Ed’s letter

IT’S AMAZING HOW EASY IT IS TO BECOME ENSNARED IN THE DETAIL AND LOSE SIGHT OF F THE BIG PICTURE. RIGHT NOW, THE BEST WEEK OF THE ENTIRE YEAR – WHEELS CAR OF THE YEAR – IS ABOUT TO BEGIN, AND AS MUCH AS I’D LIKE TO THINK OF THE ACTIVITY OCCURRING OUTSIDE MY OFFICE AS CONTROLLED CHAOS, REALLY IT’S BEDLAM.

Journos are madly dialling car companies, hotels and restaurants as the final touches are made to an event that involves 25 people, 55 cars and runs for seven long days. It’s been this way for more than a week, with varying degrees of intensity, and last night, perhaps sick of me poring over COTY spec sheets in the bedroom or proofing magazine pages at the breakfast table, my wife threw me a wobbly by asking, innocently, “So, what’s going to win?”

“Huh…” I muttered, glancing at the list of 22 contenders stuck to my living room wall with fresh eyes. “I … don’t know.”

Whether the judges acknowledge it or not, there are always a few cars that are earmarked as serious contenders before COTY testing begins. Favouritism is no guarantee of success, of course – history is

ground with 55 cars laid out before me, is the e joy of the testing.

No other event or comparison test comes close to delivering what COTY does: the unbridled pleasure of driving great cars on great roads with the best road testers in the business. It’s also liberating to be free of the time constraints and beady-eyed glares delivered by car company execs that often plague new-model launches; to evaluate the cars at our pace and on our terms. It is, quite simply, brilliant.

And at the end of it, as I disappear into the nearest bathroom cubicle to tally the final vote in secret – as tradition dictates – I’ll be left with that strange feeling of pride and apprehension as I come to grips with the fact that I’m the only person on the planet who knows what car has won. Well, I’ll