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Jeremy Clarkson, the bombastic host of the hit BBC show Top Gear, has run down his short list of best and worst cars of 2008 -- and surprisingly for the man who has a known unfavorable taste for American cars -- he has picked the 638-hp 2009 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 as his car of the year.

To start, Clarkson outlined some of the year's disappointments in his Sunday Times column . Like our own editor-in-chief Angus MacKenzie who called it a "perfectly pointless," Clarkson calls the 2009 BMW X6 the "most inappropriate piece of corporate thinking." He also derided the newly revised 2009 Audi RS 6 super sedan -- a ride we don't get stateside -- as a flop. With 572 hp on tap, it's simply too much for most buyers, Clarkson concludes. Granted, he says, it's a sedan quite capable of tearing up tracks and streets alike (as it should), but why?

As stated before, Clarkson isn't the biggest fan of American iron. His next worst car, the Chrysler Sebring, is a car which "designers and engineers couldn't be bothered to make a good car." But it is nothing compared to his ultimate worst vehicle of 2008 -- the Kia Sedona diesel. According to Clarkson, Kia's designers "just didn't know how to make a good car" when it came to the minivan.

Topping his list for best cars of 2008 are the ultra-rare Caterham R500, the "bouncy and wonderful" Fiat 500 Abarth and the very expensive Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead. But taking his top honors was Chevrolet's ultimate "Blue Devil." Although, "not built very well," the supercharged Corvette ZR1 "manages to be both docile and extraordinarily savage all at the same time." -- an "epic car" that seemingly came out of nowhere.

Source: The Times Online