Another year is in the bag, folks. Before you start making resolutions to work out or get outside more often, we implore you to kick back and forget all that nonsense. You may not be able to hold those New Year promises, but we can promise you that we wrote about some righteous (and significant) stuff among the more than 350 reviews we published this year. Here, in alphabetical order by review type, is a look back at our hottest tests, reviews, and comparison tests of 2014. Enjoy!
FIRST DRIVES
Ariel Atom 3.5R
Given the free choice of locations, where would you drive a 350-hp Ariel Atom? A flowing Alpine pass in the summer sunshine? Or a nice, quiet racetrack surrounded by deep run-off areas? Maybe you'd just nominate a nice wide runway to safely explore the performance of a car with a power-to-weight ratio not far removed from that of an early Can-Am racer. FULL REVIEW >>
2015 Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat
There's an insuppressible sense of buoyancy among Dodge folks of late. Certainly, it can't be attributed to the Dart compact or the complete lack of a Dodge-brand entry in the hugely popular mid-size-sedan segment. It's not even that the Viper sports car has been newly re-Dodged after wearing only an SRT badge in 2013–14. No, the smiles on the faces of the Dodge Boys folks are on account of one special thing, and its name is Hellcat. FULL REVIEW >>
2014 Ferrari LaFerrari
The night I was scheduled to leave for Maranello, Italy, to drive the LaFerrari, Car and Driver hosted a party in New York for the annual auto show. The guests included three racing heroes you'd recognize from the Kodachromes: David Hobbs, Sam Posey, and Brian Redman. These gents hail from the golden age of motorsport, when every race weekend seemed to darken into an orgy of gore and fire. FULL REVIEW >>
2015 Ford F-150
In the light-duty-truck world, beer cans are either all the rage or the ammunition for all of your rage, depending on which automaker's logo your Calvin decal is pissing on. The aluminum-bodied 2015 Ford F-150brings huge weight savings for America's bestselling vehicle. You'd think this would be universally accepted as innovation, progress, and a generally good thing. But in the vernacular of a Chevy or Ram loyalist, beer cans take on a condescending connotation, as in "I'd never drive a truck made out of beer cans." These people prefer their trucks be made from SpaghettiOs cans, apparently. FULL REVIEW >>
Infiniti Eau Rouge Concept
"We want to know what you think," said the polite fellows in custody of Infiniti's recently completed—and only—Q50 Eau Rouge prototype. This is very flattering to a writer, the implication that my opinion might be relevant to some important decisions in, say, the final suspension tune or even whether or not to build the car in the first place. I told them I'm the wrong guy to ask about that, as I'm firmly in favor of sticking GT-R engines in everything that Nissan makes, including its forklifts. So a four-door Nissan GT-R? Yes, please. Build that. FULL REVIEW >>
2015 McLaren 650S Coupe / Spider
Turning off the stability control in a 641-hp, rear-wheel-drive supercar with summer tires in wet, sloppy weather on a 3.4-mile, 26-turn track can be a little nerve-wracking, but that's what is about to happen as we enter our third lap of the Ascari racetrack in southern Spain. We're at the helm of the new McLaren 650S, and at our right is McLaren test driver Gareth Howell, who doesn't seem to be nervous at all as he switches the Powertrain and ProActive Chassis Control (PCC) systems from their Sport to Track settings. He clearly knows something we don't. FULL REVIEW >>
2015 Mercedes-AMG GT S
Normally, prior to the launch of an important vehicle, manufacturers assemble a jet-lagged mob of scriveners for an every-last-detail PowerPoint presentation. AMG was so confident that the new GT S would speak for itself, it simply gave us a quick route briefing and sent us scuttling out the door and down the San Francisco Peninsula toward Monterey in this, the final-spec version of its latest halo product. (We've previously ridden in a test car and driven a prototype.) FULL REVIEW >>
2015 Porsche Boxster GTS
