evo Car of the Year 2024

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three days on road we have a full day on track we have nine cars five judges probably get through
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a fair few tires as well it's a bit of a tradition isn't it now it's more than 25 years of doing them
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but i think it's our chance to celebrate the year it's a snapshot of you know where we are
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in the whole motoring landscape, having all of those disparate cars you'd never have in a group test otherwise
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So we've got an incredible hot hatch here. We've got an estate car
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We've got a 600 horsepower hybrid supercar. There's a little bit of everything
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We get to get back all of the great cars that we've driven, gathering them all together and finding a winner
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Best car of the year. There's a lot of anticipation at the start of the week
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You know the list of cars that are going to be there and when you see them in the car park together
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I think that's always quite a special moment. You've got to try and have a completely open mind at that point
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By definition, they're in the test, so they should all be in with a chance
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You need to get a good mix of roads, and if it rains, that's great because that's an extra element
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Some of them might excel on some of the really twisty, bumpy bits, some of them might excel on the faster and flowing bits
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Siri obviously needs that as well for all photography, and it just adds something to the atmosphere
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I think the MX-5 is a little star, actually
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You don't even have to be driving it, you can be following it. And A, it's surprising how much pace it'll carry
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but you can sort of see the body language of a car being driven well on a good road
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and that car just looks brilliant, fun. It leans into the corners and just whips through sequences of corners
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because it's so small and so light so you can be behind it in a maybe the Aston Martin and you can
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come right up to it on the straights but then as soon as you get to the corners
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it'll carry the same speed as you can so it or more if it's tight and twisty
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it's making quite heavy weather of getting up this mountain but when you've got a bit of speed up and you're in one of the tighter corners
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It's just there for you. It's there in the palm of your hand. It gives you lots of options
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This car loves this kind of section of road where they're in third gear less than 60mph
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and it just, you can just drive it just on the edge of its grip, just beyond the edge
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of its grip. But it's such an innocent, approachable car. I'm sure some of you might be asking
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why we've got an MX-5 on Car of the Year. They've been around forever, decades and decades and
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decades. This year, this car's had quite a number of revisions, so they've made some improvements
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to the steering and there's limited slip diff as well amongst some other some other detailed changes
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so whilst the basic recipe is very familiar there's lots to discover about this car immediately
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it feels just a little bit more together feel a little bit more connected to the car i'm sure
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we'll come to appreciate the limited slip diff a bit later on through some of these hair fits
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mazda was a car i got into straight away the first car i drove actually and that
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instantly everything just felt right in terms of seeking position, pedal position
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the steering weight was lovely and all those things. And so before you've even gotten sort of further into how it really handles
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you think this has got a good chance because it's doing all those really important things
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that we look for in a car really well. Even after driving all the other cars here and wondering whether that first drive in this
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I was perhaps misremembering. Perhaps it wasn't that good. but it was. Getting back into it, even after everything else, wasn't in any way a disappointment
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The chassis on this is hilarious, but brilliant. It rides nicely and you've got enough travel and
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lean in it that you can really enjoy weight transfers all the way through a corner. It's
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Light, agile, it's feedback, wonderful. on the road
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it doesn't give me a huge amount of confidence in terms of the feel you get back
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from the steering and it's still quite stiff at the rear end but it sounds amazing
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I had some really good drives in it and it's by far and away the best looking car
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on this test I think it's just stunning and you'd love to live with one
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It's just such a good looking thing. So handsome, so muscular and it drives really well as well
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Got a big, thick steering wheel which I'm not a huge fan of, it's like the BMW to that extent
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and it feels like it should be a car that you muscle around. The gear shifts are pretty good
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it's got more automatic gearbox but the shifts are relatively snappy. I would still like a dual
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clutch just because this is meant to be the out and out driver's car of the Aston range
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and so that bit more sense of connection would be nice. I love the fact that when you do
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start pushing this, it doesn't get scrappy and you realise there's a whole other dimension
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to this. It's tricky when you drive a car in isolation, sometimes it feels absolutely
