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The best performance car of 2025 revealed: evo Car of the Year podcast | part two
The best performance car of 2025 revealed: evo Car of the Year podcast | part two
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About this episode
A thrilling conclusion to the EVO Car of the Year podcast reveals the top contenders for 2025, with the Lamborghini Revuelto taking the crown in a tightly contested field. Judges discuss their experiences driving a diverse lineup of 12 performance cars, including the Ferrari 12-cylindry, Porsche 911 GT3, and Alpine A110R. The episode highlights the unique characteristics of each vehicle and the challenges faced during testing on the iconic Route Napoleon. With unanimous praise for the Revuelto, the team reflects on the state of performance cars and the future of hybrid technology in the automotive world.
Topics:
1.4 TFSI
BMW
car of the year
Ferrari
Land Rover
Maserati
Mercedes-Benz
Morgan
Porsche
route Napoleon
With evo Car of the Year 2025 now on shelves and the big screen, in this episode of the podcast, Stuart Gallagher, Dickie Meaden, John Barker and James Taylor sit down to discuss the results of our biggest test of the last 12 months. A total of 12 contenders made the task of finding a winner harder than ever, but there was one car that outshone them all.
Watch the evo Car of the Year film: https://youtu.be/xBb_4S7M8mc
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Technical
Too Afraid to Ask
Brand
Ferrari
"I was in the Ferrari following James"
Ferrari makes very fast, fancy cars from Italy. They are famous for racing and luxury.
Ferrari is an Italian luxury sports car manufacturer known for its high-performance vehicles and racing heritage.
Term
car of the year
"for car of the year"
'Car of the year' is a title given to one car that experts think is the best in a certain year.
The 'car of the year' is an award given by automotive journalists to a vehicle that stands out for its performance, design, and innovation.
Term
test cars
"cracking road to drive these test cars"
'Test cars' are the vehicles that people drive around to see how well they perform.
'Test cars' refers to vehicles used in a testing program, often evaluated for performance, handling, and safety on various tracks.
Term
route Napoleon
"route Napoleon"
Route Napoleon is a famous road in France that has many twists and turns, making it good for driving practice.
Route Napoleon is a historic road in France, known for its scenic and challenging driving conditions.
Car
Alpine A110
"we had the Alpine A110R Altine, which is, yeah, literally the ultimate A110"
The Alpine A110 is a small, fast car from France that’s great for driving on twisty roads. It has a light body and good handling.
The Alpine A110 is a lightweight, rear‑wheel drive sports car from the French manufacturer Alpine. It’s known for its sharp handling and lightweight chassis, making it popular in track‑day events.
Car
Audi RS3
"Audi RS3"
The Audi RS3 is a sporty version of the small A3 car. It has a powerful engine and can drive well on all four wheels.
The Audi RS3 is a high‑performance version of the compact A3, featuring a turbocharged four‑cylinder engine and all‑wheel drive. It delivers strong acceleration and precise handling.
Brand
BMW
"BMW M2 CS"
BMW makes cars from Germany that are sporty and luxurious.
BMW is a German manufacturer famous for its sporty driving dynamics and luxury vehicles.
Car
Chevrolet Corvette E-Roy
"Chevrolet Corvette E‑Roy, which is the hybrid powered version"
The Corvette E‑Roy is a special version of the Corvette that uses both a gasoline engine and electric motors to go faster and use less fuel.
The Chevrolet Corvette E‑Roy is the hybrid version of the iconic American sports car, combining a V8 engine with electric motors for improved efficiency and performance.
Car
Lamborghini Revuelto
"Lamborghini Revuelto"
The Lamborghini Revuelto is a very fast car that uses both gasoline and electric power to go super fast.
The Lamborghini Revuelto is a high‑performance hybrid supercar that blends a V12 engine with electric motors, offering extreme power and advanced technology.
Brand
Land Rover
"Land Rover Defender Octor"
Land Rover makes tough SUVs that can drive on rough ground.
Land Rover is a British manufacturer specializing in off‑road vehicles and SUVs.
Brand
Maserati
"Maserati GT2 Stradale"
Maserati makes fancy Italian cars that are fast and stylish.
Maserati is an Italian luxury sports car brand known for its distinctive styling and performance.
Brand
Mercedes-Benz
"Mercedes AMG GT63 Pro"
Mercedes‑Benz makes luxury cars from Germany with good engineering.
Mercedes‑Benz is a German luxury automaker known for its engineering excellence and wide range of vehicles.
Brand
Morgan
"Morgan Supersport"
Morgan makes small, hand‑built sports cars from the UK with classic looks.
Morgan is a British manufacturer of hand‑built sports cars with classic designs.
Brand
Porsche
"Porsche N11 GT3"
Porsche makes fast German cars, especially the famous 911.
Porsche is a German sports car manufacturer known for its high‑performance vehicles and iconic 911 model.
Term
1.4 TFSI
"But it's the only one that's sort of based on a series production car that also has to be a 1.4 TFSI or whatever."
It’s a small, turbo‑charged engine that powers many cars from Volkswagen and Audi, giving good power without being too big.
1.4 TFSI refers to a 1.4‑liter turbocharged fuel‑injector engine used by Volkswagen and Audi, known for its balance of performance and efficiency.
Car
Mercedes AMG GT63 Pro
"Was the Mercedes AMG GT63 Pro."
It’s a very fast, luxury sports car from Mercedes that has extra power and sporty looks.
The Mercedes-AMG GT63 Pro is a high‑performance version of the AMG GT sports car, featuring a powerful twin‑turbo V8 engine and aggressive styling.
Select text to request an explanation
I was in the Ferrari following James thinking, oh god, I can hear him in this bang in the steering wheel. Why have we brought this thing here? It's the least James Taylor. Hello everyone and welcome back to the EVO podcast episode 34. Or part two of our 2025 EVO car, the year podcast. So if you listen to the previous one, we went through how we choose a location.
The cars, what we're looking for and we gave a sort of a rundown of what cars are in this year's test. So this episode, we're going to go through when they all finished and why? But first we just do a quick recap of where we went, which cars we had and who was judging them. So Dickie, do you want to kick us off with where we were? We were based in a place called Dean LeBan, which is Southern France, just off the route Napoleon, which is an epic road.
It's one of the iconic driving roads. In Europe, somewhere that we've used a couple of times before, for car of the year. So largely familiar ground, but we also went off and explored some other spots. But yeah, cracking road to drive these test cars.
Five days and glorious sunshine. So very good. James, cars, there was 12 of them. And George gives us a quick rundown of what the contenders were. Refreshed those that have listened to the previous one and those who are new to this episode.
Yeah, they're going to bump a year this year. You have 12 cars, which is the most we've had for a long time. So in alphabetical order, we had the Alpine A110R Altine, which is, yeah, literally the ultimate A110, Astamart in Vanquish, Audi RS3, BMW M2 CS, Chevrolet Corvette E-Roy, which is the hybrid powered version, Ferrari 12-cylindry Lamborghini Revuelto, Land Rover Defender Octor.
So initially, we had a SUV in the mix. Maserati GT2 Stradale, this was a math for the Mercedes AMG GT63 Pro. The Morgan Supersport, so another return to the test for Morgan. And finally, some car called the Porsche N11 GT3.
Yeah, yeah, standard chargers. No, not really. I'll format them that layout engines and wrong place.
John, who was responsible for judging these cars this year? Who did we, who assembled in the South of France for a week?
Well, there's the four of us. Yes, Dickie Mieden, James Taylor, Studio Gallagher and myself, John Barker. And there's also Henry Catchport.
And Colin Goodwin, his occasional contrupter. He's been on car the years before. The last one was at Ruder Pellium back in 2005. He drove the GT4 GT back.
And then there was one more, and I can't remember who that was. Yusuf. No, that's how quickly we forget.
So that was Yusuf's first. I think he got into the swing a bit quite quickly, didn't he?
Yeah, I think he was there with enthusiasm and professionalism, which I think by the end of the week, we'd probably beat one of those out of it.
And big hair, big hair and a nice cologne as well.
And he's also he's also presenting the video as well. So he's busy doing the edit for that. So he had his work out on his first one in the deep end with them.
Yeah, quite a quite spread of cars there, wasn't there? Quite a demanding location. Long days and five days.
Before you all started as well, I asked you for your predictions on the Sunday evening.
Some resistance to doing this, wasn't there? There was because that meant, I mean, normally what happens is we get to say, so five day tests, we have to have a winner by the end of play Thursday.
So the videography team and photography team can work out how they're going to do the hero shots at the end.
Trying to get results at this lot is like putting teeth.
Because they always seem to be surprised that they need to actually come up with a verdict and commit their sort of cars to cut.
Now they're covers to the mass, but it's easier this year because Jethro wasn't here. Yeah, I mean, they're driving the Lamborghini.
Yeah, there's always someone who needs one more drive or someone who's confused that they were actually meant to be scoring the cars or they need to put them in some sort of water.
Got a car missing. Yeah, 12 car was.
Yeah, so I did ask you for what your predictions were on the Sunday evening. So I'm going to go through those now.
And then we can see how close people were. I'll do the three that aren't here.
So Henry placed Lamborghini first, the GT3 second and he thought the Alpine would come third.
Colin thought the GT3 would come first.
The BMW M2 CS would be second at the Alpine would be third.
Joseph, making his debut, predicted the Lamborghini would win with the Alpine second and the GT3 third.
I thought the GT3 would win, the Lambo would be second and the M2 CS would be third.
Can you remember where you play stuff, James?
Yeah, yeah. I had the GT3 also down to win with the Lamborghini coming second and the Alpine or team in third.
John, can you remember what you're overwhelmed to 911 and Alpine?
And Dickie couldn't commit.
Well, I had those cars, I just wasn't prepared to put them in the auto.
I didn't know he did that. He was allowed to do it. He's a special person.
No, he wasn't. Well, he's a special need because he can't make.
I could just create my piece of paper. I need to do some video with someone now and then run away.
