HAS THERE EVER BEEN ANOTHER YEAR LIKE it? A year when so many mid-engined supercars and sports cars have been launched and/or updated that we could fill an entire evo Car of the Year shortlist with them? We very nearly did, too...
We had eight on the list and five made it to the north of England for a week of driving on one of the toughest UK-based eCoty routes we've devised. The three that didn't make it weren't victims of a brutal judgement cut made by your judges, rather they were all tripped up by their respective manufacturers.
Chevrolet tried damned hard to get us a C8 Corvette Stingray. Their UK press demo is in the country (see issue 303) and it's a model that started to eat away under our skin the moment we first drove it way back when in the US. Unfortunately, at the eleventh hour Chevrolet delivered the news that it couldn't deliver a car in time. They were as gutted as we were. Still, there's always next year and the Z06...
Lotus will be looking towards 2023's eCoty too. Its Emira was a shoo-in from the moment we drove a prototype in March and thought 'that's it'. With a final layer of production polish it would be the first Lotus contender for half a decade. It went downhill from there. The launch car provided in May was a mismatch of specs a customer couldn't buy, leaving a cloud over our verdict. Factor in parts and manufacturer delays throughout the summer and customer deliveries pushed back, and at the eleventh and a half hour Lotus's distraught PR broke the news that an Emira couldn't be made available. There's always next year for the AMG-powered version.
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BEST BUYS BMW M CARS
THE PERFORMANCE CAR LANDSCAPE WOULD HAVE looked very different over the last five decades without BMW. Its M division, founded in 1972, has produced some of the best driver’s cars ever to hit the road, and in the process has provided a stream of benchmark models for its rivals to chase. In recent years, stricter emissions regulations, downsizing and electrification have seen some of those rival cars falter, yet by and large BMW’s M machines have remained strong. In fact, some rank among the greatest the department has made think of the eCoty-winning M2 CS and M5 CS while others are the only options worth recommending in their respective segments. Price tags have risen with performance, however, putting those latest offerings out of reach for many, but the marque’s popularity means there are numerous earlier M models available on the second-hand market for far more attainable figures. Here are four of our favourites.
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A liberal sprinkling of Honda Type R fairy dust on the late-'90s Accord produced an unlikely evo icon and a genuine performance bargain
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Where best to store some of Toyota’s most prized and valuable racing superstars? Under the wind tunnel at its Cologne HO, of course...
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It develops 819bhp. It has no turbochargers, no hybrid assistance. Ferrari describes it as the most complete GT it's ever made. And it’s so proud of its mighty V12 engine it’s named the whole car after it. This is the 12 Cilindri
THE FIRST SAMURAIS
Japan has been responsible for many of our favourite driver's cars of recent decades, but their ancestors are often much less well known. We take a look at where the big manufacturers began their performance car journeys
DEFINITELY. NO MAYBE
Three Japanese performance icons - Lexus LFA, Subaru Impreza 22B and Nissan GT-R. Over three days on some of our favourite roads we explore what makes each uniquely thrilling, but also the car culture that unites them
1V3.0
F1, P1... and now W1. The next chapter in McLaren's Ultimate Series is the British firm's challenger to the forthcoming new Ferrari hypercar and a £2million, 1257bhp, hybrid-powered, technical tour de force
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One man’s dream to build the perfect Porsche 911 has resulted inthis aaticMously restored and enhanced classic. We delve into the details and take it for a drive
Bentley Continental GT Speed
The new Continental GT is the most powerful Bentley ever, and the beginning of anew plug-in hybrid era for Crewe. But is it still a benchmark grand tourer?
