2025's best performance cars: evo Car of the Year podcast | part one

But it's, yeah, it's the hardest weeks, you know, the hardest weeks you will do.

Yeah, just because of the diet, really.

Yeah, there's only so much ham and cheese and bread you can eat.

Hello, welcome to episode 33 of the Evo Podcast.

We've got a special two-parter for you this week.

And next, we are talking about everything Evo carved the year 2025.

So I have with me, Dickey Mead and James Taylor and John Barker.

Nice to meet you.

Hello.

So, straight into it, carved the year.

Why did we do it, Dickey?

And how did it originate?

Why do we do it?

It's a legacy from Performance Car, really, which was, I know we've covered this before in a very early podcast,

but that was, it was always the focal point of our year at Performance Car.

Performance Car was the magazine which was closed and a number of us went off and launched Evo with Harry.

But, yeah, it was always the biggest test of the year.

It was the most exciting thing we did.

I think it was always the most popular issue and story with our readers.

So there's, there's quite a tradition of expectation, really.

I think we'd over the years, we'd built the test up and been a bit more ambitious with it and different locations.

And so it had gained, gained this kind of following.

So it seemed like something that, well, I don't think we ever questioned that we wouldn't do it at Evo.

It just, we sort of owned it because we, we'd kind of refined the idea with Performance Car.

So it was three issues in, wasn't it, when we launched Evo?

So very soon after we'd...

Pretty important magazine, that one, third one.

Because you, you've spent all your money, well, we spent all of Harry's money by that point.

So you're waiting for the revenue to come in from the first one, so...

I think it saved us, didn't it, lately?

I think you could argue that it was the thing that enabled us to carry on.

If we'd had a, if we hadn't had an exceptional issue and that third issue,

I think Harry's view of what, what, you know, how we continued would have been slightly different.

But that really was a big step.

And I think a lot of people noticed it.

I think it's probably the issue in the year where we may be drawing some new readers

because it always is quite an eye-catching test.

And I think people talk about it because they're invested in what we've got as a group

and why we've come up with the, with the finishing orders we do.

So it was part of the DNA of the magazine, isn't it?

Yeah. And the cars, it's a variety of cars.

Everything else through the year is like group tests of ZL cars.

And then we pitch in all the great cars that we've driven over the year.

So you never know what the results gonna be.

And you're already on those cars.

It's, is a complete spread, isn't it?

Because we have the second 99.

We had a fifth Punto HGT and a...

You don't always get it right.

But it's, it's to give everything to an opportunity, isn't it?

It's the best from each class.

It is.

I think you sort of know it's the, it's the case when you do it,

but it's only over a longer period of time.

When you look back, they really are a snapshot of that year

and a bit like doing our recent eros.

Eros series.

Yeah.

You kind of look back and you can see when it was really like a rich period of cars.

A strong market.

We sometimes had 14, 15 cars.

And so, and that's the list we managed to narrow it down to.

So you can imagine the, the breadth of cars that we were choosing from.

I mean, I think we've all got our favorites.

I think the first one is always going to be my favorite test.

I think it sticks in my mind the most vividly, I think.

And you look back at the cars and they're all, they're lovely cars,

but they're quite mild.

You sort of see how extreme everything's become.

But at the time, when we pulled those cars together,

they were the cream, weren't they?

They were new 9-11, 9-96, Z3M, Coupe, X-K-R, Jag.

Yeah, we've arrived with F1 shift.

Yeah, it was...

It was probably the first issue that probably sat out Evo's stall as well.

If you would, in any doubt, that it was a magazine for all performance cars.

Yeah, if you wanted to understand it, then that was the best, the best test we did.

I think it was an endorsement from the industry as well.

We'd enjoyed support from quite a lot of manufacturers

when we launched and those first few issues.

But I think, again, car of the year is like a statement.

Well, actually, we're still playing with the big boys kind of thing

with the established magazine titles.

Because they were magazines then.

They weren't the kind of multi-platform brands that we are now.

I still think of Evo as a magazine,

but that's the smear heart of a much bigger thing now.

But yeah, I think the first one...

Yeah, it was a good test.

It was in Wales, so we knew what we were getting into at that point.

So we knew Wales.

It was familiar ground, wasn't it?

Because we'd done some performance car of the years in that area.

There was a great big farmhouse, so we were all in the same place.

So it was fun. It was a lot of fun.

And it was the previous configuration of Anglesey as well, wasn't it?

Yeah, it was one day.

One day, obviously, two days.

Before they redeveloped the circuit.

So it was a proper like...

With the bus as the really...

Double-decker bus was the office, wasn't it?

It was, yeah, shelter from the rain.

Yeah, because we did it in November

because that's the best time to do your biggest, most important test.

Well, we'd try and push it back, wouldn't we?

I think car of the year, it's a tricky one

because you kind of think it should be January the 1st

to the end of December of that year,

but it sort of rolls from whenever we do it.

So this year was early October, wasn't it?

So it'll be roughly October to October,

but then I think we try to push it as far into the year as we could.

And there's always a car that's...

Oh, if we just push it back a week, we might get this one in.

So you want to be topical,

or I think we felt there's probably possibly more pressure to be

as up-to-date as we could be with the cars

and make sure there is quite the same pressure now.

No, I think as a feature, it just stands alone

and people, you know, readers say that they just enjoy

sitting down with a big mug of coffee

and just nursing themselves.

I think the fact it's the issue that comes out before Christmas as well,

it's one where you have a bit of time to properly soak it in.

Yeah, it's evolved a lot.

It's a huge 78-page, 20,000-word mag story,

but it's also nearly an hour long.

The video is going to be two-episode podcast.

We now have more content produced from it, I think back in 98

when we were sat in that bus sheltering from the rain.

It was, I think, are we going to get enough images

when it's not raining to fill a magazine in the front cup?

It puts a lot more pressure on us to produce the content,

but I think it's nice to, when you look back at the earlier cars of the year,

it almost feels quite selfish, which I think is maybe in my head.

It wasn't that we were just doing it for us,

but there was only a certain amount we could share

because we only really had the print format

and a certain number of pages to give to people.

And obviously that put more emphasis on the words

and the color that you could put into the words.

And I think it's a bit like reading a book rather than what,

and then you see a, watch a film of the book.

I think everyone could fill in and imagine

and maybe now we have to present it as a video as well.

We're giving much more to people,

which I think is, it's fun to share the cars at that level,

but there's a certain charm, I think, about the car of the years

where they only exist in Primstil's photos and words.

Yeah, we often get asked internally by different teams,

have you got any pictures from the early car of the years on your phone?

This is no phone, didn't take pictures.

Yeah, some of us didn't even have phones.

It's, and you forget how quickly everything has evolved,

not just from car of the year,

but everything we now do across Evo, isn't it?

But as you said, because that lovely, that was it.

That's not the new, not the controlling way, is it?

But it was more of a...

You wouldn't even know what you got on film

until you processed the film, so...

2001 was the first year we went abroad, wasn't it?

So we did Wales the first year, then Scotland, then back to Wales,

and then when in 2001 we went to Italy to Harry's place in Tuscany

and that had a cover-mounted CD-ROM.

We did.

Yes, which we were videoing stuff.

Dave Sheffield, bananas in the doors to Verzonda.

Yeah, and all that crucial...

But that was quite fun actually.

I think given the pretty limited nature of the kit that we had

and the fact that we were trying to shoot stills as well,

I haven't looked at that.

I'd be probably cringe-worthy.

But I don't think I have a device I could quite...

CD into...

Oh, now we can find one, don't we?

But that sort of looking back, that was quite soon.

We pushed ourselves to go overseas,

which is a massive effort compared to doing in the UK.

And then to come back with some sort of video as well,

you kind of forget what we'd pushed ourselves to do.

Yeah, that was a good one,

because we were...

I don't even know what the circuit was called,

but it was a circuit in Umbriel, wasn't it, just over the board?

Only quite a small modest track,

but actually pretty perfect for what we needed.

Absolutely.

Was there any years that stand out, apart from 98 others for you, John?

Because you've done a fair lion's share of Carly here.

Yeah, well, as Dick said, the first one's all pretty good.

But that one we were just talking about,

the one where we went to Tuscany and Umbria,

that seemed pretty special.

That seemed really exotic that we could actually have the budget to go to Italy and book a circuit.

And do video as well.

That felt like a bit of a step change.

That's one of my favourites.

But also, well, we've been there this year again,

not to give anything away, but Root Napoleon,

when we did it with the Ford GT.

