My Ode to Evo Car of the Year

The end of a year is always a great time for reflections on the past twelve months. And as an incurable petrolhead, that invariably includes reflecting upon the best (and worst) cars launched that year. Motoring magazines, and especially those specialising in performance machinery, are famous for their end-of-the-year fast car extravaganzas.

None of them do it better than Evo, though. As the ‘performance car bible’, their verdicts on the latest cars are anticipated more keenly by manufacturers and enthusiasts alike than most. And when it comes to deciding on the Evo Car of the Year (eCoty as it’s subsequently become known), the magazine pulls out all the stops each year.

The concept of gathering together the finest performance cars of the year to determine the best of the best is nothing new, of course. The long-defunct Performance Car was very much the forerunner to Evo. Indeed, many of the editorial team for PC were actually the founding fathers of Evo back in 1998.

Performance Car would, each year, dedicate a considerable amount of magazine space to a spectacular extravaganza comprising the magazine’s favourite cars of the year, page-after-page of enthralling, captivating prose, and world-class photography. And when Evo picked up the baton from PC, this tradition continued, and continued to get bigger and more comprehensive.

Looking back on those early eCoty issues, you’d be forgiven for wondering whether the magazine had been sponsored by Porsche, so prolific was the 996-generation 911 at winning the titles over the years. In 1998, the honours went to the Carrera 2; 1999 saw the GT3 take the prize; the legendary 996 Turbo was the winner in 2000. But, despite jokes/damaging claims to the contrary, there were no cash-filled envelopes from Porsche inside the cars’ glove boxes. Here we had some of the most experienced road testers in the business, more able than most to evaluate a car’s dynamics. Combined with Porsche’s reputation for churning out implausibly gifted driver’s cars, the 911s simply epitomised the ‘thrill of driving’ better even than their Ferrari contemporaries.

As the years rolled by, the 911 continued to impress in its later generations and variants, but there have been some surprises as well. In 2001, the Pagani Zonda took the title - an oddly-named supercar from a brand-new (and thus little-known) manufacturer it may have been, but the sheer quality of the driving experience captivated the judges and, in 2022, Pagani is very much Italian supercar royalty.

What has always made Evo Car of the Year stand out is its judging criteria. You might imagine that any time a 500 million horsepower Ferrari or Lamborghini rolled up in a test, it would be a surefire winner. But despite its obvious focus on sporting and performance cars, Evo has never been blinded by pure speed. A good driver’s car is made up of many disparate elements - steering feel and accuracy, damping, the soundtrack, grip and on-the-limit behaviour, among others - which, when combined to good effect, can turn a good car into a seriously great one. And all those aforementioned attributes can as easily be found in a hot hatch or fast saloon as in a piece of low-slung exotica.

With this year’s eCoty just around the corner, I look forward to my subscriber copy dropping through the letterbox and indulging an afternoon in reacquainting myself with the best performance cars of 2022, knowing that the winner will be most definitely a deserving one.