The top 10 cars of 2014 – in pictures

9. Bentley Continental V8 S: While many Bentley aficionados wouldn’t dream of owning a Conti GT with fewer than 12 cylinders under its stumpy bonnet, the rest of us can get on with enjoying what is undoubtedly the best model of the lot: the V8 S. Lighter, more involving, just as fast in the real world and with an engine note that never sounds anything less than ­brutal, it’s the one to have and shows that downsizing isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Bentley has done the impossible and turned its bestselling barge into a genuine sports car that defies the laws of physics. Courtesy Bentley

8. Lamborghini Huracán: The Gallardo was a decade old by the time its replacement tore onto the scene in April this year. The Huracán is a scalpel – a precision instrument for getting from one place to another in the least possible amount of time. It can outsprint its Aventador big brother, it has a proper DSG transmission and that reworked V10 engine still sounds like Godzilla yelling for his dinner. It’s safe, too, and despite the moronic purists moaning about “proper Lamborghinis” being dangerous and scary, this latest masterpiece never fails to entertain or turn heads. Courtesy Lamborghini.

7. Ferrari 458 Speciale: This could well be Ferrari’s V8 swansong. A limited-edition, super-raw and very involving ­supercar that demands respect and seems to want its driver to grab it by the scruff of the neck and drive it like it was stolen, it’s also the end of the line for naturally aspirated eight-pots thanks to the drive for engine downsizing and forced induction. This alone makes the Speciale worthy of the moniker but the way Ferrari’s engineers have fine-tuned what was already a perfect driver’s car deserves our full attention and respect. Looking back through my notes, I see the words: “Cars don’t get much better than this”. Enough said. Kevin Hackett / The National

6. Dodge Charger Hellcat: The second entry for America shows how far that country has come in the past few years. All of the US manufacturers have upped their game and are genuine global competitors but nobody, from inside or outside the country, has been as daring as Dodge with its Challenger and Charger Hellcats. With ­headline-grabbing power outputs (that’ll be 707hp through the rear wheels), the Hellcat can stop the Earth spinning on its axis once you’ve started liquidising its tyres. Mad, bad and dangerous to know, the Hellcat model line really should not exist. That it does at all is just cause for celebration in any petrolhead’s book.

5. Mazda 6: Mid-size Japanese and South Korean saloons are not exactly in short supply, with Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Kia and others producing safe, reliable and (let’s be honest here) fairly bland cars that sell in the millions. But if you want all the attributes of a car produced by the big boys, but with design flare and decent driving dynamics – something that’s distinctive and fun at the same time – there’s really only one choice. From the rear you could mistake it for a Maserati and that style continues throughout but it’s the way the 6 makes you feel from behind its wheel that’s the ace up its sleeve. Courtesy Newspress

4. Jaguar F-Type Coupé: The launch event for the tin-top F-Type was an exercise in perfection: a bit of challenging track work followed by an entire day of glorious, pinch-me-I-must-be-dreaming roads that showed Jaguar was willing to put its money where its mouth has been for some time. What nobody was expecting was for this achingly pretty machine to drive in a way that only a 911 GT3 could compare with. It’s a genuinely brilliant car that deserves to be a success, available in three distinct and intoxicating flavours.

3. Alfa Romeo 4C: Undoubtedly the purest, most unsullied driving experience of the year, the little 4C, now that Alfa Romeo has seen fit to offer it with more normal headlamps, is a sublime machine in every respect. A riot of curves, it could be viewed as a modern Ferrari Dino – a beautiful sports car that doesn’t require a huge engine to deliver an enormous hit of adrenaline. It’s no luxury GT car, rather a weekend plaything that will keep you going back for more; a toy that reminds us what a thrill driving can and should be when the road is right. Courtesy FIAT S.p.A

2. BMW i8: A close contender for the top spot, the i8 could, in years to come, be viewed as a total game changer. It looks like it’s from the future, with a design that causes air to rush over its flanks with the least possible resistance. It has narrow tyres, a three-cylinder engine and a bank of batteries – things that would ordinarily rule it out of any personal top 10 – but it’s a car designed for efficiency and, believe it or not, visceral excitement. It sounds extraordinary when that engine comes on stream and, even before that, it offers savage, silent acceleration using nothing but stored electricity. Detractors may point out that the most environmentally sound car is one that already exists but the i8 does at least prove that being responsible need not mean being boring. Courtesy BMW

1. VW Beetle: More than any other new car this year, the Beetle put a smile on my face. Words cannot describe how much I hate its insipid predecessor, but the new one has bags and bags of something most new cars lack: character. That I really enjoyed driving a car I’d expected to loathe with every fibre of my being was the year’s most pleasant surprise and I stand by my decision: it’s the best car of 2014 – a near-perfect blend of new and old. VW’s engineers have put the fun back into mass transportation with just the right amount of retro style and an engine soundtrack that might be “manufactured” but, really, who cares? The Beetle isn’t as satisfying to drive quickly as a Golf GTI or even my ageing Scirocco, but it successfully captures the magic of the original while bringing technology and rock-solid build quality into the mix. If California could be a car, it would be the new Beetle. Mission accomplished, it’s (unofficially) The ­National’s Car of the Year for 2014. Courtesy Volkswagen

Human beings, it would appear, love nothing more than a good list of stuff. From the top 10 films or albums of the year, to beach resorts, financial products, dining establishments, babies’ names, diet tricks and embarrassing bodies, if something – anything – is put into list form, we lap it up, especially online. If you run a website and you want pure and simple click bait to up the traffic, just put up lists of stuff and watch the hits roll in. And it’s no different when it comes to cars.

Perhaps it’s the perfect springboard for discussion. If I list my top 10 cars of the year and you happen to own one, or agree with some of my choices, we’re more than likely to never stop talking about it and the same could be said if you vehemently disagree with my conclusions after a year’s motoring. Naturally, though, as a professional critic, I can never bring myself to agree to disagree, almost always to my wife’s chagrin.

Best-of lists, award ceremonies and trophy handouts – it’s that time of year and, as a conscripted jury member for an awards event that ended up not happening after all (the 2014 Middle East Motor Awards, aka MEMA), it’s probably time I compiled a list of my favourite cars of the year. There will be no black-tie gala dinner, no tacky engraved shelf ornaments, not even any badly printed certificates – just a list with one overall winner of the unofficial, never-before-coveted The National’s Car of the Year title honours.

It would be the easiest thing in the world to bang on about the supercars and hypercars that had everyone frothing at the mouth in 2014. Everyone has their favourite and everyone’s an expert, usually without having driven any of them. Of the big three, only Porsche let me loose in the 918 Spyder, and even then it was only for a small handful of laps at Yas Marina circuit. McLaren didn’t think it was a good idea to let any Middle East hacks loose in its P1, and Ferrari could only spare one seat for the LaFerrari media launch, so I can tell you this: of all the ones I got to drive, the 918 wins by default. But is it the year’s best car?

It can’t be, can it? Available only to the privileged few with deep enough pockets to buy and maintain, cars like this are pipe dreams for the masses but they do make the motoring world a more interesting place.

Having driven nearly 100 brand-new cars in 12 months, I can safely say that (the new Ford Mondeo aside) nothing has really disappointed, but many have deeply impressed. Maserati’s superb Ghibli S, Mercedes-Benz’s mental A45 AMG and the Porsche Macan Turbo were all so good that I didn’t want to hand them back and, while raiding the memory banks has been most satisfying, it’s been extremely difficult to narrow down the best into a top-10 list. But here it is and I can barely believe the results myself but, whether or not you agree with my findings, at the very least it will give us something to talk about.