Yeah, 2005 was a great year.

Yeah, just to tell you, some very specific bits that I remember in my head.

One was chasing you down the hill.

You were in the 430.

That's right, preserving the tyres.

Which had no rear tyres.

It wouldn't be picked at all from the last moment.

Yeah, we had to borrow that from a...

Rental.

Like a hire company, didn't we?

Yeah.

Oh, wow.

I think probably we've been through a,

you'll never have a Ferrari again phase.

So we had to sneak one from somewhere else.

Yeah.

Well, we thought it was important to him clear, didn't we?

Yeah.

But the Ford GT was one of those where you just get in it,

do your first drive and think,

yeah, that's the winner,

which is usually a 911.

So, yeah, it's a bit of a change.

Yes.

What about the cars as well?

Anything that stands out in those older tests of cars that,

you know, like the Ford GT or other cars that didn't perform,

that after a year of driving them in group tests and on launches,

we often have that.

More so now, don't we?

Because the launchers can be quite prescribed.

I think it's always a bit of a conflict, isn't it,

between giving a kind of representative snapshot of the year.

So it's sort of topped with a supercar and tailed with a...

That's super many.

...of some description.

But it's a very tough thing to, you know,

for a smaller, more modest car to shine in those tests.

It has to be really good because you're jumping out of stuff

with, you know, really impressive powertrains

or just spectacular, exciting, stimulating things.

And then you did the sort of disproportionate feeling

of stepping back into something very normal.

But I think when the hot hatches and little saloon cars

when they're really good, it's proved over the decades

that the cars that have finished high up in car of the year

on the rare occasion that those sorts of cars do,

they are really, really, really good.

Definitely good.

They're keepers, aren't they?

Yeah, the 10s, sort of the ones that stick out

tend to be the Renault Sport cars, isn't it?

The Clios and the Magans over the years

and they've always punched away above their way

with Type-Rs had a few good showings as well.

But you never know until you get there

which are going to be the real shiners

and which are going to fade away a bit.

There is always mystery, isn't it?

That's the most thing that's never done before.

You say mystery, there's also trepidation of,

oh, my God, we've been faking this car.

Is it going to be the right call?

We've had that.

Any stinkers that stand out?

Well, I think there's without burning massive bridges.

SL55 a few years ago.

But I think again, even though we know how the test works,

you do sometimes still fall into the trap of...

It's usually the cars that we have the opportunity

to put into the test,

but maybe we haven't driven them properly

or tech-grouped them or...

And you take a bit of a punt and then they're just...

Even a slightly above-average car

will feel pretty flat when you've skimmed the cream

off a year's worth of really good cars.

But that's why we have to spend a long time doing it.

So everybody gets a good go in every car.

It's so important.

And the roads are really important as well.

When you're driving across the Wales,

you've already done the test on the car, haven't you?

So you're pretty much where you are.

I think, yeah, and it's always a collective thing,

isn't it?

It's never...

I think often a group,

a regular EVO group test will be,

I mean, we're better at it now

because there's a few more of us.

So it's generally more than one person's view,

but it's...

Car of the Year is the only one where there's

six, seven people contributing to...

Yeah.

And you're all keeping your cars quite close to your chest.

And so you have general conversation.

What do you think about this?

And then in your head,

you've got this kind of swirling confusion of...

Yeah.

Because initially you get in pretty much everything.

You're like, oh, I really like this.

Oh, this is great.

And then there's some that are...

Oh, no, I don't like this.

And I think those bookends

tend to stay pretty much where they are.

But as soon as you drop from first place

and up one from last place,

it's just every time you drive things,

you're just building your level of conflicts

and confusion, aren't you, for a while at least?

Well, that's the importance of the Rosa, isn't it?

Because you can't just use one section of road

because if it favours a certain type of car,

other cars will just never register

because you're not driving in the right environment.

You're not giving them a fair crack at the wheel.

I think we've always struggled as well with...

It's increasingly difficult to get

the sort of action shots that capture the spirit of the car

and keep Aston happy.

Is that possible?

It's hard to get those on the road.

So we've tried...

We've sort of flip-flopped between having a circuit element

and not, but there's never like a lap time component to it.

And if you get the roads right,

the track doesn't really add anything apart from those pictures,

but then the pictures don't really sit within the test.

So yeah, I think the roads are always the most important thing.

Even if you've got a small group of cars,

if you've got great roads, then you'll have a good test.

We've been to circuits.

We've been drawn in by circuits and then found out the roads

surrounding them are awful.

And you can't get a good drive.

You can't get decent photography, then.

That's really really important.

Port-a-Male is an awesome track.

We have a great fun driving around the circuit,

but the roads are not...

They're literally part of the world, but...

The roads can't support...

Like you need...

There's lots of places where there's one good road,

but you can't drive 10 cars up and down the same bit of road.

10 people driving 10 cars.

Or a week in a very one-dimensional...

So that means it's similar to Ascari, isn't it?

In lovely facility.

But we found the roads.

You're driving further and further.

You find one road, but you can't spend a week there.

So you're traveling around and...

It's hard to explain, isn't it?

You can find a great road to drive,

but often they don't work for photography.

Or you can find a great road that will work for photography.

But it's why we end up often going back to the same places,

because there aren't that many locations that combine...

I think why I was doing something neat.

Doing some numbers.

Scotland and France are the most visited locations

for car of the year in Scotland.

We move around a bit.

That's from, when we say Scotland,

it's borders up to the highlands.

It's quite a broad sort of...

But it gives us that variety, doesn't it?

And France tends to be route Napoleon.

That area in...

There's so many great roads down there.

And the weather is a component as well.

We chance our arm with the borders in Scotland.

And I think actually the advent of digital photography

has been around for a long time.

But it used to be virtually impossible to get a shoot on film

because the cameras just didn't work in the low light conditions.

And now, if you've got some bad weather,

you can actually get some really amazing dramatic photos.

So that isn't quite so much of an issue.

But then, a lot of the cars we drive now are so powerful.

So much torque that they just don't...

Again, you can get it done in a wet weather,

but much rather have dry roads to do the test on, I think.

It's always nice to have the variety of driving the car

in different conditions as well.

Some of them come to the fore when it's not so grippy.

So, James, this is your third V-coach this year.

What was...

James worked somewhere else before we joined EVO.

Another monthly car.

What was your view coming into it when you saw what we...

Well, first of all, before you joined,

what was the view of V-coach?

And then when you did join,

what did you think of this complete carnage of the week?

People not knowing what they're doing

and somehow producing some content.

I've used to that already.

I mean, yes, my first exposure to E-coach

was as a reader, you know, as a reader of EVO for years

before working as a journalist.

And the thing that always stood out to me then

was it was something you would look forward to reading.

And as well as a great group of cars,

there was this feeling that it was sort of a gang of people

together and collaborating and discussing.

And I think the kind of weaving in of different people's

thoughts and opinions throughout the whole thing

was kind of quite appealing.

And then the really nice thing is now having done it

in real life, it is like that.

It is like that, isn't it?

I think that's the...

I'm sure there's lots of industry, colleagues,

there's probably some horrendous opinions on what we do

and how we're just noodling away for weeks on end

with air-steering wheels and...

She's a part of it.

But I think it's appropriate for our readership.

And it's the only way we can do it.

I think there isn't a halfway house.

We don't have the pressures of a weekly way

to just get stuff done.

So if we don't go to the effort that we do,

then we're kind of short changing everyone up.

Absolutely.

And if you don't do it, as we didn't do in 2017...

2017 when a publisher thought no one cared.

Oh, they got so much, so much.

That was reasonably and rightly we got so much

black for that, didn't we?

Yeah, quite rightly.

And that's when people from an outside don't understand

what it means to the audience, make a decision

because they don't like something

or they don't see the value in it.

And we'll change that.

Well, they think we're just away for a week,

having a great time, driving cars quick.

I mean, we are.

Yeah.

But it's, yeah, it's the hardest weeks.

You know, the hardest weeks.

The hardest weeks, yeah, you will do.

Yeah, just because of the diet, really.

Yeah, there's only so much ham and cheese and bread

you can eat.

And I think we found that limit too.

Yeah, but 2017 it was just a list of cars

from each category that was...

Yes, yeah, we were told you had to do each category.

I mean, I remember going out for a day with a car,

with a photographer and thinking,

if you're doing this for every car,

this is not saving any money or any time.

No, it didn't save any money.