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fantastic but then you drive it back to back with other cars and either it feels even better
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than that or it kind of fades slightly and you can start to notice flaws you wouldn't
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otherwise spot so I'm kind of intrigued to see where the Aston Martin is going to shape out
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Yeah, it's a car with a lot of character, it's got a bit of an old school kind of GT slash
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sports car slash muscle car vibe to it. There is a lovely solid feel to this car, it does feel like it's kind of cute from solid
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Oh man and it got the power and the torque to just keep spinning the wheels all the way up the hill if you want It on your side but you still the one driving it
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You feel that you're the one making the difference. It's not just computers doing it for you
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Well, I'm lucky to be on this road, in this car, in this company
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and that's what these cars like this are about they're emotional things if you were going to
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spend i think the list price for this car starts at something like 165 000 pounds it's a lot of
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money now it's a serious bitter kit and a serious investment so if you're going to make sacrifices
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to put something like this in your life it should make your life better and it should make every day
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really special and I think this car does. There's a temptation to think that having a big estate car in a Tesla like this is just
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sort of there for a bit of differentiation, sort of visual interest
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But this is really quite special. We've had them in the past and they're sort of good to have a different shape and it's
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It's nice to have things like that in there, their worthy of being there
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And it really feels like it. As soon as I went through the first set of hairpins, you just think, this is not like
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any Audi and Stadia I've driven. It's big, you know, it's got a long wheelbase, but it feels short and nimble when it turns in
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The rear wheel steering works brilliantly. So no real upgrades to the powertrain, but we've got passive dampers in here
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But what they've done to the center and I think the rear diff as well, the sport diff
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at the rear has made it so agile. The steering's quite light
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but it's sort of like the BMW CS models in terms of that lightness that still gives you confidence
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and feedback and lets you know exactly what the car is doing
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This is extraordinary. It looks like a rally support car, but it drives like the rally support car
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that would beat the actual rally car. And I think if Audi had entered an estate into rallying
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like Volvo entered an estate into the British Touring Car Challenge, that feels like it sort of would pay tribute to that
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And yeah, just what I think. Once you get it up to pace
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you can't escape the feeling of mass. But blindly, it doesn't half go
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The hairpins, really tight hairpins, you think wouldn't suit it. But if you hold third, I think it was
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and nail it almost before you see the apex, it just, like a cork out of a bottle
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It's more involving than you might think a big 800 horsepower Audi is
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But do I love it? I fell in love with the M5 CS
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after a few miles on a really difficult road. when we were doing car of the year in Scotland
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And it's probably not much bigger than the M5. I'm not sure what it is, but it just feels..
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I feel the mass. For such a big car, it feels really agile
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It's got enormous great brakes on it, so you've got confidence into the hairpins
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But it just turns in so well. instantly all that luggage space behind you just comes around
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It would be nice if there was a little bit more V8, a little less gas rush to it in terms of the soundtrack
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But that's the modern way of things sadly. This really does have more than a whiff of Mitsubishi Evo about it, which is not something I expected
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The way this drives, it actually makes me like the way it looks
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That's how good it is
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Heading up to those roads at the top of the Pyrenees, the ST was just sublime really
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It felt picking up from where I left off in the GT3 RS last year
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Felt very familiar in some respects with that engine. Obviously the manual gearbox, but you also don't have the configurability
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Much of it based around that wonderful flat six hung out the back
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It's just, I don't think we've got anywhere near 9000 on it yet, but wow
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Such a compelling package. Of course manual as well, being old Luddites we do like a manual gear shift, but it just makes the drive when you're not going for it on track
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Up in the hills is a question of what's more spectacular this car, all the scenery
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There's a little bit of an adjustment I think in driving it. I love the focus of it and every time I get in those cars they just fit you like a glove and you just connect with it immediately
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in ways that other cars struggle to do, but I'm quite surprised at how there's a lack of refinement in it
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It's quite raw, there's quite a lot of engine noise with the carbon clutch
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there's quite a lot of chatter from the gearbox when you're idling and stuff, so it's..
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there's certain aspects of it that are quite hardcore, but generally speaking..