Is it a blank sheet? No, I did put those three cars.
I did put them in an order.
No, or I see who was right and he was wrong.
Let's go through from 12th place out of a very tough field this year.
I think we were very close. It was incredibly, as we get to some of the scoring,
it was one of the tightest midfields we've had, I think, ever potentially.
But yeah, so 12th place was the Audi RS3. So John, do you want to kick us off on that?
Yeah, I don't think it suffered particularly for being the cheapest car.
It was entertaining. I had a really great drive on the sort of road that it should have excelled on.
And it wasn't on the standard tyres either. It wasn't on regular road tyres.
It was on quite a sticky tyre, which just made it even more chuckable.
So it was a really good car.
And on the little twisty sections with a little wall on one side and a cliff face on the other,
it was just the car that you wanted to be in.
So it was wheeled, it was punchy.
Any time you came across that sort of road in that car, you wanted to either be being chased by something big
or chasing something big just to make the point.
So yeah, it was a great car.
It just fell short of the bit of magic that elevates these things.
Yeah, I had exactly the same experience as you, I think, as well.
I had two drives in it, which were brilliant.
And exactly the type of road you described.
And once with Richard Tipper was shadowing me in the Ferrari 12 salindry,
which is really fun, you know, in places that had the upper hand.
In other places, the Audi was really good around the heavens and stuff.
It delivers all its most of its performance in the bit that you can use most of the time, doesn't it?
Whereas the really big guns, when they could really stretch their legs and use the top end of their power,
they would meaningfully move away.
But as soon as the road got a bit tight or you needed to make more analysis for what's coming the other way,
the Audi would gradually kind of catch up.
I think it's just because it's based on a series production platform, isn't it?
So the bits that stand out are the bits that are different from that.
But the overall experience is still rooted in something quite normal, isn't it?
Compared to a lot of the other stuff in the test, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.
But the sparkle is the kind of specialness is in shorter supplies.
But that was missing that magic sort of.
Yeah.
And that was the car that you wanted to be in on the dark run back to the hotel.
Yeah, on the unfamiliar road.
And some of those corners that just go just having that extra bit of width to play with.
Yeah.
And just the lack of, well, it's still 70 grams with the car almost.
But the relative lack of risk.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, it still shows how tight this field was.
So the way we score the cars is everyone has to give a car a score out of 100.
And then we average it out.
So the Audi came out with an average score of 85.4, which still a very solid.
In other years, that's a really solid score.
It's a solid score this year.
It just shows how tight and how close it was.
So, yeah.
I think it's a, as we said in the previous podcast, when we were running through the cars
that we've selected, we've enjoyed it every time we've driven it this year.
Yeah.
It certainly was, it earned its place this year.
It was, as we said, the right rows and stuff.
It was a cracking thing to be in.
As John said, I don't think you felt particularly short-changed if you ended up in it on a...
No.
You know the, you know the duffer when everyone's like steering or, yes, run stash for the other cars.
But I think it always kind of felt like it did belong.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You always got to a location for I need to be on drive the Audi on this road.
It seems to be, it's the right road for it.
Yeah.
It did really well.
I thought and considered, as we said, it's the only really, apart from the odd ball defender really.
But it's the only one that's sort of based on a series production car that also has to be a 1.4 TFSI or whatever.
The Volkswagen engine is...
But yeah, no.
So that's the Audi.
In 11th place was the...
This was on 86 points.
Was the Mercedes AMG GT63 Pro.
So yeah, James, Dickey, what were your thoughts on that?
I think it's...
It's like the RS3's big brother in a way, isn't it?
So the same thing.
The same thing.
The Audi was good at...
The Mercedes was very good.
That's the pow train is really special and impressive and punches it down the road and makes a great noise.
And there's a certain sense of familiarity in the car or more conventional surroundings and environment.
So it's very easy to jump in and get on with it and enjoy the best bits of the car.
On that point you felt you got on it and you could very quickly get quite high to its sort of capability, couldn't you?
But then getting that extract in that next bit...
It limits us so high, aren't there?
It's so grippy and it generates so much force.
In fact, actually John noticed half of you the tests that the tire sidewalls have gone this weird shade of sort of grayish peak.
Because it's working its tires.
Yeah, so hard.
And it's a heavy car.
Yeah, it's a big heavy car, isn't it?
I think it's, yeah, it's in those moments where whatever car you're in, if it's a moment where you can drive it very hard, the best ones stay with you, don't they?
They give you more feel and they do more of what you want and you kind of reveal a bit more of the car that you want to find that haven't been able to.
Yeah.
At that very high level, I think the Mercedes just fades a little bit.
It is not quite as connected and it's not quite as sort of engaging in what it does, which is part of its broader G3, isn't it?
Yeah.
Yeah, I find it harder to find a flow in that car.
And when you do find the flow, you're going so fast that it's kind of...
Yeah, and the brakes weren't that consistent either on that particular car, which is odd because we haven't come across that since the launch.
They just felt a little, sometimes the pedals slightly inconsistent and that takes away your confidence a little bit if you're really sort of trying to pinpoint down a difficult road.
Yeah, you want to know it's just right there for you.
Yeah.
I think when we were running through the contenders in a previous episode, I think Dickey might have mentioned it.
It's that car that if you had to have for a year, you'd be like, well, that would be perfect.
In pretty long term.
Yeah, it's a mega thing because you knew it would just do all the dull drudgery stuff.
We didn't drive that one down, but if you had to drive it home, you wouldn't do that eight hours on the lottery perfectly.
It wasn't trip up or embarrass itself when we got onto the route in Napoleon either just in this field and finding those limits, which was so high and so quick,
it's very German in that way, isn't it?
It's all about that real peak performance, but it looked amazing as well.
Yeah, it's a handful of skills that we score on.
Aesthetics because none of us can talk about that.
It's part of the appeal, though, isn't it? You sort of have a general sense of how drawn you are to...
It looks impressive.
I think it's definitely got something about it, but...
Yeah, because when it arrived in the hotel car park and opened the side of the truck, you could just see a slither of it.
It's a really long red bonnet and a bit of gold wheels.
And it just looked...
It's a nice thing.
It looked really special car.
Yeah, cracking thing to...
Yeah, just hard to find that sort of last 10-15% of sort of specialness, wasn't it?
Yeah, so that was the Mercedes, that was in 11th.
Next to...
That seems unfair to us, sticky to us.
Why is his favourite child only finished 10th?
But yeah, the defender actor...
I think some people would be questioning why we had it there,
but I think we, over the course of the week,
it was...
You could see people sort of perception of it.
It was strange.
Yeah, I think it was interesting because, obviously, I had a kind of vested interest
because I'd lived with that.
It was the long-term test car that we drove down there.
But it was fun, the people that hadn't driven it.
It's sort of wonder what they were going to say when they got out,
but without exception, everyone seemed to get out of it
and they've got a big smile on the face.
And whenever it was being driven, you can see...
Yeah.
It's doing like...
He was there.
You hear the Taurus speaking.
Oh, my belt.
I think it's totally after, kind of, switch off your normal...
Wherever your head's at when you jump in a...
Yeah.
A more...
E-coat-y style supercar or something,
and you just jump in it.
It's like learning to drive something again, isn't it?
Understanding what it does and how it does it and how comfortable.
You are while it's doing it, but...
I was a little bit frustrated by the first bit of my run, first run in it.
Because I'd turned it all...
I thought I'd turned it all off.
And it was still just...
There's stability control.
Yeah.
And then I got to the...
I'll move near Kasseland.
We're on the lake bit and I was parked there
and Henry pulled up alongside.
I said, can you turn everything out?
So yeah.
And he pressed an old doctor button, drove it back up the hill.
And it was absolutely spot on.
Yeah.
It was exactly what I wanted it to be.
The fact that it's moving around, that's fine.
I've induced it.
I want it for you.
Yeah.
That I've just got into this corner and it's doing this.
So I thought it was brilliant.
It's freer and looser, isn't it?
It's faster.
I think when you drive it in the...
So there's a default kind of...
All-terrain mode or something.
So it's quite supple.
But the stability control is on and quite tight.
And then there's a regular dynamic mode.
And I love the...
It steers really nicely.
It stays quite flat.
And you can switch the stability control off.
But it's still...
It still limbs on.
It kind of allows one big movement.
And then it comes back on.
So then you go into the floctor mode.
And that's much softer.
And you get less steering connection.
But it's freer.
So you kind of want an intermediate mode almost.
But it less the traction freer in the firmer mode.
Yeah, I find it freer in it.
But yeah, I think it just requires you to
step outside of your normal comfort zones.
And then let it work how it wants to work
when it's soft and looser.
And it just has a brilliant flow to it.
Yeah, absolutely.
Henry was saying, oh, you can back it into the corner.
It's like a mark to her score.
And be really precise.
You wouldn't think you could have any precision with a car.
That big, that high and soft and on big,
nobly tires.
But it's still...
It's uncannily chuckable things.
I did quite high up, I think, in the end.
You did.
We have a score somewhere.
Yeah, 90 out of 100.
Yeah, I really enjoyed it.
Yeah.
I'd spend a lot of time in it and have a lot of fun.
I had that moment of following James in it
on an amazing piece of road.
And I was in the Ferrari.
And I was just sat there thinking, following James thinking,
oh, God, I can hear him in this bang in the steering wheel.
Why have we brought this thing here?
It's the least James Taylor part.
The thing he wanted to think of radicals
and it's soft around the edges.
Exactly.
And we pulled up at the season market
and sort of the mustard state sort of mustard point
that we're in meeting.
And I was like, well, I just need to...
James get out, be distracted by something else.
And I'm just going to sit in the car and pretend to do something.
And he wandered over to us.
He was like, oh, God, here we go.
He was going to say, why is this here?
I think we should exclude it from the test.
And he had a massive smile on his face
because that's hilarious.
Yeah, my face is actually aching.
Yeah.
And smiling so much.
And it's just a...
But to follow it, it was just...
