2025's best performance cars: evo Car of the Year podcast | part one
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Car
Jaguar XKR
The Jaguar XKR is a fast and stylish car made by Jaguar. It has a powerful engine and is designed for both comfort and performance, making it a popular choice among sports car lovers.
Car
BMW Z3M
The BMW Z3 M Coupe is a sporty car made by BMW that has a unique hatchback shape. It was built for performance, featuring a strong engine and a fun driving experience.
Car
Porsche 911
Concept
Anglesey Circuit
Anglesey Circuit is a racetrack in Wales where cars can be driven fast in races. It has different layouts, and sometimes the track is changed to improve it or make it more exciting.
Car
Ford GT
The Ford GT is a fast sports car made by Ford. The 2005 version is special because it was made in limited numbers and has a powerful engine, making it very exciting to drive.
Car
Ferrari 430
The Ferrari 430 is a high-performance sports car made by Ferrari. It is known for being very fast and having a beautiful design, making it a favorite among car lovers.
Car
Renault Sport
The Renault Sport Spider is a small, fun car that is very light and made for driving enjoyment. It has a unique look and is designed to be exciting on the road.
Car
Renault Clio
The Renault Clio is a small car that's popular in Europe, known for being fun to drive and available in sporty versions.
Car
Renault Mégane
The Renault Mégane is a compact car that comes in different styles and has sporty versions that are popular among car enthusiasts.
Term
Type-R
Type-R is a special name Honda uses for its fastest and sportiest cars, which are designed for better performance and handling.
Car
Mercedes-Benz SL55
The Mercedes-Benz SL55 is a fancy sports car that is both fast and comfortable. It's part of the SL-Class, which is known for its style and performance.
Car
Audi RS2
The Audi RS2 is a fast version of a regular Audi wagon that was made in the early 1990s. It's famous for being powerful and having all-wheel drive, which helps it grip the road well.
Car
Audi Quattro
Car
Audi RS3
Brand
Pagani
Pagani is a company that makes very fast and expensive sports cars. They are known for their special designs and high quality.
Term
supercars
Supercars are very fast and powerful cars that are usually very expensive and made in small quantities. They are designed for high performance and speed.
Car
Aston Martin Valkyrie
The Valkyrie is an ultra-fast and very expensive car from Aston Martin, designed for speed and performance. It's so special that only a few will ever be made.
Car
Lotus 211
The Lotus 211 is a very light and fast sports car made for racing. It's built to be easy to handle and fun to drive on tracks.
Car
Lotus 340R
The Lotus 340R is a special sports car that is very light and fast. It was made in limited numbers, making it quite rare and unique.
Car
Alpine A110R
The Alpine A110R is a sporty car that is very light and quick. It's made for people who love to drive and want a fun experience on the road or track.
Term
quarter of a million euros
A quarter of a million euros means 250,000 euros. It's a lot of money, usually for very expensive cars that are special or luxurious.
Term
Evo Car of the Year
Evo Car of the Year is an award given to the best performance car each year by a car magazine called Evo. They test many cars to decide which one is the best.
Car
Alpine A110
The Alpine A110 is a small, sporty car that is very light and fun to drive. It's known for its sharp handling and stylish looks, making it popular among car lovers.
Car
Porsche 718 Cayman GT4
The 718 Cayman GT4 is a fast sports car from Porsche that is built for people who love to drive. It has a strong engine and is very responsive, making it exciting on the road or track.
Part
forged pistons
Forged pistons are stronger parts of an engine that help it run better, especially in fast cars. They are made from solid metal, which makes them last longer and handle more power.
Part
gearbox
A gearbox helps a car change speeds and makes it go faster or slower. It's an important part that connects the engine to the wheels.
Part
subframe
A subframe is a part of the car that holds the engine and suspension in place. It helps the car handle better and reduces shaking while driving.
Term
aero
Aero is about how a car is shaped to move through the air. A well-designed car can go faster and use less fuel because it cuts through the air better.
Car
Porsche 911 GT3 RS
The 911 GT3 RS is a super-fast version of the Porsche 911, made for racing and high-performance driving. It has special features that make it lighter and more powerful than regular 911s.
Term
bespoke tyres
Bespoke tyres are special tires made just for one car model. They are designed to fit perfectly and perform better than regular tires.
Term
bi-material construction
Bi-material construction means using two different materials to make something, like a tire, to make it better at doing its job. It helps improve things like grip and how long it lasts.
Car
Lamborghini Revuelto
The Lamborghini Revuelto is a new sports car that has a very powerful 12-cylinder engine. It's designed for high performance and is part of Lamborghini's lineup of luxury cars.