It didn't have the commercial impact

that this individual thought it would have.

And we got lots of, quite rightly as Dicky says,

lots of angry readers and people saying,

what have you done?

Yeah, looking forward to it and the Eastlands.

Yeah, I think that collaborative thing of cars and people

is a big part of the magic and also comparing the way

Evo does it compared to other magazines.

I've done other performance car of the year tests elsewhere,

which again, prioritise the best possible photography

and the best possible cars of the year.

But it would be done in two to three days

rather than a whole week and maybe a smaller group of cars.

And we'd still put art and soul into it.

But you need that amount of time, I think,

to fully do the cars.

I think so.

Yes, because you can spend all the time

getting the stills and the video.

But actually, you're driving the cars for stills and video,

but you're not driving them.

Well, there isn't a still week to tell, is there?

Sort of illustrating it, but it's not.

There isn't a narrative or any kind of building

towards a kind of conclusion or a meaningful end

to anything.

And things do change over the week, don't they,

as well, like you said before.

Certain cars don't get off to the best start

and then they show their true strength later in the week.

I think it's hard to choose the cars, isn't it?

I think that the criteria is just a formula.

A lot of it is instinctive, I think,

because I think we have the luxury that no one else has,

which is, Stu, you were around as the pre-launch kind

of founding team.

John and I were around and a few other of the guest contributors

and judges that we get along were also involved.

So it's still a very personal thing for us.

And I think we've tried to do your learning firsthand

from the people that kind of originated the test.

So I think we know what it is.

We're not kind of cosplaying or what should we,

what will Car of the Year be like.

This is what we do.

So I think it's a nice reset every year or a reminder

of what we do and how we do it.

And choosing the cars is just this weird mix of capability

and desirability and availability.

But we've all got slightly different reasons for the cars.

We nominate all the ones.

We say, yeah, we should have that one or this one.

And then someone else will maybe think, oh, what about

that or so the test is a collaborative thing right

from the very beginning is how we arrive at the cars

that are included from that to the verdict at the end.

We're going to come on to how we chose this year's cars

and what they are in part two of this.

But there's still, before we get to there,

we should really talk about where we actually went

and what we did this year.

Yeah.

So it was recording this end of November.

So we were out there first week of October.

Do you want to sort of, because it's somewhere

actually we discovered, well, I hadn't been there before,

but we've gone back to pretty much the same hotel

on the same location.

I think on 2005, that was the last time I was there.

But you guys went there again.

I was 2013, I think looking back at this list,

which I wouldn't have said it was.

I knew we'd been back.

So Dean Leban, so it's like a hub on that kind

of root Napoleon area.

So it's within striking distance of some really mountainous road.

But it's also, it's just in the center of all these brilliant.

You can kind of head out any direction from there

and find yourself on a great road.

So some of it was familiar.

So there's a sort of mountain road near Castelaine,

which we'd used in 2005.

2005, yeah, that was the four GTM.

And then we went to Calder Bonnet,

which is the highest road in one of the highest Alpine roads

in Europe, which we hadn't been to for car of the year

before, I don't think.

But again, it's a spectacular location and quite different.

The route there is fast and flowing.

And then the actual road of the mountain is much tighter

and twistier.

So it's a good, some cars didn't work up there,

but we're brilliant on the fast flowing stuff.

It just helps to build your, because the journey

to the photographic and filming locations is as important,

if not more so, because that tends to be when you've got

the longest uninterrupted drive.

I think we have to squeeze the pips out of every day.

Yeah, we certainly start in the dark.

It's, you know, if it's an hour and a half to where we want

to start shooting, then we tend to get our best pure

drives, not thinking about being videoed or not thinking

about still since the morning and evening.

Yeah.

So you know, across the course of the week,

if there's 10 cars, you're absolutely going to get

two good drives a day and then you're bound to get some

good driving in between, but there's something nice about

the.

Yeah, there's something nice about that morning,

whether you'll go as a group or whether we go in drips

and drabs and just meet up at the muster point,

but there's a nice, that's what's special.

One of the special things about Carlyer,

I think because you don't get that on a two day group

test.

I remember the very first drive of this year's test and

it was really cool because there's no hurry.

We were all sort of leaving in a kind of loose convoy on

the horizon.

There were these amazing mountain peaks in this community

distance and knowing that's where we're going on the

whole week and the whole story.

The test is still to unfold.

It's really good because that drive isn't in the morning

and evening is more replicates what owners and readers

do.

Isn't it?

It's.

Yeah, the drive to destination, the testing bit of it is

not remotely like what any normal person would be

doing.

So, you know, James, you've written it up in the last

the last few years, which is a big, it weighs pretty

heavily on you.

I think when you know you're going and you have to just

about recovered because you have to be, you have a

sort of helicopter view of it as well as being you

trying to think about what the narrative might be as

you as you're driving all the cars.

But I think those mornings, you know, dark, cold

morning, sun comes up, dark, cold evening, sun comes

down and then all the stuff in between that's what you

need to do to write.

How many words?

12, 13,000, I think this year.

Yeah, just the main story.

And then there's all the other bits, which you

wrote a lot of steer as well.

I did the 2011 one and I just done about the first

half and the designer rang up to ask if we could write

in a different order because he'd use the pictures

in different order.

No.

I see me said no.

Sure.

I did.

Oh my God.

That was just before I left Evo for this.

Right.

Surely it'd be easier just to put the pictures in

a different order.

You would think wouldn't you?

No, it would be.

You knew the designer at the time then you

probably think.

Wow.

Okay.

I mean, how?

Well, why me?

Glad I wasn't there for that one.

Going back to Rue Napoleon, a location that we've used

for Car of the Year several times, we've used

for other group tests as well.

Is there a risk of we're going there for the sake

of the roads and you kind of prejudge what the

cars are going to be like?

Or is there such a variety of roads and

opportunities that you don't get?

It's not like driving a familiar road where you

can kind of take out and I know what this

road is going to do.

So it's just about the car.

No.

The thing is you're driving some of the cars on

those sort of roads for the first time, but

also you've got a car in front maybe and a

car in front, a car behind and you're

referencing against those as well because

you probably know who's driving which car

as well.

It is quite funny isn't there?

There's a bit of a if everyone gets in the

car together there's a bit of jostling

because I want to follow John and I

want to get in front of such and such

and then other times more often than

not.

Sometimes you're up for it and you have a

real like crazy tear back to the

hotel or out on the morning and other

times.

If you're just feeling tired you just

kind of withdraw yourself from that and

then sometimes like this year I had some

amazing drives completely on my own

just like driving for the pleasure of

being there in the car and you learn

as much sometimes from just being

I don't know seven tenths or you know

whatever that means but you're not

like pushing yourself or the car

really hard but you just it's a much

more mellow experience and then you get

all the frantic stuff as well but I

love that that location is

I think it's probably the best area

certainly in Europe I would say.

And the drive there and the drive

back feel like different roads?

True actually.

Partly as you're coming back in the dark.

Often like driving different like the same

car in the daylight and dark you

realise the things that is missing

maybe or where it stresses you or

where it doesn't or it's an

interesting process.

Very interesting.

Always is.

And when it is light it is so beautiful

as well which somehow I don't know

it lifts the whole experience I think

all your senses are heightened.

We did do quite well this year because

guys from Alpine were saying it was

chucking it down all last week.

Well we were lucky then.

Yeah we had I mean you might want to

go and get your really really small

violins out for this but we did have

five days of violin interrupted

starting up in the on the root in

the podium which but it does help isn't

it does it means that your point

earlier about changeable weather

conditions are good.

It was just temperature wasn't it on

this one so it's like not quite like

driving in the wet but you have the

similar like morning drive and it's

just about.

Yeah we had a we had a light

frost one morning didn't we so you've

always got that in the back of your

mind and there's a bit of low cloud

on the way to location since then but

it does help doesn't it that you're

in somewhere it just in you kind of

want to drive more rather than think

oh god this is miserable what time

can we get leave to get back to

those.

