---
title: "Video Games, 911s, and Demonizing the Demon: My Top 5 Stories of 2017"
description: "A look back at the last 12 months in the fun, fancy, and obscenely fast."
date: "2017-12-26"
modified: "2017-12-26"
authors:
  - name: "Chris Tsui"
    job_title: "Contributor"
    link: "https://www.thedrive.com/authors/chris-tsui"
url: "https://www.thedrive.com/article/16908/video-games-911s-and-demonizing-the-demon-my-top-5-stories-of-2017"
categories:
  - "News"
  - "Watch This"
tags:
  - "best of 2017"
  - "christmas"
  - "Dodge Demon"
  - "The Drive"
---

# Video Games, 911s, and Demonizing the Demon: My Top 5 Stories of 2017

![](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/images-by-url-td/content/2017/12/911-carrera-t_-_5_-e1513568583853.jpg>)
*\<em\>www.thedrive.com</em>*

As 2018 approaches, we thought it'd be a nice idea to put together a year-in-review of sorts, compiling our favorite stories from the last 52 weeks in cars and tech. In an automotive year characterized by a [slew of new crossovers](<https://www.thedrive.com/new-cars/16439/2017-los-angeles-auto-show-preview-expect-a-giant-suv-traffic-jam>), [so-called](<https://www.thedrive.com/article/12889/hey-carmakers-please-stop-bullshitting-about-self-driving-cars>) autonomy, and the [electrification](<https://www.thedrive.com/article/15615/the-lamborghini-huracans-successor-will-be-a-hybrid-in-2022>) of absolutely everything, let's take a break from all that and instead look back at the last 12 months in the fun, fancy, and obscenely fast.

Before we all resign ourselves to our self-driving, electric RAV4 future, here are five of my most significant automotive moments and stories of 2017, in chronological order.

## [First Impressions From Gran Turismo Sport](<https://www.thedrive.com/tech/8884/exclusive-first-impressions-from-gran-turismo-sport-beta>)

https://youtube.com/embed/_zvQho4Ur4Y

While some may scoff at the very idea of kicking off a list like this with [a video game story](<https://www.thedrive.com/tech/8884/exclusive-first-impressions-from-gran-turismo-sport-beta>), of all things, the *Gran Turismo* franchise (despite all of the missteps that characterized the series in the PS3 era) holds a place near and dear to my heart. As a seven-year-old with wide-open Saturday mornings, the very [first *GT* game](<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gran_Turismo_(video_game)>) served as a gateway to the wonderful world of direct port nitrous injection, four-core intercoolers, ball bearing turbos, and titanium valve springs.

When the opportunity arose back in April to sample the beta for the then-upcoming *Gran Turismo Sport* and share my findings with *The Drive*, I pounced at the excuse to spend a weekend glued to PS4's latest racer.

*GT Sport* has since been released in its full, online-focused retail form. While competitive online play isn't usually my idea of fun, developer Polyphony Digital just released a significant, [singleplayer-focused update](<https://www.thedrive.com/article/16338/gran-turismo-sport-free-updates-add-singleplayer-campaign-15-new-cars>) on the Friday before Christmas. Should make good fodder for a solo-player-centric, post-release follow-up review of some kind, no? Watch this space.

## [Automotive News Wants Dodge Challenger Demon Banned From Public Roads](<https://www.thedrive.com/new-cars/9683/automotive-news-says-ban-the-dodge-challenger-demon-from-public-roads>)

![message-editor%2F1513454969905-dodgedemongrey.jpg](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/message-editor/1513454969905-dodgedemongrey.jpg>)
**FCA**

Oh, the controversy [this](<https://www.thedrive.com/new-cars/9683/automotive-news-says-ban-the-dodge-challenger-demon-from-public-roads>) stirred up. Back in the spring, the folks over at [*Automotive News*](<https://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20170424/OEM06/304249979/keep-the-dodge-demon-off-our-roads>) dropped a then-anonymous editorial with the headline, "Keep the Dodge Demon Off our Roads" [(the author has since been revealed to be *AN*'s resident FCA and Volkswagen reporter Larry P. Vellequette)](<https://www.autonews.com/article/20170428/BLOG06/170429806/i-damned-the-demon>). In it, Vellequette calls into question the road-legal status of one of 2017's most talked-about automobiles, damning it as "the result of a sequence of misguided corporate choices that places bragging rights ahead of public safety."

Predictably, the enthusiast community along with much of the [automotive press](<https://jalopnik.com/candy-ass-automotive-news-afraid-of-the-big-bad-dodge-d-1794630184>) did not react kindly. Evidently, the abuse got so bad that *AutoNews* felt obligated to tack this above the comment section on every single one of its articles since.

![message-editor%2F1513201016364-anewswarning.jpg](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/message-editor/1513201016364-anewswarning.jpg>)
**Automotive News**

At a glance, it looks like the sort of label that belongs on a carton of cigarettes.

