The best photos from Autocar in 2023

The skill of Autocar’s superb photographers, Max Edleston and Jack Harrison, helps to bring our plain-black-and-white words to life.

Here, the duo picks out their favourite photos from the past year in the wonderful – and often weird – world of everything automotive.

Max has fond memories of our Ford Ranger Raptor and Jeep Wrangler face-off. “I’ve never been covered in more mud in my life,” he recalls.

More glamorously, Jack captured Nascar’s ‘Garage 56’ Le Mans entry at this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed. “It was great to see Jenson Button hop behind the wheel and do the biggest burnouts I’ve ever seen,” he says.

It’s a hard life snapping pictures of a Ferrari Purosangue in northern Italy, isn’t it, Max? Taking advantage of the beautiful landscape, Max used his drone to create this particular one. 

Back down to earth, or rather a wet Wales, Jack borrowed our long-term Toyota GR. Supra for a weekend and reckons this shot sums it up perfectly: “A red missile cutting through the dark clouds over Snowdonia.”

Or how about Cornwall in January with a Volkswagen ID Buzz? “It was a very cold winter’s morning on the south-west coast,” says Max. “Not the most enjoyable experience, but the chill was worth it for this shot.”

Fast forward to summer, Max also captured this off-road buggy at Goodwood: “I think the photo shows perfectly the insane mix of skill and speed needed to get this jump.”

This shoot was a “dream come true”, says Jack, who was first impressed by a Unimog in Regent’s Park when he was 10: “This go-anywhere vehicle is much faster than you think, and this image captures that pretty well.”

A second entry here for the Nascar Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, this time at Le Mans. Max says: “There was so much hype around this entry, it would have been mad not to have taken the opportunity to get a big image of the standout team, car and garage.” 

Jack was particularly happy with the Kia Picanto snaps, having not shot many road trips before: “The tiny Picanto was dwarfed by Ireland’s incredible landscape. Shame the car wasn’t a brighter colour…”

There’s always a story behind each shot, as Max explains: “The stress of getting the Jeep Avenger up a mountain to an electric charger with 0% range left was an interesting experience. Once we were sorted and onto the Grossglockner High Alpine Road, the fog had set in, and driving through the mountain tunnel in dead silence was a moment to savour.”

Jack reckons it’s almost impossible to take a bad photo of the Lamborghini Huracán Sterrato: “Its low profile looks utterly extreme away from the Tarmac.”

On the Triumph TR4, Jack says: “Sometimes you stumble into nice shots – and this was one of them. The race-prepped TR4 caught my attention as soon as I entered Classic Performance Engineering’s Bicester workshop. The building itself seemed to draw your eye to the beautiful 1960s coupé.”

Autocar’s best renderings of 2023

Our rendering superhero is Ben Summerell-Youde, whose Clark Kent-like day job as Autocar’s picture editor helps to keep his eye in for the latest automotive styling trends. His three favourite designs for us this year are from three iconic brands: Alfa Romeo, Alpine and Ferrari.

On the Alfa, he says: “It was great fun trying to recreate the overall shape and boxy body mass of the original SZ. I particularly like the short wheelbase, stocky rear end and all-black pillars and roof.”

He reckons the Alpine A310 was “desperately crying out for an upto-date redesign to complement the retro curvy A110. The flatter surfacing and angular DLO [‘daylight opening’ – that’s design-speak for ‘windows’] cutting into the C-pillar sets it apart from the A110, as it did when it was launched in the 1970s.”

On the Ferrari 812 successor, Ben says he loved the softer classical direction of the Roma: “I wanted to push that style further into a more brutal and attention-grabbing flagship, while trying to remain elegant.

Ben’s favourite concepts of 2023

“Audi apprentices designed and built this playful recreation of the NSU Prinz Coupé. The headlights and tail-lights are simply styled but make such a big difference and really modernise the design. I love the raised bootlid-cum-spoiler, too.”

“Finally, some fresh thinking from BMW, with a new grille design that’s shallow and wide instead of tall and aesthetically challenged (yes, iX range, I’m looking at you). Smart lower glasshouse design and thin pillars are reminiscent of the airy E30-generation 3 Series.”

“A truly creative creation that harks back to a golden era of concept cars from the 1970s, and especially so in this wonderful orange hue. Its one-bow design evokes the past but is clearly heading towards the future.”