THE ABSENTEES

Expecting to see these in our 2023 line-up? Here’s why they – and others – are not included

WHAT ABOUT THE…? WHERE’S THE…? WHY DIDN’T YOU INCLUDE the…? Every year there are a number of cars that aren’t represented in evo Car of the Year for a number of reasons. Some we work until the eleventh hour trying to secure, others we know aren’t going to make the test at the early planning stages because they either don’t reach the mark or are never going to be ready in time. To provide some clarity and insight, here’s why your favourite car of 2023 isn’t in eCoty.

Let’s start with the Lotus Emira. This is the second consecutive year the new mid-engined Lotus hasn’t made it to eCoty, not through the want of trying. Last year the V6 manual was pulled by Lotus at the last minute and this year… the AMG-engined auto was pulled at the last minute (both for our original dates at the end of September and our rescheduled dates four weeks later). A lack of resource in terms of cars on the press fleet and people to prepare a car for the test is why the last internal-combustion-engined sports car from Lotus missed out on a last chance to shine.

Staying with the mid-engined theme, we tried to source a Corvette Z06 because, as John Barker put it, “it would have done rather well. Certainly a podium troubler.” But, as with Lotus, Corvette wasn’t in a position to support our test regardless of where we conducted it and when.

Why not source a privately owned example of both? Our readers are amazingly supportive, but we knew we’d be pushing it to ask to borrow a private individual’s car for an entire week, with no mileage restrictions.

Ferrari took the decision that the Purosangue doesn’t fit the end-ofyear performance car test format like its supercars do, explaining the company line before we had drawn up our shortlist. The Purosangue would have been on it, and it would have done rather well too, according to those who have driven it.

Porsche’s 718 Spyder RS? How many Porsches is too many in one test? Three probably. It’s a car with a personality of its own rather than being an open-roofed facsimile of its Cayman GT4 RS relative, which finished in fourth place last year, but would it have troubled the top of the score-sheet among the cream of 2023’s crop? We think it’s unlikely.

Prodrive’s sensational P25 most certainly would have done, but despite Dickie Meaden’s advocacy for it, the `6 crore (in the UK) 25-run special was sidelined on the grounds that, while evo has never shied away from handing its prized title to some very special cars, the P25 goes beyond ‘special’ and drives into the ‘bespoke’ category.

Audi’s RS4 Competition? A very good car, but still off the pace in terms of taking on an M3, let alone an M3 CS. On the subject of BMWs, the M2 was debated long and hard, but ultimately while it’s a cracking all-rounder, is it a podium contender? No, sorry M2 owners.

Ariel’s Atom 4R would undoubtedly be a blast but this isn’t the test for its very singular talents, and AMG’s impressive new GT63 was launched the week after our test concluded and so is a contender for 2024.

Did we consider any EVs? We asked ourselves the question, looked at the hopeless charging infrastructure in the UK and decided we haven’t driven anything electrified this year that warranted a minimum four-hour round trip every time its battery required topping up.