evo Car of the Year 2012

As it's name suggests, evo Car of the Year is the highlight of our calendar, and has been since the magazine was founded. Simply being invited to take part is an honour, but being declared winner is the greatest prize that we can bestow - and one of the gongs that everybody in the performance car world wants to win.

2012 has been a great year for performance cars, and that's reflected in the breadth of talents of out 10 challengers. And we've certainly got variety aplenty, from the wonderfully idiosyncratic Morgan 3 Wheeler through to the almighty Pagani Huayra - a car that costs more than the rest of our pack put together.

Despite the spectacular action from the track at Blyton, the majority of eCoty scoring has always been about how a car handles on road. Basing this year’s test in the UK means we’ve been able to assess the pack on everything from Lincolnshire backroads to the fast, flowing A-roads of the Scottish borders.

And, as always, the entire evo team has assembled to subject our challengers to about the toughest scrutiny they’ll ever experience – with this year’s highlight being twin-car Track Battles at Blyton with Tiff Needell and Richard Meaden doing the honours. You can find the links to each of our videos, plus full galleries of each cars, below.

To read the full story, discover who was crowned the winner - and to get our exclusive film from the event on DVD – make sure you buy issue 177 of evo, on sale on the 7th November!

eCoty Track Battle videos

- Morgan 3 Wheeler vs Toyota GT 86 video - BMW M135i vs Porsche 911 Carrera video- Porsche Boxster S vs Lotus Exige S video- Mercedes C63 AMG Black vs Alpina B3 GT3 video- Pagani Huayra vs McLaren MP4-12C video

eCoty Image Galleries

- Morgan 3 Wheeler and Toyota GT 86 - BMW M135i and Porsche 911 Carrera - Porsche Boxster S and Lotus Exige S - Mercedes C63 AMG Black and Alpina B3 GT3 - Pagani Huayra and McLaren MP4-12C