Performance Car And SUV Of The Year Announced: McLaren 720S And Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio Verde Take Top Honors For Automotive Video Association's Annual Award

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 19, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Automotive Video Association (AVA) – an organization which represents more than 500 million unique views per year that gathers the hottest vehicles of the year and the most popular automotive video journalists under one roof – has announced this year's AVA award winners for the performance car and SUV categories.

This year's AVA awards once again took place at the Resort at the Mountain in Welches, Oregon. The second annual AVA awards kicked off in an all-out battle for driving supremacy in the performance car and SUV categories. Five cars and five SUVs were tasked with a variety of tests that would put each vehicle through its paces to impress the AVA panel for the ultimate contender in its class. Though there was a close battle in both categories, there could only be one winner for each segment.

The Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio Verde took home the win in the Performance SUV category, narrowly edging out the Maserati Levante GTS which came in second place. The Performance Car category also brought the heat this year. The McLaren 720S beat out the Dodge Challenger Hellcat Redeye by a staggering six-to-two vote by the panel. Both winners will be presented with their corresponding AVA awards during a special press conference which will be hosted in Los Angeles in November.

Albeit the automotive reporters were thoroughly impressed with all the vehicles presented this year, there could only be one contender in the top spot, which made for a tough decision on choosing the right performance car. The McLaren's mid-mounted 4.0-liter twin turbocharged V8 sends 710 horsepower and 568 lb-ft of torque to the rear wheels with ease, which made for an exciting driving experience for the panel, and ultimately was the deciding factor for winning the performance car segment.

The clash for the best in the performance SUV category between the Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio Verde and the Maserati Levante GTS was fierce. However, the real fight was between the BMW M5 and the Dodge Challenger Hellcat Redeye. It was a heated battle between German engineering and American muscle, which ultimately, boiled down to providing a handful of reasons as to why each vehicle was the best candidate in each of its categories. There was a four to four split between the M5 and the Redeye. Each team debate out the pros and cons of each vehicle, with Team Redeye pulling over two journalists to the American Muscle category. But in a head-to-head battle between the 797 horsepower Redeye and the 710 horsepower 720, the sportiness and fun-to-drive personality of the super car shone through. 

"This year's contenders were the best vehicle line-up we've had yet," said Nik Miles, president of OurAutoExpert.com. "Although the battle was fought hard, only two winners could come out on top. Voting was down to the wire for every single contender in each performance category. Ultimately, only two remained from all judge's entries."

Formed by video media outlets that span across the nation, the collective represents the auto industry's national media organization that focuses on video exclusively. The AVA was established to provide media outlets that specialize in video content the ability to promote their industry, which is the fastest growing segment within the spectrum of automotive media. The organization is made up of some of the most prominent and most followed automotive outlets in the country.

The AVA prides itself on creating a voice for its side of the auto industry. The coalition helps promote the video aspect of covering the cars and vehicles that consumers love, and the organization isn't limited to just card-carrying journalists. The AVA has members that have a variety of backgrounds. The unifying nature is video, and all video content is owned by its members.

The overarching goal of the AVA is to promote video as the primary outlet for content but is also aimed at auto makers to showcase the power of video as well. Consumers today look to video for their news, and the combined bandwidth of the AVA is in the millions for monthly unique views. Traditional media outlets simply do not have the reach that the AVA is capable of, which is what makes this organization so unique.

SOURCE DRIVEN360