FIFTEEN CARS SQUEEZED INTO CADWELL PARK'S tree-shaded assembly area: hatchbacks, saloons, roadsters, sports cars with and without roofs (and doors), rare exotica and down-to-earth affordable heroes. All of the cars in this line-up are purposely very different to reflect just how broad the world of performance cars is, but each of them would be right at home at an evo trackday. The winner will not be the fastest car around the lap, but the one that feels the most enjoyable, exploitable and genuinely thrilling.
If the performance car world is a broad church, then the world of track driving is, ostensibly, a narrower one. But it's a fascinating one nonetheless. You can learn things about a car on a track that you simply can't on the road, and to experience a car in the no-limits environment of a circuit is a very particular, distilled expression of The Thrill of Driving.
There's also a certain fascination in discovering what a car can ultimately do on a circuit.
Although this isn't a test of which is quickest, we will set lap times in every car. Apart from being interesting to know exactly where they all stand, pushing a car to set a time may reveal further facets of its character that driving at seven or eight tenths would not. Nonetheless, this test is more about tactility, involvement, balance, feedback at the limit, and above all-fun, than outright pace.
Our reigning eCoty champ is back for TCoty. We already know that the Porsche 911 GT3 RS is phenomenal on track from our time at its Silverstone launch (and unexpectedly brilliant on the road from its evo Car of the Year win last year).
So it's back as a known quantity: we'll lap it first to function as a benchmark for the other cars of all shapes and sizes. It'll be interesting, too, to see how this big-downforce car translates to Cadwell Park's narrow confines.
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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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