The Power...and the Clory
Every autumn since 2003, when Robb Report began inviting readers to judge its Car of the Year, participants have asked how to weigh a sexy super–sports car against an ultra-luxury sedan, and the answer has been . . . you don’t. The fact is, one car just can’t do it all. Each year, it seems that some low-slung, hip-high projectile makes the loudest, most memorable impression and, like a weekend in Las Vegas, obfuscates more clear and sober vision. The reality is that our judges—like most readers in the Robb Report universe—have garages populated with two-, four- and five-door choices for scratching different itches at different times. Is a mid-engine slingshot just what the doctor ordered this weekend? Is your preferred daily driver a rolling bank vault akin to an earthbound Gulfstream?
This year’s roundup of cars from Germany, Italy, Japan and the UK yielded some discerning observations from our judges, as well as considerable debate about the relative merits of hard-core performance versus unbridled luxury. For the first time, a luxury icon sedan—Rolls-Royce’s Ghost—was an overall session winner. It also wowed drivers in the three other sessions, not just with its refined character but by turning on its pointy head the notion that luxury and driving enjoyment are mutually exclusive. Lamborghini’s Huracán Evo RWD Spyder was the favorite sports-car, proof that bull-riding continues to thrill, despite that car’s ability to carry little more than a passenger, the driver’s wallet and a couple of toothbrushes.
And so, after almost two decades of tortured tallying, confers two awards in 2021: Sports Car of the Year and Luxury Car of the Year. Still, it’s an understatement to say this year’s offerings made reaching a decision difficult. Not just because of the close call between Maranello horses and Sant’Agata Bolognese bulls. Or winged victories from Goodwood and flying B’s from Crewe. But also because, in the year of Covid, “What if?” loomed large, as one might imagine a dream bout between Joe Louis and Muhammad Ali. In the case of Car of the Year, the presence of Porsche’s brilliant 911 Turbo S (unavailable at the time of our event) could have well turned the tables in favor of the German team and whisked the proverbial carpet out from under the