It's amazing such a such an amazing

thing to do like given you know

we're very lucky we do our job is

there's bits of the job that are

not particularly great but there's

lots of it that are amazing

so we spend the whole year driving

all kinds of cool cars in

broadly speaking most of them are in

fun places to drive but still car of

the year when we get it right

they're the things that you remember

most absolutely certainly that year

and sometimes for 20 years there's

things that you can just go back

to which is a real it's a

challenge to try and capture that

and communicate it but I think

I think it does come across because

you can't fake it no like you can't

because the things you see in the

way you feel and the relative

performance of the cars and watching

one in the mirror and going over the

same bit of road that you've been

it's such a nerdy thing to do but

it is quite it's often more

interesting watching a car in front

or behind but it can give you that

sometimes that context of what you

felt isn't it because you're then

seeing you've driven a car earlier

and felt something about it and then

you're watching it do exactly what you

felt right now that makes sense or it

just takes you out of yourself so you

can get so focused on the the nuts

and bolts of how they drive and you

sort of forget how they just that

isn't really spectacular car and you

know it's exciting on its steering

or whatever you see it as someone

else would see it and it's just

like that there's something

special it's all part of the car isn't it

I mean we touched a little bit isn't it

of the disappointing locations and

sometimes being hooked in by a

circuit that's a great circuit but

the roads around it is there they're

places that we avoid for car the

obviously the south east of England is

a no go but even places of Europe

isn't there we've never done anything

twistedly we've been Spain Portugal

France but we've not done Germany

we've not ventured

we just we just learned from going on

car launches you go to Germany for a

car launch and you come back that was

Germany and it was all very

similar and very consistent isn't

that there's some yeah there are some

good roads but again there aren't enough

to sustain what we need

no do you know you need

two or three big locations don't you

that are quite different from one

but within an hour

or an hour to two hours drive in the

morning so the

we get the variety of driving and

the visual guys

get what they need

and there yeah I think

there's some great roads in Italy

but it's actually quite hard

to thread

those together in the way you

can you can just stick a pin in the

map in south of France

the random one there

one there and oh yeah well

that would be great that would be great

I think it's Scotland is

probably similar

yeah Scotland has the advantage

of being empty

ish compared to most other places in the UK

you know I'd love to go back to

Wales but I think we've

it's just become worn out and welcome a little bit

yeah need space don't you

literally and metaphorically you need to

yes because it is this year was

twelve cars as I discovered the

test

it was eleven going in didn't

but then you've also got

support cars and Texas stuff

with the commodities it's quite a moving

moving feast isn't it

you need to get wherever you've been on

day one you need to get quite

a long way away from on day two

otherwise it just draws too much attention

you just annoy people because you do

it's just lots of cars trying to do

photography

turning around in the road there's all sorts

of things like that isn't it

but you have to try and

well we did after last year

Pyrenees we had some great roads last year

on the Spanish side of the Pyrenees

those roads are the closest I think we found

to where we went this year

same sort of vibe people are similar

I think there's something about those

those sort of mountain

towns, villages where everyone's

just like alright they're not

they don't seem at all put out

what's going on

we thought for this year we'd go to the French side

at the Pyrenees O, Youssef

Aston himself went over early in the year

to do a test with some Audi's

and they were in the location so we borrowed them

and it looked amazing in the Fissure

that road is spectacular

but we're driving on this

raid and Aston was sort of

look at this view this would be amazing this would be amazing

and Youssef and I were like yeah

we can barely get we had a

20 valve quattro over an RS2 and an RS3

so

two of those cars were from 30-40 years ago

and even they were struggling to get down

and through some of the tunnels

we're never going to get a revioto

or a modern Ferrari or any modern

car through these routes and there's no

turnaround points and actually they're all

it looks spectacular from

a geographical point of view

but

it's not a driving tour

it's probably the closest

as a reader the closest you'll get

is to do one of those sort of things

that's the hotel big

driving tour routes and it's great because

you'll just pass through these brilliant places

on great roads but you don't

have to stop, turn around

go back, turn around, go back

umpteen times but on our way back

we carried on through, went over the top

and back onto the roads that we used

last year

sort of taking off a straight track

and then breathe then you're back on those roads

but it's amazing how just

you literally go over the border

I think they would have to be the same wouldn't you

and it's that would have been

yeah I was quite pleased we did that wreckage

um because that would have been quite

frustrating to turn up with 12 cars

and everyone you were looking at me going why are we here

I think that's why the area of all

tests is not the one to

take a pun

where are you getting the shoot to

okay so that's

that's how we chose the location

and how we choose a location the roads being

the most important but not

just the photographic locations but the roads

to and from to get that thing how do we

how do we choose the cars

um we've

touched on it it's the best we've driven through the year

but that list can be a very long list

James do you want to sort of give

us an overview of how we whittle

this down to a manageable level of um

what we started we wanted a didn't we

yes we ended up with 12 yeah I think

I think this was the most number of cars since 2016

I think if I've got that right yeah

so yeah really big route this year I mean

you touched on this as well dickie you

you want a real breadth of

different genres different type of cars

but you don't want anything there

for the sake of being yeah you don't want to force it

do you sometimes

you can't just

have that

like top level stuff and yeah but

some years they just aren't yeah there aren't

the cars that are at the right quality

so you're just setting those

cars up for a fall before you start

aren't you ideally you want

them all to be minimum four star

either rating based on the first

drive yeah preferably five or

close to five and

um yeah it was

kind of um for this one it was

sort of everything that's kind

of become available two

tests since last year's tests so it's

there was one of October to October

that's right yeah that's that's the sort of

that's our eco to year

yeah sort of windows and there's a

few exceptions sometimes of a car that

I think again mentioned this before

car that would have been great to have last

year but just missed the cuts but then it's

very old for this year and so on but we

had everything from sort of

really really high end

supercars down to we had a hot hatch

we had an SUV which is very rare

I think it's only happened a couple of times

in eco to history um we had

hybrids we had um

straight ice cars four wheel drive

rear wheel drive there's a little bit of everything

but it's still sticking which came in

a long time ago wasn't it of

removing the more

sort of track based road car

so the hatred rooms and also the other end

the big ticket hypercar

yeah I think it's always evolving isn't it

like some years we've had Pagani's

and other years

we haven't had any kind of real

top tier

supercars I think it's

um it's what feels right

at the time which probably doesn't make it

some particular scientific but I think

these days if so if you have

a sort of Valkyrie there

well then you kind of need something else

yeah to balance and there's so many of

those or do you have a GMAT

and then it becomes a hypercar test not

yeah not a car not

yeah and we've done a few two parters

which sometimes it works really well sometimes

it hasn't but

I think it's there's a sweet spot isn't

there I think yeah and we were sort of

eight is the manageable

number

eight but then ten feels

better and then if you go for

ten you might as well have

there's always a couple of others and then

it starts to get out of hand again but

I think this was a great bunch this year

a strong bunch also

also with the really sort of hairy stuff

you know sort of lightweight special or

you know more track focused stuff

like you said they're really really

long hard days you know you start in the dark

eventually in the dark driving on all kinds

of roads doing a million three

point turns and everything from

crawling along at walking pace to

flat out straps through to

I think stuff has to be

a little bit relevant as well doesn't it

I think they're really high in

sort of extreme supercar

hypercar things

I mean it's pretty hard if it's

you know it's not that

case now but when we'd have a

GT3911 and they were all sold out

so and there'd be

a number of cars that people couldn't

actually buy unless you've got an

allocation so even that made it

you get sort of people muttering

so what was the point I can't

