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This has been a hell of a year for new car introductions, with as many as four a week being launched onto the SA market (with the exception of Auto Africa, where about 50 new cars saw the light of day). Choosing our top 10 has been no easy task. Audi RS4 However choosing the winner was no problem at all. Without doubt the closest thing on the road to an out-and-out competition car is the Audi RS4. This monster machine has a 309 kW V8 engine producing monstrous power, allied to quattro four-wheel drive and the best brakes we have ever sampled. The RS4 can jet from 0-100 km/h in 4.8 seconds and 0-200 km/h in 16.6 seconds. It's electronically limited to 250 km/h. It looks racy too and the RS4 comes with beefy wheel-arches, flashy wheels, and pumped-up shark-like spoiler gills which give it a pimped look. Carbon-ceramic brakes on their way down to the peons The sight of a race car streaking into the darkness, brakes aglow as it slows for the next corner, is one of those incredible images that just sticks with you. Those massive carbon-ceramic rotors can take a lot of abuse and their light weight and durability have made them a racing staple for more than 15 years now. Street cars, on the other hand, have been slow to adopt the technology. Although their superior performance is unquestionable, the high cost of carbon-ceramic brakes has made them pretty much exclusive to exotics and supercars.Porsche was the first to use them on a street car when they fitted them to the "widowmaker" GT2. Soon after, they found their way onto the "regular" 911 Turbo as well. Now you can get carbon-ceramics on any Ferrari, most Lambos and Porsches, the Bentley Conti GT Diamond and the Audi RS4. A luxury sedan for spirited driving Its price of $66,000 will pretty much guarantee that the new Audi RS4 will be a limited production car. Its SUV-like fuel economy and $2,100 gas guzzler tax won't help, either. The Alternative Car of the Year titles go to... After three weeks of furious online voting and speculation, South Africa's three most personality-injected new car models have been outed in wheels24.co.za's 'Alternative Car of the Year' online poll. At the finish line, the pert Peugeot 207 was named 'gayest' car, the buff Audi RS4 strutted in as 'straightest' and the scrumptious derriere of the Alfa Romeo Brera kicked butt for the 'rear of the year' title. The Alternative Car of the Year campaign, conducted in partnership with Road Angel Navigator, SA's premier in-car global positioning system (GPS), recorded over 16 000 votes during the period - a record response from the public for an online motoring campaign. So, what made this online poll such a runaway success among the South African public? Adrenaline pumps: All three cars are fun to drive but the 335i ... The Automobile Journalists Association of Canada holds an annual comparison test every October to determine Car and Truck of the Year honours for a variety of vehicles. Over the next few weeks, we'll offer some of the journalists' views on cars and trucks in different categories. Today, John LeBlanc takes a look at the best new sports and performance cars over $60,000. This category included the BMW M Coupe, Audi RS4 and BMW 335i Coupe. Following are my top picks: Third place: BMW M Coupe The hardtop version of BMW's M roadster creates a philosophical question: What is a sporty car? Others here put up similar performance numbers, but the rear-drive, two-seat M coupe represents the classical sports car motif: i.e., it can be hard to drive at times. Links
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