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Ford Fiesta ST in startling track battle against Toyota GT86

On the surface, there's very little that the Ford Fiesta ST and Toyota GT86 (or the Scion FR-S that is sold in the US, or the largely similar Subaru BRZ) share in common. One is a hatchback with power coming from a turbocharged engine routed to the front wheels. The other is a coupe with power coming from a naturally aspirated four-cylinder boxer engine routed to the rear wheels.
Thing is, both of them are reasonably priced performance cars aimed at a similar segment of the automotive marketplace, so a comparison isn't out of the question. It is with all of this in mind that we direct you to the video below, in which the blokes from Evo pit the two manic little machines against one another on a race track. The result? Well, it can be summed up this way: Fast versus fun.
See how the track battle goes down in the video below.

8 cars we're most looking forward to driving in 2015

Now that 2014 is officially in the books, it's time to look ahead. And following our list of the cars we liked best last year, we're now setting our sights at the hot new metal that's coming our way in 2015. Some of these, we've already seen. And some are still set to debut during the 2015 auto show season. But these are the machines that keep us going – the things on the horizon that we're particularly stoked to drive, and drive hard. Jeep Renegade Not the Chevrolet Corvette Z06. Not the Ford Mustang GT350. Not the new John Cooper Works Mini. Nope, I'm looking forward to the adorable, trail-rated Jeep Renegade. And that's because I really, really, really like our long-term Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk. I do not, however, care too much for the Cherokee's looks, and I really don't like its $38,059 price tag. The Renegade Trailhawk, meanwhile, promises much of the same rough-and-tumble character as its big brother, but at what we expect will be a more reasonable price (I'm personally wagering on the baby Jeep's off-road model starting at no more than $23,000). With a 2.4-liter four-cylinder and a nine-speed automatic, it should also be a bit easier to fill than the V6-powered Cherokee. Also, I can't help but love the way the Renegade looks. It's like someone took a Wrangler, squished it by 50 percent and then handed it off to George Clinton for a healthy dose of funk. The interior, with its bright, expressive trims and color schemes should also be a really nice place to spend some time. I'll be attending the Renegade's launch later this month, so I'll have a much shorter wait than my colleagues. Here's hoping the baby Jeep lives up to my expectations. – Brandon Turkus Associate Editor Mazda MX-5 Miata Here's an uncomfortable truth: I'd rather spend a day driving a properly sorted Mazda MX-5 Miata of any generation on a winding road than I would nearly any other vehicle, regardless of power, price or prestige. It's not just that I prize top-down driving and enjoy the Miata's small size because it gives me more road to play with. I just find there's more motoring joy to be had with high-fidelity handling and an uncorrupted car-to-driver communication loop than I do with face-distorting power or grip – let alone valet-stand gravitas. But perhaps most of all, I love Miatas because they can deliver that level of feedback and driver reward at modest speeds that won't put the locals on edge or endanger lives – you can use more of the car more of the time.

V8-powered 2022 Ford F-150 Raptor R spied testing alongside Ram TRX

Spy photographers captured Ford engineers testing what appears to be a 2022 F-150 Raptor R alongside a Ram TRX this week, giving us a sneak preview of the first major battle in the coming war for super-pickup dominance.  Ford has remained tight-lipped about the Raptor R's performance specs. We know only that it will be powered by a V8 (likely a variant of the 760-horsepower, supercharged 5.2-liter unit from the Ford Mustang Shelby GT500), and that it's due to break cover some time later this year. Given that the 702-horsepower Ram TRX will be the Raptor R's only competition (and pretty much the only reason it exists in the first place), Ford's decision to benchmark the fast Ram is a bit of a no-brainer.  The Blue Oval's performance engineers have years of practice when it comes to building high-performance off-road trucks, so despite Ram's first-strike advantage and Hellcat trump card, the TRX might actually be the underdog in this fight. Why? Well, based on what we've seen of the EcoBoost-powered 2021 Raptor so far, it should weigh at least 500-600 pounds less than the TRX, and while we expect that gap to shrink with the addition of the bigger engine, it's likely that it will still favor Ford, and perhaps significantly.  While the larger, supercharged V8 will certainly weigh more than the EcoBoost V6, it's still an all-aluminum engine (all SRT motors are based on cast-iron blocks) and Ford still has the advantage of its lightweight body panels. There will likely be more to the Raptor R's chassis modifications than a new set of engine mounting points, since the existing Raptor was not engineered to handle an 800-horsepower engine, but even with the chassis modifications necessary to handle that power, we expect the Raptor R to be the featherweight of the two.  Since Ford plans to get the Raptor R into production for the 2022 model year, we shouldn't have to wait much longer to find out just exactly how it shapes up against Ram's big dinosaur. Stay tuned. Related video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.