Evo July 2021

IT’S BECOMING EASIER TO BE EVER MORE cynical in this game. Cars are getting heavier because of the unnecessary tech being added to them to inflate the retail price. They chase outright speed and performance at the cost of involvement and accessibility because the former provides a quick-hit marketing win. They carry asking prices that are no longer relevant in the world of finance and monthly payments. It’s an endless spiral of decline for the driver’s car. Or there’s the alternative narrative that says we are entering a golden era of next-generation driver’s cars. So far this year we have driven a GT Black Series (pictured) of such potency it’s hard to imagine it came from a manufacturer that also makes the B-class, three new BMW M-cars that continue the purple…

WE’VE BEEN HERE BEFORE: MORE power, less weight, a sprinkling of detail changes to aero and suspension, ‘Gold Bronze’ wheels and a little badge that says ‘CS’. It worked for the M2 and now we get to see if the transformative effect of relatively subtle upgrades is upheld when the basis of the package is an M5 Competition. Subtle or not, the gentle massage for the 4.4-litre twin-turbocharged V8 has created quite a headline. The M5 CS is the most powerful BMW ever. An eye-watering £140,780 buys you a supersaloon with 626bhp, 553lb ft and the capability to hit 62mph from rest in 3.0sec. It’s easy to get transfixed by the numbers. But you know what? They disappear like dandelions in a breeze when you’re holding on to the Alcantara-trimmed wheel…

FORGET THE CURIOUS BRANDING AND the long-winded official name, because once you look beyond such obstacles the Cupra Leon 5dr 2.0 TSI DSG-auto Petrol 300 is actually a cracking hot hatch. One that combines searing pace, arresting looks, decent practicality and a fine chassis, all under one (in this case) Petrol Blue Matt roof. And it’s all yours from just £35,030. I say ‘just’ because essentially the Leon 300 is a Golf GTI Clubsport wearing a smart new Latin suit but with a price tag that’s £2200 more interesting. So even if you don’t much care for the styling and still find the badge confusing, you can’t argue with the underpinnings or the price. As it turns out, the Leon 300 is actually rather more than just a restyled Golf GTI Clubsport…

THERE’S NOTHING MORE EXCITING THAN waking up early to drive to a trackday. Even better if it’s a ‘proper’ track. Think Spa, Silverstone or the Ring. You’ve checked levels and tyres and planned your breakfast stop en route to the circuit. The pain of paying out several hundred pounds recedes as your adrenaline levels start to gently percolate; the fear of mechanical issues is neatly packaged away in a box deep within the recesses of your brain, and very soon you’ll get to feel the freedom of driving as fast as you dare, surrounded by like-minded friends and strangers who nevertheless feel like brothers and sisters in arms. To understand the Ram 1500 TRX requires you to capture that feeling and transplant it into a different environment. One very alien to…

YOU COULD BE FORGIVEN FOR THINKING that the Taycan Cross Turismo is evo’s worst nightmare. Not only is it a 2.3-ton electric vehicle, it’s also a rather unusual form of crossover, and let’s be honest, that particular genre has yielded some of the most pointlessly compromised and thoroughly vacuous vehicles ever to pass down a production line. The Vauxhall Adam Rocks. The BMW X6. It’s a rogues’ gallery, make no mistake. The Taycan Cross Turismo is an entirely different proposition, however. You may have seen footage of it flamboyantly blasting along gravel tracks like a doomed prototype enduring destruction testing, but while it will indeed do that (at potential cost to the underside of the car if you’re brutal about it), this isn’t some jacked-up Taycan with phoney off-road pretensions. It…

DON’T BE EMBARRASSED IF YOU THOUGHT Maserati had quietly put the Quattroporte out to pasture while it focused on launching the Levante SUV, revealing a hybridisation strategy for the smaller Ghibli saloon and throwing its MC20-branded cap into the mid-engined hybrid supercar ring. I had too. Then a trio of new Trofeo models were announced earlier this year, amongst them a Quattroporte version. In the nine years since this sixth-generation Quattroporte was launched, BMW and AMG have introduced two generations each of the M5 and E63 respectively, Audi has had two new RS6s and Jaguar has killed off the XJ. Yet still the Quattroporte catches your eye when you see it loitering in a car park, and not solely because you’re about to exclaim, ‘Look! It’s a Quattroporte! When was the…