This roundup is part of This Year in Gear, a look back at the year’s most notable releases. To stay on top of all the latest product news, subscribe to our daily Dispatch newsletter.
Aston Martin Vantage AMR
Aston Martin has made no secret of the fact that it intends to keep the manual transmission faith. CEO Andy Palmer has long insisted the carmaker would keep the stick shift around as long as possible; and from the very launch of the new Vantage, the company has said that the compact sports car would eventually receive a manual. Well, “eventually” means 2019: The new Aston Martin Vantage AMR comes with a row-your-own-way gearbox and a hand-stitched leather shift lever rising between the seats to control it with.
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Audi RS 6 Avant
Langston Hughes once wrote, “A dream deferred is a dream denied.” Hughes may have been one of America’s greatest poets, but he certainly wasn’t much of an automotive prognosticator; after decades of looking on fondly from afar, U.S. buyers will soon finally be able to buy one of the coolest station wagons never officially sold Stateside: the Audi RS 6 Avant.
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Bentley Continental GT V8
Bentley’s third-generation Continental GT came to America first not with the thundering 6.0-liter twin-turbo W12 it launched with in other markets, but with the compact, less-powerful twin-turbo V8. Who cares? It’s still crazy quick.
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BMW M8 Gran Coupe
Price: $130,000+
From: bmwusa.com
No matter what badge BMW slaps upon it, it’s hard to argue that the new M8 Gran Coupe is anything other than a very sexy sport sedan. A speedy one, too: like the two-door M8 that deserves its coupe nomenclature, it uses a 4.4-liter twin-turbocharged V8 making either 600 or 617 horsepower, connected to all four wheels through an eight-speed automatic.
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BMW X6 Vantablack Concept
Blacked-out rides have been popular for years among the aftermarket crowd, but no tuner has ever gone as far as BMW went with this SUV. Vantablack, created for aerospace use, is effectively the blackest black humans can make using current technology. (Perhaps unsurprisingly, this car isn’t for sale.)
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Chevrolet Corvette Stingray
After more than half a century with its engine in front of the driver, the eighth-generation Corvette is swapping things around to a mid-engined layout for better performance. Will those loyal fans still love it? We’re guessing yes.
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Emery Motorsports 1959 1/2 Transitional Speedster
Rod Emory builds some of the most exquisite Porsche 356s you’ve never seen, but he takes a decidedly less orthodox approach toward preserving tradition. The 1959 1/2 Transitional Speedster in Aquamarine embodies the essence, if not the precise form of Porsche’s heritage — and it’s an absolute beauty.
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Emory Motorsports 356 C4S “Allrad”
The AWD 356 C4S tips the scales at a Miata-taunting 2,150 lbs and comes packing a 200bhp Emory-Rothsport four-cylinder engine, which in this case sends power to all four wheels. For now, the AllRad is a one-off — but if you have the means, Emory would surely build a sister car.
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Emory Motorsports 356 RSR
Price: They’re not telling, and you can’t have it anyway
From: emorymotorsports.com
Like most Emory Motorsports creations, the 356 RSR had to start with the right donor car—or rather, in this case, cars. The two cadavers necessary to make Emory’s dream build were a mostly-mangled 1960 Porsche 356B T5 and a 1990 Porsche 964 C2.
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Ferrari 812 GTS
The last drop-top front-engined V12 Ferrari offered was the 365 Daytona GTS/4, revealed 50 years ago. In the decades since, the market (including Ferrari’s top clients) begged for a new iteration. Ferrari acknowledged the demands and did…nothing. At least, until this year, when the 812 Superfast was turned into this roadster.
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Ferrari Roma
One glance is all it takes to know the new Ferrari Roma isn’t quite like any car the Prancing Horse has ever put out before. Look back as far as you like in the brand’s history, and you won’t find another two-seat gran turismo with a V8 engine up front.
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Ferrari SF90 Stradale
There’s never been a Ferrari quite like the all-new SF90 Stradale. Not only is it the quickest Ferrari road car ever made, but it’s also the first sports car from the brand to pack all-wheel-drive and a hybrid powertrain.
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Ford Mustang Shelby GT500
Price: $72,900+
From: ford.com
Ford’s new 760-horsepower Shelby GT500 takes after the track-ready GT350 more than it does its straight line-loving predecessor — which, it turns out, makes for an utterly superior muscle car.
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Lamborghini Huracán Sterrato
What if you could have a super sports car with all the requisite style and performance required to earn the title, but also offering the all-terrain prowess of an SUV? Meet the Lamborghini Huracan Sterrato: the world’s first real off-road sports car. Sadly, it’s not for sale…at least, not yet.
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Land Rover Defender
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It’s finally here. After all the drama, all the teasers, all the leaked images and suspected spec sheets and armchair conjecture — the all-new 2020 Land Rover Defender has been revealed in all its glory. (Or, if you’re not a fan of its looks, in all its oddness. We’re still making up our minds.)
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McLaren GT
British sports car manufacturer McLaren is turning towards the grand touring segment for its latest debut. Meet: the all-new McLaren GT. (Yes, that’s the whole name.) It balances comfort and performance with impeccable grace, offering both a two-seat interior designed to keep its occupants cosseted on long journeys and a 612 horsepower twin-turbo V8.
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Mercedes-Maybach GLS 600
It was only a matter of time. This year, Mercedes-Benz’s Maybach division finally yanked the covers off the Mercedes-Maybach GLS 600 4Matic — the super-luxury sub-brand’s first SUV. Based on the new Mercedes-Benz GLS-Class, it’s about as opulent as an SUV can be — especially for the folks in back.
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Porsche 718 Cayman T, 718 Boxster T
Porsche hit on a brilliant idea with the 911 Carrera T: Take the base model of a sports car, then add on just the fancy performance features true drivers crave to create a (comparatively) affordable dream car. Now, the company has announced they’re using that same great idea all over again. Meet the 718 Boxster T roadster and 718 Cayman T coupe — the new affordable aspirational cars of your dreams.
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Porsche Boxster Bergspyder
The Porsche Boxster Bergspyder was whipped up in 2015 by special order of the company’s board of executives, as both a way to see just how much lightweighting potential could be found in the 981-generation Boxster/Cayman platform and as a tribute to the Porsche 909 Bergspyder of 1968, a hillclimb special that weighed in at a paltry 849 pounds. The Boxster Bergspyder couldn’t match that, but Porsche’s engineers and designers did manage to chop the car down to 2,418 pounds, a savings of around 600 versus the regular Boxster.
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Porsche Taycan
The 2020 Porsche Taycan Turbo S is vicious. 750 horsepower and 775 pound-ft of torque is enough to make the 2.5-ton sedan shudder from 0 to 60 mph in about two and a half seconds — yet as Porsche’s first full electric car, it’ll never touch a drop of gasoline as long as it exists.
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Tesla Cybertruck
Price: $39,900+
From: tesla.com
Elon Musk’s long-awaited Cybertruck practically broke the Internet when it debuted in November. With an out-of-this-world design, stainless steel “exoskeleton” and Porsche-beating performance, it theoretically could be a gamechanger for the pickup truck world…if Tesla can make good on all those bold claims.
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Will Sabel Courtney is Gear Patrol’s Motoring Editor, formerly of The Drive and RIDES Magazine. You can often find him test-driving new cars in New York City, cursing the slow-moving traffic surrounding him.
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