Tabla de contenidos para February 2025 en Evo

WELL, 2024 CERTAINLY ENDED in a flurry. Red Bull fired Sergio; Porsche SE (51 per cent owners of Volkswagen) wrote down the value of its investment in Germany’s biggest car maker by €20 billion on the back of some troubling sales figures. McLaren went from being owned by one Middle Eastern country to another (Bahrain handing the reins to Abu Dhabi). And, of course, Jaguar was still making headlines. Probably still is by the time you read this. McLaren changing hands was no great surprise but it was a welcome relief that it now has an owner with the toolchest to fix the British marque. Because let’s be honest, McLaren has been pretty broken ever since the pandemic struck. Don’t get me wrong, the fact that it continues to produce…

IS THIS THE PERFECT PLACE TO SAY SAYONARA? LEGEND suggests so. The Hakone Turnpike has been immortalised in Japanese car culture, most notably by the manga of Initial D, cartoonish tyre smoke an’ all. As a place to let loose the updated GT-R Nismo it ought to be perfect. The R35 has already enjoyed a few goodbye pieces in these pages, one of them typed by my own hands almost three years ago following a few days on the roads of north Wales in a 2020MY Nismo (evo 298). Thing is, production didn’t stop when ever-stricter regulations stymied GT-R sales in Europe. Its notoriously fastidious engineering team didn’t down tools just because western Nissan dealers were starting to pack down the sexiest corner of their showroom to make room for…

HORACIO PAGANI WAS ELEVEN YEARS OLD when he built his first car. Admittedly it was made from balsa wood and fitted in the palm of his hand, but it was the start of an epic journey. One that would take the determined young son of a baker from a rural town in the north-west of Argentina to the heart of Italy’s fabled supercar valley. Along the way he would catch the eye of his idol and compatriot, Juan Manuel Fangio, whose encouragement and endorsement would ultimately prove pivotal in Pagani securing a coveted engine supply deal with Mercedes-AMG for his nascent supercar venture. In between was his pioneering role as head of composites at Lamborghini in the mid-’80s, and the founding of Modena Design, Pagani’s world-renowned composites business. It was…

HORACIO PAGANI’S EPONYMOUS AUTOMOBILE COMPANY is one of the most successful and enduringly enigmatic of Italian supercar marques. While many of the supercar sector’s Big Beasts generate headlines for their financial triumphs or tragedies, Pagani has quietly gone about its business, satisfying a small but ultra-high-net-worth client base with a succession of remarkable multi-million-pound cars. Pagani rarely talks of production numbers, but according to Horacio ‘around’ 500 cars have been built since 1998, including test and development cars. That’s a tiny number – an average of just 20 per year – but scarcity is central to Pagani’s mystique, as Horacio explains: ‘We produced around 40 cars in 2023. Our target for 2024 was 50 cars. We have been on a growth path since the beginning of our company. There is…

THE MITSUBISHI L200 RUMBLES TO A HALT JUST SHORT of the murky brown puddle, and just short of drenching us and the car. The abruptness of the stop suggests we might be in for a telling off, and photographer Alex Tapley and I wonder who we possibly could have annoyed, and how, when the day has barely started. The door opens, and a farmer leaps out and towards the car. ‘Oh yes, that’s a bit of me!’ Phew. We laugh back nervously. ‘Proper bit of kit, that is.’ He peeks inside. ‘And it’s a manual! Wicked, lads. Looks amazing. Enjoy.’ He clambers back in and trickles past through the puddle, sparing the A1’s gleaming Glacier White paintwork. And he’s right. After more than a decade the A1 Quattro still looks…

DESPITE SOME EARLY RESERVATIONS AFTER OUR FIRST exposure to the Alpine A110 R, it has become a firm favourite of evo’s – something confirmed by its stellar performances in 2023’s eCoty and 2024’s TCoty tests. Those qualified first impressions centred upon Alpine’s decision not to give the R more engine performance, and the fact such an apparently track-focused model still delivered its best on the road. It’s a sentiment shared by Life110’s David Pook. Now well established as one of the world’s leading tuners of A110s, Pook has turned his attention to the R. His approach has clear echoes of Sir Dave Brailsford’s theory of marginal gains, which led Team GB’s cycling team to record medal hauls at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics. Rather than attack one area of the…

IT’S GONE. THE EVO FAST FLEET RESIDENT that raised more questions than it could ever answer has departed the car park one final time, its purpose no clearer now than when it arrived nearly 10,000 miles ago. For all its performance, aggression and polarising design, BMW’s X6 M Competition suffers from an identity crisis and lacks confidence. It really is the answer to the question no one asked. Or if someone did ask the question then they are not a person who should be listened to or have their request taken seriously. Not when the answer is an SUV-coupe that occupies as much of the road as there is to drive on but has very little useable interior space, while also possessing outright performance that makes you question exactly what…

