Car Of The Year

It’s the most important test of the motoring calendar, as the best new performance cars of the last year come together in southern Spain – to find out which will earn the coveted title of evo Car of the Year

- Adam Towler

FOLLOWING MONTHS OF PLANNING and hours of debate, the crowning of evo’s 2019 Car of the Year will come down to five days with the half-dozen cars that have raised the most hairs on napes and backs of hands of evo’s writers throughout the year. Some we drove in isolation, others emerged victorious from comparison tests, while one or two we’ve had a hunch about and feel they are in with a chance. All are contenders.

On page 100 you can read about the cars that didn’t quite make the cut to be here in sunny Spain, and there are others you may be expecting to see over the following pages but won’t: Alpine’s A110S, Ferrari’s F8 Tributo and Aston Martin’s Vantage AMR will all get their eCoty shot in 2020.

Our first sight of 2019’s competitors isn’t within the confines of evo’s car park, but as they are being disgorged from the back of transporters and trailers that have made their way across Europe to park up in the immaculate paddock of the Ascari race circuit, our base for the week.

A pair of Germans arrive first (who else?), with the thunderous roar of a hot-V turbocharged V8 shattering the Monday-morning peace as a Mercedes-AMG GT R Pro wakes from its slumber, deafening exhaust trying its best to tear open the sides of one of the transporters. If it had succeeded it would have also revealed the canary yellow MercedesAMG A45 S that’s as bright as the ball of fire high above. It’s a warm, dry and loud start to the week.