JUDGE'S NOTES: HENRY CATCHPOLE

One of the very best things on this year's eCoty wasn't even one of the cars, reveals Catchpole.

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WE'LL COME BACK TO THE BAG OF CHOCOLATE waffles and the Ferrari in a minute, but I want to start with the one really big disappointment from this year's eCoty. Something that engendered an even more crushing sense of despair than discovering just how young Yousuf is. Dismay deeper even than that felt by photographers Andy and Olgun when the Vanquish rolled off the transporter looking greyer than a wet November morning.

No, the biggest disappointment was an absence. The absence of any really affordable car in this year's otherwise very healthy lineup. The cheapest car in the test was the Audi RS3, which at £62,000 feels like the preserve of automotive photographers and early bitcoin investors. We scoured the pages from the last year's worth of magazines, even searched the recesses of the online-only reviews, hoping to unearth a forgotten gem that cost less than the purple livery on the Revuelto (£42k, before tax...). But, like Old Mother Hubbard, we came away empty-handed. Disappointingly no equivalent of 2024's MX-5 or GR Yaris was to be found.