Ed speak

THE ART OF ROAD TESTING IS NOT ONE THAT EVO takes lightly. We cover thousands of miles on road and track to pull together the fairest and most thorough tests we can. On occasion, when a car goes pop (yes, it does still happen) or pulls a sickie halfway through a test, we’ll wait until we can do the test again rather than fudge it with what we already have. And evo has never been one to try to figure a new car down a motorway slip-road during a launch event, just so we can be first with a half-hearted result. And we won’t send someone to collect lunch in a car and then ask them to write a road test off the back of it, either.

This is why evo’s new road test editor, James Disdale, has spent the last three months in a darkened room fine-tuning the roadtesting strategy for our new Supertest format. The changes he’s made are all in the detail and if his instructions have been followed correctly you should barely notice the difference between new and old. What you will notice is a more detailed, thorough and entertaining test delivering the strongest possible verdict.

One element we have eschewed is the rolling road. We wanted to use one, but a number of operators recommended we didn’t go near that can of worms. With today’s engine maps capable of detecting when a car is on rollers and adjusting power delivery accordingly, we’d need to ask each manufacturer to attend the rolling-road session to upload a specific map to allow the car to perform for the conditions and deliver exactly the results we’d all be expecting, i.e. what the manufacturer claims. In our eyes, this would make the process flawed (‘manufacturer tunes car to perform as expected’ shocker!) and therefore irrelevant.

Rest assured, too, that the evo Supertest won’t be reserved for the higher echelons of the performance car world. From superminis to supercars, we will endeavour to deliver the only group-test results that matter. As we always have done.