so if you have the

top top top top top tier

hypercars I don't really know

what it would

prove everyone we've covered those cars

in here anyway I know what they are

similarly

making

people drive to the middle of France

in a Lotus

211

that's what Henry was employed for

a 340R

to the middle of Wales

I think the first car

I drove

to Darfur to pick up a 7

to drive to Angleson and

driving it back on the Friday night

and sitting on the M25 thinking

okay this is great but I see

what the Starfighter now does

which is driving K7

from north west

Wales all the way back to the south east of England

on a Friday night in November which was

yeah with no

Eater and no roof and

on semi slicks as well

yes raining as well which is not a lot of fun

yeah this is fun

but it's also

you want the cars we never want to set

a car up for a fall and just have it there

for the sake of it so and

when a lot of the driving is

from the hotel and it's a couple of hours to the

location that's when you're forming

sort of your core opinions and if that's

a journey that doesn't suit

either a hypercar or a track special

that you can drive on the road

sometimes there's certain cars

you know like

a K7 is actually quite a habitable

thing to be in isn't it

with a roof and heater and

once you're in it they're comfortable

and they'd be great

to bomb along those roads

but yeah something with literally no roof

and no windscreen and you have to wear a crash helmet

it's kind of

snot in the right

they're fun shapes and

there's something completely different to drop into

the test which

has its merits

I think but yeah on balance

I think when the years are really

strong you don't need to put those

kind of odd ball things

in there

well before we go on to the cars then

we're going to run through the 12 cars

that arrived in dean the band

quick break what we got

digestives and some posh

Biscoff the only Lotus product

any of us would like to

we're allowed to sample

so we're going to have

a cup of tea and a biscuit and we will see you in a couple of minutes

okay welcome back

to part two of episode

33 of the Evo podcast where we are

talking everything E. Coate

or Evo Car of the Year

in 2025 so just part one

was how we choose locations

where we've gone this year

what stands out for the locations

why the roads are important and all of that

but we thought now

part two is just going to go through the contenders

for 2025

the cars we selected how we got to them

and

yeah why they were here

so I'm going to kick off with you James

Alpine A110R

Altimae

there was a risk with

this was one of those cars a bit of a risk isn't it

because none of us had driven it

before the test

and I think that when it was announced

the big thing that stuck in everyone's mind was the price

which is quite punchy

yeah more than a quarter of a million euros

yeah as you say this is unusual

because normally

for a car to go into Evo Car of the Year

we've all driven it and we all consider it to be a really strong contender

this one was so new

that I think it was finished only three days

before the test I think it was a pre-production

sort of late prototype

built to production standards

but a prototype

but the A110R

which it's

what I was going to say which it's based on

but as we'll say in a moment

I think it's the body and weight

and the interior might be only

it's the same weight and pretty much everything else

is different

yeah it's got a few extra little aero

flicks and fins and things on it

funny enough Alpine actually brought two cars

that brought a regular A110R

for us to have a little back to back

yeah that didn't give me half a second at all

that was after discovering that we had

12 cars and not 11

so actually we had 13

but yeah

but that car the regular

finished I think it was joint

second I think

two years ago

yeah it was a hair's breadth wasn't it

the top three were very

the R came out

it's a hell of a car and the A110

in general as a species is a car that Evo's really

championed and it's always done

done brilliantly in pretty much every test

that's been thrown at it

man it's done isn't it

there won't be another one

so we're told at least

this is the ultimate Alpine in more ways than one

because as he says it's the very last of the line

so what made it special

to get onto this

longer than planned shortlist

medium lentilist that we ended up with

yeah so as John mentioned

from the outside it looks very similar to a regular

A110R but I've actually

had to print out everything that's different on it

it's crazy isn't it

from the splitter to the diffuser

and pretty much everything in between

is

heavily revised or completely new

in fact so new and revised they had to crash

test the car again and re-homologate it

which is why it costs

a quarter of a million euros

it might not be the last one because you don't

go to that expense

and an effort

it all looks like it's going to be the last one

isn't it, the game and the fact they're doing

A110 and that's it

so it's a very neat way

to finish off that story

we'll cover how it drives in a later podcast

but it's a pretty extreme

thing you know it's

when you get in and start the engine everything's buzzing

yeah there's lots of GT4

parts aren't they so engine mounts

and all the engine internals

yeah forged pistons and

Oracle Gobi engine don't they

new gearbox

new gearbox which meant a new subframe

and the engine

changed all of the

the aero

for the radiator

the sort of s-doctor thing

GT3 RS isn't it now with no

no luggage room in the front

equal downforce front and rear

new brakes, bi-material brakes

new suspension

adjustable o-lens

new wheels

forged metal wheels that are lighter than

the carbon wheels they are

which is mad yeah and they have these kind of rifle

sections these little slivers kind of

sliced out of them

the tyres are bespoke to the car with

bi-material construction

new electronics

all the new aero surfaces

new types of composites they've used

it was even running on

102 octane fuel

yes because it can run on

either can't at 98 or 97

or 102 but if you're running on

102 you can't mix it

I mean luckily it's with journalists so

we are the experts at running it to it

it is dry but never return a car

not with a fuel light on

yeah that was

having the Alpine guys

follow us around so they could refuel it

with a hazmat suit

also worth mentioning because it's so small and

light it used the least fuel of all the cars

there actually it was the one that actually

wasn't on fumes yes you know

but yeah really special

thing and I think it really added a nice

element to the test I think but it was a risk

because when you read the spec

sheet and when you see it you think this is

going to like the R

the regular R

if you can call such a car regular

the perception

is it's a track car and we're doing purely a road

test isn't it so there's always that risk

that we've put something in that

having said earlier we don't want to

set a car up for a full we've actually

included the car that is very much

track oriented but we know the base

A110 is so good and the R

is a lot better

R was a better road car than

a track car although

it has

it's all you have to do the setup

manually but then it transforms it when you

are it and changing it

so it's got that capability in it

it's just not on a button that needs to go around

and play with but I think

they've shifted the emphasis

quite a long way towards

track

that's going to be an interesting one to see

how it plays out it's quite an extreme

probably one of the most there's a couple of others on here

isn't on the list but one of the most extreme

cars in the test

it's the most specialized car there

isn't it I think the most focused car

yeah

contrasting to our small

1,070 kilos

it's the lightest car

we move on to the big V12

that you came back from the international launch

for the praise

but then it had a little bit of a wobble

mid-year didn't it

it was great it all worked

and interestingly

Henry was on the launch in

Sardinia as well

and we both were pretty much

blown away by it it seems to

it seemed to blend

all of the aggression that you'd expect

you know of an 800 horsepower

V12 twin-turbo

with proper coseting ride

so it did both things you're going to go

very quick it will go

very quick and if you want to just cruise along

it will do that as well so it seemed like the perfect

set up

and then we had it here in the UK

and

against well with

12-cylindry and the

the new Lambo the Revuelto

and

it really just felt a bit out

of sorts and we went to

Blakey Ridge

up in on the North York Moors

which we've been to many times

and

it was a slight issue for the 12-cylindry as well

in that they seem to be

slightly wrong-footed by the

texture of the surface which is quite unusual

which is again why we

try and drive everything on lots of different roads

so

having

stock went up and then it stopped went down

we thought we needed we just got to give

another chance really because it's such a big

big car

such a handsome car as well so it looks great

even in sort of

doon grey with black wheels

I mean it's a terrible spec Kevin

do not do that again

I mean there were some

beautiful cars at the launch there was

a dark red with light

gold wheels which I think that was the launch colour

wasn't it? I think

Henry summed it up it was

as drab as a wet night

in Dundee

actually Dundee is really

nice

it is wasn't it?

it's on these roads

it should excel a bit more

obviously some roads are going to

suit it because we know the roads

some of the roads anyway

so we know there's going to be tight and twisty

but it's always you know this is the

should be more in its element shouldn't it?

