{"id":1356,"date":"2025-12-18T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/themotornerd.blog\/?p=1356"},"modified":"2025-12-18T00:55:24","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T00:55:24","slug":"2025-motornerd-awards-i-car-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/themotornerd.blog\/index.php\/2025\/12\/18\/2025-motornerd-awards-i-car-of-the-year\/","title":{"rendered":"2025 Motornerd Awards I Car of The Year"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>With Christmas now just a week away, it\u2019s time to wrap up (pun intended) the inaugural Motornerd Awards and see off the year in style. So, what better way to set up the finale by celebrating the greatest constructed machine of 2025?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong> The next Motornerd Award is the Car of The Year, one which celebrates not just speed but mechanical superiority, and crowns the car that proved itself against its competition. And though technically it\u2019s one of the harder awards to judge given that we\u2019re dealing with Rallying, Endurance, Touring and Formulae machines all designed for different disciplines here, in the end it went down to one car that\u2019s truly elevated itself into a modern icon. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>The 2025 Motornerd Car of The Year is the Toyota GR Yaris Rally1, for its utterly dominant displays in the WRC. I mean, when you look at the stats it\u2019s hardly a contest: No other manufacturer has constructed something so utterly superior to its competition. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Securing both the manufacturer\u2019s and driver\u2019s titles for Toyota and a 42-year old Sebastian Ogier, the Yaris GR Rally1 has put both Hyundai and Ford to the sword in 12 of the 14 rounds of an expanded WRC calendar across all surface types. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Only surrendering top spot twice to the aforementioned Oliver Solberg and 2024\u2019s driver\u2019s champion Thierry Neuville, it\u2019s been the standout of its discipline all year, even managing a 1-2-3 podium lockout in Spain \u2013 the only seen in the WRC all year. 1-2-3 also happened to be the final placings of the car\u2019s 3 full season drivers.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong> Ogier topped the standings despite optionally missing 3 rounds, followed up by Elfyn Evans and double world champion Kalle Rovenpera, who\u2019s moving to Super Formula next year with Toyota\u2019s support. Of the others competing, Takamoto Katsuta finished fifth, with Rally1 rookie Sami Pajari eighth \u2013 yet still ahead of both Fords.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>The GR Yaris Rally1 has truly had its best year in 2025 too, bringing in a monstrous points tally of 735 \u2013 nearly 200 more than its previous best in 2024 and has also won a record number of rallies this year \u2013 12 to 2024\u2019s 8 victories<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>And yes, critics will point to a perhaps weakening WRC entry list.<\/strong> <strong>It\u2019s no secret that Ford have been largely uncompetitive of late, while Hyundai are winding down their own Rally1 programme as the brand pivots to WEC with its subsidiary Genesis from next year.<\/strong> <strong>You might say the WRC is experiencing what WEC went through after Porsche pulled out of LMP1 in 2017 but in reality it\u2019s not quite so stark.<\/strong> <strong>Hyundai have proven they can still be just as good as their Japanese rivals, and it\u2019s not like the GR Yaris Rally1 has cruised to victory in each round either.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>The reality is all of Toyota\u2019s 12 triumphs have all been fought hard and fair, and the marque have built a machine that comes out on top nearly every time without fail. If you ask me, that deserves some real recognition.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>And that\u2019s why Toyota\u2019s GR Yaris Rally1 unequivocally deserves the \u2013 I won\u2019t call it coveted &#8211; title of Motornerd Car of The Year 2025.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">image credit: Antti Lepp\u00e4nen, CC BY 4.0 <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\">https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0<\/a>, via Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With Christmas now just a week away, it\u2019s time to wrap up (pun [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1357,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[13,68,69,67],"class_list":["post-1356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rally","tag-13","tag-2025-wrc","tag-toyota","tag-wrc"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.8 - 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