What is happening at EVO magazine?
Discussion
acme said:
simonrockman said:
See, I told you so. It was a January thing.
New issue, lots of John Barker, new supercar owner with an interesting stable, good techie article on touring cars. Lots of driving in Wales.
It's back where it should be.
Just been flicking through it & this looks like a good edition. Best of all Henry’s written an article on the back page!New issue, lots of John Barker, new supercar owner with an interesting stable, good techie article on touring cars. Lots of driving in Wales.
It's back where it should be.
Lynchie999 said:
Terminator X said:
lauda said:
Having waited two months for a response from evo on a problem I’ve been having with downloading the digital copy, and that response still not resolving the problem, I have finally cancelled my subscription. I’ve been reading evo for about 15 years now.
I’ve taken the advice of others on here and got a Readly subscription. All the magazines I read are on there (even Rouleur, which surprised me), plus a few that I used to read but haven’t paid for in a while. The app is great too.
Between that and my ‘free’ Times subscription, I probably won’t ever buy a magazine or paper again.
Burn him!I’ve taken the advice of others on here and got a Readly subscription. All the magazines I read are on there (even Rouleur, which surprised me), plus a few that I used to read but haven’t paid for in a while. The app is great too.
Between that and my ‘free’ Times subscription, I probably won’t ever buy a magazine or paper again.
TX.
(perhaps an poor taste joke ...
) 
Seems this month evo (at least Evo's founding editor Barker that is) have got its act together. Bravo. And please before anyone slates me I've been their biggest critic of all.
Best article of all was Barkers 911 Gt-3 vs Lotus Evora 430 test. I found it fascinating that Barker finally feels that the Porsche actually delivers better steering feel with their electric rack than even Lotus does with their rather famous hydraulic steering. That's a first. How Porsche have done this seems to be a mystery- getting the electric motors to feedback messages from the road even quicker than it takes for a bump to push hydraulic fluid to move the wheel is mighty tricky to do.
Apparently not only does Barker feel the Porsche has better steering, he thinks it handles more cleanly and predictability. I wonder if this test was an anomaly and this new Lotus is just not as good as their pastor iterations? A through test like this is supposed to bring up questions, to be answered in later issues. I think this test has roots in Barkers prior writing from years ago, when he compared the rear engine 911 (997) with the mid engine Cayman and declared the 911 the more predictable and interactive handling/driving car due to the way it's rear engine swings more gradually than one in a mid engine car might. Wonder how one of the better Mclarens would do in this regard? Good idea for a new article.
Also very good though not so well explained was the four wheel drive test, where they called the sport diffed Torsen in the Audi RS4 4wd system a bit unpredictable in the wet; which again is the first time I've heard that, but then again Barker is probably the one journalist who would choose to comment about such weaknesses. Indeed most journalists never say much of anything specific about the weaknesses in any car other than general statements. It's good to have a journalist like Barker back writing, his driving skills, understanding of handling dynamics and overall car design, seems to be about the best there is now. If they can leverage him more often and keep these type of in depth tests coming, evo may once again become the reference for performance road cars. Whether road cars (for driving on roads) exist much longer is another story. There's a lot to be learned about performance cars which I hope Evo can teach us about. Thats kind of the issue, we need in depth tests like these to spur more such tests. J
Best article of all was Barkers 911 Gt-3 vs Lotus Evora 430 test. I found it fascinating that Barker finally feels that the Porsche actually delivers better steering feel with their electric rack than even Lotus does with their rather famous hydraulic steering. That's a first. How Porsche have done this seems to be a mystery- getting the electric motors to feedback messages from the road even quicker than it takes for a bump to push hydraulic fluid to move the wheel is mighty tricky to do.
Apparently not only does Barker feel the Porsche has better steering, he thinks it handles more cleanly and predictability. I wonder if this test was an anomaly and this new Lotus is just not as good as their pastor iterations? A through test like this is supposed to bring up questions, to be answered in later issues. I think this test has roots in Barkers prior writing from years ago, when he compared the rear engine 911 (997) with the mid engine Cayman and declared the 911 the more predictable and interactive handling/driving car due to the way it's rear engine swings more gradually than one in a mid engine car might. Wonder how one of the better Mclarens would do in this regard? Good idea for a new article.
