ASTON MARTIN VANQUISH TAKES TOP HONOURS AT CAR OF THE YEAR
A stellar field of performance cars was recognised at Robb Report’s annual event, with Citizen Kanebridge backing the experience alongside leading luxury partners.
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Aston Martin’s Vanquish has been crowned overall winner of Robb Report Australia & New Zealand’s 2025 Car of the Year, taking top honours at an exclusive event in Sydney.
Held at the Harbourside Residences Display Gallery by Mirvac, the evening brought together drivers, partners and industry figures for the long-awaited announcement of the 2025 Car of the Year.
Exclusive private member’s club Citizen Kanebridge was among the partners supporting the event, which has become a fixture on the luxury automotive calendar, showcasing the very best in performance, design and innovation across the global car market.
Across a tightly contested field, category winners reflected the breadth of today’s high-end automotive landscape, from traditional combustion engines to hybrid and fully electric performance models.
Among the standout winners, the Ferrari 12Cilindri Spider took out Best Combustion Supercar, while the Aston Martin Vanquish was named Best Super-GT before ultimately securing the overall title.
Other notable winners included the Mercedes-Benz G580 as Best Off-Roader, the Audi RS Q8 Performance for Best SUV Coupe, and the Aston Martin DBX 707 for Best Super-SUV.
Electrification continued to shape the upper end of the market, with the Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray named Best Hybrid Supercar and the Audi RS e-Tron GT Performance taking out Best Electric GT.
The Lamborghini Urus SE was recognised as Best Hybrid SUV and also placed third overall, while the Mercedes-AMG GT 63 S E Performance secured second place overall in the coupe category.
Guests were also given a first look at a short film capturing the spirit of the two-day Car of the Year program, produced by SONDR, alongside photography that will feature in a dedicated 40-page portfolio in the upcoming issue.
Guests were welcomed alongside a curated group of Car of the Year partners, including Jacob & Co. and La Prairie, with Peter Lehmann Wines and Glenfiddich ensuring the evening unfolded in suitably polished fashion.
The broader program was supported by partners including Citizen Kanebridge, Msquared Capital, Hardy Brothers, Bell Helicopters, Saddles and Spicers Retreats, reflecting the wider luxury ecosystem that underpins the event.
With full results set to be published in the next issue of Robb Report Australia & New Zealand, attention now turns to the next instalment of the program, with this year’s Car of the Year drive scheduled for September.
For those in the room, however, the message was already clear. In a field defined by innovation and performance, the Vanquish still knows how to stand apart.
With full results published in the next issue of Robb Report Australia & New Zealand, attention now turns to the next instalment of the program, with this year’s Car of the Year drive scheduled for September.
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Nearly half a century after a military prototype first rolled out of Sant’Agata Bolognese, Lamborghini’s Super SUV lineage culminates in a 800CV plug-in hybrid that does 0–100km/h in 3.4 seconds
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There is a photograph of the LM002 that tells you everything you need to know about Lamborghini’s ambition.
A powder-blue behemoth, all muscle and menace, blasting through forest tracks at speed. It looks like nothing else on earth – because in 1986, it wasn’t.
That vehicle, the world’s first Super SUV, was the unlikely starting point for one of motoring’s great dynasties.
Nearly 40 years later, its spiritual successor, the Urus SE, will hit 312km/h and travel more than 60 kilometres on electric power alone.
The distance between those two facts is the story of Lamborghini’s most improbable, most spectacular achievement.
The journey began not with glamour but with grit. In 1977, Lamborghini unveiled the Cheetah at the Geneva Motor Show, an all-wheel-drive prototype built for military applications, featuring a rear-mounted Chrysler V8, a tubular steel chassis and a fibreglass body.
The US government contract it was designed to win never materialised. Neither did its follow-up, the LM001, which retained the V12 from the Countach but struggled with weight distribution in desert conditions.
It took engineer Giulio Alfieri to crack the problem. By relocating the engine to the front, a move that sounds obvious only in retrospect, he produced the LM002, debuted at the 1986 Brussels Motor Show.
Powered by a 5.2-litre V12 producing 450CV, it could propel its 2.7-tonne body beyond 200km/h. Pirelli developed bespoke Scorpion BK tyres just to handle it. Inside, leather upholstery, wood trim and air conditioning made it as sybaritic as it was savage. Just 301 were built before production ended in 1992.
Twenty-five years passed before Lamborghini returned to the segment.
The Urus, unveiled in production form in 2017, was not merely a new car — it was a reinvention of the brand.
To build it, Lamborghini doubled its Sant’Agata Bolognese facility from 80,000 to 160,000 square metres. Its 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8, the company’s first turbocharged engine in its modern era, produced 650CV and 850Nm of torque, reaching 100km/h in 3.6 seconds. Its carbon-ceramic front discs, at 440mm, were the largest fitted to any production vehicle at launch.
The range has evolved rapidly since. The Urus Performante lifted output to 666CV, swapped air suspension for steel springs for sharper dynamics, and in 2022 set the production SUV record at Pikes Peak — 10:32.064. The Urus S, launched the same year, matched that power figure while prioritising luxury and adaptability over lap times.
Now comes the Urus SE, and with it, a genuine inflection point. Unveiled in 2024, it pairs the twin-turbo V8 with a 141kW electric motor for a combined 800CV and 950Nm, making it the most powerful Urus ever produced. A 25.9kWh battery enables over 60km of fully electric driving.
Top speed is 312km/h. The aerodynamics have been entirely redesigned, the infotainment system gains dedicated hybrid management displays, and buyers can choose from more than 100 exterior colours.
None of which would have seemed remotely plausible in 1977, when Lamborghini was trying, and failing, to sell a fibreglass truck to the US military. Sometimes the greatest stories begin in failure.
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