Tabla de contenidos para February 2024 en Evo

SOME IDLE TIME WITH A WEB browser before the world stopped for mince pies and Die Hard confirmed something many had been predicting was on its way: the car market has started its ‘readjustment’ with some truly eye-opening results. As I write (the first week of January) you can find new BMW M3 Tourings with circa £5000 off their list price, with saloons getting double that discount. Or how does nearly £19,000 off an Audi RS6 Performance grab you? Fancy a hot hatch? There are dealers offering £5000 off a Cupra Leon and the same again off the list price of a fully loaded Golf R. Even the great depreciation dodger, Porsche’s 911, isn’t immune, with one new 992 Turbo S Cabriolet being offered with a £22,000 saving. There is some…

JUST AS THE MERCEDES-AMG A45 S superhatch tested inevo 313 has been given the lightest of facelifts, so too has the one-rung-down A35 hatch (driven in our all comers hot hatch test later in this issue) and this, its four-door coupe-bodied CLA 35 variant. They’re tiny, almost imperceptible updates, but they’re there: new LED innards for the headlights and rear lights, a new vertical-finned grille resembling that of bigger AMG models, an altered bumper apron and the trad three-pointed star badge on the bonnet swapped for an AMG emblem. New wheel designs, too. There are more changes inside, with the latest AMG Performance steering wheel now standard, with glossy double spokes incorporating touch sensitive controls. Limpet-like mode switches cling to the spokes, for quick access to tweak the drivetrain, dampers,…

FIORANO. CRUCIBLE OF THE SCUDERIA’S RACING efforts and the place where countless legendary road cars have been put through their paces. The most famous test track of them all has been central to Ferrari’s activities for more than half a century. Tifoso or not, it is sacred ground. Arriving at the gates is always a goosebumps moment. Getting beyond security is always a challenge – even when you’re an invited guest attending an international media event they are as welcoming as US Immigration – but once inside you can’t help but lose yourself in the specialness of this place. It’s tidier than in the old days, the track and its surroundings developed and groomed for an increasingly customer-facing role. Still, if you manage to slip away from the media scrum…

IN A SHOOT-OUT TO FIND THE GREATEST hot hatch you can still buy, it’s a shame that the car that has defined the genre for nearly five decades doesn’t make the cut. Volkswagen might not have been the first company to make a hatchback hot, but when it launched the first Golf GTI back in 1975 it turned a niche into a segment; it was originally planned as limited-edition run of 5000, but by 1983 over 450,000 Mk1 GTIs had been sold. As we know from film franchises, rock bands and book series, not every follow-up hits the heights of the original, and certain generations of Golf GTI have under-delivered. Sadly, the long-established strengths and charms of the hot Golf are particularly hard to find in the current Mk8 GTI…

MY MUSCLE MEMORY HAS ADAPTED to the M4 now. I drop into the driver’s seat in one movement without bruising myself on its rock-hard base bolsters, and its position is set just so. I reach for the engine-start button without looking, pressing once to flick the ignition on and wake the screens to life, then again to start the engine. In between, I always press the sports exhaust button behind the starter, next to the gear selector – not to switch the noisy mode on, but to switch it off before firing the engine. Its default mode is to be at its loudest and, living in a crowded street, I feel a bit self-conscious of the exhausts’ burly burr, especially early in the morning. The M4’s actually quite subdued and…

MEET EVO’S LATEST PHOTOGRAPHER’S workhorse. It’s an all-new CX-60, Mazda’s mid-size SUV equipped with a freshly developed 3.3-litre straight-six diesel engine that delivers 250bhp and 406lb ft of torque. It’s fair to say that the CX-60 is a bit of an unknown quantity around these parts, so I’m curious to see how it compares to other SUVs I’ve run in the past, while accounts are looking forward to fewer fuel receipts. The design of the CX-60 is intriguing, with a dominant front grille flanked by small LED headlights, then a flat profile that gives it a boxy visual appeal. Other standout details are the ‘Inline 6’ badges in the front wings, quad exhaust exits (sadly fake) and a set of 20-inch silver metallic alloy wheels that look surprisingly small in…

The trackday season will be here before you know it – including evo’s: book your space at evotrackdays.co.uk. And the good news is you don’t need to spend £192,000 on a Porsche 992 GT3 RS to have a great time. Venture into the classifieds and there are purpose-built tools to suit every budget, each offering the kind of speed and interaction that will test your ability and reward you in equal measure. Some can even double up as your everyday car. Despite what marketing departments might have you believe, not all modern performance cars are suited to track use. Many are capable of stunning lap times, but if you’re driving something heavy you’ll be chewing through consumables in no time. Our second-hand picks have been specifically engineered for the job,…

