Welcome to the evo Car of the Year

It’s that moment you’ve been waiting for, when evo reviews and rates the very best cars this world has to offer

Welcome to evo’s Car of the Year.

It’s different this time around. It’s more inclusive, more in-depth and more relevant than ever before. To be considered as a contender, a car must now be a model that anyone of sufficient means can place an order for, which means no ultra limited editions that are sold out before anyone’s even driven one. So don’t expect the Aston Martin Valkyrie to feature in a forthcoming eCoty but we may well see the new V8 Vantage appearing if the drive lives up to its looks.

At evo we’re less concerned about boot space and creature comforts than we are about the way a new car makes you feel when you explore its potential on a really great stretch of road. For an automobile to really impress us, it needs to offer a stellar combination of thrills and desirability that makes us smile like idiots when we’re tackling our favourite routes and feel a tinge of sadness when we have to hand the key back to its custodian. And each winner here manages to tick those particular boxes better than any other in its class.

The cars presented here are not bought with normal rationale – they’re bought because they tug at heartstrings and offer a very particular brand of magic to those fortunate enough to own them. And while some of them offer similar levels of performance, they each deliver their hits with a uniqueness of character that we cannot help adore. The Tesla Model S P100D, for instance, can out-accelerate a Bugatti Chiron, at least to 100kph, but the physical effect is completely different and no less special.

But while an all-electric car might seem at odds with evo’s mantra, there’s one kind of vehicle we’ll never consider in an eCoty and that’s an autonomous car. We love driving, so why would we want to hand over that pleasure to the machine itself? It’s an absurd notion for a magazine that champions The Thrill of Driving. That a car without an engine or gearbox could find favour with us was as surprising to us as it was anyone else but rather than join the bandwagon by dismissing Tesla out of hand like many other titles have, we approach every vehicle we test with a completely open mind.

That’s what makes evo so special in a media landscape where few opinions can be trusted as truly authentic, and it’s what makes the annual eCoty issue a brilliant reference point if you’re considering buying a new performance car.