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it's quite fierce, not quite sure where it sits in my head. A little bit of me when I
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got in this car and went for my first good drive in it, it was like, ah, here we go again
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It's so good at so many things. It's a standing joke that we're massive Porsche fanboys at
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and we are, but only because the cars are so good. When they've not been quite to our taste or they haven't worked on the roads that we want to drive
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specifically the GT4 RS, we weren't massive fans of that. So we do criticise cars where we think they deserve it
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but the 911 just seems like such a fabulous recipe. I'm pretty impressed, first go of the Yaris
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More like a performance car than a rally car, if you see what I mean, a road car than a rally car
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was quite a fluid car quite a bit of roll First drive on the road all the richness of that car was there The three engine is stronger and smoother and the chassis is just more responsive
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It's got plenty of grip, and it pushes on when you reach the limit of grip
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It hangs on and then pushes wide. I think it should be really handy on these very twisty roads
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short wheelbase so it likes to turn but it feels very very polished on these
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roads very well damped initially very grippy on these Michelins very willing very agile little car in contrast with some of the bigger more
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potent coupes so the Toyota GI Yaris it's a bit of an Evo favorites we all
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loved the original generation car which impressed us so much, fully deserves all the hype, it
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is a true modern classic and a bit of a legend in its own lifetime
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You can just tell this car's been developed by people who really love driving and understand
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driving and understand what makes a good performance car. Everything that was great about the original GR Yaris is still here, just the good bits
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are better. You can feel its rally rooms for sure. I've just jumped in the Morgan to make the most of the sunshine
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It's such a joyful car, everything about it just makes you smile as soon as you walk up to it
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Just the modesty of it really, it's a brand new car but it could be anything from 1950s onwards really
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which is completely unique I think with the Morgan. I love the fact the Morgan's here, it's such a charming car
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car like even just thinking about it it it makes me smile when you look at it it's just a car you
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want to you just want to have a look at it and jump in and it it looks so different to everything
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else and feels so different when you're when you're sat in it and their relationship with
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bmw means they've got access to some impressive power trains so although it looks very old school
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and presents as morgan's always have it's fascinating how they're making such a classic car
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relevant in a modern world. You feel you're managing everything about it
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It's so light and agile that you really do feel plugged in
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and part of the car. It's not great, there's no left foot
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It's always hovering over the clutch and you feel a bit sort of driving a defender with your elbows out
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and you have to take the doors off. But it's a lovely thing to be in, but it's not just here
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because it's a lovely thing. It's actually a really well-sorted car. Wow. I'm just enjoying driving on a great road, great scenery, no pressure to do anything fancy
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just in a lovely sports car, treading it down a great road
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Really fallen for it. It's not perfect by a long shot, but it's a lovely car with a great personality
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I think it will be a complete left-field car in amongst a, you know, you get out of a Morgan and into a McLaren or vice versa
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That's going to be quite a culture shock, but I think that's the beauty of car of the year, we can do that
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I've come round to McLaren quite slowly
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I've driven a few excellent ones now, but my first go in this Artura, it feels really well balanced
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It's always had great steering, and that's the front and centre of the joy of that car
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Lovely interior, fabulous driving position, clear instruments, great visibility, comfortable seats, and of course, fantastic steering, hydraulic power-assisted steering
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And although some cars have really affected EPAS these days, When you get back into a car with really good H-pass, you notice it, and this has really good H-pass
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It's very approachable. There's nothing spiky about it. You drive it gently. It drives gently
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It's got a lovely ride, so this is in battery mode at the moment
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You can go to Sport. and it's extremely rapid and proper supercar performance. So you have this
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terrific bandwidth and in the in the wet it's very approachable still. There are
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some cars here that feel really stiff and positive in the dry but come the
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wet you just want to feel your way in and it's quite difficult. There's not that
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much feedback and the responses are quite robust. This just has a little bit of give
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a fantastic steering feel, so you feel more confident quicker. I think the Aston Martin
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the M4 and even the 911 are just not as comfortable in all conditions. They're all just a little
