(Fri 10 Apr 09)

The World Performance Car of the Year for 2009, by an overwhelming margin, is the Nissan GT-R. Votes for this title are based simply on the number of jurors who consider each model the best, second best and so on down to fifth best of those eligible for the award, and the matter was put beyond all doubt when 26 of them rated the Nissan as number one.

A relatively paltry eight reckoned that the second-placed Porsche 911 Carrera was best, while seven said that the Corvette ZR-1 was their favourite. An intriguing trend in the voting was that 22 jurors rated the Porsche either fourth or fifth, showing that it at least rated highly in their affections if not right at the top.

This is the first year that a non-German car has won the Performance award. Previous title holders were the Porsche Cayman S, Audi RS 4 and Audi R8.

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