Because it's that thing of you get to see what you...
If you've driven it before, you get to see what you've experienced
from the outside.
And it was just remarkable.
It's kind of a case.
It's a run out of brakes or to do something in reverse.
And it's always...
You can brake almost as late as in the other.
Yeah.
And Yusuf in his copy reading his notes,
he...
His first time he drove it, he did get out thinking what...
what we're doing.
God, this is my first E-coach in this lot of old men of thought.
Bro, a defender of...
But again, it was that second, third drive.
Oh, I get this.
And you get into it and understand it.
It was...
Yeah, I think there was a lot of...
I think there was seven or six raised eyebrows
of that car being included.
Well, like Joaquin Lee said, I was...
Like E-coach, he was my two car garage...
Tray out.
Test drive, really.
So I'd have an auto and something else to say.
Absolutely.
I think if you have pots of money...
Yeah.
I'd love one.
It's being seen.
But using it every day,
which I know isn't what E-coach is,
but I've had the...
It's sort of like the flip side.
You choose the E-coach winner and then maybe imagine using it every day.
I'll see the other way around.
But it's so good at everything.
Like, it's so comfortable.
It's like the anti-euros.
It's not offensive.
It doesn't bring out the worst in people.
They don't notice it at all.
Or they look at it and they say it's something a bit different
and a pretty...
You can't leave that.
Thank you.
They don't know.
When you're driving it.
I get it's dirty as possible
and then it just blends in.
But no, it's a...
Yeah, it's a...
It's a weirdly brilliant car, isn't it?
Yeah.
It's like the unexpected performance car,
a bit like a...
It was the Scodi Yeti or something like that.
Yeah.
It's like an old Subaru.
I can't remember where I put it.
I sort of had it in my head.
You know, you go two more points than John.
You go, I'm always generous in John.
But I think I had it on a similar level to the Morgan
because they sort of both occupied the same space in my head.
They're not conventionally tick, tick, tick, everything.
Brilliant.
No, it's just like high spots and...
But it all kind of comes together in a way
that's quite unlike anything else.
And actually, yeah.
The irony is really satisfying.
Yes.
And a nice thing to imagine owning somewhere.
Yeah.
And great for making hammer trees
but gets in the back of.
It's good at everything.
It's good drive.
Oh, it was...
I mean, we drove it all the way there and all the way back, didn't we?
Yeah.
As well.
And it was...
It's brilliant.
Even that noisy.
Like, I thought those tyres were going to kick out loads of...
No, they were all the way about 50, 55, 60
and then they seem to be playing away.
The Audi was on the pretty Trafeo R's, with the optional tyre.
And we were driving it down, thought the transmission was breaking
because the tyre noise on that...
Sounds like the wine.
It is.
And it's similar to the McGahn that came on the...
Yeah.
Was it?
Two out of ten.
Which was noisy.
And it's the same.
But actually, the...
The Oxford's dick is at about 50.
It's like, ah, this is going to get tiresome
but it sort of drives through the noise.
But yeah, the Audi gave Rich Tipper a nice sort of tinnitus on the way there.
And back with its tyres.
So it was a weird thing.
If you'd said to someone...
Which one's going to be in the way?
Yeah.
No, it was a cracking kind of thing.
Yes, so that finished...
10th on 88 points.
And then, first of all, kind of big guns, really.
The Aston Martin vanquish, which...
You're driven on the international launch and came back really impressed.
Yeah.
Drave it on the part of the twin test that Henry ran with the triple test rather
with the Henry ran with the Ferrari and the Lamborghini,
and it didn't do so well.
No.
Was it better?
It was better here, yeah.
In the test.
Even on the little roads in France, it was still pretty good.
I don't think that...
Like I said, I think that road in the...
On the North York Walls is a difficult...
It's not in its surface.
Yeah.
And it just seemed to wrong...
It does tie quite a few things in knots up there, doesn't it?
Yeah.
But here, I...
It was just so fast.
It was one of those cars when you wanted something quick and little in front of you
just so you could stay with it.
Yeah.
Just prove...
Yeah.
Emense amount of...
Get up and go.
Fies you on to the back or whatever there is.
But once...
Once you're up to a bit of a leg, you do feel the size of it.
And around some of those hairpin corners.
I can actually see where the internal...
Corner was, anyway, so I felt like I was on the wrong side of the car.
But it was...
It was immense.
And I think it's one of those cars, and we asked them to have done it for years,
but it gets so much attention, good attention.
Yes.
People just love to see that.
It was when we were trying to see all those really cool little villages and things in the outing on the way.
It was the estimate and that got all the, as you say, good attention.
You know, people sort of nodding approvingly or giving thumbs up and things.
Yeah.
But you felt the same as I, James.
We had our first dries a bit.
Yeah.
It took point in, wasn't it?
It took two drives for me to really understand what the vancress could do,
because my first drive was where we were on the first day,
the very, very twisty, bumpy narrow road.
Yeah.
The road.
And then it really came to life on the second day of the test, on the more open line.
It is a car.
It was the flight race.
Yeah, I think you do.
You do sense the size of it, not necessarily the way it turns or steers,
but just it's...
You feel the momentum.
It's a little bulge and the way it delivers its performance.
It's a bit of an avalanche, isn't it?
When it's...
Yes.
Like it.
You either do it in a very measured way.
And then you can't really feel like you're singing.
It's just like...
And then when you do floor it, it's like, fucking Elvis.
Yeah.
It's like, for a hog soft down the road, just down.
It's like...
It doesn't maybe have the...
as much nuance as some of the other...
No, I found out.
Also, the only car that I found,
having to constantly play with the damper setting, depending what road you're on.
And how quickly...
The others you could settle into, that's the setting that will work pretty much everywhere.
But it was the ass that kept flicking between a harder or softer damper setting.
I think because you felt the size of it,
and your head was taking your brain, so this is getting heavy and it's moving.
So you need some more body control.
Well, actually you want to soften it off a bit because the road surface is getting forward.
You seem to feel more like you have to keep changing stuff in the vanquish compared to the other cars.
Yeah, I didn't...
It's a massive event and like you walk up to it and the shape of it and the scale of it.
And knowing what's under the bonnet and all that.
It's a really impressive thing.
I didn't actually being in it.
I'm not sure the interior is very clean and...
Very.
But it...
I felt...
And maybe it was the...
I know we're not there to judge the...
the optioning or spec of the car, but it seemed a little bit somber.
Yeah, just not much to really celebrate inside somehow.
I don't know, I didn't feel quite as excited being in it as I thought I would.
But there are certain points where it delivers performance at a level and in a way that nothing else does.
Apart from the Lamborghini, I think it was the most explosively quick car, wasn't it?
I'd say it under plus orn's power from a twin-turbo V12, wasn't it?
It's quite drivable.
It's quite a progressive four-to-end turbocharged engine.
I feel sore with that.
And it sounds great as well.
Yeah, but at the top it makes the road nice.
I found...
It wasn't the only car with this, but with the 10-stage traction control system.
You can choose just how much rope you want.
And that was really nice.
There was that road on day two with all those uphill...
The air hins.
And they can make you feel like a real hero through there because...
You know, you just gradually turn it down and down a bit more until...
Yeah, until it's almost switched off.
I found the brakes really good too for such a heavy car.
Yeah, never had it in itself.
Yeah.
It's formed well across the week.
And this is...
It's...
I was saying how tightly contested this year was.
It scored 89.7 points.
But between here and...
I'm getting older, can't see.
They're here and fifth.
Fifth place is covered by less than a point.
And that's how...
How tight it was with that car.
And it finishes ninth.
But...
Yeah, it feels like it's a bit hard done by...
Yeah.
Yeah.
It feels like it should be at least a couple of places higher up.
But the...
That middle grab never had a test where...
Yeah.
Yeah.
So many great cars are squished into that middle...
Well, the next car that finished...
finished ahead of it was only 0.2...
The head, which was the Corvette e-ray.
I was surprised by that car.
Like quite how...
I suppose I shouldn't be.
Again, it's maybe the...
The sort of slight sniffiness the Europeans tend to have about American stuff.
But the...
The...
The feeling of its sort of integrity...
And it's got a whole car...
Cohesion.
Engineering.
Yeah.
It was really, really, really impressive.
And the...
It felt way more powerful than the...
Yeah.
than the output would suggest.
It feels like a...
Seven, eight hundred or so.
That felt like a hundred horsepower, not...
It was at 665 or something.
Yeah.
It was quite rapid, wasn't it?
It got...
Got going.
And you could...
You could actually use this performance all the way through.
It wasn't as stepped as some of the others, was it?
So you weren't...
Yeah.
Or here's this...
The shove in the back never sort of stopped shoving in the back to it.
Yeah, no.
It sounded great.
And it felt...
It had some field, didn't it?
Yeah.
It was nicely rounded.
Like, steering response and its brake feel and everything seemed...
The odd thing was that...
I felt it was best in its completely standard mode.
Yeah, I found the steering was so heavy.
Yeah, the steering would get really overly heavy.
And you started to get lost in its mode as well, couldn't you?
Yeah, it was quite overwhelming.
All the sliders and Indian...
What do I need?
It's like a graphically riser from a 90s forward, wasn't it?
Yeah.
And you'd think, actually, am I doing anything with this stuff?
Or was it just...
Yeah.
Just to see both.
If you just got in it and drove it, it was very clean and very precise.
Very easy to read.
Yeah.
It was really an approach for any...
I think you could...
Whatever your experience level or skill level or...
Yeah.
You could just get in it and get as much as you wanted to...
Yeah.
...get from it and feel quite fulfilled by that.
You never felt like you were missing out on anything.
You just found more...
Like more and more...
Yeah.
More performance in it.
Yeah.
It felt very European, which is what the objective was there.
Yeah.
You think, well, this feels a bit like an R8 or a 488.
And then they mid-engine supercars that...
They sort of benchmarked and wanted it to be in that respect.
It achieved that 100% I felt.
You could have put any European badge on it.