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bit too stiff. So the drivetrain feels a lot more refined these days and has a bit of character
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as well. So yeah, I was surprised, very pleasantly surprised. And it was almost straight away
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it's into my top three, which I wasn't expecting at the start. It's obligatory
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Tunnel, seat for car, windows down, high revs. There's quite a lot of familiarity about the M4 CS and there's still a lovely feel like
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the M3 CS last year. The steering is almost, there's a little bit of a lightness to it, but a bit of a looseness
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and certainly more feel than in the Aston, which has probably similar weighting but less feel
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There are lots of similarities with the M3 CS last year. it doesn't feel like it's got quite the magic of other CS's we've had in the past
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Obviously we had a couple of cars that have done very well with M5 CS and the M2 CS brilliantly Perhaps the biggest difference with this compared to the M3 certainly straight away is the
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fact this is on Cup 2R rubber which is pretty extreme for the road. It's got nice dry roads
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today and you certainly could argue that it's too much but I really like that sense of a
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a tyre that you have to work with really feels sort of warm up and cool down
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There are quite a few comparisons you can actually draw with the Aston Martin, obviously
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both front engine cars, the steering wheels in both, certainly in this
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I love the Alcantara but it's just too chunky, it's something we've been saying about BMWs
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for ages. gives a slightly sort of almost slightly clumsy feel which is completely at odds with the rest of the car to be honest
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Something else you always have to spend a few minutes doing when you get into this is working out just what mode you want to be in because there's so much choice
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Once you've worked it out you can just set and forget really
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One of the other things I love about this is, it's sort of easy to forget in some ways
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this is such a usable car, you know, it's got proper rear seats in it
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You can live with it every day so easily and yet you've got all this tactility and enjoyment
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and, well, performance in it. It does disguise its weight so well
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There's a litheness and agility about it, which is very surprising if you just look
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at the numbers on a piece of paper. Huge capability but doesn't have that
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rapport with it that I want to sort of drive it all the time like most of the other cars here
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But yeah you sort of think, oh this is just a box ticking exercise of how we can
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rinse some customers with more money but the CS project as it were over the last five or six years
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and really delivered some quite astonishing machinery. The one thing colleague James made a very valid point this morning
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you can drive it, enjoy it, have a great drive, get out of the car bubbling and enthusing about it
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Sometimes you think, well, I've kind of driven that, I've got everything out of it that I know I'm going to get from it
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It's given me everything that I've got to do on a road, in a road car
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You don't pass up the opportunity to drive such cars, but I don't think it's one that there's going to be a fistfight for the keys for
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There's a lot to like about it, but to me it's not hitting the highs of other CSs
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I was really keen that the Mustang Dark Horse was part of this test because I drove it in
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the United States in North Carolina. There was a little bit of a compromise launch, we didn't get quite as much time on the road
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as we'd liked, but we got a bit of seat time at the circuit. And I'm a huge fan of the old Mustang Mach 1
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I really, really love that car. It's got so much character and to me the Dark Horse felt like a slightly more together
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more agile more kind of polished version of that car so I'm really keen to see what it's like in
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Europe because there's still a bit of a mystery around that car and well we'll know by the end of
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this week. I am having fun driving it this is the first chance I've had to drive it a little bit
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quicker in the space of about five minutes I've done more corners than I did on the whole US launch
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so already discovering what about it and liking what I'm finding it's quite playful as well it
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will move around not in a you know Larry come away it does feel more agile
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the way it changes direction is a bit more immediate a bit more polished to his handling I'd say I mean early days it feels very together
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really stable it kind of settles quite fast only with a big heavy
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relatively soft car like this you can feel it kind of wallowing and it takes a while to take a
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set but this one you get it into the corner and it settles quite quickly and you always know where
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you are with it it just feels less of a big character than I thought it would it feels a
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bit more subdued the dark horse handles and more like a European car which I wasn't expecting
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It doesn't feel that fast because you look at the spec and it's 500 horsepower, but I
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think it's the gearing just takes that occasion out of the engine somehow
