Highlights of 2025: Autocar's top motoring moments of the year

Race after race, the young team-mates went toe to toe, often brilliantly so, and the result was never assured either way - even after Piastri inexplicably appeared to lose his nerve in the final third, encouraging Max Verstappen to gatecrash the McLaren party.

I probably should add that I loved how Norris and Piastri competed respectfully and fairly too, but I'd be lying if I said I hadn't been keenly awaiting an iconic flare-up...

Early herd special

Richard Lane: Over the summer, Bentley launched a new Bentayga to the press in Bozeman, Montana. Given the prospect of driving through Yellowstone, it would be absurd to pretend this was ever going to be anything other than a memorable trip, regardless of the car.

Still, we like to poke holes, don't we? The itinerary pierced the national park's 3472 square miles only briefly, and I'd quietly hoped to tick off a lifelong desire to see American bison. So I borrowed a car on the final morning and set off alone, into the blackness of the Montana bush.

It was exactly 3am and I quickly lost all phone signal. By 4am I was at the deserted west entrance of the park and an hour or so later 1 was on top of the Dunraven Pass for pre-sunrise, where I took the photo you can see below left. Not long after that, I reached the Lamar Valley and saw the bison, their coats still frosted up.

Reader, it was very special indeed. Almost as special was the Bentayga's ability to hustle itself back to the hotel in time for a 9am press conference. I arrived with five minutes to spare, feeling surprisingly fresh, given the 260 miles covered. 

Black-eyed VIPs

Charlie Martin: In June, I was among a few thousand reporters, AMG owners and workers eagerly waiting on a rooftop in a 34deg Affalterbach to see the wild new GT XX concept. Typically these events are quiet and exclusive affairs, but this felt like the build-up to a Saturday night set on the Pyramid Stage.

Particularly when the car rose from the belly of a stage encircled by a blast of flame, singeing the eyebrows off everyone in the media pen - myself included. Once Mercedes F1 racers George Russell and Kimi Antonelli had left the stage, pop star Alicia Keys wheeled on a piano and launched into her smash hit Empire State of Mind (Part II) Broken Down, which was moving, if slightly inconducive to interviewing company execs.

Concert over (but DJ set impending), I picked up my backpack to go and shoot some photos of the car-clumsily shoulder-barging rapper Will.i.am in the process. It was one of the more memorable new car debuts: I managed to fill a notebook, obtain an unholy sunburn and accidentally assault a childhood hero. Sorry, Will (I am).

Hashtag blessed

Felix Page: About 40 miles south-east of Porto, there is a vast expanse of boggy, rocky nothingness that looks rather more barren and inhospitable on Google Maps than I remember it.

But it was there, on the M612 pass between the tiny Portuguese hamlets of Castanheira and Manhouce, that I had my favourite motoring moment of the year.

I was testing the new Smart #5 electric SUV, so it wasn't so much that I was having the 'drive of my life', but the road was excellent and the scenery utterly otherworldly-captivating enough for me to pull over several times to take in the wildly varying panoramas of the Douro Valley and gulp in lungfuls of the sharp, fresh, morning air.

It felt like I had the entire world to myself as eagles soared overhead and clouds rolled through the hills below me. The car itself played a secondary role in the magic of the moment, but I reckon I'd have said the same if I'd been in a Pagani Huayra.

Either way, I'd have been struck by that fantastic sense of liberation and appreciation that cars make possible when you take them where you want to go, not just where you need to. 

Coupe de maitre

Vicky Parrot: My standout moment of 2025 was the launch of the new Honda Prelude. I'll say that again: a new Honda Prelude! After 25 years of retirement, the sporty coupé is back, to give us all a refreshing break from the amorphous SUVs and crossovers that dominate the market today.

It's a clever thing too. Pliant, practical and efficient enough for easy everyday conveyance, but with a deftness to its handling that makes it fun even on a mundane road. Or you can dial it up with the clever, simulated gearshifts for a bit of fizzy performance driving.

I think it looks really cool too. Let's face it, there just aren't enough everyday two-doors in the world now. But at least the Prelude is now here to give us a glimpse of what we've been missing.

Wales of a time

Sam Phillips: Few things are more satisfying than driving on your favourite road, but driving along it in convoy with your car-obsessed mates makes the experience all the more special.