yeah should be and

you know just in the same way that

EA one turn will be perfect for some roads

and not perfect for others there'll be the variety

there

thankfully to let it shine

looking forward to it

next one Audi RS3

Dickey which we drove down in

we drove three cars out this year

yeah there's a bit of a mini convoy

was one of them that we drove down

is there any

it's the cheapest car in the test this year

at £63,000

kind of where we're at

with the world of interesting

fast cars not for like a trying to

I think we

to give it some context so the

RS3 it's obviously not

a new new car but it had been revised

and we enjoyed it a couple

of times across the year so we did a big

4x4

all-wheel-drive high-performance car

test

so we drove them all back to

back even though they're quite disparate cars

and then John explored the different hardware

how they worked and we really enjoyed

the car and I think we're

at a point where you have to make the most of

the unusual

interesting powertrains while you've

got it haven't you said that five-cylinder engine

has always been pretty special

so I think

we wanted to have a car

that

could represent the more affordable end of the

spectrum even though it's still quite a lot of money

but

we felt like this was like a little mini

not mini supercar but it had something

of that occasion

an excitement in the powertrain

yeah it's an exciting car isn't it

when it's wound up and a lot of the cars

with the modes isn't it

we had it with A45

and GI Yaris as well earlier in the year

and it because the changes

they did to it for this

because that's what this is one of the cars

that was launched after last year's

test it's very much software

changes that they've done to the dynamic

modular unit

in the back for the talk

sort of that fine tuning

similar to what McLaren had done

previously with Artura not to the same

extent but I think there's

certain cars that have gone through their life cycle

and they're right at the end of

end of the line aren't they so I think

they've had to maybe

take certain cars

maybe a year longer into its

plan than they'd originally

thought so all the engineers have got their list

of well this is what we would have done

if we'd had time so they've

they've had the opportunity to really

polish things and refine them and

it's their last

chance with some of these cars to

get them where they want it to be so

I think for all those

reasons it felt like

they were a good

car to include

and Audi generally their direction is away from

they'll probably change by the time

this podcast comes out but yeah

they were known for

cars with great petrol

powertrains in their sort of high end

high performance cars and they're

gradually falling by the wayside aren't they

so this was our bit of a last hurrah

I think for that car

and on this again on the rows it should do

there's some rows it will

refine on because it's almost

tomat rally temperature isn't it

it has a good opportunity

another new one

derivative and the first

of our

cars where its predecessor has been

and the Coty winner the BMW M2

CS that had just got over its

jet lag because it had been flown in from

Mexico from where it's

the test from where they're built

do I just run through that car because that's quite a

the M2

the RS3 is the end of

sort of

Audi's potential

petrol engine sports cars BMW

still seem to be thankfully

producing them and the M2

are now a CS but just run through

the highlights of this car

and how we think it would do

as you say big shoes for it to fill

because the previous M2 CS

won ECO2 overall and so did the M5

CS

and we've had other

CS versions of recent BMWs that have been

sort of good but without

troubling the podium we've had the M3

CS and the M4 CS

most recently last year

so with this car

it's the kind of CS

recipe of a bit less weight

only a little bit less weight because this is still a 1700

kilo car

but quite a bit more power so power's gone up

from 473

BHP in the regular M2 up to

523 so pretty big

hike

a lot more cooling if you look at the front of the

CS there's kind of no grille

it's pretty much all fresh

just kind of cut a load of holes in the front

you know and it sits a bit wider

it's got that sort of slightly kind of

pugnacious kind of stands

yeah it's a good dump for the back as well isn't

it

it's quite a compelling thing isn't it

it drives how it looks

quite a lot of tension in it isn't it

elbows out

yeah but ready to go whatever you want to throw at

and black with

gold wheels

just to really add the pressure

yeah

and you noticed John on that

because there's a big ski jump of a duck tail on the back

and I've raised the BMW badge as well

to make sure it's nicely visible

to everybody

that looks a cool thing

rear-drive but it's the only auto now

no manual

yeah one of the controversial things

about this CS

is it's auto only

the manual gearbox wouldn't take

it's not an all-time classic

it's a manual M2 shift it's nice but not

amazing and as you say with all the

extra power and there's more torque as well

yeah the auto can take it

and the manual wouldn't be able to

no fascinating car particularly again on those roads

it should shine and have a good

engine on

and here's one that was

one of two

hybrids in this year's test

the Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray

now you John drove the Z06

yes

a couple years ago we'd be trying to get

Corvettes into the mag for a while

we were trying to get

so C8 we tried to get on car the year

when that was new Z06 we tried to get

we managed to secure the E-Ray

this year you might think this is a very old car

but actually

they've only just gone all sad in the UK

officially

so that seemed to be

so it's a UK car it was right hand drive

UK

registered so all set up so this is representative

of what the UK Corvette

customer will

will get so what do you think

what do you think they're going to be getting

what can they look forward to

I think the Z06

was pretty impressive

that was naturally aspirated

basically they tried to copy

or did their version of the

Speziale naturally aspirated

V8

they actually bought an engine

from Poland I think

and stripped it down to work out

how to actually get the revs out of it

but it was a great car

we got to drive it in Germany which

it's not always

find out everything you need about the

dynamics of it because the roads are so good in Germany

but it was pretty impressive

great delivery

so yeah E-Ray

I

think it could do quite well

because it's Z06 body isn't it

yeah the wider body

so it's got elements of Z06 in it

there's a couple of interesting things about it

like the other hybrid which we'll get

on to the front and the rear are

completely separate so you've got

electric motors at the front

about 160 horsepower and then you've got

a V8 as you'd expect

in the back which is about 450 something like that

now to get those two things to work together

is quite clever

so yeah that will be the interesting thing

and the other weird thing about the car

it's got square steering wheel

yeah

if you speak to Henry who drove it down

to from the UK that's

probably the least of the interior issues

you need to consider

I think it made a Lamborghini seat feel

comfortable yeah because

it has complaints about how

either seat is in the cockpit

and how sharp the spikes are

in the base of it

it's not very comfortable

alright so Henry is a pretty lightweight isn't he

so yeah it's a bit

there's a lot of levers though with Henry aren't there

it's like a sort of daddy long legs folding its ear off

but yeah

and I think

if the dynamics are good

it'll be an interesting car

and a decent contender

it's still quite an intriguing thing

I think you don't see that many

of them on the road

and I think we can be a bit sniffy

we definitely are a bit sniffy as a

as a

country aren't we about American cars

but I think this is

I haven't spent that much time in

regular C8 all the 006

we had a couple at the Evo track

at Goodwood so I hadn't driven any on the road

but I was impressed with both

those two cars

are very different

characters so

if this again this is a very

different recipe within the same

platform so

yeah it could

upset a few

cars could I say a few sort of

legacy and sort of established

European cars in this test couldn't it

it's got the credentials hasn't it

and as you say the development of the car

was very much more of a global car

than an American market car

yeah it's definitely one of those that you

take a punt on

one thing that is more familiar

is a front

engine V12 Ferrari

Dickey 12 cylinder

have you driven that?

