Table of contents for October 2025 in Evo

WE HAVE ARRIVED AT THE END of our evo Eras series and it’s been quite the eye-opening journey from the 1980s to the present day. A collection of stories that has told the evolution of the performance car over five decades of unprecedented change. It’s fair to say those changes have delivered a mixed bag of results. From increases in both weight and footprint to groundbreaking innovation; volume manufacturers producing high-fidelity driver’s cars and new contenders stepping up to take on the establishment. Across every decade, icons have been established, records broken and, yes, some legends have faded away. We’d rather Renault Sport still produced inspirational hot hatches and we wish other volume brands hadn’t forgotten the impact that a high performance version of a humble hatch or saloon can have…

I’VE NEVER DRIVEN MONZA BEFORE SO JUMP AT the chance of a leisurely lap in an SUV. At the first chicane I realise that I know exactly where I am: this is where Verstappen parked his car on top of Hamilton’s in 2021. I also know the splendidly named Curva Grande and the second chicane (‘variante’) it leads to. And how could I forget the Lesmos, the Variante Ascari and, of course, the Parabolica? All remembered from loafing on the sofa on a Sunday watching F1. I tell you what though, in real life Monza’s dark, smooth asphalt looks much narrower and its sausage kerbs way more brutal, proper bangers. It feels as narrow as Cadwell Park but as fast as Silverstone thanks to the long straights, while those tight,…

Owning something powered by a dozen cylinders is the idle fancy of many of us. The silky-smooth torque delivery matched with a potent punch of performance when ‘the taps are opened’ is peak automotive romance. Which can quickly turn into a bitter financial feud between the V12 of your choosing and your current account. There’s good reason why those idle fancies don’t gain much traction. But what if you did go for it and find yourself with an iconic V12-engined driver’s car parked in your garage, your name on the V5 and your credit score on the line if it all went wrong? Who better to ask than three people who have taken the plunge……

REGULAR CARRERA S, SILVER, CIRCA 2005. Non-standard wheels and the exhaust tailpipes are fatter than factory items, but otherwise just like any well-used 911 of 20 years of age. Tidy inside, with a manual six-speed gearbox, though the clutch seems stiffer than normal. I drove all types of 997 when they were new and at least three friends own them today, so I know them very well. Turning the ignition key, there’s a delay before the dashboard lights come on and the starter motor engages. But the engine then fires immediately and there’s that oh-so familiar sound. Familiar, that is, if you’ve driven a Corvette, Camaro or any other of the legions of cars fitted with Chevrolet’s ubiquitous V8. This day out to Dyno Torque in Birmingham has been in…

IT TOOK SOME RESTRAINT TO TURN down a Ferrari 12 Cilindri and a multi-night villa stay for the Le Mans 24 Hours back in June, but I wanted to do my first visit to the race ‘properly’ – a pilgrimage with mates who share my love for the event. Call it a sort of misguided, self-imposed rite of passage, albeit still with one perk of the job – evo’s Fast Fleet M5, kindly lent by managing editor Ian Eveleigh, to do it in. I could see in the mirror my chums frowning, trying to process the vastness of the M5 Touring as I reversed up ready for loading. No doubt much to BMW’s chagrin, the M5’s mass and girth are still hot topics a year on from its reveal and…

JUST FOR A MOMENT, FORGET THE pictures and headline accompanying this text. Imagine, without any context, you’re about to drive a prototype for a brand new Aston Martin model. What kind of car springs to mind? A front-engined, rear-wheel-drive, sports/GT/supercar? Luxurious interior, meaty steering, nice handling balance with a lairy side when you want it? Or, given the importance of DBX sales to Aston Martin, perhaps you’re imagining a new SUV? And I reckon you’ve a pretty good idea of how various permutations of the above might feel. We’re at Aston Martin’s R&D centre at Stowe, the wiggly, technical little track tucked within the infield of Silverstone’s Grand Prix circuit, to drive the all-new Valhalla in near-final prototype form. And I’ve truly no idea how it will feel. Not since…

JUST HOW FAR HAVE WE COME SINCE THE 1980s? The hatchback I’m driving has 324bhp coursing through its front wheels. Deployed with a modicum of skill and mechanical sympathy, that’s sufficient to launch it from 0 to 62mph in 5.4 seconds. Which would be impressive in pretty much any context. In the first of this series, the Ferrari Testarossa, the archetypal supercar of the ’80s, wowed us with its visual drama and howling flat-12 engine. And its 0-62mph time? 5.8 seconds. It’s just one stat and it’s of limited value, but the truth is that on a fast, twisty road, none of the cars in that ’80s group – not the E30 M3, not the Quattro 20V, probably not even the gorgeous Carrera 3.2 – would be able to stay…

WE’VE HAD A LOT OF FUN TRAVELLING backwards and forwards in time over the last five issues and we’ve gained a fresh perspective on each decade in turn, including the current one. As Dickie Meaden observed at the end of the 2020s test: ‘It’s been a good reset, forcing you to think about cars in different ways, and maybe I do appreciate what we have now a bit more…’ I think we’d all echo that. Against expectations, the 2020s made a surprisingly strong case, despite ever-more-intrusive tech. ‘I think there was a fear that the driver’s car was on its last legs,’ said Sam Jenkins, ‘but the 2020s test has been a real eye-opener, and the cream of the crop are some of the most exciting cars I’ve driven. The…

