The best sports cars at Wheels Car of the Year 2023

A COTY winner in its previous form, the Toyota GR86’s pre-match sparkle was tempered by the Subaru BRZ’s performance last year – still an incredible drive, but the follow-up album rarely has the sledgehammer impact of the first.

As for the Nissan Z, its mere existence is cause for elation among the Wheels team.

On the first day, in a meeting room running through specification sheets, the writing was already on the wall for the pair of sports cars. Neither has a current, valid safety rating.

All is not lost, though, because we know the GR86 and Z ought to offer spectacular drives. After watching the other judges step out of the two-door sports cars wearing widescreen grins, I was excited to sample both.

I got my chance in the sports cars first thing in the morning. With an under-caffeinated brain, the mercury at 15ºC and damp patches around, I clambered into the 300kW Z with a touch of trepidation.

WHEELS CAR OF THE YEAR 2023

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After thumbing the Z’s start button, I jumped out to watch the exhaust’s condensation whisper into the air as the 3.0-litre V6 warmed up – a perfect excuse to check vital signs.

How big is the boot? Good enough for a weekend’s worth of soft bags or weekly shop. No spare tyre though – bit of a shame for a grand tourer.

The Z is a design of two parts; its muscular sports car proportions enhanced by tasteful detailing like the 300ZX-inspired LED tail lights. The exterior is offset by mid-2000s-malaise-era pull handles and the door cards look very familiar (both are carry-over). Technology is, thankfully, leaps ahead of the 370Z that shares the new Z’s ‘Z34’ chassis code (do we call it a 34-2?), with a responsive 9.0-inch infotainment touchscreen and 12.3-inch digital cluster.

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With the Z’s temp up, it’s time to go.

Start gently in first, trundle over the skid pan onto Lang Lang’s ride and handling loop, shift lazily into second through the long, heavy gate, ease out the clutch, and feed in a full serving of gas.

The Z happily spins its 275/35R19 Potenza S007s through second gear, even with ESC fully engaged. Pluck third – this time a quicker shift from redline – and it happens again. The Z has some serious snot!

“Rear tyres always seem incredibly surprised whenever you put your foot down” – wish Campbell had told me this before setting off.

The Z did manage the second-fastest rolling acceleration pace behind only the Audi E-Tron GT, though Dylan described it as “about as easy to performance-test as it would be knocking an apple off someone’s head with an RPG”. While getting it cleanly off the line was tricky, he managed to extract a 0-100km/h sprint of 5.8 seconds.

The drive is a little aloof, though, the Z’s loose-limbed suspension, large steering wheel and excitable rear end mean dishing out all the twin-turbo engine’s power demands a certain amount of respect. Z is not a track tool, rather a grand tourer with attitude. Affat likened it to an old-school tuner Nissan – “in a good way”.

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"The Toyota GR86 is sharper, harder, and faster than before, all by a good margin" – John Law

Enright appreciated the ‘Japanese muscle car’ vibes, too: “Forget about those who complain about the manual shift. They’ve forgotten what a Z-car’s shift should feel like.”

Another two-door Japanese sports car under $100K, the Toyota GR86, couldn’t be more different in its intent. Unlike the Z’s smooth V6, the GR86’s flat-four is positively van-like at start-up. The cloth upholstery of the base GT seats is abrasive and, as Fisk noted, the headrests are uncomfortably hard. It’s worth the extra for the GTS.

It takes a moment to acclimatise to the GR86’s sharp throttle and accurate 2.5-turns steering rack after the Z’s languid tiller – like the rest of the GR’s burgeoning line-up, there’s a seriousness to the GR86’s chassis.

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It’s firmer than before, with noticeably enhanced chassis stiffness (and a smaller boot aperture as a result).

Thankfully, Toyota has specified quality dampers for the GR86, so despite all that cornering support it’s comfortable enough to daily drive.

The Toyota is clearly a sharper tool, remaining stable mid-corner yet fighter-jet responsive through direction changes. The GR86 was (sadly) beaten by the Nissan Qashqai in the lane change, a symptom of drift-friendly 215/45R17 Michelin Primacy HP rubber.

Its new engine has genuine shove through the mid-range, that 250Nm torque figure propelling the 1287kg GR86 GT effortlessly; the 174kW punch just enough to over-rotate the rear in the dry and ESC Track Mode is a lot more liberal than the first gen’s. It’s perfectly balanced.

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Whereas the Z is praised for just existing and making us all laugh, the GR86 truly found a place in the judge’s hearts.

Affat initially got all nerdy about the differences between it and the Subaru: “You notice that the rear end carries just a touch more lateral inertia as steering returns to centre on corner exit.” But he followed that up with simple praise: “It just makes you smile.”

The GR86 even offers a modicum of practicality with its plus-two seating and generous boot. But there are flaws for each of these contenders that, under strict COTY criteria, see them stumble.

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For the Z, it’s safety. With no IIHS, Euro NCAP, or ANCAP score, Nissan’s sports car sadly must bow out of the running. The GR86 suffers a similar fate, though being based on a previous five-star ANCAP-rated platform, it has a leg up on the Nissan.

No, the real problem for 86 is value. The manual GR86 GT costs $3800 more than an identically equipped Subaru BRZ, yet isn’t equipped with the automatic variant’s potentially life-saving autonomous emergency braking.

Despite the sports cars’ shortcomings against the criteria, both the Z and GR86 keys were near impossible to wrangle out of other judges' hands. Driving enthusiasts remain mercifully well served in 2023.

MORE READING

Now that you're done reading about these COTY 2023 contenders, you should go back to catch up on anything you might've missed. Check out the links below, or find it all at our COTY page.