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The start course, it just feels like a slightly smaller, more wieldy, more willing car to
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be hustled along, and yet it still retains a lot of the things that we love about American
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cars that we don't get from the European equivalent. The weirdest thing about this car though is the
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gearbox it's a 10-speed automatic which seems ridiculous when you've got a five litre V8
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under the bonnet. I don't know if you can hear this with the gear shift so that's first
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second hardly a drop, third hardly a drop, Fourth, fifth, sixth. I had a really good drive in this car yesterday, yesterday morning
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leaving the hotel. We have like a two hour drive to the location we were using yesterday
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and on a mixture of roads from motorways, fast flowing road through the valley and then
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some really good, fun switchbacks through the mountains and I was really surprised at how
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well it would change direction and the balance and the steering feel and things that I wouldn't
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necessarily in my mind associate with a Mustang or expect from a Mustang. That was the kind
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of pleasant surprise, if you like, with the dark horse. I'm conflicted because there's bits of it that are much better than I expected, there's
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bits of it that just seemed totally out of character. The reason we're at the circuit is not to set lap times or do any kind of data gathering
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or performance testing, it gives us a safer environment to see what these cars do towards the limit
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So we're not taking risks on the road. We get a better idea of the ultimate balance
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of all of these cars. Very rarely changes anything hugely, but if you've got questions about a car
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it's nice to be able to come back to a track and answer those, I think
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So yeah, it's quite an important feature, the track, though it doesn't actually influence
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the overall result very much. First, it's great to have Evo down here for their
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of the year. I've been keen to expand our Motorsport Vision MSV group with the circuits. We've got six
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circuits in the UK, as some of your viewers will know. We've got Brands Hatch, Donington, Alton Park
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Cadwell Park, Snetterton and Bedford Autodrome. Although the circuit was only built in 2011
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it had had no investment since then, so it was all pretty tired. I spent the first sort of six
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months just seeing what it was like, but very rapidly it was clear it had too many slow corners
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so I redesigned it a bit on a kind of napkin at lunchtime one day but now we've got a circuit
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I think it's got a great layout it's challenging it's nothing it's not straightforward to drive
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which is really what drivers like too you know you always want to do another lap but it's fast
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flowing sweeping we've generally got as we have today we've got great weather it's not as hot and
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baking as in the southern part of Spain but the weather's certainly a lot better than in the UK
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so I think we've got a great circuit now I'm very proud of it Okay, heading out onto the Navara circuit in the Aston Martin Vantage
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It's not a track car. This is not a car built for track days
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But it's a testament to how dynamic this thing is, that it works really well on a circuit
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It's got a really positive front end on it. Turns in really, really well
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It's just so positive this car, I absolutely love it. Exhaust has the most easiest loads as well
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Loads of traction that Edith finds so much purchase. Still on the brakes, late-tish into here
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Barely minded as a road car on the brakes car. But it's stopped well
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Yeah, front-end grip is brilliant. and there's some tyres that have had a fairly hard time over the last couple of days
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Changes direction really well. I mean, what's not to like? Wow
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So if I hadn't touched that kerb, it would have just gripped and gone, and this E-diff
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works really, really well. This car's been designed around its new Michelin 5S tyres
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Aston Martins work together with Magellan on them and they work so well
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You can really feel where the edge of the grip is. Right, the kerbs well too
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Honestly, for a car that's not meant to be a track car, this works pretty well on the track
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Honestly, I would quite happily drive this car all day. It's got all the ingredients that you could want
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An amazing engine, which you know all about, manual gearbox. I haven't felt quite as wowed by it as I did with the GT3 RS that we had last year
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I don't know whether it's something to do with the 992 body, perhaps not sort of suiting
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it quite so much it feels still really stiff and racy So this is celebrating 60 years of the 911
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It's sort of Porsche's birthday present to itself. In its original form, the ST was kind of a competition car
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So the S stood for, well, Ferrer S, which had the biggest engine at the time, the T was the lightweight one, so that's where the T comes from
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So most amount of power, least weight, fracking formula really, but a lot of them were used for circuit racing and rallies and
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hill climbs and stuff like that. So although this is a road car, there's some sort of
