Evo Magazine

I FIRST MET PAUL RIPLEY IN 1998 as evo was finding its feet in the automotive world. It wasn’t for a story but because, quite rightly, then-editor John Barker wasn’t prepared to just throw the keys to the latest high-performance cars to someone who d

WE’VE DRIVEN THE NEW, UPDATED GR Yaris in prototype form on a Spanish racetrack (see evo 318) and-in-preproduction form on a Finnish frozen lake (see evo.co.uk). Now this is our first chance to drive the finished product. A couple of bits to get out

HOW APPROPRIATE FOR A CAR THAT includes a variant called ‘Folgore’ (‘Lightning’ in Italian) in its line-up that giant forks of the stuff are straddling the road ahead. It’s almost as if Maserati has a direct line to the big man upstairs. Then again,

MINI IS UNDERGOING ITS BIGGEST transformation since the turn of the millennium. Its future will be electric, and heavy investment is being pumped into new-gen models that will see the entire Mini range revamped by the end of this year. There’s a buzz

MERCEDES-AMG IS NOT PLANNING TO build a new E63. So, for the foreseeable future, this is the most potent E-class you can get: the new E53 Hybrid 4Matic+. Available as either a saloon or estate, it’s AMG’s first ‘long-range’ hybrid, a plug-in with a 5

TO SAY THAT McLAREN’S ARTURA HAD a troubled birth would be something of an understatement. Delayed media drives, when they did take place, ended in failed HVAC systems, split oil-lines and fires. This naturally resulted in delayed deliveries of custo

FITTING A MANUAL GEARBOX TO A LONG-established model makes little sense in the context of car makers’ efforts to improve efficiency and lower their corporate CO2 levels. Today’s automatic ’boxes deliver better economy and performance, essentially bec

THIS IS ADRIAN NEWEY UNLEASHED. The result of not having to follow those pesky FIA rules and regulations. The learnings from the mistakes made with the Aston Martin Valkyrie… The RB17 is twenty years of Red Bull condensed into a single car, one that,

‘I’M A COMMITTED GUY. BORN GRAFTER. If I set my mind to something, it will happen,’ says Paul Ripley, celebrated high performance driving guru. He grew up in a deprived part of Leeds in the ’50s, ‘in a one-up, one-down with a toilet at the end of the

IF YOU BUY AN MG CYBERSTER, prepare for every journey to take a little longer than usual. Not because the Cyberster is slow (it’s anything but), but because people will stop you to talk about it. Everywhere. All the time. Parked up in a layby during

IT’S EASY TO DISMISS THIS CAR AS AN IRRELEVANCE. Ultra-rare. Ultra-expensive. Based upon old-generation hardware. And sold out: 110 Aston Martin Valours are being made (to mark 110 years of Aston Martin in 2023), and all are spoken for. Each is being

• Pay £1.66 per issue – £5.04 saving on the retail price• Bespoke subscriber-only covers• Every issue delivered free to your door• Be the first to receive special issues throughout 2024• Exclusive trackday discounts + subscriber only giveaways SCAN M

OF ALL THE 911’S MANY MODEL DERIVATIVES it’s hard to argue against the Turbo being the most evocative. Yes, the RS remains the ultimate blend of race pedigree and road legality, but half a century on since Porsche first shoehorned a forced-induction

WE’RE MORE THAN HALFWAY THROUGH THE year so we can assume that Craig Callum has already designed around 30 cars in 2024. Not even the Chinese automotive brands produce this many new cars a year, so where is it that Callum is working? The answer is Ma

A CONFESSION, DEAR READER. I KNEW very little about GBS before visiting the company for this story and getting into one of its cars. I vaguely knew the name, and its association with Lotus/Caterham Seven-style kit cars (also offered as fully factory-

YOU WILL FIND NO FEWER THAN 813 CARS THAT WERE homologated for Group A use within the FIA’s Historic Database, and among them some real surprises. The Hyundai Pony is a bit of an eyebrow-raiser, and India’s Hindustan Ambassador even more so. And desp

YOU COULD NEVER ACCUSE EVO OF NOT BEING thorough. After the flurry of M2s, 3s, 4s and 5s that have been through the Fast Fleet garage over the last half a decade, the time has come to sample one of BMW M’s more controversial creations, the X6 M Compe

DISCUSS GT CARS IN THE EVO OFFICE and it’s guaranteed that within the first 60 seconds someone will say, ‘Of course, today the real grand tourers are SUVs.’ So why then, with our new BMW X6 M long-termer parked outside my house and a big drive throug

STOP ALL THE CLOCKS, CUT OFF THE telephone, prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone. The man from Stellantis has been to collect the Abarth and life is considerably duller as a result. I knew the day of reckoning was approaching but didn’t dar

IT WAS DUE TO STAY FOR THREE MONTHS. Now, four months after that deadline passed, the Range Rover Sport P530 First Edition has finally bid evo farewell. In all that time it did not prove itself to be a car to replace an M5, RS6 or E63, nor a dynamic

WITH TWO VW GROUP ESTATES ON THE evo fleet, a comparison was only a matter of time. They share a platform, so how much do the Cupra Leon 310 and Skoda Octavia vRS actually differ from each other? The Skoda is the more affordable of the two, at £37,78

A COUPLE OF MONTHS AND 1600 MILES in, the Fast Fleet 208 has proven its worth through use as both a short-distance daily driver and long-distance motorway tool. There’s no doubt it’s better suited to some tasks than others, but impressions remain lar

EVERY NEW PORSCHE 911 COMES WITH the option of ‘preparation for roof transport system’, i.e. mounting points for roof bars neatly concealed under the rubber mouldings in the roof. As Porsche options go it’s an unusually cheap one, at £48. Our 911 has

AND AS ONE TORONTO RED BMW LONG-termer arrives (see page 110), another must depart… Our G87 M2 joined the evo fleet in January 2024 with 6066 miles on the clock. Spec-wise it had the manual gearbox (a £1200 option), a Comfort Package (£730 for keyles

ONLY RENAULT COULD HAVE PRODUCED SOMETHING AS wonderfully insane as the Clio V6. It had built a mid-engined hot hatch before, of course – the 5 Turbo in the early 1980s – but that was out of necessity to homologate a rally car. The Clio V6 wasn’t a h

THE CLIO TROPHY WAS THE PEOPLE’S CHAMPION OF eCoty 2005. ‘There’s absolutely nothing you could improve about that car,’ said Harry Metcalfe after it placed third, dusting up a Lamborghini Gallardo SE, E46 BMW M3 CS and Porsche Cayman S, among others.

READ THROUGH THE SPEC SHEET OF THE TWINGO 133 AND you might wonder if it’s deserving of the Renault Sport moniker at all. Its 1.6-litre four-pot generates a modest 131bhp and 118lb ft of torque, it covers 0-62mph in a leisurely 8.7 seconds and there

FOLLOWING UP THE R26.R WAS NEVER GOING TO BE EASY. Renault Sport’s first ultra-light two-seat Mégane was an instant icon, a hot hatch hall of famer that arguably hasn’t been bettered to this day. But the 275 Trophy-R that replaced it in 2014 was a gr

IS THERE A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A great automotive miss and a car that simply arrived ahead of its optimal time slot? Think Audi A2: a compact luxury city car with a badge as desirable as a high-end fashion accessory and innovation at its core, such as