What is happening at EVO magazine?

[Pommy]

lowdrag said:

Don't tell me - the Renault Twizy has won. Such wonderful cars as the Punto, Tipo, Austin 1800, Lancia Delta and the Renaullt 9. All past champions but - when did you last see one?

lowdrag said:

Pommy said:

You're right, they should never have won back in the 70's and 80's. Couldn't even last 40 years without still seeing thousands driving around. They're rubbish.

I've corrected your grammar for you.

Thank you! It was unintelligibile before.

Oh and Renault doesn't have 2 l's in it - if you're going to be a grammar nazi at least get your own spellings right you fool.

Edited by Pommy on Monday 9th December 22:17

[acme]

trackdemon said:

lauda said:

lowdrag said:

Don't tell me - the Renault Twizy has won. Such wonderful cars as the Punto, Tipo, Austin 1800, Lancia Delta and the Renaullt 9. All past champions but - when did you last see one?

I think you may be confusing evo Car of the Year with European Car of the Year. They’re quite different.

Given it's an EVO related thread I think he knows and it's a 'joke'. Problem with jokes is.... they're supposed to be funny

I was a bit surprised by the cars in ECOTY this year...

I’ve held off reading the new additions to this thread ‘til I’d read the article, but you’re not wrong, an odd choice of cars, or perhaps a lack of more so. Strange.

Edited by acme on Wednesday 11th December 14:08

[RSTurboPaul]

acme said:

trackdemon said:

lauda said:

lowdrag said:

Don't tell me - the Renault Twizy has won. Such wonderful cars as the Punto, Tipo, Austin 1800, Lancia Delta and the Renaullt 9. All past champions but - when did you last see one?

I think you may be confusing evo Car of the Year with European Car of the Year. They’re quite different.

Given it's an EVO related thread I think he knows and it's a 'joke'. Problem with jokes is.... they're supposed to be funny

I was a bit surprised by the cars in ECOTY this year...

I’ve held off reading the new additions to this thread ‘til I’d read the article, bit you’re not wrong, an odd choice of cars, or perhaps a lack of more so. Strange.

• POTENTIAL SPOILERS **

I read the thrust of their reasoning as being because they were making a conscious decision to not bring yet more supercars with performance that is basically unusable on the public road, partly because they've covered them in previous issues against each other, and partly because they wanted to focus more on the joy of driving / 'evoness' than said cars with a mentalist turn of speed (as well as evoness).

Undoubtedly the Pistas of this world are immense to drive, but if to do so to even half of their fullest extent means risking actual jail time, I can see how that would take the edge off the enjoyment.

I recall they mentioned in a previous issue that the group test of the 488 Pista vs Macca whatever vs Lambo in an issue before that was referred to internally with a name that specifically referenced the possibility of doing bird if caught! (Can't remember the name they used now!)

Edited by RSTurboPaul on Wednesday 11th December 10:06

Edited by RSTurboPaul on Wednesday 11th December 10:07

[Truckosaurus]

I think it's good that they try something different each year with ECOTY otherwise it just becomes the stereotypical "this year's iteration of the 911 wins".

[moonigan]

When is the ECOTY edition availalbe to buy over the counter?

[simonrockman]

SydneyBridge said:

Not a 911 to be seen and no landslide..

OK, so the 911 isn't in eCOTY there is however a gratuitous article on the 996.

I'd suggest we hold off discussing eCOTY until people here have had a chance to read it.

[jonott]

moonigan said:

When is the ECOTY edition availalbe to buy over the counter?

From today.

[DSC OFF]

What a poor choice of cars. And only six

Where’s the “12 stunning rivals”

Edited by DSC OFF on Wednesday 11th December 12:24

[trackdemon]

simonrockman said:

SydneyBridge said:

Not a 911 to be seen and no landslide..

OK, so the 911 isn't in eCOTY there is however a gratuitous article on the 996.

I'd suggest we hold off discussing eCOTY until people here have had a chance to read it.

To be fair, that's a reference to the fact the 911 is the winningest car to feature in eCoTY across the years, this being the first. And they've been doing a fair chunk of lookback stuff (E39 was last month IIRC) so it's entirely in keeping with the theme of this months mag.

[acme]

RSTurboPaul said:

• POTENTIAL SPOILERS **

I read the thrust of their reasoning as being because they were making a conscious decision to not bring yet more supercars with performance that is basically unusable on the public road, partly because they've covered them in previous issues against each other, and partly because they wanted to focus more on the joy of driving / 'evoness' than said cars with a mentalist turn of speed (as well as evoness).

Undoubtedly the Pistas of this world are immense to drive, but if to do so to even half of their fullest extent means risking actual jail time, I can see how that would take the edge off the enjoyment.

I recall they mentioned in a previous issue that the group test of the 488 Pista vs Macca whatever vs Lambo in an issue before that was referred to internally with a name that specifically referenced the possibility of doing bird if caught! (Can't remember the name they used now!)