Yeah.
And it felt like it.
The other thing was that it never felt hybrid.
When you were driving it properly, it never felt like...
Yeah.
Oh, because there's a join here between the EV power and the...
Although there was that weird synthesized sort of electric motor wine noise that was sort of...
Yeah.
No, it sounded like a supercharger.
Yeah, she did sound like a supercharger.
The weird sort of high-pitched kind of wine.
Yeah.
It was coming from the front.
Yeah.
So it still felt like a complete ice product, but just in a really weird way.
Yeah.
And so, yeah, it was...
It was more impressive than most people expected.
I haven't driven the ZO6.
I thought it was going to be good dynamically.
But yeah, the way it all fits together.
Through the powertrain, the ZO6 doesn't sound.
It's got that horrible brittle kind of...
That's flat.
It's plain the obvious.
It's this crosser line richer, nicer like what you pay money for.
Yeah.
Like a 1v8 combo.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Just sounded really good through the tunnels.
Yeah.
Yes.
It was a really cool thing.
And missed out on finishing any higher by...
Just point one of a point to another mid-engined car.
Where's the Maserati GT2 Stradale, which was on 90 points.
A car based on a previous winner, which I think there's always an apprehension of...
We talked about the MC-20, haven't we?
It's sort of...
It's dropped quite a sharp cliff since that 2022 victory.
But this car felt...
It felt more together.
Yeah, more together.
Yeah, more together.
I had my...
I had my first...
Like...
Proper E...
Oh, this is...
This is a really good E-co-T drive.
Drive.
Right.
In it quite early in the week.
So I was like...
Oh, well, it's...
At that point, it was...
Quite a long way up my...
At my list because it was...
It was on one of those lovely...
Fast sections of the...
Of the Root Napoleon and then up into the mountains.
So you were just kind of blending in and out of the power.
And just steering and carrying speed rather than having to use a lot of the brakes.
Which still the brakes aren't.
They've just got that really annoying tip in like nothing too much.
It was really hard to judge.
The steering was nice.
I sort of liked the steering less.
The more I drove it and the more I got used to some of the other cars.
There's a...
I've Henry Mark, the steering pretty highly in his first drive.
And I can see why.
It sort of felt like somebody made a modern F40 or something to me.
Yeah.
Like a little bit rough around the edges.
But what it does...
Well, it's really exciting and what you want from a exotic.
Yeah.
I think we described the MC20 as feeling like an M...
Noble M600.
Yeah.
From the original test.
Yeah.
And this one for me, it still has that slight fuzziness to most of its responses.
I think that's why I liked it when I...
Yeah.
It was just a smaller steering input and just getting a flow and carrying speed.
And it was on quite a stringed tyres, wasn't it?
Two.
It's a cup-two.
What a cup-two is.
I might have been.
So you're always slightly wary of whether they've really got steeped.
I was triggered on my first drive of the whole test, was in the Maserati,
when we set off on our base together.
Yeah.
And it was quite cold.
Quite more.
Yeah.
It was sort of single figures when we started.
Some was out, but it was at 7-8 degrees.
Yeah.
You got mugged.
Yeah.
I was in the cars that needed fuel.
Come be cars too.
No way.
But yeah, as the roads climbed up into the mountains and yeah,
all the time I got the hair tins.
It was really not...
Yeah.
The front end wasn't biting and stuff.
And then I drove it later in the test.
Yes, it did.
And a nice sunny day.
Yeah.
Everything switched on.
It was quite an easy car to read because I drove it.
Yeah.
I think the first time I drove it back was at night.
Yes.
I remember I was following you on the AMG.
It was actually...
Because you're perception when you walk up to it,
it's going to be quite an unruly sort of radar.
Yeah, I was quite wary of it.
I just sort of...
Probably because you see the tyres,
well, it's quite boosting.
Yeah.
It's going to be a bit...
It's quite...
But it...
It's not spiky in the way.
No, it's quite dying, isn't it?
Yes.
It could be really smooth with it.
Sort of...
You can drive it much smoother than it looks.
You'll be...
And it looks like a car you're going to have to grab by this graph
of the neck and be really on it for every mile.
And it'd be quite tiring.
You can just drive it in a higher gear and...
Yeah.
And do you...
You know, use it in a different way.
And it's still a good grand tour as well.
It's a C20, you know, for all its flaws.
It's a really good sort of...
Yeah, and it hasn't eroded.
I don't...
Yeah, I think it was...
I think it rides better and steers better.
So it's actually a nicer thing.
Yeah.
It wouldn't be any harder to live with.
It would actually be nicer to drive more the time with it.
Yeah.
That's pretty good.
Yeah.
So that's our 12th to 7th.
With a majority ending on 90 points.
We're going to have a quick break for some...
Yonkers...
Yonkers' peanut power.
I've never...
I think that finished 5th.
So yeah, go and find some Yonkers.
And we will see you after the break.
Exactly.
I think it's what three words for this office.
Yonkers' peanut power.
Welcome back to part two, episode 34.
Eva Carl, the year 2025.
That was a lot to remember.
If Sam hasn't kept it in,
we've just been...
Dickey has just recounted the story
when he mistakenly ate cat food in Spain.
I think it was Pate.
The name me out on the tin.
Didn't give it away.
But he's here to tell the tale.
Yeah, he's got eight lives left.
Yeah.
Right.
Top six.
So, quick recap.
From 12th to 7th...
From 12th onwards.
So the Audi RS3 finished 12th.
The GT63 Pro was 11th.
Defender Opta 10th.
As the Martin Vanquish finished 9th.
The Corva E-Ray was 8th.
And the Maserati GT2 stood Ali finished 7th.
And that 9th...
To 7th place were covered by just 0.3 of a point.
And then we got to our 6th place car,
which was 0.1 ahead of the Maserati,
which was...
There are the lovely Morgan Superbowl,
which you sort of...
Well, we all fell for,
but John, you had a real soft spot for it.
Yeah, I had it 3rd, I think.
You did, yeah.
I mean, sometimes I go for a car
that doesn't look great,
but which drives really well,
which doesn't want any civic of the less.
See, two Gens.
But this one...
I thought it does drive a lot better
than the previous Plus 6,
that we have on car of the year.
And it...
It doesn't...
For me, it doesn't really matter with this car
because it's as much about the experience.
You know, they're looking down the bonnet
without the louvers now.
But just coming to the car every time I thought,
well, this is...
This is a really special bit of care.
And it's so quick.
And I had a really interesting drive back.
The roads from Kasselland to Dean LeBand,
the sections of it are really tight and twisted
and there's flows of it,
and they're tight twisted again.
And I was in the Morgan,
and I was bookended by
Yusuf in the Revuelto in front
and Colin in the 911 GT3 behind.
And I was just...
It was a long, quite nicely.
I wanted to keep in touch with Yusuf
because I didn't have the nav.
All right.
So I couldn't find the hotel.
Yeah, I didn't want to lose Colin,
who was struggling to keep up with the Morgan in the 911,
which shows you how good the Morgan actually is
because he just nips in and...
Yeah, it's a set of...
Yeah, fast, isn't it?
You don't appreciate how quick it's going
until it is in the company of other cars.
Exactly.
But you never ever seem to have to drive it
like you're trying to drive quickly
because as soon as you do,
that's when it...
Yeah, struggles a little bit again, isn't it?
It's much better than the previous Jen car for that.
It's still that the rear axle feels a little bit compromised,
isn't it?
It's not all the answers.
But when we got to the hotel,
Yusuf said,
I said,
thanks for not sorting off into the distance there.
He said,
oh, no, I was going.
It's very...
He was on it.
And he said, every time I looked in the mirror,
the two round lights of the Morgan are still there.
So, yeah, an impressive thing.
But it's more of a car to have and to cherish
and to...
It's a classic car without the parcel
of a classic car, isn't it?
Yeah, it is.
And I said before,
I think it's...
It looks like a Morgan from the future.
Yeah.
No, I love the way it looks.
Yeah.
So, yeah, I was really smitten by it.
Did you think what did you...
Same as Jen?
Yeah, I mean, they made lots of...
Lots of quite big changes, haven't they?
It's got decent Michelin tyres on it now,
which make a big difference
on how the structure of the car is different from the previous Jen,
isn't it?
And it's got multi-justable...
notch on dampers,
and I think they've got quite a lot of options
where you can dial the car in every limitlessly
as well as another option.
Or the mounting ones are stiffer as well.
I think the steering rack is twice as stiff as well.
Yeah, it's just that a bit more together, isn't it?
And it cokes.
It's still got more performance than it can deal with, ultimately.
But, yeah, it's much, much, much more polished
and easier, more consistent, less intimidating,
less...
It just got a bit ragged, didn't it?
The previous Jen car.
I think from the tyres up, once you fit a decent tyre,
then you can exploit that tyre.
That's what's...
It's like a process of making everything work,
because they had such odd wave on tyres
and stuff for such a long time.
And, you know, it doesn't really matter what you do
to the chassis,
because it's still, you know, fairly limited on...
And it's a potent thing, isn't it?
That BMW engine is a really potent thing.
So, it needs...
It needs those tyres to...
You need to really work.
And the lateral grip.
No, I loved it.
And it felt every bit of special as the most special cars
in the test felt really nicely put together.
It doesn't actually seem that expensive to me.
I know with all the options in the paint,
it was probably significantly more than the list price,
but still...
The essential car is...
I think for what you get,
and what they put into it,
and what else is out there.
Yeah.
I think...
That's a lovely thing.
You did the launch for us,
so you...
You remember, I think,
I've been on the driven this.
Yeah, yeah.
I think Henry might have driven it as well,
hadn't he?
He may have done a bit of that.
Yeah, yeah.
But you're...
What were your expectations going into it,
thinking of the anyone driving this car,
and I've committed to it,
to then, once you've driven it in that environment
with the other cars,
what were your sort of...
Was there a side relief?
Or were you...?
