My idea of a car of the future is an electric car of some sort. Electric motors have a great property: they can produce their full rated torque at nearly 0 RPM. That has performance potential written all over it!
Until there's some major breakthrough, chemical power sources like gasoline will remain the most useful of all. Cars that have piston engines to charge the batteries are a step in the right direction, but not a big enough leap. As soon as they replace the automotive engines with small
turboshaft power plants, things will start getting interesting.