JUDGE’S NOTES: STUART GALLAGHER

Unexpected Italian highs and lows defined this year’s ecoty for Gallagher

YOU PLAN TO WORK UP THE performance ladder in ecoty. Start with the hot hatch, build through the sports cars and supersaloons, before unpacking your big boy trousers and heading for the supercars. That’s the plan, anyway. A plan that goes out the window when Mr Towler is on the logistics and an army green Lamborghini Huracán STO arrives at your doorstep. Still, those first 540 miles to our meeting point will provide plenty of bonding time. In fact, ten miles was all that was required to conclude that we had made the right decision in not allowing the Lamborghini PR team to say no, they couldn’t source us a car.

Lamborghini normally relies on a fearsome engine to distract you from some less than feelsome dynamics. But as we discovered last year, the rear-drive Huracan Evo is something else, and adding everything its maker has learned from its one-make race series has resulted in not only one of the most surprising cars of 2021 in terms of just how good it is, but one of the very best, too. Lamborghini clearly spent its STO budget refining what it already had to create one of its finest cars yet, rather than just adding stuff for the sake of it. There was a part of me that couldn’t wait for ecoty to end so I could enjoy another 12 hours in the STO’S company.

I was less keen on spending that amount of time in the SF90 though. It was sometimes able to deliver unrivalled moments of awe-inspiring joy, a sense you were behind the wheel of something genuinely special, a line-in-the-sand moment for the future of the supercar. And then there were moments of bewilderment, confusion and, on more than one occasion, genuine fear that something was going to go wrong rather quickly.

With a charged battery and Qualify mode selected the SF90 felt like it could give a Eurofighter a run for its money. It wasn’t only how it built its speed – pretty much instantaneously – but how you could carry so much of it everywhere all of the time. It was addictive and fascinating, leaving you in awe of what Maranello has achieved. But equally apprehensive.

I’ve never known a car’s character to change so quickly when the conditions take a turn for the worse. On dry roads in mild weather its turbocharged V8 not only gorged itself on gloopy thick dense air but its Michelin Cup 2 tyres carried out every instruction sent from the SF90’S chassis to the letter of the law. At times it felt peerless, untouchable and magical, but while you scanned the road you also scanned the sky for precipitation, because the moment the first drops of rain landed, the SF90 turned feral. Its front axle would struggle with managing both the torque from the electric motor and any steering inputs, almost as if you could have one but not the other operating at the same time. The tyre temperature also felt like it bled away far too quickly, again robbing you of any sense of connection, and when that happens at night as you approach a downhill, 180-degree right-hander you’ll want more than a stiff drink waiting for you at the journey’s end. That my most memorable (for the right reasons) drive in the SF90 was a 15-mile run on purely electric power is telling.

I expected more of the Civic Type R Limited Edition, too. But it didn’t bowl me over after my first drive and didn’t improve over the week. Few have such clear and precise steering as the Civic and its powertrain remains one of the best there is. But the standard car is so good, so exciting, engaging and thrilling, the Limited needed to go a long way to best it, and for me, it didn’t go far enough. It felt like a car Honda had started to go all R26.R on before bottling it and leaving us with a halfway house. Ultimately the Limited delivers little above what could be achieved with a regular Type R, time with a chassis set-up specialist and a set of trick tyres. Oh, and the i20 N was just more fun more of the time. It’s not as visceral as a GR Yaris, or as polished as a Fiesta ST, but it is blessed with a blend of both that makes it a truly sensational supermini.

The rest? I adored the GT3 and if it had won it would have been a worthy winner, but in a year that saw some genuinely special, er, specials it had its work cut out. Yet it remains one of the very best driver’s cars on sale, and while others would be happy with an ecoty podium place, we know that Porsche, and especially its GT department, won’t stop doing their brilliant best until they are on the top step once again.

The Aston? The best Vantage and yes, the car it should have been in 2017. A special car that oozes character, with a unique driving experience that’s forgiving, rewarding and fun. But it’s not the sharpest and nor does it deliver the most detailed driving experience.

And then there was BMW. I think the M3 Competition would have finished higher had we not brought the M5 CS. The new G80 is that good, a great all-round performance car, one of the very best. But the M5 CS is better still in everything it does. What a car. What an ecoty winner.