Not to be outdone by the North American Car and Truck of the Year awards from the Detroit Auto Show, the organizers of the New York Auto Show are heavily promoting their own ‘World’ and ‘Performance’ titles and today revealed the winners for this year’s awards.

The Nissan GT-R was chosen from an initial entry list of 23 contenders nominated by 59 World Car jurors from twenty-five 25 countries throughout the world. Candidates for the World Performance Car award had to demonstrate a specific and overt Sports/Performance orientation. Furthermore, they had to also satisfy the same availability criteria as for the overall World Car award.

The jurors observed that the “Nissan GT-R stole the headlines in the sports car world in 2008. This GT-R – the R35 – throws even former GT-Rs into the weeds via an all-new 3.6L bi-turbo V6 providing 480hp and 430lb-ft of torque. The drive of the GT-R, especially on a track, reveals an incredibly flexible all-wheel-drive chassis that lays down the rubber whenever you request it. Acceleration to 60mph from a stop takes just 3.5 seconds, or a tick behind fellow Performance finalist the Corvette ZR1. For $77,000 it may be the world’s best enthusiast car”.

The top three contenders for the World Performance Car were the Nissan GT-R, the Corvette ZR1 and the Porsche 911 Carrera. Previous World Performance Car winners were the Audi R8 in 2008, the Audi RS4 in 2007 and the Porsche Cayman S in 2006.

2009 World Performance Car finalists:
- Audi RS 6 Avant
- BMW 135i Coupe / Cabriolet
- Corvette ZR1
- Lamborghini LP560-4 Gallardo
- Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG
- Mercedes-Benz SL 63 AMG
- Mitsubishi Evo X / Evo MR
- Nissan GT-R
- Porsche 911 Carrera
- Subaru Impreza WRX STINissan GT-R in depth