Yeah, yeah, there was,
because Morgan's is so singular,
there's nothing really like a Morgan,
and on the launch driving it individually,
it felt brilliant.
I thought, okay,
this is a brilliant product for all the reasons
we've just discussed,
but it was only when we got it together
with these other 11 of the best cars on sale today
that I realised just how good it is,
both dynamically,
in terms of being able to hang with,
you know, much quicker,
or on paper quicker cars,
but actually it is just as quick as them in the real world,
but also,
like you both said,
for sense of occasion,
for quality,
and actually, for usability,
you know, I wouldn't necessarily fancy driving
an older Morgan,
you know,
up in the foothills of the Alps,
all day and all night,
like we did with this car,
but it was fine,
it never felt out of its depth at all,
and it could do some things,
some of the other cars could have.
Yeah,
it was a lovely thing.
So,
well, not just the lovely thing to have,
and to be in,
it was competitive,
far more competitive,
I think a lot of people thought
it would be in every drive,
and it was an occasion,
which is what you want it to be.
It was a big step up for you.
Yeah, huge step.
Yeah, no,
congratulations to those cars.
I've done a huge,
huge amount of work.
And a tiny company
compared to all of the other marks,
yes, tests.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yes, that finished on,
six on 90.1,
and then on 90.6
in fifth place,
another BMW engine car,
and the actual BMW in the test,
the M2CS,
which of course is following
the footsteps of 2020's winner,
which is the previous generation of M2CS.
What did you,
what did you make of that?
Yeah, I really like this car,
and I think
of all the cars in the test
has seen to be on that split people,
the most people,
either really, really loved it
or they didn't quite click with it.
I think it helped I had one
really, really good drive
back in it one night,
which sometimes you have one great drive
that kind of bumps the car up your list a little bit.
But yeah,
the regular M2
hasn't quite hit the spot
where there's another group test.
It's sort of been one of those cars
that felt quite good.
A bit of the opposite
of the Morgan we just described.
It felt pretty good on its own,
and then one would pitch it in
with other cars,
then it would fall back a bit.
Yeah, I thought this was a really great car.
I felt it gave me a lot of confidence
even though it's more than 500 horsepower
or to the rear wheels.
It's very drivable.
The main issue it had with it
is it still feels very big,
even though it's a lot shorter
than the M3 and M4.
It's pretty much as wide.
It's got the world's most obese steering wheel
in typical BMW fashion.
So it took me a little while
to feel in touch with it.
But once I jelled with it,
I really, really liked it a lot.
Yeah, it feels much
last year's M4 CS
felt a bit of,
there wasn't much,
actually the standard M4
felt better than the CS.
But this is,
the M2 CS feels much
a big step up from the standard M2.
It's just a thing more cohesive.
That sort of M family.
The M2 CS seems to be
out of an M3 and M4 CS.
And the M2 is what a CS
close as possible,
the CS can be.
But that's a little bit smaller,
isn't it?
I suppose.
But it still has the same,
when it obviously is going to feel related
to the M3 and M4,
because it has a short and version
of the platform, isn't it?
But it feels more like an M4
for the M2.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I think they're always dependent
on the,
they sort of fall,
whichever tyre you have it on,
there are moments
where you want it to be
on the other tyre.
So it really,
I felt it didn't quite
key into the road
and might into the road.
There's some more normal tyres.
There's some kind of sport
for rest.
Yeah.
So the cars are available.
I think it should have been
on Cup 2s.
And we've had
CSLs and things on Cup 2Rs
and it's been amazing
when it's in its
sweet spot on those.
But then pretty spiky
and scary when it's not.
I think the Cup 2s,
I think, would have allowed it
to show a little bit more of
where they sharpened it up
and where it's got a little bit more.
Yes.
Because this was on the 4S
because we didn't
BINW made that decision
because we weren't using the track.
And it's only right
into the foot hills of the Alps
in what was getting towards
or to the weather
happened to be very good this time.
But I think Dickie's
right if it had the Cup 2s,
it would have allowed that
fine detail to lift it.
It's just that, this generation
of cars, I think,
compared to the previous
Gen M2 that was definitely
smaller.
Different platform, much smaller,
more compact, more simple,
pure car.
I think that would,
that would, that car.
The original M2 CS
would have done really well
this year.
Because it would be like her,
it would be like the GT3.
You know, if you had a stick
shift, small rear drive,
it's only powerful,
BMW, what's none so
like about that?
Because I think
that made the difference
on the original, the one
car of the year.
The fact that it was manual
rather than auto.
Because the auto's,
with that engine,
with that much power,
the auto keeps wanting
to make you go faster.
With the manual,
you get more choice.
You're in your own flow,
you're driving at your
saves, which is,
yes, sure.
Have them flow
with that gear.
So yeah, I didn't find,
we did the M5 CS as well.
That was on the
military road, wasn't it?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Glenn Shea,
and literally,
the damping on that was
so good.
I went down from the car
park over a couple of
corners.
I thought this car is brilliant.
And I never got that
bit of magic,
you know, of this M2.
No, they're having to make
it into something that's
palatable for people
like us.
But it's never,
doesn't feel naturally inclined
to deliver what you want to deliver.
I think the M guys are,
you know,
incredibly good at what they,
that what they do.
It's not like they've
forgotten how to make a
brilliant car.
It's just that they're
working with a,
with a certain platform.
They do the same thing
across.
Yeah.
Three cars, aren't they?
Yes.
We're fundamentally
with the same,
same hit regions, isn't it?
You're trying to
come up with three very
different meals.
I found it quite
inconsistent.
You'd have a good
driving it.
And then another one would
be something to laugh at.
Yeah.
I was a bit like the
Maserati.
I had a one early in the
week, I had a nice,
you know, I'm good driving it
and thought,
oh, okay, well, maybe
the next time a driver
will be, I'll find a bit
more in it.
And then when I went to
look for that bit more,
I couldn't find it.
I ended it somehow.
Yeah.
And I think some of
that was in the tyres,
but some of that was
in the car.
I love it.
Like, I know it looks,
it's like a bit of a
thug to look at.
But I do love just
the way it sits,
just the attitude it has.
Yeah.
And really drivable
for such a powerful car.
Yeah.
It's one of my favourite
drives and it was the same
road.
I really enjoyed the
vanquish on.
Yeah.
And a bit like the vanquish
I was using the ten-stage
traction control,
gradually working my way
down to everything switched
off.
But it lets you access
more of what it can do in a
way.
Yeah.
I was very forced to icon
after Henry.
So it was a moment.
I was like,
yeah.
And it was.
Once it was in that mode,
you didn't feel.
So I tried this.
You didn't feel you were
lacking anything apart from
just.
Found again, you would get
to it's a limit.
And then when you went
looking for the other bit,
it was whether it didn't
to key into the road
or it's got a bit on
will be and then you were
constantly,
but you were often in the
your mind is this what's it going to do? I think it's kind of what I would hope the regular M2
would be and then the CS would feel a bit like something else. But not necessarily in the direction
they took the CSL. Yeah, the CSL was too far I think wasn't it, but yeah you're right you want
this that to be the standard car and then be able to fine tune the CS more. If I see a CS on the road
I'll still be like what? Yeah, like I'll kind of, there'll be a bit of me that wants to
drive it again. All right, yeah and I would like to drive one for six months. Yeah, it's been a year
be better but six months would be nice. But no, on some cut-to-tires. Yeah. Yes, it's weird the
car isn't it the right time of year. You want to drive again, it's not, I don't need to drive
that ever again sort of thing. It's still really competitive. Yeah, on those tires compared to everything
else or the cars they were on. Yeah, it would have made sense and similarly if you could have
driven it and proper drive-warm weather on cut-toes it would have made sense as well. That night
driver had a net where it jumped at my list, it was quite cold seeing the time I could cool down.
So those tires were actually the right toes to be able to be on. Probably feel that really helped
to help you. I think that's quite interesting though isn't it the way you know we can have
in detail but quite different feelings about the same car but it does actually
it all balances out. Balance out because some people will have had brilliant you know they've
driven it in the optimum conditions for the car or you have just when they're in the right
mood for it and they've scored it slightly higher as a consequence but I think it does
it does work. Yeah, the average yeah, averaging the scores out. I think it finished in an
appropriate place. Yeah, given given the average of everything. What if you think it was kind of
well see what's above it. Yeah, it's all pretty serious stuff. Yeah, so that them to
CS finished 5th, 90.6 which is kind of the top. So the top off those really tightly forth?
Yeah, so from 9th to 5th they were covered by less than a point and I think depending on
what judges had for breakfast you could have probably some of those positions might have changed
and scoring it is that you had to make a decision you had to commit a number to
to pay for and that's such a strong midfielder. I think Henry's was looking back. I don't
think we've had a midfield that tight before and then there's Dickie's point just a minute ago
that what's above it? Yeah, all of those cars. So yeah, the car that the the car above it that
finished 4th was 92.9 points was the Ferrari 12 cilindry. Is that a step? Yes, a proper step,
isn't it? Yeah, top four I've been seeing the schools are all proper steps. Yes, they're starting
to sort of ramp up the the difference. It's funny, I've felt a bit lost with the Ferrari having
looked really looking forward to driving it. First time I drove it, I just didn't
to the point where I don't really don't know where I'm going to get on with this at all.
It had that kind of quick not overly quick but considering the size and the the demeanor of
the car, it felt like its responses were really quick and the maybe the road was just too busy
and I couldn't use the engine. I said, I don't know, it's not what I thought it was going to be
and I drove it again and I liked it more and then I think the last more so the Thursday morning
and we all sort of set off at slightly different times and it was just after the summer come up
and I had like two hours in it on the on the route Napoleon and it was amazing. Like the perfect
couldn't have had a better combination of timing, road, car, mood, the end of the week.
