Having already discussed our favourite
cars
drives
of 2015, it's now time to move on to our top people of the year. Interestingly despite the story title, all of our contributors have chosen a person rather than a thing to put forward. Has this year been one devoid of significant innovation? Will 2016 change that? There's the Focus RS drift mode for starters...
But that's to follow over the next few months. For now here's our list of the best people from the world of motoring in 2015. Feel free to add your own submissions to the list!
My shortlist for this one wasn't especially short. PHer DonkeyApple's brilliant contributions to the
Bentayga thread
for me symbolised all that's wonderful about PH and were, for me, the
best assessments
of the car I read anywhere. Andreas Preuninger deserves credit for convincing Porsche a
purist driver's car
with a manual gearbox was viable - and being proven emphatically right. His former boss
Wolfgang Hatz
was a sad casualty of the VW scandal - directly implicated or not he probably had to go but his ebullience, engineering CV and no-nonsense attitude made him much more interesting company than most senior execs. I'll go with another engineer though -
Nobuhiro Yamamoto
of Mazda for making the MX-5 normally aspirated, smaller and lighter than the car it replaced and only a fraction heavier than
the NA original
. An incredible feat considering the extra regulation - and weight - gained by most cars in the last quarter century. He had his bosses behind him and a talented team around him. But someone has to take credit for the achievement and it may as well be the project manager. (
You probably won't have heard of Richard; I certainly hadn't before the incredible
Mille Miglia trip
with Bentley in May. As head of Bentley's Heritage team, he was responsible for most of the driving of a 1930 Blower Bentley, a car now worth many millions. Throughout the four days he was a fantastic ambassador for the brand and a total dude as well. Awake later than anyone else and rising earlier, he was always smiling and always willing to chat. The Mille was tough in a brand new car, so the thought of doing it in something that's 80 years old is quite terrifying actually. That he drove the event so well while also being a real gent makes him an easy vote for my man of the year. Great 'tache too. (
Tom Kristensen at Goodwood Revival
I really should have nominated Lewis Hamilton here, who took his second world championship for Mercedes with the ease of Lord Flashheart seducing a debutante. For all the R'n'B posturing and increasingly daft haircuts, we should never forget Lewis is also the best driver of his generation.
But having been lucky enough to be at the Goodwood Revival this year, my personal highlight was Tom Kristensen's drive through the pack to take victory in the first round of the St Mary's Trophy while driving a Ford Fairlane Thunderbolt that was pretty much twice as large as any of the other cars on the circuit. Having retired from front-line racing last year TK was clearly having fun, sliding the XXL saloon through practically every turn. But he was also devastatingly fast, the conspicuous talent in a 'pro' grid containing many well-known names. Older, but not slower. (Mike Duff)
John McGuinness's Senior TT win after being written off by many (he was 19-1 at the bookies) was jaw dropping - standing start lap record, overall lap record, lap record from a pit stop then a wave at the crowds for the final lap. Unbelievable.
The antics in the final few races took a bit of the shine off Valentino Rossi's remarkable season, but The Doctor's form injected new life into MotoGP when it was starting to look dull. World Superbike champion Jonathan Rea proved he is the class act we have all known he is (now even Honda believes it!) and Tai Woffinden did the speedway world double. However, the standout performance of 2015 has to go to Danny Kent. He gave us a few scares toward the end of the season, but we eventually have a British GP world champion for the first time since Barry Sheene. And that's something to be very proud of. (Jon Urry)
Aventador SV round the 'ring in less than seven minutes
Six minutes and 59 seconds to be exact. A ludicrously fast time to get around the Nurburgring. The only other production cars to break the seven-minute barrier are the Porsche 918 Spyder and two Radicals. With
new safety changes
in place, Marco Mapelli is now cemented in history as the man who drove one of the ballsiest 'ring laps in its recent configuration.
At around the five-minute mark, the tyres of the Aventador SV start to lose grip and a battle ensues to keep the 750hp monster on track. Marco, take a bow! If you haven't seen it this year, take a few minutes to bask in the glory of a Lamborghini V12 and enjoy a mesmerising Nordschleife lap. (Nik Attard)
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