Tabla de contenidos para January 2025 en Evo

THIS IS THE EDITORIAL LEADER that is – normally – the easiest to write. It’s the last of the year, which means a straightforward look back at the highs, the lows and the ideas that would have worked better in hindsight. There’s a small problem with this plan, and that is that 2024 has been unprecedented in terms of activity. In the first two months of the last quarter of 2024 (and there’s a month to go as I write this) CYVN Holdings, the Abu Dhabi investment fund, has entered into a non-binding agreement with McLaren with a view to buy 100 per cent of the troubled British marque from the Bahrain investment fund. Lotus has announced it is reversing its plans to go 100 per cent electric by2028, instead…

WHATEVER YOU THINK OF THE URUS, IT breeds loyalty. Many owners are on their second or third example, working their way through its various evolutions and almost infinite spec combinations. It’s been an unbridled success story for Lamborghini, achieving the ‘Cayenne effect’ of exponentially raising sales and profits while also breeding a whole new generation of Lamboistas. It’s carved out a following of its own, one containing way more under 40s and female buyers than the brand was previously accustomed to. Continuing its success is this new Urus SE, already sold out until 2026. It presents a new chapter for the Urus, with a mid-life facelift and the introduction of hybrid tech. Its combination of 4-litre twin-turbo V8, rear e-motor and 25.9kWh battery is familiar from other heavy-hitting VW Group…

WE LOOK AT THE COW. THE COW LOOKS BACK AT US. It’s not budging. We’re somewhere in the Pyrenees, possibly France, probably Spain, on a road thrown like a skipping rope across the border. Our convoy’s been skipping along a mountain pass that’s grown steadily more beautiful with every passing kilometre, the cars up on their toes and dancing through tightly coiled hairpins and whip-crack sweepers. As we’ve climbed further above the clouds, the wildlife has become bolder as well as bigger, and our pace has dropped to an amble as we encounter supersized hares, mountain goats and wild horses occasionally crossing the tarmac. And cattle. Our convoy’s been halted by a particularly colossal bovine, standing monolith-like in the centre of the road. Thunderous BMW M4 CS, low-slung McLaren, daffodil…

By the slimmest of margins, the 911 S/T is evo Car of the Year 2024. With its manual gearbox, inertia-free flat-six and shorter gearing, the limited-edition 911 is in some ways more focused than even the 911 GT3 RS that won last year. And what a flat-six it is, somehow more vibrant and visceral being hooked up to a six-speed manual, and more thrilling at 9000rpm when you know you’ve got to nail the next shift. That demand of the driver extends to the chassis, which, without rear-steer (one of the spec choices that helps make this the lightest 992 of all) means you have to be more positive, more deliberate, more involved, to make the most of the sporty Michelin Cup 2s. No question, it’s a car that demands…

VERY OCCASIONALLY EVERYTHING JUST CLICKS, just falls together beautifully, almost like a spell. The car, the road and the conditions combine so well it’s almost surreal. But you know it’s real because the car in your hands and beneath you is alive, responding to your smallest inputs, shifting its balance to refine a line in order to transition perfectly into the next turn, maintaining the mesmerising, exhilarating flow. Sometimes these magic moments go on for a few miles but this one went on for half an hour, with just a minor delay for cattle in the road. And the car that delivered my most satisfying drive, not just on eCoty but of the whole year? The Mazda MX-5, all 181bhp and 1096kg of it. It was at the end of…

YOU WOULD, WOULDN’T YOU? Managing to snag the key to the Fast Fleet Quadrifoglio for a weekend not three months into my time at evo was no small feat, so I had no intention of wasting my time with it. A lunge to the North Pennines and beyond became an immediate priority. At least that’s what I’d like to be able to write. In truth I was visiting some friends in the area and my original intention for the journey was to put some running-in miles on a soon-to-be-disclosed new addition to the evo fleet. Then, at the last minute, I discovered the Alfa was available if I wanted it. Game on. One of my chums lives at the eastern foot of the Hartside Pass, over which a cloud-free day…

