Top picks for driving pleasure: Rolls-Royce; Land Rover, Audi, Mazda

Hit the highway or the dirt in these magnificent machines.

Audi RS6 Avant.

AUDI RS6 AVANT

Best sports car for the perfect road ($216,000)

If you ask a child to draw a super-fast car, there’s no chance it will look like a station wagon, and that’s what makes Audi’s RS6 Avant such a surprise. Here is a large, comfortable hauler that can shift five humans and their gear while transporting the driver into raptures of driving pleasure. This Avant (it’s Audi-speak for station wagon) might look like a family car, but its shouty V8 is supercar powerful and it is shockingly fast. It also rides and handles beautifully, making it the perfect partner for any of Australia’s greatest driving roads, from the Old Pacific Highway in NSW to the Great Ocean Road in Victoria or the climb to Mt Glorious in Queensland. The bonus is you can take your family or a few friends along for the ride, as long as you’re willing to put up with their screams of fear. It may be worth packing sick bags, too, because the G-forces this Audi can generate are thrill-ride level.

ROLLS-ROYCE GHOST

Best luxury sedan for a cross-country epic ($628,000)

Rolls-Royce Ghost.

The thing about a car as louchely luxurious as the Rolls-Royce Ghost is it almost doesn’t matter where you drive it — a jaunt through the Gates of Hell would be fine — because you’re so happy to be in it. All you really want is for the journey to be as long as possible, so we’re suggesting the haul from Sydney to Brisbane, or even on to Cairns. While driving this enormously powerful piece of real estate on wheels is akin to sitting on a throne and gazing down on the proletariat, it’s even more fun in the back, where you can sink into the massaging seats, select a movie on the two TV screens and extract a bottle of champagne from the on-board fridge (which comes with two temperature settings, one for vintage, the other for non-vintage). This is the road-going version of flying first class, and you’ll never want the journey to end.

MAZDA MX-5

Best convertible for a wineries tour ($35,890)

Mazda MX-5.

Anyone who loves cars will tell you the aphorism “the best things in life are free” does not apply. The best ones are always hugely expensive — except for the Mazda MX-5. This tiny two-seat roadster feels as snug as a onesie and is fun to drive without ever being frightening, yet its starting price is less than $40K. With the roof down and the sun shining, you’ll also notice (along with how happy you’re feeling) the sensory overload of smells you get in a convertible (motorcyclists also talk up this sensation). It makes the MX-5 the perfect companion for a coastal road, where the sea spray tickles the nostrils. Our destination of choice for the mighty Mazda, though, would be the wineries of the Barossa in South Australia, the Hunter Valley in NSW or Victoria’s Yarra Valley. There’s something about driving past rows of vines, and the possibility of a wine from time to time, that matches perfectly with a rag-top like this.

LAND ROVER DEFENDER 110

Best SUV for going wild ($95,335)

Land Rover Defender.

An SUV that is so rugged and hairy-chested you can hose it out after a day’s adventuring sounds too hardcore for a driving holiday. Land Rover’s Defender has long had a reputation for being the go-anywhere truck that’s low on fuss and high on durability. Recently, however, Land Rover released a Defender that is so large and luxurious inside, so filled with hi-tech trickery and so good to drive on sealed roads that it is, compared with the old one, like replacing a campfire with a flame thrower. As plush and pleasant as it is, the Defender is still outrageously capable and could probably climb Mount Everest. This means it is the perfect companion for you and up to six friends to go anywhere in Australia, no matter how remote or challenging, in effortless comfort. We’d recommend tackling Cape Tribulation, conquering Kakadu or traversing the Kimberley.