AS FTER 12 MONTHS IN THE MUCH-LOVED ND2 Mazda MX-5 that we ran in 2022-23, the move to the Peugeot 208 GT was one I was quietly reluctant to make. Gone were the satisfying controls and at-one feeling of the Japanese roadster, replaced by sensations more commensurate with an everyday hybrid supermini. But this was no fault of the 208 – it was designed with a very different job in mind – and despite my initial reservations, it would go on to win my admiration for the way it tackled that very job. With Peugeot Sport having closed up shop for all but the (now-discontinued) 508 PSE, there should be no expectation of driver focus here. Approach the 208 with this in mind, however, and as a practical, efficient daily driver…

DING DING, A WARNING MESSAGE: ‘Caution: please adapt driving style.’ Since when did the 911 come with a built-in driver coach? The onboard computer is suggesting I switch to Wet mode, sensing that the conditions aren’t the best and apparently concerned that I might throw it off the road with everything dialled up to Sport Plus. Yet while the wipers are on overdrive and it’s only just above freezing, this 992.2 Carrera is glued – and so trustworthy. In everything from its steering to brake feel, traction and the way it precisely tracks through this cresting, sometimes lumpen stretch of Welsh B-road, it’s giving me massive confidence. So I carry on, message cleared, Wet mode left well alone, 911 in its element. When the 992.2 GTS – the first ever…

IT’S BEEN A LONG SIX YEARS, HASN’T IT? FOR A CAR that borrows its name from the Norse mythological afterlife, the gestation of the Aston Martin Valhalla has been far from heavenly, with multiple captains taking a turn at the tiller to steer the good ship AML along the way. Just under two years after Andy Palmer introduced the idea of Aston’s second-coming hypercar to pick up where the Valkyrie left off, ex-AMG CEO Tobias Moers took his place and swiftly mandated a fundamental rethink, steering the project towards series-production supercar territory. Then former Ferrari boss Amedeo Felisa took over and oversaw development, before ex-Bentley man and Aston’s new CEO, Adrian Hallmark, arrived. It is Hallmark who will finally see the Valhalla delivered to customers. And, it hardly needs saying,…

‘UTOPIA COMBINES A FRESH LEVEL OF REFINEMENT WITH MOUTH–DRYING PERFORMANCE’ TORQUE. THAT’S WHAT GETS YOU. HOLD A STEADY 30mph in one of the Utopia’s lower gears – let’s say third or maybe fourth for maximum effect – flex your fingers around the steering wheel, take a deep breath and pin the throttle. After the slightest of pauses, the 6-litre twin-turbo AMG-built Pagani V12 has filled its lungs and turned the air into explosive force. Then everything goes a bit fuzzy at the edges. As boost pressure builds, you are at the mercy of longitudinal g. Not the unpleasant, blackout-inducing slam of an extreme EV, but a rapid, ever-intensifying squeeze. The first time you do it, your body’s internal gyro triggers the same response as when you leant back too far…

ALL PAGANIS ARE FABULOUS THINGS, BUT some have a special kind of magic. Witness the Huayra Roadster BC and Huayra Codalunga: two elite Huayra-based specials that go to remarkable lengths to explore contrasting extremes. The former is an overt and aggressive contemporary expression of road and track performance, the latter an elegant but no less potent throwback to the glory days of sportscar racing, when Le Mans was contested by wildly powerful cars clad in extraordinary low-drag bodywork. Madly exotic, incredibly rare and eye-wateringly valuable, they sit at the top of the Pagani pecking order. And today we get to drive both. I haven’t driven a Huayra since 2012, when the first media drives took place. It was a huge departure from the Zonda – a car with which evo…

ENGLAND IS HEAVILY CLOAKED IN DARKNESS when I leave my home at early-o’clock on the test’s first morning. Thick darkness, apart from streetlights reflecting a twinkle of frost on the ground. The Panamera Turbo E-Hybrid is waiting on the driveway. Windscreens on adjacent cars are coated with ice but the Porsche’s is clear: in a rare fit of organisation, I programmed the departure time into the car’s pre-heating menu last night. The cabin’s already warm when I climb aboard. I slink away in electrically powered silence without waking the neighbours, the wide Michelins squirming a little on the chilly ground, a north Wales postcode in the nav system, a full tank and no need to stop for fuel – or to charge the battery – before I get there. Hybrid…

LET’S GET ONE THING CLEAR FROM THE start: what you’re looking at here isn’t a ‘NASCAR’, and referring to it as such would set eyelids twitching from Chigagoland to Talladega. NASCAR, or the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, is the governing body that sanctions and operates some of America’s biggest car racing series, and its flagship is the NASCARCupSeries, inwhichanaverageof30-plusdrivers, more than a dozen teams and three major manufacturers compete over 36 race weekends between February and November. So the Ford Mustang Dark Horse you see here isn’t a NASCAR, but a Cup car – or, to use an old term that has hung around long after the introduction of purpose-built racing cars, a ‘stock’ car. Ford’s Dark Horse took 12 race wins in 2024 and Team Penske…

