2021 TopGear.com Awards announced

Presenters Paddy McGuinness, Freddie Flintoff and Chris Harris revealed their best cars of the year at virtual ceremony.

This year’s virtual ceremony, which premiered on https://www.youtube.com/topgear at 7pm 30th November (and is available to watch now), unveiled the top cars for 2021. While Paddy opted for the £4 million Aston Martin Victor, Chris voted for the impressive Porsche 911 GT3, and the Ginetta G55 Supercup brought tears to Freddie’s eyes.

Paddy said: “This car might cost £4 million, but the aircon wasn’t working, there’s no cupholders, everything you’d normally find in a high-end car, forget all that, this was purely about the driving experience. And the heat inside... it was relentless, I was continuously having to wipe the sweat out of my eyes. I’ve never driven anything like it before and I probably never will again.”

And Paddy couldn’t help but gloat about his driving coup: “The boys were unsurprisingly quite jealous, especially as the previous series I got to drive a £3.5 million DB5, which they weren’t best pleased about either. It shows the producers’ thinking though – these are expensive cars, they need to be in a safe pair of hands. We’ve all seen Harris spinning about doing doughnuts, and with Fred there’s always the possibility of him turning it over, no one wants that. It’s just one of them things they’ll have to deal with.”

Commenting on his chosen car, Freddie said: “The one car I experienced more emotions in than anything I’ve ever driven before was the Ginetta G55 Supercup. From going for my race licence, to competing in my first endurance race alongside Chris, and being the underdog as well, it was such a surreal experience. I really doubted myself, there were times I was nearly in tears, but honestly, I had so much fun.”

Chris added: “Porsche is so impressive right now, because it’s smashing it on the EV front, and then there’s also the Cayenne Turbo GT, which although I have no interest in at all, I’m told drives unbelievably well. You’d think those would be distractions, but amongst all that there’s this little car that Porsche makes called the GT3. It doesn’t make many of them, but it smashes it out of the park every single time. I’ve done 47,000 miles on my 991-gen GT3, and the number of people that park them in garages... go out and drive the bloody thing!”

18 awards were given out on the night, voted for by the TopGear team, but it was the Hyundai i20N that took TopGear magazine on an amazing adventure across the Australian outback which was the star of the show, picking up two awards for Performance Car of The Year and overall Car of the Year.

Top Gear Magazine Editor Jack Rix said: “There’s always a point when I doubt whether 2021’s Awards crop is a strong as the previous few years, and then I laugh at my own foolishness, because despite many challenges, the car industry right now is at an all-time high. Of our 18 awards, eight of the winners are electric cars. We choose not to single them out with electro-specific categories, but instead let them compete on a level playing field with petrol, diesel and hybrid. That’s what makes the Topgear.com awards totally unique, we won’t shoehorn old cars into pre-existing categories, we only award new cars that truly deserve it, the best of the best, and what a group it is. Congrats to all our winners, but especially the all-conquering Hyundai i20N.

Full list of award winners

Hyper GT of the year: Pininfarina Battista
Manufacturer of the year: Hyundai (i20N, i30N, Tucson, Nexo, Kona N, Ioniq 5)
Engine of the year: Singer DLS
All the car you need of the year: Skoda Fabia
Luxury car of the year: Merc EQS
Family Hatch of the Year: Renault Megane Electric
Saloon of the year: BMW i4
Chris Harris’ Car of the Year: 911 GT3
Family car of the year: Ford Mustang Mach-E
Concept of the year: Porsche Mission R
Freddie’s Car of the year: Ginetta G55 Supercup
Design of the year: Vauxhall Mokka
Paddy’s Car of the Year: Aston Martin Victor
Crossover of the year: Kia EV6
American Car of the year: Ford Bronco
Apocalypse proof car of the year: Prodrive BRX Hunter
Car we’re most looking forward to driving in 2022: Lotus Emira
Performance car of the year and Car of the Year: Hyundai i20N

You can watch the TopGear.com Awards here https://www.youtube.com/topgear and pick up the December issue of Top Gear Magazine that’s out now from all good retailers.

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