We could drive it as fast as I wanted so I drove it fast for points but I didn't have anyone in
front of me, it didn't have anyone behind me. I think I came across two cars in the whole
drive and it was like bloody hell, this is one of the best drives I've ever had
even though it still isn't, you can have a winning drive in the car that doesn't
win the test somehow. I think just everything was right in that car and I could then separate it
say from the Aston because I think the amazing mode of Aston engine is it doesn't have the
it doesn't have the sort of this aristocratic kind of noble
refinement and reach and nuance and you know it's really fair, it doesn't sound superfears but
it is really, really, really fierce at the top end. But it's just it can kind of go from
one to ten in point one. So it's so malleable to your mood or the road or the mode and the
mode are so easy to you just knock it into whichever sport or whatever it is and leave it there
and then the bumpy road, bumpy road, but you never think about the mode after that, you just
enjoy your car, it was so good, it was so good, but I think I put it forth on my
car, but it confirmed to me where it sat. Yeah, nothing in North Yorkshire, it was a little bit
wrongfitted like the Aston, but not to the same degree, there was a clarity to the car,
yeah, the Aston, it wasn't quite sure, it was getting on it sometimes, isn't it?
And the Aston, the Ferrari would take, obviously take a little set every now and again,
but basically it was more clean and more readable, and I think I was leading you up one of the
hairpin hills and I driven it in the wet, the convertible one in the wet and gradually got my head
round that and you learn that you don't need to use a lot of throttle, just enough throttle,
well, unstecker, and it's the same in the dry in the car, going up the hill and then I just
turned everything off because you've got such great throttle control, you can measure around
so it was nice, so yeah, you just look at the corner and then if the corner opens out a little bit,
give it a bit more gas, yeah, so it's pretty, it's pretty special, and it just looked like a spaceship
everywhere, and I know we're not, we're not led to jobs, yeah, but bloody hell, wherever it went,
and when you're in it, you felt like you're in something really, really special, just the way the
interior looks and some of the screens and things are tricky, but I didn't find them as tricky,
weirdly as other Ferrari's, I think it's just such an unusual car, it's a being, and it doesn't,
it doesn't drive like recent Ferrari V12, so I wouldn't have said it, just calmed it down,
and it slowed it down just a little bit, which allows you to get on top of it and feel more comfort
about using the performance and the handling, I think. Good, you drove it in, and that driving
mecha of Luxembourg, that's right, at least for the first time you've driven it again, isn't it?
That's right, what was your thoughts on that James just sort of, oh, and this is what it should have
been like, it's been nearly a year since I've driven it, and as you say, the Luxembourg launch was,
yeah, it was an optimum setting or conditions, so I think, I think, part of me had forgotten how good
it was, and part of me maybe never fully appreciated just how good it was, because it's
breadth of ability is amazing, and it's a slightly weird car in some ways, because it's hard to put
it into a box, because it's got sort of the sense of occasion of a grand tour, and it is really
usable and really well-mannered, but it's so responsive like a sports car, and the way it gets
into and through a corner, it almost feels like the engine's behind you instead of in front of you,
and yeah, the engine is instantly responsive, but I've not driven the previous V12 front engine
Ferrari's, but everything I've heard of them, they sound completely arranged, yeah. Their default
is to be manic, and you have to sort of just force it to not... Yeah, you have to slow yourself,
yeah, you're in person, it seems the right way around you, you could wind yourself up and wind
the car up, and it would, I did miss a bit of the engine sound, but I wouldn't want it to be much...
No, more present, maybe more present, but not super vocal, because I think, yeah, I'm just a little
bit more of it, just because it makes a lovely sound, it's just a little bit muted maybe, yeah.
Yeah, there was that talk, I had to go to the, simply did the voting on Thursday, and then you
know who the winners and the podium are, and then we asked, we need to make sure that the car
is the winning car that we need to get all this hero stuff on, we need to make sure it's not
to be neglected before we can do it, so I had to go to the top of the mountain to get some phone
signal, and I was up there for quite a while, I came back down again and reporting to the car
park, you were looking at me with that look of something just happened, I was like, what now?
I think it was you, Dickie, you were just like, you go back and do that again, it was just so nice
to listen to, just going up and down, and sort of in the bowl, every time you turned up, yeah,
and whenever someone went off in it, you could just, there was a couple of cars in the test,
it just had such a distinctive note, they could only be the Ferrari, the Porsche Evert, or the Lambo,
and the Lambo, they could only just, you can just tell what car they were just by the night,
the others were just noise. I think visually as well that car works in three dimensions,
there's something about it, it doesn't come across in photos, it can look great in photos,
I think you have to see it sort of in the round, and I'm really looking forward to the final
legitor of the video, I think, because I think it'll come to life, maybe more in the video than
it does look a bit like a special, one-off, special for matchbox, in the same way. I know what you
mean, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, like a 70's kind of in the car, the future, yeah, yeah,
the band over from the trailer up and over the roof, when you're following it, it looks like a big hand,
oh my god, yeah, yeah, yeah, no, yeah, no, yeah, yeah, that was a remarkable, remarkable car, but
remarkable enough only to finish four, yeah, four. And halfway through the week, you know,
the way people were talking at at dinner, like you mentioned in the last podcast, we'll play our
cars quite close to our chest, and we don't really tell each other how we're going to vote, but
everyone was singing the Ferrari's praises so loud and strong, I thought I thought it was, yeah,
an outside chance of winning because it was, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's been 2014, it was the last time
the Ferrari won the car of the year, and the cars, that's not saying the cars aren't, I haven't been
getting better, but the filled and the other cars in there and just moving on, but yeah,
lovely thing, remarkable cars on those, that whole week, again, I don't know anyone had a
thuff drive in it, it took a while to get to know it. No, some people, I drove it, it was on the
twisty bit, but the tours have worked from where we parked at the base of the mountain, that last bit
and the roads quite polished and just everything you drove on that section didn't, it wasn't very
small, it was all representative of everywhere else you drove it, so it was quite dusty though,
yeah, it was a bit, it was quite narrow as well, and it was a bit stop start wasn't it, it was
and about a mile of fresh air, yeah, yeah, focusing, yeah, fourth of the Ferrari 92.9 on 93.9,
it was our first podium finisher, which was the quite remarkable Alpine A110R old team,
which was yeah, third place, so he wants to start with that, I loved it, I ended up absolutely loving
it, I initially wasn't sure because it's such having got used to the A110 and the S, then the R,
and the R's quite a big step in terms of spec and the way it looks, but actually the way it drives,
it's still within the same, feels like the same family of car, and then I got in the
old team and it's like bloody hell, this is really like the NVH man had to be here off when they
were there doing this, because it's like really quite coarse and a big step isn't it in that sense,
and you drive it and yeah, you feel like you've lost more of what made the other cars so good,
so then you think, it's got to be really good, the things it's been designed to do to compensate
for that, and then the more I drove it, the more I found those improvements and the less
the compromises bothered me, it was like a sort of we win almost, and the enthusiasm of
the engineer was, I think that's another bit of car here actually isn't it, the seriousness with
which the manufacturers take it and treat it with all the engineers and the support that we have
during the test, but he was particularly invested, wasn't it because he spent the last 10, 15 years of his
life from the very beginning of the project through to this one, so he knew absolutely everything
about it, and it's that sort of car isn't it, once you know the price tag is still nuts, but it
makes you can see why it's like that, because that's probably the least they could possibly get away
with charging for it, not losing fortune, not putting some profit on the top of the air thing. Funny
and I went the other way with the car. Did he? Yeah, I really enjoyed it to start with, and I drove it,
I think I drove it the first morning, and following Yusuf along the sweeping roads,
which were fantastic watching the sun come out on the mountains, brilliant, all fantastic days
like these, playing in your head, and every corner that Yusuf went into, he was driving the Merck
so which is about a thousand kilos more, and I just watched what he did on the way into the corner
to judge whether I needed to use any braking oil even to back off and just float in and out of these
corners, it was fabulous, fabulous, then got up into the airpins and it was just a bit cold and
it was pushing and the back would go. Yeah, it wasn't happy on the on the really really tight stuff.
No, but what the way I went through the week was I found it, to me, it just needed a specific set
of circumstances to be in place, to actually shine, and if it wasn't all aligned, it was actually
a little bit frustrating, so that's how I went. I think they were really brave to bring an R,
because I was still in my, or has it gone a bit too far mode when I got on the R on the on side?
Oh man, this is so much easier, just an easier thing, but still wonderful.
Yeah, but then when I got back in the
old team, old team able, whatever it now, we pronounced it. Yeah, it gave me all the things
I wanted, and then I checked the price again. I'll never have one of these, but you know,
I think it's such a special car. This is a little bit like a lease, isn't it? Yeah,
bog standard original K series engine, the lease, still fantastic. You know, you can drive
that kind 25 years tiny, it's still fantastic. Everything beyond that just feels like
you gain this, you lose a bit of their own. All the way compressed in sort of smaller
band widths. Yeah, but all the way out. I can exeach or something. Yeah, I love the fact that
they've done. I can't make on any, if you imagine if any other manufacturer did that for one,
just for one model, like if, haven't forbid, like the last GT3, what that would be like if the right
work, it's got actually, it's got basically an erase engine in it, and we've changed the subframe,
we've redone the air out again, and we've done this, we've done knee-dumbers, specific type.
It would be, you imagine what a manufacturer that already does that sort of stuff. Did it
have the same charge for it? Yeah, if you look at half a million. Yeah, with a GT3, for 110 cars
they're going to do, of those. I would think most will probably go to in France, because I've got
the biggest following. I think a couple are coming to you. Yeah, I think we expect to know those
at that time too, have been sold at the UK, and maybe some more. And they do right hand drives,
yeah, I think right hand drive too. Yeah. And as I said, it's not just about the car and it's
mechanicals, and there it drives, you can bespoke the whole interior as well within the price.
Yeah, and the exterior, special paint finishes and stuff like that. I'd much rather have one of those
than a lot of cars and a supercar hypercar, but I love those, I just love those sorts of projects
where there's a team of 10 people. Yeah, initially 10 people and doing evenings and weekends
like a skunk works. Yeah, I feel that didn't do was a manual gearbox, wasn't it? Yeah, but I didn't
which, yeah, the only thing they didn't do, yeah, but they did absolutely everything else.