The problem is always the onions. Or maybe the green peppers. Not usually the pepperoni, but if you have vegetarians around, well . . . just try to order a supreme pizza to share with more than two people and someone will raise a fuss. Although no one should object to Porsche's mid-engine models' getting an extra 15 horses, we do take issue with the front fascia of the new Boxster supreme. FULL REVIEW >>
2016 Volkswagen Golf R Manual
Fanboy types are always clamoring for somebody to build a Subaru that Subaru doesn't build. And we get it. Fuji Heavy Industries is not known for its styling prowess or for its finely crafted interiors. And while Mercedes-Benz—of all companies—makes a credible WRX STI hatchback substitute in the form of the loopy-loon GLA45 AMG, you'll pay all the money and then some. Closer to the Subie in price is the Audi S3, but like the STI, it's available here only as a sedan. Which leaves the Volkswagen Golf R. FULL REVIEW >>
2015 Volvo S60 / V60 Polestar
One hundred and twenty. That's how many Ferrari LaFerraris are destined for North America. It's also how many Polestar-branded V60 wagons and S60 sedans Volvo will send to the U.S. starting later this month. So the odds of spotting one in the wild are roughly equal. FULL REVIEW >>
INSTRUMENTED TESTS
2015 Alfa Romeo 4C Coupe
Thanks to our crack investigative staff, we have compelling new evidence to explain why it's taken so long for the Alfa Romeo 4C to arrive in the United States. FULL REVIEW >>
2014 BMW i8
A funny thing happened on the way to our first U.S. drive of BMW's i8 plug-in hybrid: We spotted, trundling along in the next lane, a DeLorean DMC-12 with the inevitable TME MCHN vanity plate, a reference to 1985's Back to the Future. Was this a divine prophecy about our forthcoming trip or merely a California coincidence? FULL REVIEW >>
2015 Chevrolet Corvette Z06
A few years ago, during the darkest hours of the GM bankruptcy, Corvette chief engineer Tadge Juechter found himself on a conference call with company execs and government overseers. A conversation on the bolts and screws of bailing out GM suddenly halted when one of the federales, a Corvette fan, wanted to know the plan for the C7. "At the time, there was no plan," recalled Juechter as we stood trackside at Road Atlanta this past October. "We were at full stop." So much has happened since then. FULL REVIEW >>
2015 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat
In the words of Ron Burgundy, "Boy, that escalated quickly." Back in 2010, Ford was crowing about its 550-hp Shelby GT500. Chevy one-upped that in 2011 with the 580-hp Camaro ZL1. A few months later, Ford didn't so much leapfrog Chevy as it did stomp its face into the mud as it ran away with its girlfriend and its mother, introducing the 662-horse 2013 GT500. Now Dodge officially ushers in the age of unreason with the 707-hp 2015 Challenger SRT Hellcat. FULL REVIEW >>
2015 Ford Mustang GT Manual
With the new Ford Mustang finally sitting before us, a walkaround is the first order of business. Circling the newest pony, there's no mistaking it for anything but a Mustang. The all-new 2015 model retains the right proportions, with a long hood, a compact and low greenhouse, and an extremely fast, well, fastback roofline. Strong cheekbones and taut sheetmetal enhance its beauty, while jawlines on top of jawlines will convey an appropriate sense of terror to anyone who encounters one in their rearview mirror. FULL REVIEW >>
2015 Jaguar F-type R Coupe
"No! It is not a car for a dentist's wife!" came my Brit companion's incredulous response. I was sitting lakeside several years back, having a few beers with some visiting Englishmen, when the topic of the Jaguar XK came up. I might have been overstating my position on the car (thank you, beer), but the thrust of the whole dentist's-wife contention was that in the States, people don't really view the Jag XK as a direct competitor for the Porsche 911. Mercedes-Benz SL, sure. But 911? Nope. FULL REVIEW >>
2015 Lamborghini Huracán LP610-4
You may know the Nardò Ring as the 7.8-mile asphalt track where the world's automakers take their top-speed vacations. A traffic-free circular autobahn in the heel of Italy's boot, the Porsche-owned test track is banked such that you can take your hands off any car's steering wheel at 149 mph in the outer lane. It's one of the few places on the planet where Lamborghini's new 10-cylinder wedge, the Huracán, could prove to us how aerodynamically sound it is approaching its claimed top speed of 202 mph. FULL REVIEW >>