NO, YOUR EYES ARE NOT DECEIVING YOU: our new Leon really is matt brown. Or ‘Century Bronze’ as Cupra prefers to call it. And I have to say, I like it. It’s certainly different – a talking point – and could there be a more perfect colour for disguising the filth of a British winter? What I’m less sure about is the Leon’s new ‘shark nose’ face, which to these eyes looks a bit Telsa Model 3 in its top half, before flipping to a bold egg-crate design below. Ostrich eggs, presumably, given the amount of radiator you can see exposed through the large openings. Perhaps I need a little longer to get used to the new phizog (remember how we once gasped at the current M4’s ginormous nostrils?) but…

PUTTING THE WORD ‘EVO’ ON THE END OF A CAR’S name is invariably a sign that it’s something special – of course. Take the new McLaren Artura Trophy Evo: this is one of the most joyously thrilling racing/track cars I’ve ever driven. And not just because it has an excellent name. The original, non-Evo McLaren Artura Trophy was launched for the 2023 season: a racing version of the Artura, conceived to compete in its own one-make McLaren Trophy series and with the option to be converted with minimal changes into a GT4 racing car, eligible for various national and international championships around the world. This new Evo version is an evolution in the truest sense of the word, with a comprehensive set of updates to make the Artura racer a…

PAGANI BUILT OPEN-TOP VERSIONS OF THE ZONDA AND Huayra, but not until the Utopia has the design process for coupe and Roadster been conducted simultaneously. The result is a car with even fewer compromises. Dry weight remains 1280kg – identical to that of the coupe – and Pagani’s mastery of carbonfibre means the bespoke tub retains exceptional rigidity without the need for extra reinforcement. As with the coupe, the Utopia Roadster enjoys worldwide homologation for safety and emissions. Build numbers and price have both increased compared with the coupe, however, with Pagani asking £3.1m for each of the 130 Roadsters. Production will be at the rate of somewhere between 50 and 60 cars per year. The Roadster’s removable roof panel features a large single glass aperture that lets more light…

LET’S START WITH THE CAR PARK TEST. SIT THE RS7 NEXT to the M5 and the Audi’s jacked physique knocks the slab-sided BMW into the middle of next week. It’s a similar story inside. The M5’s huge widescreen display is ugly, but it’s nothing compared to the broad illuminated plastic band that runs the full width of the dashboard and halfway along the front door cards for a provincial niteclub vibe. The gimmick-free RS7 is simple but sombre; just as comfortable but more mature and of higher quality. The separation between main instrument display and central infotainment screen is less dominant and much nicer when driving at night. Start them up and the Audi’s V8 sounds richer and more impressive than the BMW’s, though to be fair to the G90…

I HAVE ALWAYS APPRECIATED THE APPEAL OF THE Octavia vRS, but I’d never really spent much time with one. The launch of the facelifted Mk4 version this month provided the opportunity for me to put that right – and to catch up on what I’d been missing out on with back-to-back drives of every earlier generation of the model, including our pre-facelift Mk4 long-termer. Efficiency, modern powertrains and interior niceties make recent variants a more attractive proposition on the one hand, but the strong looks and retro aesthetic of the Mk1 (the red car in the photos here) have always shone through for me. Skoda nailed the design of the vRS from the get-go: boxy, purposeful and with subtle hints of the performance that lies within. The chunky 17-inch wheels look…

I’VE BEEN TOLD AT VARIOUS INTERVALS during my life that I can be ‘too nice’. Possible supporting evidence for people who’ve told me so is that this is the first time I’ve written about the Giulia since its Fast Fleet introduction four issues ago. You may have noticed that each month’s report since has had a different author and an opening paragraph along the lines of, ‘The Alfa’s regular keeper, James, was kind enough to loan me the key this month…’ In fact, I’ve only recently regained said key after a more-or-less nine-week gap. One and a bit of those weeks were due to the Quadrifoglio being away for a service: it arrived atevo on 6157 miles, and while a colleague was driving it (natch) only a couple of weeks…

UPDATES IN THESE PAGES MAY HAVE been sparse, but R55 AWP has still seen plenty of action in the last 12 months, including its first trip to the Nürburgring 24 Hours. It’s mostly treated me well during this time too, but a few things did require some attention along the way, and some more preventive maintenance was also in order. As documented in previous reports, there’s nowhere quite like Germany for the C63. Smooth tarmac, derestricted autobahn and glorious mountain passes allow it to breathe in a way it just can’t in the UK. Severe fog and rain may have transformed the 2024 running of the N24 into the N7.4, but the C63 didn’t need towing out of the mudbath car parks, and spectacular drives either side of the race…

THOSE THERE AT THE DAWN OF EVO IN 1998 will tell you it was a truly special time for performance cars. And they’re right: from an abundance of relatively affordable roadsters and sports cars led by the likes of the Lotus Elise and Porsche Boxster, to rallying legends like the Subaru Impreza and Mitsubishi Evo, to spectacularly accomplished sports cars such as the Porsche 996 and Ferrari F355 that appeared in the very first eCoty, the era turned out some of this magazine’s favourite driver’s cars, ones that still captivate us even today. One category is missing from that list, however: hot hatchbacks. With a handful of honourable exceptions, predominantly wearing Renault and Peugeot badges, the hot hatch had a torrid time during the 1990s, as car theft ran rampant…