THIS IS QUATTRO COUNTRY. THE ROAD NEVER RESTS, climbing and weaving its way up to high altitude with the Pyrenees breaking through the haze on the left, and dense pine forest towering above on the right. Corners come thick and fast, most of them unsighted over crests or hidden around grass mounds. Between them the RS2’s five-pot ingests the crisp mountain air, spools its turbo and lunges forwards with a deep, full-bodied howl that, for a moment, might trick you into thinking you’re Mr Röhrl on a tarmac stage. A co-driver and pace notes would be helpful here, but I have what is probably the next best thing: evo’s hard-charging photographer Aston Parrott to follow as a reference, in the latest RS3. It’s a formidable combination, one that the RS2…

IN MUCH THE SAME WAY A GT3 RS SHOULD be enjoyed on track, so an Octa needs to be taken off-road. Not on some slow meander through the countryside, but a maximum-attack run along a fast off-road stage. Sadly, that’s not quite as simple as booking a trackday, but as luck would have it Land Rover held the perfect event during the Goodwood Festival of Speed. And so I jumped in our Octa and made my way down to the Slindon off-road driving centre near Arundel in Sussex. It’s a long schlepp from Meaden Towers, but the Defender makes light work of big distances. There’s a bit of a hum from the knobbly Goodyear Wrangler tyres, but I’ve come to like it. Besides, I soon drown out the background noise…

I’VE SPENT A FEW WEEKS IN OUR Duster now, and during that time one thought has kept recurring: how it’s a car that’s curiously short of rivals. It’s a genuine struggle to think of anything new that’s similarly affordable, practical, capable of a bit of light off-road work, and perhaps unexpectedly entertaining when the circumstances are right. Step back a decade or so, though, and this wasn’t the case. The Skoda Yeti was and still is regarded as one of the great do-it-all everyday cars, and one with anevo edge too. Whether or not the plucky Duster has improved upon what the Skoda offered is hard to say in isolation, so this month we turned to Skoda’s heritage fleet to test a Yeti side-by-side with our Dacia. The general consensus…

FIRST THINGS FIRST: WE’RE NOT GOING to discuss politics. What’s proved a useful rule in polite conversation for decades now has a fresh pertinence when getting to the nitty-gritty of a new Lotus. Does Hethel have a future? How long will the latest boss stick around for? There’s certainly lots to discuss on the industry side of the Norfolk brand right now. But so much could still happen between me typing these words and you reading them, so best to simply focus on the car. For all its curious, occasionally calamitous sub-plots, the main Lotus arc has always been its engineering nous and welterweight sports cars. And the Emira is an intriguing one. Inevo 336, during our giant ‘sports car state of play’ test, it scored four stars, finished third…

BANANA SKIDS IS EASILY ASSIGNED, BUT WHAT ABOUT the others? Delving into Barker’s cornucopia of cheap confectionery, we pluck some more sugary sticks from the multicoloured bag and lay them out on the bonnet. The tuttifrutti flavour Stinger (self-proclaimed ‘cheekiest chew bar on the planet’) seems to fit with the Lamborghini livery’s lime highlights. The Vanquish is a little harder to tally with one of the remaining dentists’ friends, but we decide that a Drumstick fits the bill for the big Aston. Such are the group test games that get played when you’re loitering in a lay-by on some Yorkshire moorland, waiting for the right intensity of light for the next photo. Twelve years ago it was probably pizza toppings that we allocated to these three cars’ V12 predecessors over in…

IT CAME AS NO SURPRISE THAT IN OUR journey across the eras, from the ’80s to the present day, cars have got more powerful and faster but also bigger and heavier. For the more mature among us, the ’80s era was a refresher, a delightful reminder of when cars were lighter, simpler and great fun, even with what today is regarded as very modest power and, in some cases, on tyre sizes you now only see on trailers. Even the youngsters were charmed by the character and flowing dynamics of these past masters, some of which are old enough to be their fathers. So where did it all go wrong? Only joking. Every decade has its stars and the purpose of this part of the story isn’t to determine the…

AFTER SIX MONTHS AND MORE THAN 9000 MILES, my time with the Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio has come to an end. And what a journey it’s been. From motorway marathons and hectic week-long photoshoots, to winding B-road blasts and cross-Channel adventures, the Stelvio proved to be more than just a high-performance SUV: it’s been a companion, a workhorse and, more often than not, an absolute riot to drive. Which is good, because that’s exactly how I remember the original example I ran back in 2019. At the heart of the Stelvio Quadrifoglio experience remains that 2.9-litre twin-turbocharged V6, a genuine gem of an engine that in this 2024MY car puts 513bhp under your right foot. It sounds borderline absurd for a mid-sized SUV, and, honestly, it is. But it’s also…

‘I BOUGHT THE TOP-SPEC SKODA… THIS one even came with an engine,’ joked my 84-year-old, Jaguar-driving dad as I picked him up last Christmas. I’m glad to report that on the seven-mile blast to my house, he was soon silenced. But for anyone over 67, or anyone without a real understanding of cars, it’s remarkable how stubborn the old Skoda stereotype still is. And frankly, it might stop some people from considering what has become, over the last 20 years, a compelling and genuinely affordable performance car. In fact, just as our Octavia vRS returned to its Milton Keynes press-fleet home, evo’s website ran a story on the incredible value this car now represents. Some dealers, we reported, were knocking off up to £8000 off the list price. Sure enough,…