This Month's evo: Issue 99

Planet evo How would you like a Bristol Fighter with over 1000bhp? Bit too much? Alright then, how about a new Ascari A10 with just 625bhp? You’re a bit scared of that too? Well then, we suggest you try sleeping with the light on and park a new Audi TT convertible in your driveway Driven Porsche 911 GT3 RS, Mazda 3 MPS, Mini Cooper, Fiat Panda 100 HP, Mercedes-Benz S63 AMG, Vauxhall Monaro VXR 500, TVR Sagaris, Land Rover Freelander, Honda Civic Type-S Letters One reader says Audi might be trying to rip us off with the R8 while another gets the same thrills as a Zonda from his Talbot Sunbeam. And a lot of you told us there was too much Shell advertising in the last issue. Message received, loud and clear

evo Car of the Year: Part One This is the part where we get our hands dirty driving cheap cars. Harry always wears a silly hat and Jethro puts on fancy-dress sunglasses, but only to confuse the locals, you understand. Despite costing less than £40K, the cars are actually very good. The best two go through to… evo Car of the Year: Part Two This is the part where we live in a dreamworld for five days. We sleep on the softest beds, drink the finest wines known to humanity (name the film), enjoy wall-to-wall sunshine and drive the best, most exotic cars of the past year… well, the last bit’s accurate anyway

The Nearly Cars Had it been a different year, this could have been the line-up for eCoty 2006. As it is, they never made it to the start line. Here’s why The Must Try Harders They say there’s no such thing as a bad car these days. They may be right. But here are some that should have been an awful lot better The Last Ford GT Last year’s eCoty winner has reached the end of its production run. Jethro Bovingdon visits the factory to see the last one roll off the line, and remembers some storming drives in GTs Legends: Lotus 32B While the Elise S wows us at eCoty, we look back at a unique Lotus driven by another legend Long-termers The Golf has gone back after a very hectic 12 months with us. Andy Morgan’s Focus ST has been racking up the miles as both camera car and ambulance on eCoty, and Simon George is worried about B&Q lorries Subscriptions It won’t make your hair grow back but you will feel a better man every time you look in the mirror The Knowledge Next month one of these entries will have ‘Our Car of the Year’ next to it. Ah, but which one? Birth of an Icon: Lotus Elise Ten years ago the original Elise won the Performance Car of the Year title. In its latest ‘S’ guise it did rather well at this year’s eCoty, too. Reason enough to look back at the heady days when the baby Lotus was conceived and born