No, proper special every special car, I think it so earned its place on the podium.
And in the right time and the right place, yeah, it could do things, no other car on that test.
Yeah, and it was, every drive was memorable for the right reasons, not because I don't know,
got to get it, the belt was on, and it's going to be harsh and it's going to be, but it didn't,
I had the best and worst of it in one drive, it was on the way back on. It might be in the last night
of the test, I can't remember now, but yeah, the temperature had dipped, so the tyres weren't
very happy to start with. Yeah, you were in the vanquish, I was pulling you down the hill,
and at the start it felt like the green flag lap before a race, because I was putting the harnesses
tighter. I was working the brake, the brakes were squeaking like crazy, because you're trying to
get some heat in the tyres, and then on the motorway, the engine is so resonant, because the engine
is the least memorable part of the normal A110, and then this one, the engine's such a big part,
it's very dominant, isn't it? Yeah, it sort of buzzes right through you with motorsport
spec mounts and bushings and stuff. And I actually found myself changing down to get the revs higher,
because it was less resonance. Yeah, there was this zone around 1400 RPM, which was like an
ematic drill or something, and then the road opened up, and it was this beautiful sweeping corner,
and it was one of the best drives I've ever had, it was incredible. It was amazing.
Amazing thing, Henry got out, I got in after Henry saw almost if I was following him around.
I'll take this, but go find a straight piece of road with no one behind you, and just hit the
brakes as hard as you can, and you won't trigger ABS or any, and no matter how it's so much
grip it generates from its target, because it doesn't weigh anything either. Yeah, just brakes,
so late, which meant you could brake so late into hair pins and stuff like that, but yes, you
needed the heat into it. Most of the time, you don't need to brake at all. Yeah, just turn.
I came back from that drive, we were all congregated in that labour at the top of the hill,
and with all the support cars and the other test cars, and obviously film people with kit everywhere.
You sort of pulled in, it did feel like you see on YouTube or Instagram, all normally
François Dedicaux's Instagram feed, when he's doing some testing, where they've closed
the section at Roe, just for some rally testing, and you did fill you in the right car
for that to put into a service stage, and it just felt spare without being extreme and just doing
one thing. It's just hardcore enough, isn't it? Yeah, the engine character is quite different,
like much more at the top end than in early doors, there's got a six-speed box instead of a seven-speed
box, isn't it? So that changes the race shows in the shifts that bit, just makes it more,
it's more immediate as well, isn't it? Yeah, put proper puddles in now as well,
instead of the tiny little ones you can't reach normally as well. No, that was, that was a very
special, I suppose, and if it is the last, it was quite a way to out on a hard drive. Yeah, I had a
part last time I drove it, I just sat there, switched it off and just sat there for a bit,
I just think, because you never know if you're going to drive on a drive on a low-scan,
and that's that sort of car. Hopefully we will, Jim, won't we?
So, second place on 95.8 points, again, of some of these stuff up. Very high school.
Porsche 911 GT3. There you go, where are we? Surely some mistakes.
Surely some mistakes. GT3 finishing second. What do you think of that? James, you did the
international launch, you drove it before we went out on Claudio in the UK for a story.
Confidently, he was going to do it over. Well, yeah, I thought it was a shoe-in, because I'm
really lucky, I think, out of everyone on the team, I've driven the GT3 the most, and actually
waited until later in the test to drive it, because I wanted everyone else to get in it and drive
it, and I've driven it on the road and on the track, so I know just how good it is in different
scenarios, and it was every bit as good on the route Napoleon as it was on the Nerva gring,
on the road in Spain. Yeah, I think, well, actually, Richard Tipper, one of the other drivers on
the test, had a really nice quote, he said, I feel like I was born in that car, because it just
feels so spot-on, isn't it? Everything you touch, every input you put in, you get an exact response
from, and it feels just right, and up in the mountains it felt like you're on a Monte Carlo stage
or something, but it doesn't drive itself, you have to really work hard, and you drive it differently
to keep the weight on the nose, and cars you want to, don't you? Yeah. If you don't fully understand
911s, you still get lots. Yeah, the more tricks you've got, the more experience you've got,
and the more comfortable you are with them, you can make it do much more than any of the other cars,
I think, just either big expressive kind of stuff, or just very slight adjustments of what it
does, when it does it, how it does it, it's so simple as well, isn't it? He's just
dropping it, pulling the seat, but on, starting it up, driving away, and then that's it,
isn't it? That's it, really, and you've got a damper button, and maybe occasionally.
It's awesome, that's probably about it, isn't it? Yeah, and it's the continuity between all the GT3s
we've ever had on cars of the year, they're all incrementally, they're all related to one another,
I mean, where you don't have that, or the M2, the first M2 CS, and they're like totally different
cars, aren't they? These are, they're always dialed in to exactly what you wanted them to do,
and this one's still, it's harder and harder for car to do that, I think. Now, the fact that it's still
does that. Yeah, amazing steering, it's just, yeah, it's so clean and, I guess, and I think the best
he has. And it filters out just enough, doesn't it, because it doesn't really kick back, and it
doesn't really, and yet you don't feel, it doesn't, it doesn't isolate you from, yeah. No, the way
the steering works is fantastic, but the way the car works with the steering as well is just,
and the four wheel steering is really well integrated too, because we had a lot of hairpins on some of
the roots, and it was great right now, you feel it, get into them so well, but it doesn't feel
some cars, and it, feel weird, and it hadn't, and then in the fast stuff, it just gives you that
stability. Yeah, it takes away some of the 911, sort of Bob, corners a bit flatter than he is.
But it, yeah, it just does, you get in it, and you feel comfortable, don't you, to drive it,
how you want to drive, you don't feel that you have to drive to its sort of remit. You can still
do all the 911 things, you just need to do them less, to make it do what you want to do, yeah,
it doesn't, so you don't get as much of the car moving around. Yeah, and it can do it all day,
because, you know, said the Merc turn its tires pink, because it worked some so hard,
that with the Land Rover could smell the brakes, or I could when I was driving it, anyway,
and some of the other cars, and this, you know, doesn't use its brakes, it barely,
barely touches its tires. Yeah, it's born to do it. Yeah, yeah. And I think it's
a much more satisfying car to drive generally, you know, when you're not on it, than the S-test.
Yeah, I grudge you and me and Henry had that conversation to get on with that clutch,
I thought it was just a push, you know, it's done too far. Yeah, it's a bit like what I would do,
and it's, oh, it's got some English, but if you want to enjoy 911, we enjoy it from
walking pace to whatever speed, and however hard you want to drive it. And you can just drift along
back to the gear lever around, and it makes you feel good. And you can, it's got a lot of
performance, but you can use a lot of that, yeah, quite a lot of the time, extending it more.
At least through a meaningful number of gears, you don't necessarily have to wind it right,
and it's a 9000 RPM, but even working it to seven or something, it sounds amazing, and it
raises sharp, isn't it? And just that gear shifts, and I know we should probably sell,
or we're only able to hear them to ourselves, but the auto blit as well, it's just really nicely
done, so you can back through the years and not have to, you still get the finesse in the car,
you just don't have to demonstrate. It's quite as much finesse yourself, but you kind of,
if you want to, it gives you the option, doesn't it? Yeah, so this all that and both and great.
And it gives you the option of a manual full stop, which no, that car in this test does,
yeah, absolutely, yeah, it felt, and there was times when you were driving it, it sounded great,
but you were thinking, oh, I wish I was at the top of the hill to listen to this coming up.
I don't know how they make it sound loud, I think these phenomenal, isn't it?
If you said, well, that's the winner, I'm going to go, yeah, that's quite right, but it was
actually beaten by car, which means it was a very special car that was beaten in the Lamborghini
Reviato, which scored 97.7 points, but there must be one of the highest scores.
Yeah, he's one of the highest scores, but it's also the first time since 2014 and the Ferrari 458
speciality, where it was unanimous winner. Everyone placed it first. It was, I think, the pre-event
predictions had the lambo pretty much everyone had it thought it would come first.
That's a surprise surprise, it did. Some of those are people who had driven it,
there's also those that hadn't driven it, but thought it would come through.
But what made that car stand out? Why was it in a very tough feel that we've gone through
very tight, GT3 was amazing, the Alpine was amazing, the Ferrari was amazing. What made the Lamborghini
stand out for us? For me, two things. One was every driver ahead of it was brilliant,
and the second one was compared to everything else. It had such a bandwidth. You could cruise around
town silently, we could scream it to 9000 RPM, you know, going up the hills. Yeah.
And it is a very impressive integration of all the hybrid stuff because you never really think
it's hybrid either. It's just as Dickie came back from the launch and said, just seems to have
added to the car rather than taken away from it, and it really has. And it's physically bigger,
like it's longer, wider, taller, heavier, isn't it? And that's what I've brought in that original
piece, is it feels shorter, narrower, lower, lighter. Yeah. And it drives in a way that it's
predecessors never ever, never ever did. No, I think, but has all their drama and theatre and
and craziness, but it's actually a really, really, really capable, competent, exploitable.
You know, what Colin said in his note was, this is the V12 Lamborghini, they've been promising
for kind of 40 years. Well, they reveled in the fact that they they were dinosaur. Yeah.
And just that became their thing because that's just what, whether it's because they didn't think
they could do anything other than that, or whether it just sold the cars, because everyone loved
that reputation. I don't know. Yeah, but also they wedded to the V12 as much as Ferrari were,
and that engine went last to the donkeys, didn't it? Yeah. Yeah.