2014 McLaren P1
Here is a rough transcript of what I uttered when I first unleashed the full 903 horsepower of the McLaren P1: "[Cackle, cackle] Holy [bleep]! That's . . . [cackle]. I, uh . . . wow. [cackle]." FULL REVIEW >>
2015 Nissan GT-R NISMO
The 2015 model year marks the seventh for the GT-R, and nearly every turn of the calendar has come with incremental updates from Nissan, stretching the envelope of a car we initially called "big, heavy, and incredible." FULL REVIEW >>
2015 Porsche 918 Spyder
Flush as we are with nutty performance cars at the moment, we should remember that automobiles as quick as the Porsche 918 don't come along too often. In 2008, the quickest (and fastest) production car we had ever tested was the Bugatti Veyron 16.4. It could hit 60 mph in 2.5 seconds and burn the quarter-mile in 10.1 ticks. The Porsche 918 crushes the original million-dollar car with a 2.2-second sprint to 60 mph and a 9.8-second quarter-mile time. To put that in perspective, 0.3 second is about how long it takes you to blink. As acceleration times shrink, their deltas become increasingly larger percentage gains, so the 918's third-of-a-second edge over the Veyron represents an astounding achievement. FULL REVIEW >>
COMPARISON TESTS
2015 Ford Mustang GT vs. Chevrolet Camaro SS 1LE, Dodge Challenger R/T Scat Pack
It's hard to reconcile the 2015 Ford Mustang and its competitors with the city in which muscle cars were born. While decaying Detroit slogs through bankruptcy proceedings, still shrugging off the millstones of its past and working hard to get up and running again, the Ford is fully transformed into something sleek and modern. Meanwhile, its two direct and highly successful foes have recently been freshened with changes of their own. FULL COMPARO >>
2015 Alfa Romeo 4C vs. 2014 Porsche Cayman
Do your tax returns routinely trigger DEFCON alerts at the IRS? Are your personal finances cited in biz-school case studies of the filthy rich? If so, please skip this story. This comparison test is for sports-car enthusiasts of somewhat lesser means—those with Moët tastes and, well, a Moët budget, once in a while, if the kids are already out of college. FULL COMPARO >>
2015 Subaru WRX vs. 2015 Volkswagen GTI
You have heard plenty over the years about Subaru's rally-inspired WRX. And, owing to its longer life span, you have probably heard even more about Volkswagen's genre-defining hot hatch, the GTI. It's now in its seventh generation. Let's introduce the two, shall we? FULL COMPARO >>
2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray Convertible vs. 2014 Jaguar F-type V-8 S
The Chevrolet Corvette convertible and the Jaguar F-type V-8 S we've gathered here fulfill the basic tenets of the hot-rod faith. Window-shattering V-8? Check. Two seats tucked into a body that will draw longing stares and disapproving looks? Check. Guy behind the wheel wearing a Hawaiian shirt? Check. FULL COMPARO >>
2015 BMW M4 vs. Porsche 911 Carrera
If there were a perfect way to construct a car, we would have figured it out by now. In 129 years of automotive development, though, the only consensus in the industry seems to be that four wheels are better than three. The perpetual evolution of the automobile, along with a few steadfast traditions, suggests that a great car is more a matter of practical application than scientific theory. FULL COMPARO >>
BONUS: Three Generations of Mazda Miata Compared—Plus Our Original Reviews!
With Mazda's pokey little MX-5 Miata sports car celebrating its 25th birthday this year and the new, fourth-generation car's arrival just around the corner (tomorrow!), we called a staff meeting to determine how best to celebrate. Cross-country trip? Already done (thanks, Road & Track). Take one racing? Also not exactly a new concept for the easy-to-race Miata, plus—shockingly—no one in the office has a race-prepped Mazda. Ultimately, we figured that the most appropriate course of action involved simply driving the thing. FULL STORY >>
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