddle, a boulder field looks like a gravel road, and a Mitsubishi Mirage looks like a speed bump. This $70,095 off-road colossus bounds across the gnarliest terrain and towers over traffic with an air of invincibility that shrinks everything in its path. You do you, Braptor.

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Popularized by Carroll Shelby's 13.8-second claim for his infamous Cobra, the 0-100-0-mph figures we cite are theoretical. In other words, we use our quickest measured 0-100-mph time and stitch it to the quickest 100-0-mph stopping time for the cycle.

With the year's quickest 0-60 time (2.2 sec), the Porsche 911 Turbos S Lightweight was off to a good start. Keeping its throttle nailed to the floor, it reached 100 mph in just 5.2 seconds. Smash the brakes and the car comes to a stop from 100 mph in seatbelt-straining 3.7 seconds for a total of 8.9 seconds.

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Our slowest 0-100-0-mph performance was more than twice as long. See the next slide.

Not every vehicle we test gets this treatment, just the sportiest ones. This year, out of 188 vehicles tested, we added 57  times to our 0-100-0-mph list. The 2.0-liter turbo in the Mercedes-Benz C300 4Matic provides enough pep to get it to 60 mph in a sporty 5.2 seconds and to 100 mph in 15.2 seconds. But an 8.9-second stop from 100 mph relegated it to last place this year with a 24.1-second cycle.

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A quick primer: Our proprietary figure-eight test consists of two 100-foot radius skidpads separated by 500 feet on-center. A tidy, timed lap encompasses 0.33 mile. Not only is each lap timed, each combines acceleration, braking, and left/right g loads—and averages them. The McLaren 765LT's 1.01 g figure is excellent; only seven other cars we've ever tested exceeded the 1.00 g average.

Only five cars we've ever tested have lapped our figure-eight course in less than 22 seconds, and the McLaren 765LT Spider is the only one to have done it in 21.8 seconds. This new all-time record lap time breaks a four-way 21.9-second tie for the top spot. Congratulations, McLaren!

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Fish outta water! A 7,499-pound turn-key off-road crew-cab truck with live axles front and rear, plus skidplates, 33-inch tires, and a towing capacity of 16,870 pounds doesn't like to accelerate, brake, or corner? No, it doesn't. That's not what the Ram 2500 HD Rebel is designed or built to do. It's a desert-running, rock-crushing, mountain-climbing piece of equipment.

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We've been averaging left and right cornering forces (road holding) on a 100-foot diameter skidpad since the 1960s. There had been just two cars to top the list with a two-way average of 1.19 g: The Porsche 911 GT3 and GT3 RS. Now, though, the latest Porsche 911 GT3 Touring joins those dizzying record holders. See a pattern here? This is what you get when you homologate road cars for racing.

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As with its "fish-outta-water" figure-eight performance (see the related slide), the heaviest vehicle we tested in 2022 simply doesn't like to circle a skidpad. That's simply not what it's meant to do. Got a desert to cross or a mountain to go over? The Ram 2500 HD Rebel is the right choice.

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