The one in the eventador, same block as the mirror still in the eventador. Not eventador. So
Masiolago, sorry, the eventador was new, sorry. So yeah, I just think, yeah, it all works really
nicely together, but it's all properly rewarding as well. The steering is not the most community,
but it's absolutely there with this appropriate for the car, isn't it? I think, because you don't,
it probably masks the things you don't, you wouldn't want to feel any way, doesn't it filters those
out, but you always feel like you know what the car is going to do. And you know, it's going to be,
you know, if you take a liberty with it and the throttle, it's going to be a little bit spiking
certain situations, but it should be because it's, yeah, it's a thousand horsepower,
and the engine cipher cars. It's still quite a big heavy V12, you're behind you, isn't it? So
you shouldn't ever hide that, but I think that all the things we maybe would have feared,
the technology would have taken away or just added stuff we don't want. It's actually
brought all the best things out, and I did more good things to the way the car drives, I think.
Yeah, exactly with its dynamic balance, having the mass at the front, if you're going to put
the mass anywhere, that's what you needed to do with that. I couldn't want it to sound any better
than it does or anymore. Yeah, yeah. It has all the feel of an
naturally aspirated V12, doesn't it? Yeah, and then there's only electric on top of that,
no, nothing to blur the edges of it. It kind of almost makes it more finite.
It's sort of the feel, it felt like the most cohesive car of its type of integrating the
height. You mentioned, there is no, you don't know when you're on electric power or when you're on,
or when the motors are doing something and the V, it's all just seamless and the quality of
everything it does, and it just made its head and shoulders above everything else. Regardless
of what range, sometimes you'd be in a Lamborghini, if it was a half the road we were on in that week,
an event at all would have been, I devised what strive that back, and you'd be the slowest car,
not it's all about speed, but you just feel the least confident in them on certain roads,
wouldn't you just be on edge, it's too wide, I don't feel I've got the position in the car to
get it along this piece of road. It's just like you're driving in fog and everyone else isn't,
well yeah, and those old ones, you just can't keep those, I can't do this. I need to let everyone
go and I'll go, I'll go at my own pace, but it was remarkable that you didn't have to be,
you didn't have to have the V12 from singing to enjoy it either, you just watched the road come
towards you and just drive the road and it just felt absolutely spot on, which is, yeah it's
proper three-dimensional theory, isn't it rather than admittedly the one thing the old ones did
was pretty cool, but it was that one thing, wasn't it, and everything else was a bit of an
afterthought, I think it had the best of, or near enough the best of everything of every car,
it had pretty much every component was at the very top there was some that have
Porsche had better steering, but the Lamborghini wasn't that far behind it. Ferrari had probably
the best ride in adaptability surfaces, but the Lamborghini wasn't that far behind it,
it was very good, managing the road surface and undulations and things like that,
and it had that manic throttle response, but the Ferrari and the Porsche had with their NAN
for the first time, it's a proper supercar, I was going to think it is a supercar, not a hypercar
because it doesn't have to make any excuses for going too far in one direction, does it,
what those cars always, doesn't really need excuses at all, no, no, no, no, I could
happily sing myself using that for a year, I think you could use it a lot more than you might
imagine, definitely, now it's a cracking car, and again in the company that we had and how tight
it was, it seemed to be, it was a step up from the other contenders which is quite an achievement in
a year where we've had such a strong field of work. I think it could have been the car that we thought,
well we can't have a GT3 winning again, but we need to just find a reason to put something
in front of it, but it's that result, you can defend, if anyone's saying, but what about that,
you can defend every single area of what the Lamborghini does, because it's right up there,
and then I think the only car as well, the others you had a great drive in, then you might have a
not quite as good, then it'd be good again, and then where I think the Lamborghini, whenever I
spoke to someone or if you saw someone get out of it, they all had that expression, even doing
photography in it, which is not like where you have to do awkward turns and climbing in and out
of it, or it's just a can be a bit of a ball, a source of cars, it was like you said, every time
everyone drove it, it was amazing, it was nothing you had a bad drive in it, and whether you've got
the graveyard shift of driving it back later, you didn't care, whereas as you've mentioned
a minute ago, you would previously be like, yeah, it wouldn't be your first choice when you've
had a 14 hour day or something, yeah, or the first one in the morning when it's dark, and you're
zoned up, and my leading out great, and it's dark, and the sun's coming up, I'm not quite sure where
I'm going, and Frost's sign is lit up on me, yeah, it keeps coming on and off, on and off, you're not
too sure, but yeah, it was a remarkable, a remarkable year, but an outstanding winner I think,
so congratulations to Lamborghini, I think that is a high watermark they've set with that car,
yeah, a quite remarkable thing, and away from Ecote every time you've driven it, you've been,
yeah, that's what I'm saying, not just all the drives on Ecote, I went to collect it from
Hatfield, drove back, took most of my neighbours out, even if they didn't want to go out,
and every drive thing was fantastic as well, but yeah, it wows people, but as the driver, you can
stroke it along and feel very in control, and you're still going very quickly, and you're past
news, I think it's changed my feelings around, like I love Lamborghini's for what they are,
because you sort of fall in love with them when you're a kid, and then you never really lose that
that sense of, yeah, I don't know, if you had to show an alien, what's the supercar, you'd probably
point out that any Lamborghini in the last 50 years wouldn't you, but I've always thought I'm not
really a Lamborghini person, because it does all of that show off stuff, but it doesn't really
deliver on the things that I want from a car, but this one does, absolutely, you're not,
you're not feeling like you've sold out to have that car, it does everything.
I can't imagine an SV version.
Well, I don't know what they can really do to take it, to lose something,
because it's all so well-balanced. I think I know what they would get from it,
which is another six figures on the price for all the options. I mean, the only car I've seen
has an option for flormats. Yeah, has an option for flormats, which you can then put options
on the flormats. Is it spelled gold or something? I don't know what it is, but yeah, it's quite
impressive a way of making money on my car, but yeah, as you said, how can you
less an SV and an SVJ, and it feels like it doesn't need it, because you just can take weight out
of it. Yeah, some more exotic materials and trimming, but in a way that the 911 has
so dogged every other performance carmaker, you could put the rev-wells here into every hypercar
test. Yeah, and it would show them up. Yes, you could put it here because the big, the big
hypercar boys, and you think, well, why don't you spend twice as much again? Yeah, no, it's a
remarkable car, an obviously unanimous verdict for the first time in 11 years, and also
remarkably Lamborghini's first EVO-car VW. Wow, well, it deserves it. For your first one, that's
quite a high watch mark, they said themselves. So in their second drop mic and yeah, not worry.
So just to finish off them, what do we think 2025 says about the state of the performance car
world of the back of that test? Those cars, a strong year, where does it rank? We think in other
years as well. That's right up there, isn't it? I would say in quality of the cars and the
quality of the week, like purely selfishly. Yeah, it was a great week on great roads, a good
great bunch of people and all the things that we've run it. Great amount of baguettes to treat.
Yeah, you're an awful lot of cheese and ham. If the only disappointing thing is the fact that there
isn't a clear cup or a theme through the week, wasn't it? Yeah, the cheapest car being between
$16.70 grand. Yes, there wasn't that Hyundai I-20N or Fiesta RST or G.I. Yaris.
But that's the only thing that was missing from me. Yeah, things are really heartening actually
because I think it's easy to get a little bit worried about the way everything's going.
Well, we've been talking everything down for years. But maybe, well, I don't know. You sort of
keep saying it, don't we? But all the time, this sort of death, supposed death throws of
petrol keep getting extended by a year or two, I think, would probably, maybe they're going to sustain
and this sort of peak because things won't fundamentally change. Yeah, there's a few manufacturers
talking about restarting ice programs because they're going to do pure ice, but because they
produce hybrids, which is where the market is. And I think we're drifting. When the choice was
between ice and hybrid, we would generally err towards ice and now when it's ice hybrid or
Bev or hybrid or Bev that the hybrid is by far the least worst in a lot of cases, isn't it?
So yeah, so Tesla or Revwell, too. But after when the hybrid stuff is done really well,
I think you don't really know, I mean, you know, it's a component of the package, but yeah, it's
just like a long, long time ago when turbocharging was new, I think, whereas it's now,
it's a means to an end, isn't it emissions wise? Actually, it's used as another performance in
enhancing tool as much as anything because it's so integral to how you make the gear shift feel the
weight does and the traction control work and everything else, torque feeling. And it's not
just being used to make a big slab of torque now, is it can be shaped and used?
Rory do that with a 12-cylindry, the way it delivers the torque that's designed it, so it sort of
gives you more as you go on as this crescendo feel. I think this won't be the last hybrid car
that wins Carly or I don't think that's... No, I hope so. There's the way it's going, but I think
the technology that's there, it's just they're all going to be complementary systems,
rather than I think they're there for necessity for a means to an end to hit a target,
but it's... I think we started the year quite pessimistic of, is there going to be enough cars?
Are they going to be interesting, exciting and good enough? And we ended up with a dozen cars that
yeah, it quickly became apparent that they were going to be a strong, you know, a lot of cars to
choose from. I mean, there'll be a lot of cars to choose from. Yes, here's a list here of
just some cars that we know from Aslan Martin, Valhalla's and Vaughan to Jesse's and Speciale's and
849 Testerosses Turbo S, 9M Turbo S. Could be a geochroner in the UK finally, RS3 GT RS5,
CLE's finally getting a V8 back in it rather than the mild hybrid. RS3 GT could be the...
Yeah, yeah, the £100,000 hot hatch. Well, yeah, yeah, that about...
100% even, you know, it hasn't got the power, but it's got a really good chassis and
there's... yeah, next year's already shaping up to be a strong year again. So I think it's
probably a good place to wrap it up. So congratulations, Lamma Gini, on your LL first wind.
Dickie, John, James, Cole, Henry, Yusif, thank you as well for your judging and also everyone who
helped us on Carview this year and the techs and the support we had from the manufacturers without
you wouldn't be able to do it. So thank you very much. This is our last podcast of the year.
We're having a bit of a break over Christmas to eat some mince pies. So join us back on the
fifth of January. We have another special two-part EVO podcast for you with a very special guest.
So yeah, thank you very much for your support this year. Have a good break, good Christmas,
whatever you're up to and we will see you in the near.
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