I was really

I was really excited that this car was in the test

because I hadn't driven it

so

James wrote about the

open

but yes I was intrigued

as to what the car would actually be like

because obviously it looks

wild but also slightly

odd in photographs

and I sort of

sense it's a different

take on

their front engine V12 cars

which have up until now been

total

Tasmanian devils on wheels

other than absolutely

wildly fast and powerful

and aggressive and just really quite

tricky things to drive

fast but hugely exciting

this seems like a more mature

more back to how

the 550 was

in its day really

so but still with a

beautiful

large capacity

high revving

just the best kind of

V12 engine and all of

Ferrari's electronics and

so to me I'm coming at the car

completely fresh

in car of the year which is

which is nice actually to

have a few cars that this is your

first time in but you know other

colleagues have rated them

and driven them so it's

pretty exotic isn't it I think it's

how I remember

feeling about Ferraris when I was a kid

you'd look at them and sort of think

they're something set apart

from other cars

so

I can come at this one knowing

what the 550 take on that was like

and what a

F12 was like

or an 812 super fast or something

so where it sits within those is

interesting on its own where

wherever that is sits amongst

our group is another

another thing but it's always great

to have a Ferrari in the test isn't it

and again it was another car that needs

a more variety of roads

to sort of show us what it can do

so it was in Luxembourg that's right

yes yeah probably a very

grinding mecca

if funny enough it was not a

I drove it in Lisbon

Wow so

neither the Mikoti shortlist

it really got under the skin of the car

so it's definitely deserves

another chance so there's a bit of a

sort of simmering triple test here

yes because our next car

which James I'm going to get you to talk about

the Lamborghini Revealto

with the Ferrari

and the Aston Martin we did a

triple test earlier in the year but

John's touching with the Aston and we just said

Ferrari

they need us a second

we feel there's more in those cars we need to get out

but I think with the Lamborghini

you've driven it as well

it felt

really pretty special

after all the concerns

about what's hybrid and it's this and it's that

what would it be like

first impressions where it's

transformed

that level of Lamborghini into something

you really want to get in and

drive and can get in and drive it

quickly but the way

Lamborghini tend to launch their cars

is

we couldn't get one

the car of the year last year

so it kind of got

put on hold and it's

one of those cars that could have fallen through the cracks

as a consequence but I think

because we've done the triple test

before John had done the triple test earlier in this year

it just

we always try and do a group test

to

focus in on the winner that can then go through to car

the year but I think those three cars are so different

from one another and

I'm sure you learn more about them

every time you get in them

different roads so we kind of indulged

ourselves a little bit

well one through some of the highlights

James is quite

like the Alpine it's quite a lot

to run through but just sort of top line

yeah absolutely well you know

Lamborghini's first kind of

proper plug-in hybrid

and they've done year-last hybrids but that's a totally different

thing really sophisticated

composite

structure

the engine 6.5L V12

does 814 bhp on its own

pretty much on par with the

Ferrari engine and the Aston's here on there

yeah and it's great

you know it loves to rev

it's got really high redline

I think 9500rpm

if we've got that right

it's got elements

of the Aventador engine

but again type of re-engineered

and they've spun it round

to put the gearbox at the back because in previous

Lamborghini's you know from the Qntash onwards

the transmission came through to the middle of the car

that's now full of battery so the battery goes there

then there's an electric motor at the rear

that does the job of starting the engine

also works as traction control

somehow I'm not an engineer so I don't understand this

but somehow it works against

the engine to sort of back it off

which is a sort of more

fine control than regular traction control would be

fine engine braking

without the engine braking I suppose

yeah so you lose less energy

and then it is

four wheel drive but there's no physical connection

between the engine and the front wheels

there's two electric motors at the front

which I've

lost track of my notes

58lb foot at each front wheel

which enables full torque vectoring

at the front

also means you can wheel spin the front wheels

as we found out trying to get out the car park

so this is quite interesting it's true four wheel drive

even in all EV mode

but nobody seems to have told this particular one we had

because it got stuck a few times getting out the car parks

just to the front wheel spinning around wouldn't you

yeah

yeah so it's

there's quite a lot going on in that car isn't there

which we've had experience of it

it's an amazing thing

isn't it but it's not necessarily

it doesn't guarantee it's going to

shine on the test like this as well

it feels very cohesive

which is the first main thing

you'd want in the past

you don't think oh this is a hybrid

no it just think it's a pretty well sorted

it's adding to the experience rather than taking away

yeah for a man it's going to be fascinating

particularly again on the variety of rows that they've got

yeah I think on the rare occasion

we do have big

we've had big V12 lambos in car of the year

they're

brilliant to have and they're a real event and a real occasion

but you're often

more pleased to get out of it

and get into something a bit less demanding

or

wide

than you are to get into it

whereas I think from what we've found

with the rubber alto it feels

much more wieldy

and just a little bit less daunting

which

yeah I think that'll count

for a lot

yeah special thing

going to be fascinating how it lies up

along with our next car on the list

which is only

the third

time I believe an SUV has been

I can think of one other

Cayenne, DBX

old DBX did we

well yeah that was the big

Covid year 2020

when we had a million cars

we started off at Anglesey and then moved on to

so yeah we had DBX

what else were you thinking of?

I wasn't I thought we'd only done the two

yeah then

we were known for it as well

I think you'll find mild hybrid

and it's the second car

with

a BMW engine

it is the Land Rover Defender

Octa

yeah I've not driven this before

the test so did you do what quite a few

people did when they saw the car on the list

message me and said why is the crew car

on the list?

no I didn't because

I think this has

all the potential to be like

the original Overfinch Range Rover

which was something that I really

enjoyed driving back in

the late 80s

because it's stealthy because it looks

and this looks like a farmer's car

but with

600 plus horsepower

and

I did research this

for the four wheel drive test that you did

with the Vuelto

so I had a chat with one of the engineers

and talked through the 6D

which sounds fascinating

basically they

have engineered this car with

the sensors

that they can constrain the car

so the mass never gets away from the car

so it's like having the

it does without roll bars as well

doesn't it so it's a bit like the McLaren

I mean in principle it works

in that way doesn't it?

so you get good wheel articulation

a straight line

but then you can sniff it all up for the corners

so with a great big V8 in the front

and that sort of handling potential

I'm really

looking forward to having a go

and we enjoyed the Sturato didn't we?

with nobly tires on it

so there was

some debate

I've been running an Opter as a

long-term test car which has been great

but

I was championing the car because I love it

but I was also slightly wear everything

oh god what's everyone else going to think of it

and it's one of those cars is it just going to

feel like the hell's this

doing here imagine jumping out of a Vuelto

into a Defender

2.7 tonnes

yeah 2.7 tonnes I think

with an A-Rise

2 meters tall

yeah these professional off-road

nobly tires which are the

you have three choices of tyre

with the Octa

so there's a regular 22 inch

all season

conventional SUV type tyre

then there's a

20 inch

sort of slightly more off-road

biased tyre

and then there's these POR

tyres on the same 20 inch rims

which are proper nobly

things

so you just it shouldn't

work but yeah

experience of a car

so you chose the tyres then

well yeah we drove

I had a slight

wobble thinking oh god does it need to

is it going to be better on the

22 inch

more conventional tyres

so we had a car

actually our last goodwood track day

and I drove the

back-to-back and had a quick drive on the road

but yeah the

nobly tyres are

integral I think to the whole

and they developed the car around those

tyres it's always a good thing

and developed it to work

on those so it seemed

like you'd kind of be missing the

point if we

bottled it and gone

there on the conventional tyres so

I know it's very high

in those passes you might find a bit

of a snow

yeah well it was good for turning around as well

because you didn't really need to worry what you were just

smash it through anything

so if you're wondering why there's a defender

in the test blame Dickie

my fault

I've driven it before

it's that car

if Land Rover made a GT3

this is what it would be like

if Porsche made a defender this is

what they could

yeah Porsche had all those options on a kind

of place underneath and different tyres

and they didn't really market it

as such but yeah I think

it's a proper thing

it's old ball and it's a bit out there

but I think we did have experience of the

Range Rover SV as well didn't we

because that shares the same engine

and 60

suspension

and that was really impressive

it all being a slightly different context

it was something a bit more than

EVO on the list

it's another form

a derivative of a former E-Coty winner

Maserati GT2 Stradale

Dickie do you want to

talk us through

well it's sort of the anti-revuelto isn't it

because it's like they've

forgotten

that all this is going on

so it's a pretty simple recipe isn't it

it's lighter, more power, more aero

it's lucker

a much more aggressive

version of mc20

it seems like quite a throwback

when we're talking about

hybrid all-wheel drive

purely electronic front ends

and

sort of ice and powered rear axles

this is a

very old-school recipe

but I think we were all drawn to it

Henry did the launch

didn't he down in Ascari

and experienced the fact that again

reminded him that the road is on very good round there

despite that he found

it was a very good road car because we

this was another one we were worried is it going to be too

tracky to our stream

but actually it worked really well on the road

Henry Fianc

company are always the manufacturers

now this is a track car you've got to drive it on the track

because they need to differentiate it

from their road cars but actually it just

tends to make a really good road car

a better road car doesn't it because it's got more

more times being spent

we had a bit as an odd we probably could have covered this

in our first part of this podcast

couldn't be about cars that have done well in car of the year

and then you've subsequently driven them and

wondered

quite how they did so well

so you John you hadn't

you hadn't driven the MC-20

no I'd missed that year didn't I

so then we did a group test

this year with

MC-20 and La Loura

and Aston Vantage

and the Merc GT 63

E SE

performance, gazillion miles

two front engine big

coupes one hybrid one not and then

two mid-engined supercars one

V6 supercars hybrid one not

so we drove

the MC-20 and it was

on the same roads weirdly that we

did car of the year on and it

it's just aged

like disproportionately

quickly there's still brilliant things about it

but then everything that Henry said

about the Stradale

seemed to point to

a lot of those things being

addressed and then kind of

overcompensating with the

additional power

and grip

and the kind of track focus

so I think it's going to be

an interesting

addition to the

to the group

I think Maserati's in a bit of a

I don't think they really know

what to do do they're another one

that's kind of decided

they were going to go down the

B route and now they've

they create out of that a little bit

haven't they so it's

kind of stuck at the moment

because MC-20 was designed

to be ice and

bev and then they

canned the idea of sticking batteries

in it so you've got this compromised

chassis

but it does sound like with the GT2

well if we're not going to go

spend some money and turn this one up

I think it's like all these companies isn't it

there's

very talented kind of passionate

people that working within

those companies but

sometimes they're brought to the fore

so Ferrari or Porsche and then other times

they have some kind of annexed

in a little corner of the

workshop where they're allowed to do their

thing every now and again but I think this

it's so different to

all the other stuff in the

test at that level it's very

very pure very simple

and looked amazing

in hardcore

in raised gold

satin paint. Yeah, had a special

Fiori searing paint. It's fantastic.

The whole thing about it

looks special doesn't it doesn't

just look like a wing.

It doesn't just stuck a wing on the back

and I think most of us were quite

Henry driven it but

I'm not sure how many

others of us had been near it

so I think it's

quite nice to go into a test

and not immediately start

to pre-determine

where you think the cars are going to

take out.

We'll come on to that

and it's also got

the more

configurable driving modes which normally

makes us sort of

yawn but actually it just shows

the level they've gone to as you say all we can

turn the wick up on this and what else can we do

so in different stages of

and it controls the as well as the traction control

it controls the e-diff as well I think

as well. Courser is more

sorcery. Yes, so

it's going to be a fascinating car

in this group

and another car that's full of technology

will be the other end of the scale is the

Mercedes AMG GT 63

Pro. We have the choice

of I think

S5 AMG GT

from the 43 to

SE performance which is the hybrid

800 horsepower thing

but we went with the pro which we'd only driven

on track. Yusuf who

was on his first car the year with us

he'd driven it on track. You'd driven the

SE performance on the launch and you'd

driven it on that test you just mentioned

and I think we've all driven either pro

because we were with Yusuf because we were all on that

that was part of the all wheel drive.