## [Porsche 911 GT2 RS Revealed Along With Forza Motorsport 7](<https://www.thedrive.com/new-cars/11392/2018-porsche-911-gt2-rs-revealed-along-with-forza-motorsport-7>)

https://youtube.com/embed/aHmDl2XNfvc

In June, Porsche threw us a curveball and [took the wraps off of its hotly-anticipated 911 GT2 RS](<https://www.thedrive.com/new-cars/11392/2018-porsche-911-gt2-rs-revealed-along-with-forza-motorsport-7>), not at Geneva, Frankfurt, or Detroit, but onstage during Microsoft's press conference at L.A.'s E3 video game trade show. Serving as the cover car for [*Forza Motorsport 7*](<https://www.thedrive.com/article/15032/our-review-of-forza-motorsport-7-is-it-worth-the-upgrade>) (essentially the Xbox answer to *Gran Turismo*), the new, 650-horsepower GT2 RS is the most powerful production 911 Porsche's ever made.

For an auto-obsessed gamer like myself, watching *Forza* creative director Dan Greenawalt introduce the world to Stuttgart's latest and greatest was a cool moment to witness. It sort of felt like if two of my favorite TV shows of all time spontaneously got together for a [crossover episode](<https://i.imgur.com/R8gNHkG.jpg>), no matter how unrelated they may have seemed initially.

*Forza Motorsport 7* eventually dropped in October. While my colleague [James Gilboy has his reservations](<https://www.thedrive.com/article/15032/our-review-of-forza-motorsport-7-is-it-worth-the-upgrade>), I hear it's [quite the looker in 4K.](<https://www.thedrive.com/tech/16693/xbox-one-x-review-this-4k-powerhouse-is-the-closest-youll-get-to-lifelike-racing-on-a-console>)

## [The Porsche 911 Carrera T Is a Lightweight 911 Made for Purists](<https://www.thedrive.com/new-cars/15380/the-2018-porsche-911-carrera-t-is-a-lightweight-911-made-for-purists>)

https://youtube.com/embed/CUAp1UCy-nk

In another 911-related move that nobody really saw coming, [Porsche announced the Carrera T](<https://www.thedrive.com/new-cars/15380/the-2018-porsche-911-carrera-t-is-a-lightweight-911-made-for-purists>). Capitalizing on the seemingly [insatiable demand](<https://www.thedrive.com/porsche/16794/porsche-created-the-911-gt3-touring-package-to-combat-911r-flippers>) for Porsches that deliver simple driving pleasure over outright pace, the Carrera T apes the minimalist hardware and back-to-basics attitude of the desirable AF 911 R, baking it onto the relatively pedestrian Carrera. Throwing in lightweight glass, PASM, sports exhaust, fabric door straps and a decidedly distraction-less dashboard, the 911 Carrera T is shaping up to be a bona fide [Toyota 86](<https://www.thedrive.com/new-cars/14552/2017-toyota-86-review-it-could-win-your-heart-if-only-youd-give-it-a-chance>) for the 1 percent.

Signifying the company's willingness to build 911s for the purist outside of the well-heeled GT3 set, the Carrera T simultaneously earns a spot as one of 2017's most significant reveals and 2018's most anticipated machines.

## [The Koenigsegg Agera RS Is Now the Fastest Production Car Ever Made](<https://www.thedrive.com/article/15771/the-koenigsegg-agera-rs-is-now-the-fastest-production-car-ever-made>)

https://youtube.com/embed/KD82XB7t8Xo

And now for something slightly different. In a show of all-dominating outright pace, the mad Swedish scientists at Koenigsegg shut down a stretch of Route 160 in Pahrump, Nevada back in November and [broke the record for fastest production car ever made](<https://www.thedrive.com/article/15771/the-koenigsegg-agera-rs-is-now-the-fastest-production-car-ever-made>). Posting a two-way average top speed of 277.9 miles per hour, the hypercar maker's Agera RS ended a 12-year Bugatti dynasty of speed. The last non-Veyron to wear the "fastest production car" crown was the McLaren F1.

With usual speedo-busting suspects Bugatti and Hennessey both preparing to topple Koenigsegg's record with the [Chiron](<https://www.thedrive.com/new-cars/13651/2018-bugatti-chiron-review-the-next-stage-in-automotive-rocketry>) and upcoming [Venom F5](<https://www.thedrive.com/new-cars/15660/the-hennessey-venom-f5-is-americas-homegrown-301-mph-hypercar>), expect the top speed wars to wage on well into 2018 and beyond.

## Author
Chris Tsui is *The Drive*'s former Reviews Editor and current freelance automotive journalist. He's based in Toronto.

### Author social links  
[Instagram](<https://www.instagram.com/cltsuii/>)