Car and Driver’s Best Images of 2022

2022 has seen a fierce battle to recover in an industry that was plagued by supply shortages and is still rebuilding. Sure, there are still plenty of lingering wait lists and delays, but it's been 21 months since the world stuck her 1,300-foot boat into the Suez Canal. Go, Team Boat!

It's also the year of a tangible product that finally made the press release of our dreams come true. The Rivian R1T, GMC Hummer EV and Ford F-150 Lightning are all here. On the one hand, many of the big promises of many EV startups look like conspiracy theories. Sorry, I pre-ordered a Tesla Cyber ​​truck from 2019. Good luck next year.

So 2022 really is the year we have all been waiting for and it turned out to be a great year for a great car debut. Toyota released his Supra manual in response to maniac demands, followed by his 300-horsepower GR Corolla his hatchback. Also visited some old flames. The Nissan Z was back with his 400hp, and the 315hp Civic Type R had a track record before Honda peeled back its camouflage. 2022 was also the first year the EV reached his EPA estimated mileage of 520 miles. It was Lucid Air.

As we celebrate another full circle around the sun, let's take a look back at the year 2022 as drawn by the Art Department.

baby got butt: There's an electric car for grocery shoppers at Whole Foods, but there's one option that's particularly good for those looking for bacon with a machine gun from the side of a helicopter. This his £9640 GMC Hummer EV is outrageous. Despite being the heaviest pickup we've tested, it takes him just 3.3 seconds to crank this pig up to 60 mph.

Virginia is lap time: Known in the office as the best time of the year, the annual Lightning Lap event sees performance cars from the mildest to the wildest taking on America's toughest tracks. Divided into five price points, his 21 cars that have made one lap this year have broken some records and, of course, broken some hearts. Speaking of which, here's his nearly 8000 hp at the top of his Esse climbing.

Zeus Osix: The Ultimate Corvette is an 8500 rpm Bald Eagle Scream. The muffler responsible for the claps and piping on his 670-horsepower V-8 should have been nominated for an American Music Award. Even the god of thunder couldn't help spying on our track days with the Z06.

A star hatched: It's the moment we've been waiting for. That stubborn Toyota Corolla finally left the left lane. This time it hits the racetrack as his 300-horsepower hatchback powered by a real blast with his rally car DNA. The GR Corolla isn't just great. It's one of his best, and he made it onto the 10 best list the year it debuted.

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flower 16 year old: Since its debut in 1983, the Volkswagen GTI has won the 10 best trophies, 16 of them. The Porsche 718 has also been a favorite for many years, and its special ability is how quickly it can transform ordinary roads into exciting ones. Neither of these cars are absolutists. many horsepower or Fastest It can take a quarter mile of time and still provide a driving experience as epic as a much more expensive and powerful sports car.

X marks the spot. Dealers made a ton of cash during the COVID-19 pandemic. Inventory depletion turned into luck for salespeople. The customer was determined to get off the waiting list and get in the car, so he came up with a genius way to combat the exorbitant price increase. The action pushed the average new car price up 10.8% year-over-year to his $48,301. But if the consumer didn't feed the furnace, the dealer couldn't get away with it.

Kidney beans: Beneath the 503-horsepower BMW X4M Competition pour one on about 3.5 feet of Michelin Pilot 4S tires. Our tester saddled this £4548 poker of his at the Hogpen at Virginia International Raceway in a quick 3:02.9 seconds. It didn't set a new SUV record, but it took a lot of ridiculous two-wheeler antics to get there.

Alternate track: Long time car and driver Contributor John Phillips is a literary treasure. To get the most realistic Tesla view of his Cybertruck available to the consumer, Elon asked him to uncover the secret behind his fetishism, the stainless steel of his mask. Phillips did not disappoint.

New features are old: The new Nissan Z borrows a powertrain from the Infiniti Q50 Red Sport and has more in common with its 6th-generation 370Z predecessor than you might have originally expected, but with a 400-horsepower twin-turbo V-6 base engine and It has a 6-cylinder engine available. A speed manual transmission is always welcome.

Frank track: Ford sells more F-Series pickups each year than politicians promise, so the success of the all-electric F-150 Lightning isn't a complete shock. Unlike your favorite congressman the Lightning's success isn't so polarizing it's a lot like his popular gas powered F-150 but much quieter with a pretty extreme battery .

friends with benefits: Toyota's stake in Subaru has produced some of our favorite cars in recent memory.The love story began in 2005, and in 2018 the Crosstrek Hybrid, the 10th-placed Subaru It leads to a pair of BRZ and Toyota GR86, and an electric crossover duo of Subaru Solterra and Toyota bZ4X.

Dacia delivery: Contributor Jonathon Ramsey delivered medicine and supplies to Ukrainian refugees in a Dacia Jogger minivan. When his friend's nonprofit was asked to donate to some of his more than 22 million refugees in Poland, Ramsey didn't blink.

Storage War: The pickup-versus-passenger warfare usually doesn't go well for sedan advocates, and affordable compact trucks such as the Ford Maverick bring even worse news for the shrinking compact car segment. The Maverick's competitively low price and impressive fuel economy are already strong arguments for toy trucks, but is it big enough to replace economy cars like the Honda Civic? I put the junk in the trunk.

Please smoke if you have: In an era when the average car was strapped to a fat channel of steel, the body-on-frame Buick Roadmaster wagon was there to carry the family. Owned by contributing photographer and respected family member James Lippman, it has some extra muscle. Under the hood is a GM E-Rod 6.2-liter V-8 crate engine. It's time to have a barbecue with my family.

That: The Polestar 1 was a product of Volvo owner Geely. Unlike his Polestar 2, which is all-electric, and his upcoming SUV, the 1 is his 619-horsepower plug-in hybrid, which is as expensive as it is beautiful. Only 500 were built each year. With the Polestar 1 already out of production, the company is focusing on expanding his EV-only lineup.

subject: The story behind the cover of the December 2022 issue is not as clinical as it is in print. Staff photographer Michael Simari captured a Honda Civic Type R inside the paddock garage minutes after the entire National Auto Sports Association weekend started to move. Preparation work that would normally take hours for an entire lighting studio was completed in less than 60 minutes. Captured with the help of his fellow staff photographer Mark Urbano. Thank you to the team of patient guys who waited by the car hauler and gave us the extra time we needed.Besides, the car magazine staff ransacked his space in the garage he had reserved for the track weekend. rarely come to

American heartbeat: There aren't enough illustrations of 1980s cars on the internet, so here's an illustration of a Kick-Ass Chevy Camaro IROC-Z in jpeg format for the benefit of the dotcom folks.

Under influencer: One person's salvaged Tesla is another person's off-road campground. YouTubers Ethan Schlussler and Edwin Olding build creative mechanical projects to make a living. This Tesla Model 3 is that product. Here, take a mud bath along the 147-mile Mojave Road.

Moon, man: The Rivian R1T is the fastest pickup we've ever tested. Otherworldly acceleration from a 7,173-pound pickup to 60 miles per hour in just 3.0 seconds sounds like automotive science fiction, but there's no intrigue about this EV truck's unfettered performance.

Draw me like your Toyota girl: 10Best is a lot like mixed media. This year's collection of the best cars offers a palette of excellence across a range of mediums. Artistry is what gives such opposites as the Honda Accord and the Toyota Supra their common greatness.

Dazzling design: Engineers and designers sculpt clay, sweat bullets, and calculate tiny tolerances most people don't realize. The fog lights on our longtime Volkswagen GTI are a more obvious example of a well-crafted little thing.