Top five performance cars we have tested in 2022

Performance-focused cars of today are breathtakingly fast, deceptively agile and in most cases, luxurious, too. There’s everything for everyone in all shapes and sizes so if your dream is to cruise down a twisty mountain pass or go all out around a race track, there is a two-seater sports car, a hot hatch, a practical family sedan or even a hunkered down crossover/EV capable of turning it into a reality. Here at CarWale we have been rather lucky this year, driving all sorts of performance cars and here’s our pick of some of the best that money can buy.

Mini Cooper JCW – Abhishek Nigam

If you drive a Mini, it just has to make it to your favourite car list. And even more so, if it’s the JCW. The Mini Cooper have always been life sized Go-Karts and the JCW is the most playful Mini one can buy. The JCW has plenty to like about including special looks and crazy performance. While 230BHP and 320NM might not sound a lot, but in a car just as large as the Maruti Swift, it packs a massive punch. The JCW is best enjoyed in Sports mode, where the throttle response is immediate and in this mode, the JCW can go from nothing to 100kmph in a claimed 6.1 seconds flat. Also the exhaust starts spitting out an aural note that will delight most enthusiasts.

With 230bhp let loose, the TC and tyres have a tough time reigning in the horses. There is a wee bit of torque steer as the speeds rise at an alarming rate. The handling is just as entertaining. The sporty suspension gives the JCW go-kart like abilities and it’s just unreal how this Mini turns in. The steering is quick and the JCW changes direction like no one’s business. Taking on corners is what the Mini Cooper JCW is built for. The Mini just corners flat which makes you want to push harder in the next corner till you experience the obvious understeer. With its compact dimensions, its squat stance and oodles of power, the Mini JCW is like a happy puppy that just wants to chase corners all day long.

Mercedes-Benz GLA35 AMG – Bilal Firfiray

The Mercedes-Benz GLA35 AMG doesn’t make sense, and yet it does. It’s based on a very practical GLA yet makes more than 300 horsepower. But it’s the only performance-oriented premium car that you could viably buy in that price segment. The absence of RSQ3, and the fact that the Mini Cooper is just as useful as a chocolate teapot, make the GLA35 look not so bad a choice either.

It sits four in comfort, has top-of-the-line features and that AMG exhaust tips sound gloriously raucous when given some beans. Its engine might not be a proper hand-built AMG one, but the character of the 302bhp turbocharged four-cylinder is plain mental. And it’s assembled right here in India as well, not Affalterbach.

Mercedes C300d – Vikrant Singh

The first time I drove the Mercedes C300d I was smitten. It was the previous generation car which I spent a day driving a few years back on a twisting road. I remember having a wide smile pasted on my face for most of the day. The C’s handling balance - its ability to change directions with alacrity and poise while still feeling on the edge - had me completely hooked. The engine was a gem too. It had loads of torque which it was happy to dole out even for the smallest of throttle prods. And when you gave it a boot full coming out a corner, the rear would come around in a predictable, seamless, and exciting dance of opposite lock.

The new one is just the same. Only better. It’s as exciting, involving, and manageable to drive on the limit but with more torque to make the sideways dance simpler still, and at less threatening speeds. But, given the new generation platform, the new C300d is also plusher, more upmarket, better built, and more luxurious than the older car. It’s more expensive too, yes, but then it also packs in more tech and features. And overall, it’s a still car that’s easy to fall in love with. Only easier.

Mercedes-Benz E53 AMG – Sagar Bhanushali

Mercedes-Benz AMG is brilliant at doing the Eddie Brock-into-Venom trick, turning its humdrum models into fire breathing, tire smoking V8 monsters. The E53 is neither. It’s far less vicious, easier on the eye and a lot more manageable – its Peter Parker doubled up as Spiderman. It’s everything I want from an AMG that I want to legitimately use every day; it’s fast, poised, comfortable and best of all, immune to speed bumps (with some care, of course). The E53 AMG’s 3-litre motor is quite special even though it’s not a proper AMG engine like the monstrous 4-litre twin-turbo V8 you get in the E63 S. Firstly, this engine has a straight-six cylinder configuration and secondly its supplemented by a twin-scroll turbo, an electric motor and a compressor. Basically there’s an integrated starter motor powered by a 48-volt electrical system that makes 21 additional horsepower and more importantly, 250Nm of torque bringing the total output to 429bhp and 520Nm.

It’s that torque figure that delineates the E53; you have all that pulling power from as low as 1,800rpm and because you also have the electric compressor muscling the car forward at low revs with the turbo delivering all the boost as the revs increase, there is no perceptible lag in the E53. Finally, At Rs 1.06 crore ex-showroom, it’s a whole lot cheaper than the E63 S and I admit, it doesn’t have the same level of brute force or gut-wrenching performance as the latter but like all 53 line of AMGs, it’s plenty fast and quite forgiving at the same time. Let me tell you it’s a great compromise.

Audi E-Tron GT – Bilal Firfiray

It has a GT in its name, and it is a Grand Tourer in the proper sense. The Audi E-Tron GT is a low-slung, four-door sedan that looks like a spiritual successor to the R8 but can carry four at an equally fast pace and surprisingly good comfort. So not only is the E-Tron GT comfortable, it is fast, futuristic, and unpredictably practical as well. And with its claimed range of 500km, a big battery pack, and electronic wizardry, the Audi E-Tron GT can be a daily runabout as easily as a mile muncher. It’s no Italian thoroughbred, but it need not be because the E-Tron GT is leagues ahead in the future. And the electric nature becomes quite secondary compared to its GT credentials.

Pictures by Kapil Angane and Kaustubh Gandhi