SLIP INTO THE DRIVER’S SEAT OF THE second-generation GR Yaris, place your hands on the wheel and cast an eye over the new, bespoke facia. You might conclude that the development team’s work here is done. The previous high-rise driving position was a bugbear for many but there’s more here than just the 25mm seat drop; Toyota has also repositioned the steering column and wheel to suit, raised the rear-view mirror and dropped the centre screen into the new facia, improving visibility. Before it’s turned a wheel it’s a car transformed, and there’s lots, lots more. The feisty little Yaris was already a cracking fast hatch, as is reiterated elsewhere in this issue, but for all its character, ability and WRC pedigree, there was room for improvement, mostly in ergonomics,…

REPORTS OF THE DEATH OF THE HOT HATCH ARE GREATLY exaggerated. At least that’s what Alpine would have us believe. Having teased us with the A290_β concept last year, it has now released the first details of the production version ahead of its launch later this year. Now confirmed as the A290, Alpine’s first EV will appear ahead of its Renault counterpart previewed in the 2023 R5 concept. Not only will it boast more power than its R5 relation, but it will benefit from bespoke hardware and software tuning that will clearly differentiate its performance and character. Dimensionally the A290 is reasonably compact at 3990mm long, 1820mm wide and 1520mm high, with a 2530mm wheelbase. Think a bit smaller than the Hyundai Ioniq 5 and a bit bigger than the…

EVO’S CAR OF THE YEAR TEST RARELY DISAPPOINTS, AND 2023 was no different. Superb writing and insights from the editorial crew, stunning photography, and a stellar selection of cars. Reading about the logistics of the entire week also gave us an enjoyable insight into the behind-the-scenes antics that don’t quite make it into regular articles; a bit like a film commentary on a Blu-ray or DVD, with some added Meaden recipes for good measure. The GT3 RS appears to be an extremely capable and deserving winner but, with respect, does so by following the Porsche GT department rulebook. Which is why I found the Lamborghini Huracán Sterrato to be somewhat of a spiritual victor; it has attributes that you may never expect a Lamborghini road car to possess, and exploits…

THE WORLD BEYOND MAY HAVE CHANGED, BUT within the barriers of Fiorano, inside this gorgeous powder blue Ferrari Daytona, it’s 1972. Of course it is; the car is immaculate, its wood-rimmed Nardi wheel box fresh in my hands, the suede dashboard crisp and bobble-free. The circuit traces the same path as when it opened 51 years ago too, and as I squeeze the throttle out of Fiorano’s hairpin, I’m reminded that these were the days before e-diffs and traction control. The big Daytona lurches into a few degrees of slip and I open the steering wheel to keep its long nose pointing vaguely where I’d like to go next. Did I mention it was raining? I’ve never driven a Ferrari before, and editor-in-chief Stuart Gallagher is acutely aware of this.…

NOVEMBER 1997 AND A COLD, GREY MORNING at the Millbrook proving ground. A secret Aston Martin concept is parked at the base of the famous Hill Route. It’s here for a photo op with Ford president and CEO Jac Nasser, Aston being part of the Blue Oval’s much-vaunted Premier Automotive Group. Also in attendance are Aston CEO Bob Dover and designer Ian Callum, both keen to hear Nasser’s verdict. But first, with the photo op bagged, Jac wants to go for a drive. Unlike many a show-car mock-up, Project Vantage, as it’s known, is fully functioning – up to a point. Under the bonnet is a 5.9-litre V12 engine originally built for a Ford supercar concept but now earmarked for a potential starring role in future Aston road cars. It’s…

‘THEY LOOK LIKE PIECES OF ART, BUT will they ruin my car?’ I ask Steffen Dobke, founder of Lotus specialist Analogue Automotive. He’s convinced that, despite a 50 per cent increase in spring rate, a set of Nitron NTR40 coilovers will actually improve my Elise as a road car. The Elise that I fell in love with for its wonderfully supple, free-breathing feel on craggy B-roads. Hmm. evo’s first visit to Analogue Automotive was last spring, when we drove the meticulously engineered, £100,000 Elise SuperSport restomod (issue 311). That car opened my eyes to the kind of ravenous performance the platform is capable of, but left me with one slight reservation. The SuperSport rides on Nitron NTR46 suspension, and while it endows the car with stunning grip and precision, I…