WHAT WAS THE FIRST MODEL TO BE launched by the Cupra brand when it embarked upon its solo career back in 2018? I still find it slightly puzzling that it was not a hot hatch of the kind the name had been associated with, as a suffix, for the preceding two decades. Instead, the interlocking triangles badge was first applied to an SUV: the Ateca. Six years on, via a facelift and some chassis tweaks in 2021, the Cupra Ateca is still on sale, which leads us to an obvious question: if you’re of an evo mindset but feel you need a compact SUV in your life, is it a car worthy of consideration in 2024? We’ve just spent the past four months with one to find out. The first…

WE’RE HEADING NORTH ON RURAL ROADS out of Palma when, of all things, a classic Renault 4 emerges through the early morning gloom in the opposite direction. It takes me a moment to realise why its driver is flashing his headlights and gesticulating. My natural instinct is to panic – have I done something wrong? Then I see his grin and remember: I’m driving the French hatchback of the moment. The car of the moment in many ways; few new EVs have been as hotly anticipated as the Alpine A290, the high-performance twin to the new Renault 5. When Antony Ingram drove the R5 at its launch (evo 328) he came away impressed, finding it not only an appealing and useable electric hatch but relatively rewarding to drive, too. If…

NO COUPE IS SACRED THESE DAYS. NOT the Capri, not the Puma… Okay maybe the Prelude is safe, but Honda’s 2025 revival of that particular model is an exception to the rule. The Audi S5, however, is no longer a svelte, upwardly mobile, warm three-door coupe or five-door coupe-ish Sportback. Fear not, though, because it has not become an electric SUV. Instead, it is an S4 replacement, with only four-door saloon and Avant bodies available. The new application of the name is part of Audi’s line-up rejig that reserves even numbers for EVs and odd numbers for ICE models. An actual A4, with electric power, will arrive soon. With an uplift in style and riding on the new Premium Platform Combustion architecture, the latest S5 should possess the requisite presence,…

ROAD DRIVING HAS ALWAYS BEEN THE HEART AND soul of eCoty, yet we often include an element of track driving in our annual supertest. The worthy reasons are obvious: the opportunity to explore the performance of the contenders more fully, and to get some big action shots for the photographers and videographers in a safe environment. It’s also bloody good fun. The last time we included some circuit driving was back in 2020, with a preliminary 16-car shoot-out held at evo’s second home, Anglesey Circuit, before the eight finalists headed to the Scottish Borders to fight it out on road. This year, not content with having some of northern Spain’s finest roads to explore, we’ve built in a day at the Circuito de Navarra. Opened in 2010 it was acquired…

FOR THE SECOND DAY IN A ROW I’d been left at the hotel while the others all went ahead, not because of an alarm faux pas or some epic toy-throwing, but because the Vantage required fuel (again) and you’ll never see journalists scattering in every direction as quickly as when the possibility arises of them having to fuel a test car. It meant, as with day one, my run to our location would be a solo drive consisting of me, the roads to the Pyrenees and – this time – Aston Martin’s latest. With the sun shining, the roads clear and the scenery spectacular, that morning the Vantage burrowed its way under my skin even more so than the 911 S/T had 24 hours earlier in exactly the same circumstances.…

I’VE TRAVELLED TO SPAIN MANY times over the years, but never to the Navarre region that was our base for eCoty 2024. Fringed by the Pyrenees, it’s a truly breathtaking place to drive, the sprawling landscape blessed with a brilliant variety of near-deserted roads. Some writhe through endless valleys, others wriggle up steep escarpments or run free along the ridgelines. It’s like a secret Route Napoléon. Doing eCoty right is a challenge. One that seems to get harder year on year. It’s something we look forward to, but by the summer the pressure slowly builds as we each start to compile our long lists and look ahead to launches that might yield more contenders. We also zero-in on where we’re going to do the test. Scotland and the north of…

IT’S BEEN QUITE THE YEAR FOR NEW PERFORMANCE CARS of all shapes and sizes, from diminutive roadsters to hot hatches, supersaloons to supercars, along with a rash of new hypercars earning column inches and their own hashtags. At a time when the performance car and, by association, the driver’s car are under more pressure and scrutiny than ever, to still be able to celebrate such diversity provides plenty of reasons to be cheerful. And alongside the road cars there is plenty more to celebrate, acknowledge and champion, which is where the evo Hall of Fame comes in, as we name our Person of the Year, Competition Driver of the Year and Competition Car of the Year. There were, as you’d expect, plenty of options to choose from – and plenty…