In April, I organised a road trip to Wales with Autocar staffers Charlie Martin, Jack Warrick and Alex Wolstenholme, with a couple of other mates in tow. We covered the Beacons and the Elan Valley, but the real highlight was a specific stretch of road in the Snowdonia National Park.

I'll keep its name to myself, if you don't mind, but it's a corker: it scythes and snakes its way across the Welsh countryside, with stunning views from start to finish. Its smooth surface and flowing nature make it so easy to find a rhythm, irrespective of the car you're in.

I'll never forget driving my Renault Clio Trophy along this brilliant road and grinning at my mirrors every time I caught a glimpse of our colourful flotilla trailing in my wake. 

No place I'd rather B

Matt Prior: I'd been to Frontline Cars in Abingdon to pick up one of their MGB restomods, then hoofed it over to Steve Cropley's in Gloucestershire to record a podcast. I'd had to stop on the way to file some copy and sort some admin, but it was a pleasant cross-country drive.

By the time I left Steve's, I'd ticked off all urgent deadlines and, as the evening darkness drew in, it was just me in this car's beautifully finished atmospheric interior, some tunes, a relaxed, leggy driving position, the B's comfortable ride and generous gearing.

I could have kept driving until I hit the top of Scotland. 

Lots of thrust, utterly stunning

Matt Saunders: They were 13 seconds that I will never forget. That's how long it took the Lotus Evija to hit 200mph from rest-and to change my perception of 'quick' forever.

On the first couple of high-speed runs on Horiba MIRA's mile straights, just as the downforce on the car was beginning to squish the sidewalls flat at about 150mph, I realised that I should have inflated the tyres a bit more.

But the pressures rose as the tyres warmed, and on the fifth run I was finally brave enough to keep my foot in all the way through the standing kilometre. The way the thing just kept finding extra grip and unleashing corresponding torque in reply was utterly staggering.

And as I hit the brakes on the sixth run, I could feel the brake fade beginning to build. Sometimes you get the right set of numbers by the skin of your teeth, but rarely quite as memorably as that. 

Like father, like son

Murray Scullion: I love a 'new versus old' test, and this year I performed my favourite yet. The subjects were both Mazda MX-5s: NA versus ND, or Mk1 versus Mk4 if you prefer. A tried and tested recipe, but with a twist: the older of the two was powered by electricity.

It took place on Bicester's short, tight circuit and the surface was slightly wet, which gave me an opportunity to test the ND's new Track mode - a very simple but very clever piece of software that allows for a bit of slip before the traction control intervenes to straighten things out.

The Electrogenic NA had none of that traction control malarkey. All it needed was my right foot, a steering wheel, 2291b ft of torque, rear drive, skinny eco tyres and a sub-1100kg kerb weight. They were two very different takes on a legend, but both arrived at the same gleeful conclusion. 

Just in time

Mark Tisshaw: We had spent a long time trying to get in front of Volvo's former CEO Jim Rowan. While a nice fella and good talker, the Scot simply wasn't as accessible to the likes of us as his predecessor, Håkan Samuelsson.

That was a huge shame when he was changing so much about the company and its cars in ways that needed a deeper level of explanation. When the time finally came for us to speak to him at the launch of the ES90 in March, so much of what he was trying to do -by increasing the level of tech and software expertise - was made clear in attempting to future-proof the company.

I don't think the execution has been successful (and I believe Volvo has gone too far in some of the customer-facing tech) but Rowan had his say and we were able to share that with you so you could make up your mind on the firm's direction.

By the end of the month, and just days after our print deadlines enabled us to get the story in front of you, Rowan was gone and Volvo was back in the hands of Samuelsson. Such is the folly of this game.

Twin peaks 

Illya Verpraet: Sometimes one plus one really does equal two. The Morgan Supersport is one of my favourites of the year. I could look at it stationary all day, and it doesn't disappoint on the move either, with its mighty engine, high-quality damping and sweet rear-drive balance.

We decided to shoot it alongside the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N in South Wales on a road that I had seen many times in pictures and video but never driven. It's one of those slivers of spaghetti draped over a mountain where the corners and the scenery just keep coming.

Uninterrupted by villages, it really lets you get into a flow and forget everything else that's going on. Great road, great car, automotive bliss. 

The exceptional unexceptional

Alex Wolstenholme: If you ever need a reminder that people who love cars are all around us, Lincolnshire's Festival of the Unexceptional is the place to go. It attracts a more diverse and enthusiastic crowd than any other motoring event I've been to.