This year, this list looks beyond way-high horsepower figures to delve into some exciting next-level top-performance machinery
As the Driving.ca staffer with the most time behind the wheel of a supercar — not to mention desperately gripping the handlebars of superbikes — I have been volunteered to bring you a compendium of all things super- we’re looking forward to driving in 2025.
No vehicle is more an exemplar of these needed traits than the ultimate car that so desperately needs my testing this coming year—
2025 Bugatti Tourbillon
I know you’re thinking that I’m already contradicting myself with my first pick, Bugatti’s latest boasting 1,775 horsepower and an autobahn-shortening 445-kilometre-an-hour (276-mph) top speed. Both are legitimate numbers, equal parts enticing and frightening.
Oh, sure, Bugatti’s own Veyron — and its many successors — boasted 16 cylinders, but they were positioned in an unusual W format because, well, believe it or not, the company was trying to save money. And the Cizetta-Moroder did 16 pistons arranged in a vee, but it was essentially two separate Lamborghini Urraco V8s — with four cylinder heads, eight camshafts, and two separate fuel injection systems — linked only by sharing a common block.
What makes the Tourbillon even more unique is that, bucking the recent trend to turbocharging, Bugatti’s new V16 remains resolutely naturally-aspirated. Which means it’s a screamer. As in, it spins its 8.3 litres to an incredible 9,000 rpm. Think Honda S2000, here, only multiplied by four.
So, who cares that there’s 25 kilowatt-hours of plug-in hybrid aboard? Or that the battery powers 789 electric horsepower to the gas engine’s 986 hp? I wanna get behind the wheel just so I can hear that big beauty scream to 9,000 rpm.
2025 Aston Martin Valhalla
The upside is that it’s a plug-in hybrid with 1,064 horsepower and tops out at no less than 350 kilometres an hour (217 mph). It is also strikingly beautiful. The downside is that it’s now been six years in the making, and what might have been ground-breaking when Aston and Red Bull Racing first got together to develop the ultimate supercar might be getting a little long in the tooth.
And, oh, the original high-tech 3.0-litre turbocharged V6 has been supplanted by a much more practical — that should be read “cheaper and lower-revving” — Mercedes-AMG 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8. That said, it’ll still scream to 100 km/h (62 mph) in two-and-a-half seconds, and squeeze out 140 km/h (87 mph) on battery power alone.
2026 Chevrolet Corvette Zora
This entices on two fronts. The first, of course, is that predictions still maintain the Zora will top 1,200 horsepower. Some optimists are presuming even more. More importantly (to me at least) is that the E-Ray is my favourite of all current C8s, directing that electric torque to the front wheels, not only making the mid-engined ‘Vette quicker out of corners, but a lot easier to drive. And, if the Zora really does pump the volume up beyond 1,200 ponies, we’re going to need all the easy-to-drive we can get.
The only bad thing about the Zora is that along with its Ferrari-baiting performance may come Maranello-like pricing. If it really does cost US$500,000-plus, as some are predicting, the Corvette will no longer be the bargain-budget supercar we commoners could at least dream we could afford.
2026 BMW M2 CS
As much as I love driving anything with horsepower measured in the thousands, the performance car I most want to drive in 2025 reportedly has but 518. But then, it’s packaged in BMW’s (relatively) minuscule M2. The baby of BMW’s lineup of coupes is, by far, my favourite BMW these days, less torque-laden than the rest of the M lineup it shares a badge with, but more agile for the loss.
Still pumping all its torque rearwards, the new CS version should also be a tad more exciting to drive, a little lighter into the corners, and maybe a tad unrulier coming out of them. As I have long lamented, BMW’s M cars have been getting more like Mercedes’ AMGs, not, as many had expected — and hoped — the other way around. If BMW can up the M2’s performance without packing on the pounds, rest assured it will be one of the — if not the — performance cars of the year.
2024 MV Agusta LXP
I like three-cylinder motorcycle engines. My long-gone but much-missed Laverda RGS1000 ranks as one of my two favourite bikes of all time, and one of the reasons is there’s something about the howl of a triple, especially if – no, officer, I didn’t know about the noise ordinance – it had straight pipes.
Now it has a new version, the LXP. Oh, it’s a little more off-road-y (it rides on a dirt-bike-like 21-inch wheel up front) but that magical triple is now boosted to 931 cc (up some 133 cc from the TC) which means it will scream higher and harder. I can’t wait. Hopefully, MV will grace my tester with one of its “accessory” pipes so the symphony is all the more audible. On two wheels as in four, the Italians know something about internal-combustion the rest of the world hasn’t yet cottoned on to.
2026 Honda V3
This one I definitely won’t be riding next year. In fact, it is such a prototype that only the bare rolling chassis and engine have been shown. There’s been no bodywork provided, not even a sketch of what the final product might look like. No price estimates, either. Hell, it doesn’t even a name.
Nonetheless, it may have been the most enticing motorcycle at Italy’s recent EICMA motorcycle show. That’s because it sports an engine the motorcycle world hasn’t seen before, a four-stroke V3. V-twins we’ve had a-plenty. Ditto V4s, which grow ever more popular, even amongst the adventure touring set. We’ve also, as I just mentioned, had three-cylinders lined up in a row. But three pistons in a vee format is something new. At least to me.
In Honda guise, that means two cylinders up front — making it look a little like a commonplace parallel twin, only there’s one more cylinder-and-piston combo splayed to the rear some 75 degrees. The advantages are, of course, its compact profile, the prototype’s profile slimming significantly towards the rear. And having two cylinders up front, but only one to the rear, lends a distinctly forward weight bias, important if the V3 engine is to find its way into a supersports motorcycle.
If it does, it should have enough power. Honda released no details on performance. We still don’t how big the engine is, how much horsepower it makes, or even how high it revs.
The only detail we do know is that all three combustion chambers will be fed by an electronic supercharger. Honda makes no mention of how much boost is offered, but does say that, because the V3’s compressor is electronically driven and can build speed — and therefore boost — independently of engine speed, it should be able to add more low-end torque than either a turbo- or a supercharger. And being electronically driven it’s much simpler — and smaller — and doesn’t require any belt drives (supercharger) or convoluted exhaust piping (as with turbocharged systems).
For all these reasons — excellent weight distribution, narrow profile, and immediate torque enhancement — Honda’s V3 is the prototype I most want to ride next year. You know, once it gets bodywork and a name.
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