Over the past couple of weeks, the votes from our readers have numbered in the hundreds of thousands, making this our biggest Speedhunters Awards yet. While some of the category winners were obvious shoo-ins, others were literally decided by a couple of votes. Some of the winners may even raise eyebrows. So without further ado, let's start revealing our 2011 winners!
3rd – Concept Car of the Year: Toyota FT-86 II Concept
2nd – Concept Car of the Year: Subaru BRZ STI Concept
Winner – Concept Car of the Year: Jaguar C-X16
The first Speedhunters Award that you voted on was Concept Car of the Year. This award was comfortably won by Jaguar's beautiful C-X16. It was also interesting to see which of the 86 concepts were most popular. In terms of votes, the BRZ Concept STI (2nd) edged out the FT-86 II Concept (3rd) and the Scion FR-S Concept (6th). The BMW i8 squeezed into 5th ahead of the FR-S having secured just seven more votes. Audi's 500hp A1 Clubsport quattro – which was unveiled at this year's Worthersee event – finished in 4th.
3rd – New Car of the Year: Lamborghini Aventador
2nd – New Car of the Year: BMW 1M Coupe
Winner – New Car of the Year: Toyota 86 / Scion FR-S
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Speedhunters audience decided that their New Car of the Year was the Toyota 86 / Scion FR-S / GT 86. Fighting for second position were the BMW 1M Coupe and Lamborghini Aventador, which were eventually separated by only half a percent.
3rd – Time Attack Car of the Year: Scorch Racing S15 Silvia
2nd – Time Attack Car of the Year: Cyber Evo
Winner – Time Attack Car of the Year: KRB Audi
Finishing 5th in Time Attack Car of the Year was the Garage Revolution RX-7. The FXMD NSX, which recently smashed the Buttonwillow time attack record, racked up enough votes to finish 4th. Literally pipping them to 3rd was the Scorch Racing carbon Silvia, which accumulated just four more votes. As soon as voting opened, two cars stood apart in popularity: the KRB Audi and the newly retired Cyber Evo.
3rd – Street Car of the Year: Joshua Garcia's V8 AE86
2nd – Street Car of the Year: Justin Fox's R32 GT-R
Winner – Street Car of the Year: Touge Factory's Four Six Customs S13 Silvia
Street Car of the Year proved to be hotly contested, with 2nd to 5th separated by just 1.5%. Rounding out the Top 5 were AP's carbon Lotus and Phil Morisson's V10 E46 M3. Joshua Garcia's AE86 and Justin Fox's R32 GT-R almost finished in a dead heat, with the latter scoring a quarter of a percent more votes.
3rd - Pro Drift Car of the Year: Matt Powers S14 Silvia
2nd – Pro Drift Car of the Year: Darren McNamara's Dmac86
Winner – Pro Drift Car of the Year: Mad Mike's MADBUL RX-7
In this year's Speedhunters Awards, landslide victories were few and far between. However Pro Drift Car of the Year proved to be a one horse race with Mad Mike's 5th generation MADBUL RX-7 claiming 41% of the votes. Mike's win rounded out a clean sweep for Team Need for Speed, which claimed the top three positions!
3rd – Grassroots Drift Car of the Year: Hugo Maclean's AE86
2nd – Grassroots Drift Car of the Year: Mark Arcenal's S14
Winner – Grassroots Drift Car of the Year: Taavi Toomara's BMW 2002
Demonstrating the global popularity of drifting, the Top 5 finishers in Grassroots Drift Car of Year all came from different countries. In fifth was Jesse Streeter's S13 Silvia (Japan), fourth the Drift Union Legacy (Canada), with third to first from New Zealand, the U.S. and Estonia respectively.
3rd – Muscle Machine of the Year: Jon Sibal's Challenger
2nd – Muscle Machine of the Year: Spectre IMSA Camaro
Winner – Muscle Machine of the Year: Team Need for Speed RTR-X
The RTR-X came alive in 2011, and Vaughn Gittin Jr didn't waste any time breaking it in gently. Judging by this category's votes, you've enjoyed seeing it in action as much as he did!
3rd – Rat of the Year: The Jackal Model A
2nd – Rat of the Year: Super Sleeper Nova
Winner – Rat of the Year: Rob Daehn's cheetah BMW
Three, distinctly unique cars finished at the top of Rat of the Year. 'The Jackal', built by Slaughterhouse, battled Rat La Kadett for 3rd, while the Super Sleeper Chevy Nova and Rob Daehn's 3.2l BMW had a colossal fight for 1st. A mere two votes separated them.
3rd – Rod & Custom of the Year: Van Go
2nd – Rod & Custom of the Year: Justin Carrillo's "Cruella DeVille" Cadillac
Winner – Rod & Custom of the Year: Beauman Jones' Fat57 Customs 1956 Chevy truck
Rod & Custom is a new category for this year, and our first winner is Beauman Jones' Fat57 Customs truck, which locked down a quarter of the total votes.
3rd – Demo Car of the Year: VAD x RWB 'Number One'
2nd – Demo Car of the Year: AMS Alpha 12 R35 GT-R
Winner – Demo Car of the Year: Fatlace Skyline
2011 saw RAUH-Welt's popularity hit fever pitch, and two of their collaborations scored plenty of votes in Demo Car of the Year. The results were close, with the VAD 'Number One' in third and the RWB USA 'Pandora One' in fourth. Mark Arcenal's other car, the Fatlace Hakosuka, claimed the win ahead of the AMS Alpha 12 GT-R – the world's first 8 second R35.
3rd – Retro Machine of the Year: Ray Chau's BMW 2002
2nd – Retro Machine of the Year: Star Road S30 Fairlady
Winner – Retro Machine of the Year: Fatlace Skyline
The Fatlace Skyline also took out Retro Machine of the Year after narrowly seeing off the Star Road S30. Less than one percent of the votes separated the two, with Ray Chau's BMW 2002 finishing in third.
3rd – Race Car of the Year: P4/5 Competizione
2nd – Race Car of the Year: Audi R18 TDI
Winner – Race Car of the Year: Red Bull Racing RB7
Out of 19 races, Red Bull's RB7 achieved 12 wins, 10 fastest laps and 18 pole positions. It deservingly won Race Car of the Year. The Speedhunters readers also recognised the Le Mans-winning Audi R18 TDI (2nd) and the experimental P4/5 Competizione (3rd).
3rd – Reader Car of the Year: Raymond's S15 Silvia
2nd – Reader Car of the Year: Jeremy's BMW E28
Winner – Reader Car of the Year: Sunny's 240Z
The Reader Car of the Year award gives us a neat insight into what our readers drive, and I must say that we continue to be impressed. This year's award saw a flood of amazing entries, and these three – as voted by their peers – are worthy of being at the top.
At the end of this week we will be announcing the remainder of the Speedhunters Awards winners. In the mean time, there is still one category for you to vote on. The Speedhunters Car of the Year is the culmination of our awards, with each category winner becoming a nominee. In just a few hours the voting will commence!
- Charles Kha