I’VE DRIVEN OUT TO VISIT MY SWISS based-in-laws countless times over the years, but until this year never tackled the journey in anything but a press car. Ed-in-chief Gallagher kindly offered use of his long-term test X6 M (though I sensed this was doing him more of a favour than me), but even if I managed to reconcile travelling that far in a car that would make a billiard table feel like the Paris-Roubaix, the thought of doing it at 18mpg was a dealbreaker. The decision was made: Mrs M and I would take the ST. We inevitably over-pack when we go away, but the ST’s double-deck boot coped just fine, tennis rackets etc stowed beneath the boot floor and the mix of squashy holdalls and food parcel for the…

SO WE’RE ONTO STAGE TWO OF A MODEST but – hopefully – very worthwhile upgrade programme for my 2016 ‘ND1’ MX-5. To recap, last month I visited Brackley-based specialists BBR to have the engine’s ECU remapped, the net result of which was a new-found hunger for revs and a very welcome uplift in power and torque. Rather than the factory-standard 158bhp, NKD is now making close to 180bhp and feels like it actually enjoys chasing the (freshly elevated) red line. This time we’re back at BBR to address what is, for many, a significant flaw with the ND: in certain scenarios the regular suspension is just a little too soft and loose for a proper sports car. The car rides a touch high, too – and feels it. The upside…

SINCE 1998 EVO’S ANNUAL CAR OF THE YEAR TEST HAS identified the crème de la crème of each year’s new performance car releases. While some of those eCoty champions have achieved unobtanium status in the time since their launch, others have become enticingly affordable – relatively speaking, of course. Take Ferrari’s 599 GTB, for example. It came out on top in 2006, but almost two decades later that same V12 super-GT can be picked up for much less than half its original price. Two years after the 599’s victory the cutting-edge Nissan GT-R placed first. Its cost-to-performance ratio was one of its key draws then, and is something that has only improved with time on the used market. The Lotus Evora won the following year, and while prices vary wildly,…

PERHAPS OUR EXPECTATIONS WERE too high. We’d waited what seemed like an eternity for the ST version of the seventh-generation Fiesta, but it had been worth the wait. When it arrived in 2013 – a full five years after the base model had gone on sale – it turned out to be an absolute corker. It cornered like a particle whizzing around the Large Hadron Collider and bristled with ’ave-a-larf attitude. Then, on the very day we pitted 2015’s new Focus ST against a sextet of rivals, Ford was pulling the covers off the 350-horse, all wheel-drive Focus RS that would sit above it in the range. It was the return of one of the biggest names in the biz. Ford was on a roll, and it was surely a…

COULD THE NEW, THIRD-GENERATION C Porsche Panamera GTS be the supersaloon of choice for those who want something less technical and more traditional than the latest BMW M5? The M5 has morphed into a 2.5-ton, 717bhp hybrid powerhouse in G90 form, and though it’s devastatingly capable and remarkably agile for its size, its blown-up proportions and added complexity are a big departure from what came before – as many are keen to shout about on the internet. The Panamera, meanwhile, remains comparatively old school. Propulsion is by a V8 alone, it’s nearly half a ton lighter than the M5, and it puts out a healthy but not absurd 493bhp. The question is, does this recipe result in a purer, more compelling supersaloon, or is the GTS outgunned and outsmarted by…

IT’S UPDATE TIME FOR THE BMW 1-SERIES. An update so thorough, in fact, that the renewed 1-series family has been given a whole new model code: F70, superseding the previous F40 generation. As well as an exterior restyle and a new (and quite dramatic) interior, there are stiffening measures for the bodyshell and revised suspension too. In the UK, initially just two F70 variants are on sale: the three-cylinder, front-wheel-drive 120, and the four-cylinder, all-wheel-drive M135, as tested here. That’s the Artist Previously Known as the M135i; BMW has dropped the ‘i’ from its badge partly to avoid confusion with its electric models. Peak power from the M135’s 2-litre B48 engine has actually decreased a little, from 302bhp to 296bhp, to comply with the latest emissions regulations. That’s no great…