Car
Mclaren Artura
The Artura is a super-fast car from McLaren that uses both a regular engine and an electric motor. This makes it powerful and helps save fuel at the same time.
Car
BMW M2
The BMW M2 CS is a sportier version of the M2, made for people who love fast cars and driving on tracks. It has better performance and handling than the regular M2.
Car
BMW M5
The BMW M5 is a fast and powerful car that looks like a regular sedan but can perform like a sports car. It's popular among car enthusiasts because it combines comfort with speed.
Car
BMW M3
The BMW M3 is a sporty car that's part of the BMW 3 Series. It's designed for high performance and is popular among car lovers for its speed and handling.
Car
BMW M4
The BMW M4 is a sporty coupe version of the BMW 4 Series, designed for high performance and speed. It's known for its powerful engine and great handling.
Car
Chevrolet Corvette Eray
The Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray is a new version of the Corvette that uses both a gasoline engine and electric motors to improve performance and fuel efficiency.
Term
hybrid
A hybrid is a type of car that uses both a regular gasoline engine and an electric motor. This helps the car use less fuel and produce fewer emissions.
Car
BMW F12
The BMW 6 Series is a fancy car that is both comfortable and sporty. It's designed for long drives and looks very stylish, making it a great choice for luxury car lovers.
Car
Ferrari 812 Super Fast
The 812 Superfast is a super-fast car from Ferrari that has a huge engine and can go really fast. It's one of the best cars Ferrari makes, loved by car fans for its speed and style.
Car
Porsche Cayenne
The Porsche Cayenne is a fancy SUV that offers a lot of space and comfort while still being fun to drive. It's known for its sporty feel, which is unusual for an SUV.
Car
Aston Martin DBX
The DBX is Aston Martin's first SUV, which means it's a bigger car that can carry more people and stuff. It's still very stylish and fast, just like Aston Martin's sports cars.
Car
Land Rover Defender
The Land Rover Defender is a tough vehicle designed for off-roading, meaning it can handle rough roads and trails. It's famous for its boxy shape and ability to go almost anywhere.
Car
Land Rover Range Rover
The Range Rover is a luxurious SUV that offers a smooth ride and lots of features, making it very comfortable. It's also good at going off-road, which is a big part of its appeal.
Car
Maserati MC20
The MC20 is a new super-fast car from Maserati that looks really cool and is built for speed. It's designed to be exciting to drive and has a powerful engine.
Car
Mercedes-Benz AMG GT
The AMG GT is a fancy sports car from Mercedes that is very fast and stylish. It's designed for people who want a thrilling ride and a luxurious feel.
Car
Audi S5
The Audi S5 is a sportier version of the regular Audi A5, meaning it has more power and a sportier look. It's a nice car that combines luxury with a fun driving experience.
Car
Morgan Plus
The Morgan Plus 4 is a classic sports car that looks old-fashioned but is still fun to drive. It's made by hand, which makes it special and unique.
LIVE
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
About this episode
A deep dive into the 2025 Evo Car of the Year contenders, featuring discussions on the legacy of the Car of the Year test, the evolution of the Evo magazine, and the selection process for this year's diverse lineup. The hosts, including Dickey Mead, James Taylor, and John Barker, share insights on the unique characteristics of each car, from the lightweight Alpine A110R to the powerful Ferrari and Lamborghini hybrids. They also reflect on the challenges of testing in various conditions and the significance of the Car of the Year as a benchmark for performance cars.
aero
Anglesey Circuit
bespoke tyres
bi-material construction
Evo Car of the Year
forged pistons
gearbox
hybrid
Pagani
quarter of a million euros
Alpine A110
Aston Martin DBX
Audi Quattro
Audi RS2
Audi RS 3
Audi S5
BMW 6 Series
BMW M2
BMW M3
BMW M4
BMW M5
BMW Z3
Chevrolet Corvette
Ferrari 430 Scuderia
Ferrari 812 Superfast
Ford GT
Jaguar XKR-S
Land Rover Defender
Land Rover Range Rover
Lotus 340R
Maserati MC20
McLaren Artura
Mercedes-Benz AMG GT
Morgan Plus 4
Porsche 911
Porsche Cayenne
Porsche Cayman
Renault Clio - 5 doors
Renault Sport Spider
Original notes
This week we look towards 2025's evo Car of the Year test with a look back at the history of the test, standout years, the duds and how it's all created. With not long to go until the test goes on sale on December 3, we reveal the contenders for this year.
The evo podcast
evo
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