It’s winter in the northern hemisphere, and that means that for the majority of our readership, fun-car season is officially behind us. But we can still warm our hearts (if not our hands) with the memories of the performance machines we spent time driving in 2025. That’s right, folks, it’s time for the good stuff.
This year’s crop is largely a salute to a simpler formula. Sure, there’s a hybrid in there, but a rear-engined one. It sits alongside a drop-top Aston Martin, a longroof legend, and, of course, our six-speed sovereign. These aren’t the cars we get to drive every day, but a little time behind the wheel of one of these will quickly put your daily grind in the rearview.
Behold the four best performance cars we drove in the last 12 months, and the one that beat them all: the Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing.
Runner-Up, the Convertible: Aston Martin Vanquish Volante
“I will admit, I felt a little skittish burbling through Manhattan in a convertible car this loud—and I’m not just talking about the exhaust. There were quite a few eyes on me while I idled at stoplights. I assume those who noticed me were trying to figure out if my dad was famous or what—but this is not a machine for a wallflower.”
“Things got a lot more comfortable when I started steaming up alongside the Hudson River. The Vanquish ride is not plush, but it is compliant. NYC potholes are pretty rough, but I didn’t hit anything jarring while leaving the city.”
“Once I broke out of the boroughs, I stepped on the throttle a little more and felt the absolute abundance of power accompanied by an insistent intensity of the titanium exhaust note. The exhaust has a loud-mode button, but it’s not as instantly dramatic as similar systems I’ve tested on Porsches and other vehicles. Idle, low-speed loping, and free-revs sound pretty much the same, until you get hard on the gas and the open-valve setting is triggered by a little button on the dash. Then the engine note becomes downright dastardly.” –Andrew P. Collins, Executive Editor
Runner-Up, the Wagon: Audi RS6
“As with all the best toys, the RS6 experience begins before you even unlock the car.
“I found the wagon waiting for me in a corner of a concrete citadel parking garage. Just sitting static, it has a loitering crocodile vibe that is menacing and just deeply badass. Listening to the hum of the fluorescent light and clip-clop of my wife’s shoes, I felt like Jason Statham walking up to this thing. And when I hit the key fob to see the headlights do a little power-up ceremony? Couldn’t have hell-yeah’d harder.
“That feeling of heroism mostly carried on as I proceeded to put a few hundred miles on the car over the course of a week. People buy cars like this to feel cool, powerful, and important and as far as delivering on those fronts, the RS6 is perfect. The dashboard looks like a sci-fi warship. The exhaust note is mellifluous. The seats are comfortable and the stereo can boil your organs. If it doesn’t do the trick, even with every seat full, launching the vehicle from a stop pulls guts back towards the cargo bay.
“Driving the RS6 as most supercars are primarily used—lumbering around in nice-neighborhood traffic—is a pain in the ass. I mean, all the above very much applies at low speeds. I still felt like a high-class hitman idling between stoplights. That feeling stops, however, when pulling into gas stations or parking lots, where the length and lowness of the car require extreme care to keep the chin from scraping. And you certainly won’t feel very badass while parking and the proximity sensors scream like a pearl-clutching grandma when you get within a meter of a curb.” –Andrew P. Collins, Executive Editor
Runner-Up, the Obligatory 911: Porsche 911 Carrera S
“If you care about the numbers, here they are: the new S will hit 60 mph from a standstill in just 3.1 seconds and will continue to a top speed of 191 mph when equipped with the Sport Chrono package. It’ll do the quarter-mile in 11.4 seconds, though Porsche didn’t reveal the trap speed. The Cabriolet comes in a fraction behind the coupe at 3.3 seconds to 60, the same top speed, and 11.6 seconds for the quarter-mile.
“You’ll probably hear a few people complain about the new 911’s push-button start, how the gauge cluster is fully digital now, or how a manual isn’t offered. None of it really matters. If you’re looking for the perfect balance of pure driving enjoyment, sportiness, and comfort, the S nails it. Sure, you could spend even more money because your buddy at the gym has a GTS, and he is always bragging about how fast it is. Nonsense, your buddy is probably a terrible driver anyway.
“The 2025 Porsche 911 Carrera S isn’t an entirely new animal, but its updates are considerable and worthy of your money. Yes, you can save a bit of cash and go for the base car—which isn’t a bad idea at all—but hey, you’ve worked this hard and saved up some dough. What’s an extra 26 grand to get the Sweet one of the bunch?” –Jerry Perez, Deputy Editor
Winner: 2026 Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing, an Internal Combustion Extraordinaire
Back in the summer of ’21, after completing lap after sweaty lap in a Cadillac’s new Blackwings at Virginia International Raceway, I scratched two words into my notebook and underlined them: “Peak oil.“
That wasn’t even five years ago, but the world has changed a lot in the interim. We were promised that the CT4- and CT5-V Blackwing would be the end of the road for Cadillac’s internal-combustion performance cars. Fun would return, we were assured, but it would take a different (read: electrified) form. So much for that.
Technically, the CT5-V Blackwing has changed too—otherwise, it wouldn’t have been eligible for this honor in the first place. A nicely executed interior refresh and a new track-oriented “Precision Package” are the highlights of an otherwise same-same spec sheet. And as we learned, that package offers more than just the vague promise of better performance:
“Hitting the brakes and turning left in the Precision Package for the first time made me go ‘Huh?’ The 15.67-inch front carbon ceramic rotors don’t even break a sweat slowing the hefty sedan down from 120-plus to 70 mph in a matter of seconds, and neither do the Michelin Pilot Cup 2 R tires. It almost feels like child’s play. Even with Taylor’s higher speeds and more aggressive braking, still not a hint of fade or vibration. This is the compounding effect that weight savings has on handling, whether you’re accelerating, braking, or cornering. At 4,123 pounds for the manual or 4,142 for the automatic, the Blackwing isn’t a lightweight machine, yet it’s 1,267 pounds lighter than that new plug-in hybrid BMW M5.
“Right away, the Precision package feels deliciously different—stiffer but not in an unforgiving way. The body stays so flat through the corners that it simultaneously reveals there’s way more body roll in the regular Blackwing than I had originally processed. This sharpness and stability only translate into better handling and even more phenomenal steering. Still a beast to wrangle but one that’s laser-focused on slicing through corners like its Cadillac Racing siblings.
“And at the end of the day, that’s where a lot of this technology comes from. After two years of watching Cadillac tackle the 24 Hours of Le Mans, speaking with engineers, designers, and the very people who race these things, it’s undeniable that a lot of what makes the Precision Package so phenomenal is derived from the company’s racing experience. As chief engineer Brandon Vivian likes to say, “If it doesn’t make the car faster or better on the track, then it doesn’t go on the car.” –Jerry Perez, Deputy Editor
Precision package or otherwise, the CT5-V Blackwing is still a 668-horsepower, six-speed, eight-cylinder sedan in a world full of ‘roid-raging hatchbacks masquerading as 4x4s. This is the car the new BMW M5 could have been—had the last five years gone very differently, anyway—and that’s why it’s The Drive‘s 2026 Best Performance Car.
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