PH 2018 – Reader’s Car of the Year

Reader’s car is not a contest. But we all have our favourites, and 2018 served up some humdingers

Nic – Volvo 850 R
Less for the car – as likeable as the 850R unquestionably is – and more for the story behind it. The (alleged) waning interest among millenials for all things automotive is a hot topic for anyone pulling the levers at a global car company. To hear some executives talk, you’d think young people were only concerned with ridesharing and Deliveroo payments. Well, we heartily protest; so long as there are 15 year-olds out there prepared to spend half a decade saving up for their preferred performance car – no matter what its age or provenance – the industry can consider the future of fast and interesting things safe with a new generation of enthusiasts.

Matt B – E24 6 Series track car
Full disclosure: I love an old BMW. Have for a long time, probably always will. Particularly those with six-cylinder engines, manual gearboxes and proper sharknoses, all criteria that the 635CSi of ‘e28525e’ adheres to. That it’s also a really cool car, and was rescued to be made into a track scamp, only makes me love it more. Over the summer it finally made it onto a circuit, with upgrades including 5 Series brakes, a new diff and final drive, adjustable anti-roll bars, dampers and bushes. And doesn’t it look fantastic? The news gets better too, because in the quest for more straight-line performance the car is now going to be turbocharged, with engine work taking place over the past few weeks. Sadly our original poster isn’t adding much on mobile at the moment, though we look forward to seeing the video that’s promised – keep up the good work!     

Dafydd – Sauber C30
Well, it’s a Sauber Formula 1 chassis reconditioned not just to run private and public track events, but to be as practical to use as possible whilst doing so. That meant it had to be able to be maintained by a smaller number of people, to cover far greater distances between rebuilds than a standard F1 car, and to be more reliable despite those greater service intervals. Never one to shy away from a challenge, PHer poppopbangbang and his colleagues also wanted to push the boundaries of the car’s performance and aerodynamic ability. With many of the original components missing from the get go, a great deal of in-house design work was necessary to achieve their aim, as was an extensive testing programme at Zolder. More recently, it’s received a vintage F1-inspired JPS livery for a run at Silverstone Classic and we’ve been treated to the news that this is just the first of five similar projects planned by the group. Chassis from other ex- Sauber, Marussia and Force India cars are all in the pipeline, meaning this is sure to be a thread which keeps on giving.

Sam – Honda Beat
With so many people buying cars to make money, I found it heart-warming to discover a PHer had purchased a car many would send to the scrap heap – an abandoned Honda Beat – to bring it back to life. We chose Rocket’s Beat to be our Reader’s Car of the Week in September, when it had just been resuscitated, although it’s future still looked uncertain. Rocket’s project has since, ahem, rocketed forward with progress to the point that the car is almost entirely unrecognisable. The roof and windscreen are gone and track-spec additions are being crafted in their place, which is proof this is no half-hearted attempt at a rebuild. For a £550 car that was on the brink of death, its new lease of life is also one of PH’s most exciting developing stories.

Matt P – Vauxhall Omega track car
I like Q cars. I like the not-obvious choice. I think that the less valuable a car is, the more you’re inclined to enjoy it, because if something goes wrong it doesn’t matter so much. I like long-wheelbase, front-engined, rear-driven cars, because they have my favourite kind of handling. And once, when I worked for a plastics company which made the centre console mould tool for the last Rover 200, my boss had a Vauxhall Omega, which I borrowed a couple of times to drive to Longbridge to get electrodes or something signed off by a famously permed designer who has gone on to slightly grander things. And thought it was great. The Omega, that is. A really deft chassis, good agility, and nice balance. Although I was young and only had a Volvo 360 to compare it to, to be fair. Anyway, as a result, a Vauxhall Omega wagon that has a V6 engine and is undergoing track preparation sounds like a great project.

Mike – Audi S8 mega-barge
I love big, bargey Audis and the first-gen S8 is the biggest and bargiest out there at the moment. Sure, the risk-to-reward ratio is heavily skewed to the left; I know from a friend who made the splash that it is possible to run up some seriously impressive bills on one of these. But there are good (and good-ish) ones out there which offer an unbeatable amount of bang-per-buck. PHer ‘fastgerman’ managed to nab this smart looking D2 for just three grand – as he said, broadly equivalent to the lease deposit on a modern mid-range exec – with a further £1,700 of urgent maintenance bringing it up to his required standard. We should enjoy these mega-barges while we can, I suspect those that can be run at something approaching acceptable cost won’t be around for much longer…

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