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well, circuit history there at least. And obviously this has various RS parts on it, like the
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RS's front wishbones and obviously the RS's engine. So 518 brake horsepower, the most
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powerful iteration of this naturally aspirated Plat 6. But the difference from the ST is it's
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This is the first time that this engine's been combined with the manual gearbox and we have the carbon clutch to reduce the inertia
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There is real edge to the chassis actually. There is something just so wonderfully competition about this drive train
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And the sound of it, absolutely glorious. The Audi that I loved on the road, and I know it's not a track car
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but it does feel quite big and it's got some magic on the road
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which I didn't enjoy so much on the track. But the M4, it's so hard to relax with it
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Fantastic traction, of course, four-wheel drive. Then you get to the first corner and it's so bright on the steering, but with so little feel or feedback, you really don't know where you are with the car
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You know, cut to last for a car in the UK with our bumpy roads and our wet roads. It's just not ideal
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The Mustang. The second and third subsequent times I drove it, because I knew what to expect, I knew the gearbox was there and you can sort of overlook it a bit and enjoy the rest of the car
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and actually there's a lot to like about the steering and the general balance of the car
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It sounds good actually, particularly when you're outside it, but at the end of the day it just didn't quite gel, certainly with that gearbox for me
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It's just a breath of fresh air and not just because it's completely different and it's a bit of an old school approach
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I just love its character and its personality. It almost senses if you're a little bit nervous or apprehensive about it
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and it will kind of try to dictate to you how you should drive. But if you sort of grab it by the scruff of the neck
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it's like, oh, OK, this is what you want to do. And it really comes to you, and it's a lovely car just to push
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It's not perfect by a long shot, but it's a lovely car with a great personality
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It's the only kind of test that I had as much fun following as I did driving
36:31
It's an absolute hoot, that car, and it so simple and pure and true It like it completely consistent whether it pouring with rain brilliant sunshine It was amazing fun here at the racetrack great in the mountains great on the far sweeping roads
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And everyone in the test had a brilliant time in it, which I think is testament to the car
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Because it's a very modest thing on paper. It's easily the least powerful car, but there's just some magic in that
37:02
particularly now they've just the fine tuning that they've done with the steering, the damping
37:07
diff and yeah it's just such a sweet thing. So the Aris is a rally rep turned into a road car
37:14
and I think it nails that it's really gutsy, loads of torque, punchy, great chassis, wet or dry
37:23
You really get involved with that lovely gear shift, really weighty gear shift so I think they've
37:28
refined the original car in just the right way. We've spent the last few days driving on some fabulous roads up in the mountains
37:41
but we're here at Navarro just to explore the car's performance that little bit further
37:48
particularly the quick stuff like the McLaren Artura. at 690 horsepower v6 hybrid because you can hear in track mode so it really starts to come to life
38:01
and be a much more expressive car it's incredibly linear the power delivery that hybrid assist just
38:10
gives you so much shove out the corners and the v6 is quite a not flat in a bad way but it's just
38:17
It doesn't have a discernible crescendo, which maybe some people might miss
38:25
Yeah, it's got more character than the early Artura we drove a few years ago at Coupe
38:32
I think if the Artura can be criticised for anything, it works so well as a general road
38:42
car that when you want it to be that extraordinary car, it just struggles to really express itself
38:53
in a way that maybe you would expect from a 700 horsepower mid-engine car that looks
39:00
the way this does and drives the way this does. It's hugely capable and competent and they've made so many changes and improvements, but
39:08
It just didn't excite me in the way I thought it would or should, actually
39:15
Driving it on the track just confirmed how I felt about it on the road
39:19
but I knew that I'd driven it as fast as I could or wanted to
39:23
and it still just didn't have that spark. So gentlemen end of the week four days in lovely Spain three days on the road a day at Navarro wonderful facility Time for the scores 93 Dickie 90
40:03
90 as well. 89. 92. 93. 90. 81. 96. It's not even the top score
40:15
92 for me. 87. 85. 83. 89. cast all our votes
40:34
So it's results time for car of the year 2024. In ninth place
40:40
was the Ford Mustang Dark Horse. Overall score out of 100 was 84.2
40:46
Ahead of that was BMW's M4 CS. That finished on 86 points. Alongside
40:52
the Morgan plus four, same score as the BMW, but I think that's a great achievement for the Morgan
40:57
Sixth may be surprising, but for some people was the Toyota GR Yaris on 89 points. In fifth place
41:04
was the Audi RS6 GT on 90.4 points. Fourth, the Aston Martin Vantage, 91.6 points. But then we get
41:13
to the podium spots. And this year we have two cars that finished on 92.6 points, and they were
41:20
the McLaren Arturo Spyder and the Mazda MX-5. Two ends of the spectrum of open-top motoring
41:27
but two cars that just really nailed their brief, which leaves the winner on 92.8. That's how close
41:33
it was this year, just 0.2 in the point scoring, was Porsche's 911 ST. The GT3 RS from last year
41:40
set the bar really high. I don't think the ST has reached that bar, but the ST this year just
41:45
just did enough to take the top spot. I love pretty much everything about it
41:52
I scored it lower than I did the RS the previous year, but the throttle response of the engine mode and gear shift
41:58
I always get in that car and just have a connection with it
42:02
It is just such a brilliant package. What a noise. For that alone, it makes your spine tingle and it's hard to ignore
42:12
It's so capable, so exciting. It's really kind of raw car, quite intense
42:19
You really have to concentrate while driving it, and it demands a lot of you
42:24
Yeah, there's just some magic in it. Thank you

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evo Car of the Year 2024

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