Edited by RSTurboPaul on Wednesday 11th December 10:06

Edited by RSTurboPaul on Wednesday 11th December 10:07

An interesting observation, I think you're right - my fault for reading it over a number of days rather than all in one go.

Frankly I think it's a good choice, I've been very bored by the latest and greatest hypercar etc, not only because I'd struggle to afford one but they're largely unusable. This has been confirmed in my eyes at least by buying an E92 M3 this summer, to use near its full potential is simply anti-social, and that's with 400bhp, let alone 600+!

[Bubba Zanetti]

DSC OFF said:

What a poor choice of cars. And only six

Where’s the “12 stunning rivals”

Edited by DSC OFF on Wednesday 11th December 12:24

They are after the main feature. Tested separately in a "best of the rest" section.

No idea why.

[DSC OFF]

Just finished it. Immensely disappointed

It’s as much a result of the choice of cars as the writing. Splitting the test into road & track had the psychological effect of shortening it. I finished Towlers road section surprised it was over, with an odd feeling eulogy to the GT4 that looked like an after thought. I got no feel for how the cars drove and behaved, then got all that information compressed in one hit. I expected the test to continue afterwards on the road only to turn the page and get to the reckoning

The uk based justification for why cars didn’t go stinks of budget cutting, and I’d put a car where there’s only going to be 15 in the realms of unobtainium, especially when it’s not exactly a new model, just an older car with new styling.

In the past, cars that wouldn’t win outright would go along for the journey just to add depth. Sometimes verdicts change in fresh circumstances, hero’s emerge, others fall apart under closer scrutiny.

The Supra and 992 should have been there. Same for the V8 vantage. The supra is the exact car the Morgan is criticised for. It missed those kind of old “battles within the war”. Taking the ABT cupra R could have been a good foil for the A45.

Cheapest car on test £50k. The fiesta st performance should have been there to represent the real world even if it doesn’t move the game on that far from its base car - but it’s done more than the SVR touring. No Tesla model 3 performance either...because it wouldn’t win. We all know that, we just want to know the position it will inhabit in the landscape. Vs the SVR it would have been a fascinating old vs new approach. Evo took an e46 330d to ECOTY once....

[Bubba Zanetti]

Disappointing eCOTY (although nowhere near the horror show that was 2017).

Some very odd choices in the six. Can't understand the Morgan or the Jag being there (this from a British car fan).

I know they get accused of Porsche bias but two major releases from the brand this year - Taycan and the 992 version of the 911 omitted from the main test. I know they'll argue they only want to include one vehicle per manufacturer.

[Olivera]

DSC OFF said:

The Supra and 992 should have been there. Same for the V8 vantage.

Perhapa the Supra and 992 should have been there, but would in all likelihood have ended up also-rans. They haven't been particularly eulogising about either of these cars previously.

The 600LT and Pista also mentioned previously were in the 2018 ECOTY. The V8 Vantage was released at the end of 2017!

I enjoyed the article.

Edited by Olivera on Wednesday 11th December 20:50

[DSC OFF]

What about the new v8 vantage manual with more power?

As I said, it’s not about taking only winners - it’s not as if the Morgan was going to win. It’s about the loss of those battles within the test, and extra time, new environment etc revealing new things about the cars.

I can’t see ECOTY ever being so consistently poor under Metcalfe’s stewardship. The test now lacks depth, and it’s lost it’s sparkle. It’s now another run of the mill performance car of the year test. I could have been reading car magazine, or even - shudder - top gear

[DSC OFF]

Bubba Zanetti said:

They are after the main feature. Tested separately in a "best of the rest" section.

No idea why.

Except there was 8 of them...and they were “tested” in the same way as the god awful ecoty 2017

[greenarrow]

Picked up my copy yesterday and agree with everything thats been said.

For me, the most uninspiring selection of cars ever, none of them remotely affordable for the average Joe like me and too many niche offerings like the Jag that aren't even that noteworthy other than being expensive.

The winner cannot be disputed, but some odd omissions from the grid. Also, aren't I right in thinking a new Aerial Atom got launched this year? It won Autocar drivers car of the year (beating the GT4) but wasn't in the line up. Also, where was the updated Mazda MX-5? Again a car which did very well in the Autocar tests this year, but EVO just don't seem to rate. But it should have been there to give some balance in the pricing of the entries. Agree the 992 should be there too.

I really enjoyed last years ECOTY as the mix of VW UP, Fiesta ST and Ferrari Pista made for interesting reading. This year however (not helped by it being a fairly quiet year for major performance car launches) it was really really poor and felt a big step backwards. Second worse ECOTY after the 2017 debacle.....

Edited by greenarrow on Thursday 12th December 10:14

[RoadRunner220]

Has anybody else not had their subscription copy delivered yet ?

[bungle]

Been completely bored with Evo recently. This issue included. Just apathy that means I don't cancel my sub I think. And maybe thinking a return to form is just round the corner. Maybe. (or not).

[simonrockman]

Have they stopped making cars in Italy?