evo 220 on sale now! – tested: BMW M2, Pagani Huayra BC, Focus RS group test

The BMW M2 takes pride of place in the new issue of evo – on sale now – and rightly so, as it’s one of the most eagerly anticipated performance cars of 2016. But does the latest product from the M division follow in the disappointing tyre tracks of the current M3/M4 or is it a return to form for the Munich powerhouse? Jethro Bovingdon has the answer.

Fighting for cover space is Pagani’s new Huayra BC, the lighter, more powerful, even more extreme Huayra from Horacio Pagani’s imagination. In this exclusive early drive Jethro Bovingdon discovers that the old-school hypercar is still alive and well and fit enough to take on hybrid-hypercar elite.

There have been times when we’ve thought Volkswagen’s Golf R was unbeatable in the super-hatch class. Even family rivals such as Audi’s RS3 struggled to get close to the Wolfsburg wonder. But this was before Ford’s latest Focus RS came along. So this month we sent Henry Catchpole to Spain armed with an R and an RS3 to meet the RS, with the clear instruction to declare the best super-hatch money can buy.

Genuine exclusives are harder to come buy in today’s world of drip-fed PR guff, but thanks to Lotus we have one this month, with Richard Meaden getting behind the wheel of Lotus’s new 3-Eleven. With 410bhp and a 925kg kerb weight, the 3-Eleven is the company’s fastest road car to date. And thankfully it’s really rather good, too.

Thinking of buying a new car for the trackday season? You are? Splendid, you’ll need to read evo’s Track Car of Year test in issue 220. Eleven contenders from the Ariel Atom to the Glickenhaus SCG003, four days, Jethro Bovingdon and Richard Meaden and one track is all it took to crown the evo Track Car of the Year.

What else will you find in issue 220? Our first drive of Porsche’s new 911 Turbo S, Lamborghini’s Huracan Spyder, the Praga R1R and Caterham’s 620S to name a but a few. We’ve also the full run-down on Alpine’s stunning Vision mid-engined sports car concept and Porsche’s new 718 Boxster S. We also jump behind the wheel of the iconic VW Corrado VR6 Storm, quiz Stéhane Ratel about the future of GT racing, introduce a Jaguar F-type R Coupe AWD to our Fast Fleet and ask which gas guzzlers you should buy as the price of oil takes a fall. And it’s all in evo issue 220 – on sale now!