Also very good though not so well explained was the four wheel drive test, where they called the sport diffed Torsen in the Audi RS4 4wd system a bit unpredictable in the wet; which again is the first time I've heard that, but then again Barker is probably the one journalist who would choose to comment about such weaknesses. Indeed most journalists never say much of anything specific about the weaknesses in any car other than general statements. It's good to have a journalist like Barker back writing, his driving skills, understanding of handling dynamics and overall car design, seems to be about the best there is now. If they can leverage him more often and keep these type of in depth tests coming, evo may once again become the reference for performance road cars. Whether road cars (for driving on roads) exist much longer is another story. There's a lot to be learned about performance cars which I hope Evo can teach us about. Thats kind of the issue, we need in depth tests like these to spur more such tests. J
jl4069 said:
Did anyone at all read the GT-3 vs Evora test this month? j
I've had every issue of EVO from issue 0, every Performance Car before then but I rarely if ever read articles about stuff I'll probably never own/drive. Mostly an irrelevance to me personally but I can understand people getting excited about such stuff. Enjoyed the Megane RS and Storm Fours article though jl4069 said:
Did anyone at all read the GT-3 vs Evora test this month? j
Yep. As much as I love the GT3 I was hoping it’d be closer. Rather surprised as noted above that he preferred the Porsche’s EPAS too. Plus that’s Evo’s first of the .2 manual & yet very little noted about it, odd. In that respect bizarrely Shmee’s video was better......
acme said:
Yep. As much as I love the GT3 I was hoping it’d be closer. Rather surprised as noted above that he preferred the Porsche’s EPAS too.
Plus that’s Evo’s first of the .2 manual & yet very little noted about it, odd. In that respect bizarrely Shmee’s video was better......
I don't think people realize just how good a driver and tester Barker is. Hes basically the one who trained all their other testers and hes the one who gets at the issue of handling dynamics (ex jaguar) from a real bottom up/essential manner. When a tester from Autocar tells me car x drives well I don't care to much as those explanations are too vague and you just know they aren't getting into details as found on very testing roads. With Barker (far from always but sometimes) we get a real snapshot of a what a well driven car feels like and actually does on a challenging road and further in reference to another right in back of it. I find this type testing exceedingly rare, the only other editors who did it like this were Mark Hales and Peter Dron of Fastlane and sometimes Henry Catchpole, Meaden or Bovington. That's about it, and while some journalists like Sutcliffe or Harris are great drivers getting into the details was/is rarely their interest. Plus that’s Evo’s first of the .2 manual & yet very little noted about it, odd. In that respect bizarrely Shmee’s video was better......
Bottom line is no one ever really bothered to compare these two cars with rather different designs (GT3 and Evora) to one another in any sort of deep way, and I'm glad Barker chose to do so. Indeed there are many more tests he could do if he wanted, lets hope he sees fit to.
Last this test now begs the question, as to whether optimized rear engine cars like the 911 really are more drive-able and ironically more friendly than their mid engine counterparts- particularly in the wet. How would a Cayman GT4 or Mclaren fare? What of the new NSX? What of all wheel drive does it really help a performance car in the wet? Would really like evo to redo the all wheel drive greats test they just did this month as it barely touched the surface of this topic. There are still a lot of topics a auto journal can cover, its just down to whether anyone on either side (journalist or reader) really cares to know about them. j
Edited by jl4069 on Sunday 4th March 16:25
I agree with the previous posts regarding the latest issue. Nice to have some more affordable cars like the Up GTi and the new Megane (although, I can't believe there were no manual road cars at the launch!). I enjoyed the GT3 v Evora article too.
Well done Evo, that's much more like it
Well done Evo, that's much more like it
Dr Gitlin said:
This month's Motorsport confirms my worst fears about the Nick Trott effect. 
Oh dear. Must admit I've not bought the last few issues myself.In terms of my automotive tastes, C&SC knocked it out of the park for this month's issue. E24 & Mustang articles coupled with the soft top Range Rover from Octopussy. What's not to like!
toobusy said:
SydneyBridge said:
In my case it downloads to my kindle app on my tablet
Edit - whoops - just found it! That's a subscription cancelled.
toobusy said:
Thanks Syd, I meant the "free" bit? I have Prime and Kindle Unlimited but can't see the free mag.
Edit - whoops - just found it! That's a subscription cancelled.
Hmmm. When my "3 months of Readly for £7.99" deal ends, I might have to review my options considering that I'm also on Amazon PrimeEdit - whoops - just found it! That's a subscription cancelled.
Having said that, I am finding I flick through magazines I wouldn't buy regularly but might buy occasionally, like Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Elle, etc. And if you think EVO is full of adverts, then it's nothing compared to those.
Edited by Clockwork Cupcake on Thursday 8th March 13:06
downthepub said:
Oh dear. Must admit I've not bought the last few issues myself.
In terms of my automotive tastes, C&SC knocked it out of the park for this month's issue. E24 & Mustang articles coupled with the soft top Range Rover from Octopussy. What's not to like!
Err..the Range Rover? In terms of my automotive tastes, C&SC knocked it out of the park for this month's issue. E24 & Mustang articles coupled with the soft top Range Rover from Octopussy. What's not to like!
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