Another year is nearly in the books, and it was a whirlwind. Between the traditional car reviews, the inaugural Cool Car Cup, our first Best of the Best Awards, bare-knuckles off-roading in the Truck Showdown, and the daily feature stories from Japan Month, Motor1 drove and photographed hundreds of vehicles in 2024.
Personally, I've been a photographer since I was 12 years old, and one of my year-end traditions has been to look through the catalog of photographs I amassed over the previous year and choose my favorites. It serves a few purposes for me: reminiscing over fond (or foul) memories, determining where my photographic weak spots remain, and simply enjoying the fruits of my labor. Why bother taking albums of photographs if you never look through them?
This year, I want to share my tradition with you, our readers. Here's a roundup of the best shots that encapsulate Motor1 in 2024.
Classic Car Reviews
We spend a lot of time in new cars. But I also managed to get behind the wheel of a few excellent (in their own way) classics this year—the Camaro IROC-Z, the Oldsmobile Diesel, and more. And each of them had their own unique style represented on camera.
Cool Car Cup
One of our biggest events of the year was our inaugural Cool Car Cup, in which we gathered some of the hottest sports cars of 2024 for a side-by-side performance test. We pinged expert automotive photographer DW Burnett for the shoot, who managed to capture hundreds of phenomenal photos of contenders on the road and on the track—cars like the Lamborghini Revuelto, the Lotus Emira, the Mazda Miata, and many more.
It looks like a Need For Speed game come to life.
Japan Month
Japan Month was so packed with incredible features that you could... well, you could devote a whole month to it. But nothing matched the raw teenage-bedroom-wall-poster energy of the GT-R matchup as shot by Robin Trajano. It's like the internet's wildest JDM dreams come to life.
The rest of Japan Month brought some excellent photographic opportunities, too, whether it was romping Miatas through European hill country (shot by Sevian Daupi for Motor1), discovering the design influence of the most gorgeous Ferrari in Mazda's magnum rotary opus (by Sean C. Rice for Motor1), or visiting the beating heart of Subaru's rally team in the hills of Vermont (photographed by yours truly).
Lexus Fall Tour
News Editor Christopher Smith took a perfectly fall-colored convertible Lexus LC through Michigan's finest foliage for one of our Japan Month features. The photos alone make a good case for both the 26th state and Lexus's grand tourer.
The scenery—and the car—are absolutely stunning.
Lime Rock Park
We spent lots of time at the famed Lime Rock Park race track this year for a variety of tests. And for nearly all of them, we once had DW Burnett behind the lens. Burnett was able to make Lime Rock Park look like an idyllic heaven for high-speed antics as we got behind the wheel of cars like the BMW M3 CS and the updated ND3 Miata.
Motor1 Director of Editorial, Travis Okulski, even spent some time in the rare Manthey Cayman GT4 RS.
Off-Road Truck Showdown
We got deep into the wilderness of upstate New York with our Ultimate Off-Road Truck Showdown, shot by Andrew Link. We pitted three of this year's hottest mid-size off-roaders against each other—the Chevrolet Colorado ZR2 Bison, the Ford Ranger Raptor, and the Toyota Tacoma Trailhunter.
The result was nothing short of mid-autumn mid-size truck magic caught on camera.
Reviews & First Drives
We have to mention the work of our staff and freelance photographers on our many reviews and first drives. Once again, DW Burnett took some stunning shots of the latest Mercedes-AMG GT sports car while Andrew Link nabbed some excellent photos of the Aston Martin Vantage.
Managing Editor Jeff Perez brought the heat for cars like the Bentley Flying Spur Speed, the Ford Mustang Mach-E Rally, and others—making every biome he drives through look like the cover page of a magazine.
Washington Backcountry
I personally ventured into the wilderness with coworker Brian Silvestro to drive the Washington Backcountry Discovery Route with a Lexus GX, and fellow Seattlite Ian Allen followed us in his Tacoma... and of course, shot pictures of the stunning landscape with our stalwart truck.
Since I tagged along with Brian, I also shot some of the GX journey on my film cameras. I got a chance to go off-roading alone, as well, when I investigated the popular allure of the Jeep Wrangler. These shots are some of my personal favorites for the year, especially the Jeep ones, which I shot on my medium-format Fuji camera.
This, of course, isn't quite everything we did this year, and I'm sure I've forgotten some shots. But still—it's a good way to summarize a busy year on the road. We hope you've enjoyed our shots and stories in 2024.
We'll see you next year!
