Jockeying for Australia's fastest cup

The race for Australia's fastest cup has commenced.

While the nation waits for the countries fastest nags to gallop around Flemington, 14 of the fastest four-wheel phillies released this year are being coralled in the barriers as testing has commenced for MOTOR Magazine's 2012 Performance Car Cup.

Like the Melbourne Cup, the majority of the field consists of thoroughbred imports from the likes of Porsche, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi following the late scratchings of high-profile entries from McLaren, Lexus and Ferrari.

And while all eyes will be on the locally-trained GT RSpec from Ford Performance Vehicles' stable, there's a couple of less-powerful dark horses that could spring a surprise, such as a Subaru BRZ and Reanultsport Megane RS265

While the all-new Porsche 911 and Boxster currently lead the betting odds, you'll have to wait until the January issue of MOTOR is published on December 12 to find out the winner.