Yes, they’re still going. After another twelve months, these are the cars and people that deserve the highest praise from ESM’s editor.

What better way to start a new year than instantly thinking about the one that has just happened. It is tradition, however, for ESM to dish out hypothetical awards and prizes, so stick with us.

EngageSportMode’s 2024 Car of the Year

Twisted Automotive TVS T110

Last year ESM picked the wonderfully sensible Honda Civic e:HEV as our car of the year. Being rational has gone out the window, and we’ve chosen the rather ridiculous Twisted Automotive TVS T110 for 2024.

Costing more than £180,000, this particular Twisted-enhanced Defender came to stay for a week, and brought plenty of fun to the table. Powered by a 2.3-litre Ford EcoBoost engine, typically found in a Mustang or Focus RS, the hilarity began almost instantly. Twisted’s setup includes a LOT of turbo noise, which is guaranteed to bring a smile to anyone’s face.

Combine this with 308hp, plus a six-speed manual gearbox, and you have a recipe for genuine driving joy. Planting the throttle and feeling the TVS T110 hurl itself for the horizon, with a very non-Defender display of wheelspin, will stay with me for a long time.

Utterly compelling, nothing else during 2023 felt so physically rewarding to drive. Thank you for making the ESM Awards anti-ordinary again, Twisted.

2024 Guilty Pleasure Award

Lamborghini Huracán Sterrato

The world does not need a mid-engined V10 supercar, with the ability to go off-road. Yet, this has not stopped Lamborghini from building the Huracán Sterrato.

A final hurrah for the Huracán, the Sterrato will also be the last Lamborghini to be powered by a naturally aspirated engine alone. Not even the famed Italian marque is immune from the need to move towards hybridisation.

For this alone it deserves to be celebrated, even if a Porsche 911 Dakar probably makes more sense.

The ‘End of an Era’ Medal

Hennessey Dodge Charger and Challenger ‘Last Stand’

In many ways, we should perhaps be thankful that the Dodge Challenger and Charger models made a return in the 2000s. The idea of V8-powered American muscle cars being available again, decades after their 1970’s heyday, seemed impossible.

But now they’ve gone again.

Thankfully, Hennessey Performance has helped celebrate the end of an era, with its special ‘Last Stand’ models. This has seen the output from the supercharged 6.2-litre Hemi V8 pumped to 1,000hp, with an accompanying 948lb ft of torque.

Goodbye, Hemi. We’re not crying, you’re crying!

The ‘V8 Muscle Cars Aren’t Quite Dead Yet’ Award

2024 Ford Mustang GTD

Let’s be honest, this category is getting harder and harder each year. The Dodge Challenger and Charger? Obviously dead. The Chevrolet Camaro? Also gone. Even Mercedes-AMG models with eight cylinders are becoming hard to find.

This means Ford can seemingly claim this particular prize for years to come, with the Mustang remaining as the final horse in the race. 

Arguably, the Mustang GTD is more supercar than muscle car, with active aerodynamics, carbon fibre construction, and Le Mans competition on the horizon.

It still comes with a supercharged V8 engine, though, and that’s enough to keep ESM happy.

The ‘Buy Local’ Trophy

Suzuki Jimny by Twisted

Yes, a second Twisted Automotive product claiming a prize. Being in the North East means ESM has fairly slim pickings, and a Nissan Qashqai was just not going to cut it. Plus, the Twisted’s take on the Suzuki Jimny is laugh-out-loud fun to drive, even in a torrential rainstorm.

Feeling like an oversized hot hatchback, the Jimny by Twisted uses a turbocharged version of Suzuki’s 1.5-litre engine. It may only have 165hp, but being rear-wheel drive on tarmac makes for plenty of fun.

The Suzuki Jimny is already a cult classic – Twisted has just made it even better. Spending almost £60,000 on a Jimny might seem ridiculous, but it guarantees endless pleasure. Well done, North Yorkshire.

The ‘Future of American Motorsport’ Award

Kyle Kirkwood

Alex Palou may have claimed his second IndyCar Series championship with relative ease, but his success did not mean a boring year. From Josef Newgarden’s Indy 500 win, to Scott Dixon’s late season charge, IndyCar continued to prove that single-seater racing can actually be entertaining.

However, the biggest standout from the 2023 NTT IndyCar Series was the rise to prominence of Kyle Kirkwood. In only his second season, and his first with the Andretti Autosport team, Kirkwood cemented himself as future IndyCar heavyweight with two race wins. 

Granted, those two victories came on street circuits, and he endured horrific bad luck for a lot of the season. Kirkwood’s crash at the Indy 500 was a terrifying reminder of how dangerous IndyCar still is, but it did nothing to dishearten the 24-year-old driver. 

His position in the 2023 driver standings does not demonstrate the potential he has in the IndyCar Series. Make no mistake, Kyle Kirkwood is the real deal.

The ‘Most Predictable Motorsport Series’ Prize

British Touring Car Championship

Yup. Even though Max Verstappen may have single handedly dominated the 2023 Formula 1 World Championship, it still did not manage to be the most predictable race series. Instead, it was the 2023 British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) that proved to be an absolute snoozefest.

By now we expect that Formula 1 is likely to be a one-sided affair. The rules mean that one team is likely to dominate for multiple seasons. Plus, Max Verstappen is clearly in peak form at present, making him and Red Bull Racing an unstoppable combination.

The BTCC is meant to be about close racing, with rules designed to promote fair competition. However, the results during 2023 were anything but unpredictable, with Ashley Sutton taking a frankly ridiculous amount of wins throughout the season.

It is clear that the rules for the hybrid powertrains are not making things equal, and something needs to change, fast. At least there is that BTCC video game to look forward to. Oh, never mind.

Social Media Nonsense Prize

Elon Musk. Repeatedly. 

Remember Twitter?

Yeah, I’m not sure we really need to elaborate much further.

Join us again in twelve months to see what surprises 2024 can generate.