Yeah it was the non-pro.

We've all driven a

variation of the

we went with the pro. Yeah

we decided to go with that because it's the most

driver focused sort of version

I mean the last time

a GT pro was in

this test was I think 2019

back then it was a totally different car

you know as real wheel drivers cars get

massive wide arches it was a sort of

GT3 GT2. That felt like

you were sat on the Vial Englard at the

Nurburgring and got in that old pro.

Close beneath us to the Maserati we've just been talking about

actually whereas this is

very different pros more of a sort of

spec thing than a stand alone

model so it's

better brakes than standard

bit more power so it's got another 27 horsepower

another 37 pound foot torque

so 604

bhp

627 pound foot massive

front brake discs it's got these 420mm

carbon ceramic front discs

and sort of extra cooling measures

so the idea is that

it's an AMG GT you could do

track days in but without losing

it's sort of grand toury

Yeah it's reviews ability which is quite

important for that car isn't it. They want it to be

more day to day because the original

was very much more of a

yeah sort of more purist. Purist wasn't it

it was noisier and it was

it's quite compromise wasn't it

in its layout and

it was much more of

an AMG wanting to do

a head banging 911

type rival I think

whereas something we didn't

we didn't mention in the first

path was

how car of the year came about

and that for quite a few years

the way we would arrive

at the winner it was

like the car that you would want to spend

a year with. An entire year

with basically as your daily

driver or as close as you could

get to that which I think probably

feeds into why we've always

felt slightly uncomfortable when there's been

340R or 211 or

because it is too outlandish

so I think

it's kind of a bit of a mash up

now isn't it of thinking

that there's an element of that

in some of your considerations

I think but the

the GT63 certainly that

you can imagine

just

settling into that car and using it all the time

and appreciating its full

scope of performance

so I think you kind of recognize

it's still got elements of the original

GT but it's

it's a slightly smarter

probably slightly more grown up

proposition there isn't it

because the original was

2015 we had it on car of the year

and it sort of

it wasn't great initially but I think

as they kind of

interacted more from the car

and took it in a more appropriate

direction. It evolved into a much better car

but that very first one we

experienced in 2015 was a bit

in that company felt a bit

didn't know what it wanted to be

so it'd be fascinating to see how

the pros you say it's the most focused one

that you can buy but it's not the most

powerful performance one

and it's slightly compared with that early

kind it's slightly more compromised because

the engine of the gearbox are at the front now

yes it's not a transaction car

was it?

Yeah so I've taken away some of that focus

for more usability which was

the remit

and the other end of the scale

we're being sort of big advocates

of Morgan over the years with

the car of the year and this year we had

their all new Super Sport

John give us a run down

on that car

That's another BMW engine isn't it?

Yep, our third one. Six cylinder this time

twin turbo probably more power

than you need in this car it's only about

a thousand kilos isn't it?

This is probably the first result

of the

the first product from the company

since they bought in all their new

guys

and this sort of car that they've been promising

as something that would be a bit more dynamic

always to it

so yeah it's the same bonded aluminium chassis

but with a completely

completely new look on the top which I think

is just fantastic

it looks like a concept car

pretty beautiful thing so they've

cleaned it up

tined it up

the chassis apparently is

much better sorted now

I think it's

great that

a small company

based in Morgan can make

a car that they can sell all around the world

thanks to the BMW

helping them with emissions and kit and all the rest of it

and something that's so unusual

I think it's

they seem to have been trying to make

an updated

Morgan Plus 4 for the last

70 years

and for me this is the first one that actually

takes the idea

and moves it on

but keeps the same

it looks like a really really like the best

resto mod

it looks like chimera

or singer or someone's

done a Morgan doesn't it

crisp kind of clean

lines and the detailings just

spot on and the way it's put together is really brilliant

and if you look at it from that way

100k doesn't seem that

expensive for it

I think it's

it looks and feels like a proper

luxury in terms of

car

and companies but it is

it's a beautifully pan built

low volume high quality

car isn't it

I think you could turn up anywhere and people

would be maybe wouldn't know

what they were looking at but they would know

that it's something really special

it didn't look out of place

during the week and wherever you went

I was one of the best looking cars

of that group

talking of

aesthetics

our last car on the list

the winner

I mean the

Porsche 911 GT3

another year of questionable

graphics which we'll pass over

but yeah if you're ordering

your GT3

and the Visak pack

please don't be tempted to put graphics on it

particularly a window strip

and the Visak grille and a never-gring lap

and god knows what else in the grille

it's a bit kind of

it's not a car that needs to try

hard

definitely

we can look beyond that can't we

but I think

GT3s for a number of years

it's like a remix

of a familiar

track

on a really good album or something

so you think is it really that different

but I think this year they've had to work

so they've probably worked harder

on this DOT 2

iteration of car than they have

for years probably just to apparently

stand still

they've had to push so hard

you did the launch and what they've had to do

just on the engine

what's it got four catalysts and two

four additional filters

yeah that's right

four cuts and two GPFs

you've got to fit that all in the back of the car as well

yeah it's not like you've got four metres

of height to stuff them all in

and keep the 9000rp on red line

that's USP that customers want

keep the sound

like new drive by noise regulations

so it's got to be quieter at different speeds

than before but still sound epic

when you ring it out

it's actually got a little bit less torque than the old one

but they've given it slightly shorter gearing

to compensate so it actually accelerates

yeah a little bit quicker at times

what's that

oh yeah they left

an extra pedal in the foot well

I'm not quite sure what was going on there

yeah I don't know if that was a badly installed jaw control

yeah it was the only manual

only manual in the test

I mean it is still available with PDK as well

but hats off to Porsche because it's the same price

whether you order it with a manual gearbox

or PDK

and whether you order it with the regular

winged body shell or the wingless touring

they're all exactly the same price

which is really cool

it's probably slightly lighter isn't it

the ESG gearbox is

yeah I think the manual is a bit

I mean that's the other thing they've done really well

is keep the curb weight

pretty much the same to support all the extra

kit they've got us somehow

yeah I think it's

a contender would you say

I think it's up there isn't it

it's in with a shout I would say

I think it's

again you kind of look at

when

you'd have to know when my new show

around different trigger points of legislation

when something was stark

as you were at a point where you've got

hybrid all-wheel drive

and then you've got this naturally aspirated

stick shift

car on the other end of the

scale which seems

quite odd to

still be able to compare those

cars in one year

they're all still in production

this year but yeah I think

all the time they're able to make those

cars you have to

celebrate them don't you

and we'll talk about how they

live in the next podcast but it's

from trying that car

this year every time

you get in them

they just seem to

absolute bullseye isn't it

for a lot of the things

we want and to be presented

in such a simple way

yeah it's

as you say that breath

of what's in the test

you could argue that really it was just done

on pure performance even the GT3

would still have still has that pure performance

isn't it to compete with the

hybrid stuff but I think for the first time

we've found half the reason why we had

the Roberto there was it's

it does things in a totally

different way doesn't it we're finding

these cars are the

really tech-blading

things are getting so

good at what they do

yeah it's like the

dynamic controls have got a lot better haven't they

and the

hybrids just give you more opportunity

to manipulate things

different things going on

that's all 12 cars

I think when we came up with the list

every time we looked

up and down it's like bloody hell

this is a really

we tried to sort of whip it down

but you couldn't take

we couldn't take anything out could we

I think to take something out would be to pre

would be to pre

judge it wouldn't it and actually

we weren't genuinely

weren't sure how it would

how it would shake out at all

so I think we probably came to it with more

minds than some years

previously

so we'll

bring this episode to a close

next episode we'll go through

how all these cars did

how these 12 cars where they finished

why they finished where they did

so if you want

to read about Evo Car the year

the if you go to the Evo shop

you'll be able to pre-order a copy

it goes on sale 3rd

of December but you can pre-order it from

today which is the Friday before

and the second episode will be

of this podcast with the results

and how we can change results will be

on the 12th of December

Friday the 12th so like, subscribe, share

tell your friends

tell your mum

and we will see you next time on the 12th

for part 2 of this Cardia podcast

John, James, Dickie

thank you very much

and we will see you next time

2025's best performance cars: evo Car of the Year podcast | part one

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