EVERY McLAREN ROAD CAR BEARS GARETH Howell’s fingerprints. As test driver, he’s had a hand in the development and driving characteristics of each McLaren Automotive model from 2011’s MP4-12C onwards. He didn’t work on the McLaren F1 – he was at primary school while that car was being designed – but during a three-year sojourn from McLaren he did develop its spiritual successor, the T.50, as chief test driver at Gordon Murray Automotive. Prior to being an automotive industry test driver specialising in supercars, Howell was a professional racing driver and a touring car specialist in particular, with a nine-year spell in the British Touring Car Championship including a hat-trick of race wins. ‘My dad got me started in it all,’ Howell says. ‘I don’t come from a wealthy background;…

LATE SEPTEMBER, AND THE SPANISH SUN STILL HAS plenty of light to give. A little less in the way of warmth on this first early morning, but it’s no hardship to wait under clearing skies as the final contender completes the last few kilometres of the 1432 it will travel to reach the car park of the Hotel Luze El Toro on the edge of Pamplona. Very soon, a grey MAN truck will pull up and our line-up will be complete. It’s been quite the year for the driver’s car, with a steady stream of contenders beginning to appear even before the ink had dried on 2023’s eCoty verdict. Updates to existing favourites, all-new interpretations of old hands, the odd curveball and special, an estate car that should know better…

9TH FORD MUSTANG DARK HORSE Mustangs are normally such simple cars, both in proposition and experience, but not the intriguingly named Dark Horse; at the end of the week we still weren’t quite sure what to make of it. For instance, why did it have a fly-off handbrake for initiating skids but then also restrict torque in the lower gears, prohibiting powerslides? The bigger question, though, was why on earth did it have a ten-speed auto? Very few cars need ten gears, least of all a 5-litre, V8-engined coupe. The upsides were a gently thunderous soundtrack, excellent seats, a supple ride and engaging steering. ‘It was far better suited to the roads than I expected,’ said Meaden, ‘and I had a cracking drive in it, which is why I liked…

SOME OF MY FAVOURITE DRIVES of the whole week were in the Morgan. It was a bit of an outlier in the test, if not an outright gamble to include it: the Plus Four has always been charming, but to judge its dynamics against eight of the best driver’s cars launched this year was a big ask. But this updated 2024-spec car, particularly with its new Handling Pack option, is a truly rewarding car to drive in terms of its dynamics as well as the overall experience. The pack includes adjustable dampers, developed with Nitron, in place of the standard Plus Four’s non-adjustable Spax dampers. The spring rates have been adjusted accordingly, and there’s a new rear anti-roll bar (the front anti-roll bar is the same as the standard car’s).…

FIRST IT WAS SMOOTHIES AND SPA TREATMENTS. Kale and keto. A trend for sluicing saturated fats and purging pores; the detox for the body. More recently we’ve had the digital detox: deleting apps and shying away from screens. Letting the mind slow down and inviting the real world back in. I can’t honestly say that I’ve tried either, much though I know it might do me some good. I am, however, fresh from the newest detox on the block and it is utterly glorious. I feel reinvigorated and joyful and almost irritatingly evangelical about it. If you see me across a room at a party, edge away quickly, run if you have to, lest you get pulled into the orbit of my relentless eulogising about… the driving detox. All you…

@evomagazine @evomagazine @officialevomagazine AN AWFUL LOT HAS HAPPENED SINCE MY LAST running report on the Capri. Not to the Capri, of course, just in the world in general. I’m only half joking. I last wrote about my Capri in issue 237, way back in mid-2017. Since then, it’s had a burst rear brake line replaced and, for my birthday two years ago, my eldest gave me a new and very lovely OMP steering wheel. Frankly, not a lot else has happened to it. That has changed following a trip to north Wales in January to drive the fabulous MST Mk1 (see Driven, evo 319). They build a high-quality, brand-new Escort on the Llŷn Peninsular and I very much enjoyed driving it despite the roads being lashed by Storm Isha. Yet…