The best performance car of 2025 revealed: evo Car of the Year podcast | part two

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

The best performance car of 2025 revealed: evo Car of the Year podcast | part two

Ferrari

car of the year

test cars

route Napoleon

Alpine A110

Audi RS3

BMW

Chevrolet Corvette E-Roy

Lamborghini Revuelto

Land Rover

Maserati

Mercedes-Benz

Morgan

Porsche

1.4 TFSI

Mercedes AMG GT63 Pro

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