LET’S MAKE ONE THING CLEAR FROM THE start: the BMW i5 M60 is an exceptional electric saloon – one of the best of its type – but it doesn’t feel like a truly engaging M product. Judged as such, the M60 is proof that hot EVs have a real task on their hands to conjure up a meaningful shift in personality beyond the extra performance they offer. Hyundai cracked it with the Ioniq 5 N (see evo 317), and perhaps BMW will when it launches its first fully-fledged electric M car (an M3, due in 2027). But it hasn’t here. This might come as a surprise when you consider that, technically speaking, the M60 is more than just a warmed-up i5. It runs on the same Cluster Architecture platform as…

THE HOT HATCH WAS ONCE A CORNERSTONE OF the performance car world, and a significant slice of the automotive market as a whole. Practically every mainstream manufacturer had at least one raised-in-power, lowered-in-suspension, bespoilered-in-bumper development of a regular hatchback – and often there’d be many, covering various sizes and door counts. Today the representatives of the entire UK hot hatch market fit into half the length of the pitlane here at Bedford Autodrome. In its current form the hot hatch is not so much an endangered species as one confirmed for extinction, for manifold reasons. Leaving the impending combustion engine sales cut-off aside, there are other factors at play: the need for manufacturers to reduce fleet-average emissions; packaging, production and engine development costs making profit margins for smaller cars more…

IT’S HARD NOT TO ADMIRE CHEVROLET AND THE team behind the Corvette. First they make the controversial switch to a mid-engine platform for the eighth-generation Stingray in search of greater performance and dynamic polish – a big gamble for a car that sells in vast numbers to a mostly conservative, traditionalist crowd. Next they set about tackling the Porsche 911 GT3 with the hardcore Z06 version by channelling the Ferrari 458 Speciale. Just like the Porsche, the Z06 benefits from a bespoke, motorsport-derived engine. However, this one is a 5.5-litre flat-plane-crank V8 modelled on the staggering Speciale engine and developing 670bhp at 8400rpm. Incredible. The car’s pretty good too, as John Barker discovered in issue 310, where he was moved to say ‘at times it feels like you’re driving a…

WE HAVE NOW COVERED OVER 20,000 MILES IN Aston Martin DBXs onevo’s Fast Fleet, initially with the original 542bhp model for six months in 2021, then more recently in this 697bhp 707 version. It remains one of the few dynamic success stories within the performance SUV sector. Alongside Porsche’s Cayenne, the old Turbo GT especially, and Ferrari’s new Purosangue, it’s one of a small group of 2.2-ton-plus behemoths that can walk the walk they talk so much about. Audi’s RS Q8, BMW’s X5/X6/XM, anything with an AMG badge, the Urus… they’re predominately marketing exercises chasing numbers. The lesser models in their families are all better at doing what they were initially designed to do. Which is where the DBX scores so highly. It was designed to be a luxury performance…

I SEEM TO HAVE SPENT MY LIFE IN THE Giulia since taking over custody from John Barker. Pretty much the first thing I did in it was a road trip to the Swiss Alps to visit my in-laws. Preferring wheels to wings, the-1500-mile round-trip is one of the most comprehensive tests of a car’s all-round capabilities I know. The Alfa proved to be a great partner, making swift, smooth progress and remaining extremely comfortable throughout the 12-hour each-way journeys. It’s got a really useful 450-plus mile range, which meant we could really make some progress, and was nudging 37mpg by the time we arrived in the mountains. Not bad considering we were cruising at a decent lick, at least until we crossed into Switzerland. At the other end of the scale,…

NEVER HAVE I BEEN MORE APPREHENSIVE about the arrival of a new long-termer with my name on it. I know I shouldn’t have been. I hadn’t yet driven a GR86, but I’d read all the glowing reviews, heard my colleagues rave about it, and gasped at its second-place finish at eCoty 2022. (Second place! Ahead of the Ferrari 296 GTB and McLaren Artura!) Yet still I had doubts. Maybe they all liked it but I wouldn’t… The problem – my problem – was that I couldn’t separate the abilities of the GR86 from those of its GT86 predecessor. And the GT86 was a car I never really ‘got’. Its elevator pitch sounded like the stuff of real-world performance car dreams: affordable, compact, light, manual, rear-drive, modest power, minimal grip. However,…