Driving the ultimate modern classic cars, from Fiesta ST to McLaren 650S – car pictures of the week
The 2010s saw cars get heavier, more complicated, more powerful and faster. On the evidence of this test, the onslaught of five-star thrillers didn’t let up as a result
There was a seachange in the world of performance cars, leaving the 2000s and going into the 2010s. Things got really quite serious in terms of technology and performance. Partly due to emissions regulations and partly due to the relentless horsepower race, the characterful naturally aspirated engines of the 2000s largely gave way to big-power turbocharged engines in the 2010s. From the BMW M3 and Mercedes-AMG C63, to Ferrari’s 488 and even the Porsche 911. That surely made for some confusing conversations in Porsche dealers around 2016 – ’no it’s not the Turbo, but it does have turbos’.
There are arguably three cars that can be held responsible for ringing in this new era. The Bugatti Veyron (it led the way all back in 2005 with no less than four turbos nestled within its exposed engine bay) the Nissan GT-R and the McLaren MP4-12C. The latter two (okay, we had a 650S) really left the supercar scene forever changed. If you didn’t want your slice of exotica publicly embarrassed in a YouTube air strip drag race, there was nothing for it. Turbos were the go-to.
Alongside the GT-R and the 650S Spider, the cars of our 2010s Eras test are all turbocharged. Some you’d perhaps expect to be: the Renault Sport Mégane and Ford Fiesta ST. Some blindsided us all upon their arrival – the 911, represented on this test in GTS form. The Alpine meanwhile was an outlier, not because it wasn’t turbocharged, but because it was lightweight and compact, shunning the upward trend of growing weights and footprints.
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Were the 2010s an era of standard-setting driver’s cars, in spite of rising power levels, weights and footprints, the loss of natural aspiration and the increasing abandonment of manual gearboxes? Absolutely. Anyone who tells you a GT-R is nothing but a computer on wheels hasn’t driven a GT-R.
‘Prior to this test, I’d wondered if this was the decade where things would begin to run out of steam; where more of everything would add up to less. Bigger dimensions, larger wheels, wider tyres, fatter kerb weights, forced induction, added complexity. But each of these cars provides a truly enthralling experience; I’ve enjoyed driving them every bit as much as the cars in last issue’s 2000s test. Yousuf says he’s enjoyed the newer cars even more because of their higher dynamic ceiling. ‘It feels like there’s more overlap with the previous decade than in the other Eras tests,’ is how Dickie sees it. ‘I think the noughties was when everything took the biggest stride forward. This decade feels more of a continuation – one of smaller steps, but still with special cars.’
‘Getting lost in a special car – orange McLaren or otherwise – while being disconnected from the digital world, is a unique pleasure. The 2010s was perhaps the last decade in which to truly revel in it.’ – James Taylor, evo deputy editor, who led and wrote evo’s eras: the 2010s test.
