Why we had to have two awards for PCOTY 2022

Listening to your audience isn’t a bad idea. Last year we had a number of readers ask us for the return of Bang For Your Bucks, our annual shootout of sub-$100k cars that had been temporarily put in a holding pattern due to Covid.

Others had pointed out that the Performance Car of the Year judging criteria naturally weighed in favour of pure sports cars at the expense of the sort of cars that most of us buy.

Take those two components into consideration and the solution seemed relatively straightforward – split PCOTY into two awards: one title for more affordable cars and the other for more uncompromising hardware.

For 2022 say hello to Sports Car of the Year and Performance Car of the Year.

Sports Car of the Year is an award with a cut-off point of $100k. We have an absolutely stacked field of 10 of the very best cars launched or updated within the past year that includes the brilliant Hyundai i20 N, the Subaru BRZ, the Volkswagen Golf GTI Mk8, the Ford Mustang Mach 1 and the Mazda MX-5 GT RS.

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Performance Car of the Year is where the true heavy hitters knock lumps out of each other and this year the least powerful car in the field fronts up with 294kW and the most powerful packs a 560kW wallop.

Porsche arrives with a triple-pronged attack, headed by the astonishing 911 GT3, while the new mid-engined Corvette C8, a supercharged rear-drive Jaguar F-Type and a manual BMW M3 punch in alongside exotica from Lamborghini and Alpina.

Oh, and did we mention we’ve got Luffy back in the hot seat and the performance testing is at Australia’s fastest permanent race track, Phillip Island Grand Prix circuit?

The two awards carry absolute equal weight, despite the event as a whole continuing to be known as PCOTY. I guess some old habits die hard.

We’re stoked that the sort of cars that most of us actually buy with our own money can have their moment in the sun. And, without issuing anything in the way of a spoiler, we think the 2022 Sports Car of the Year gets the inaugural title off to one heck of a start.

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