Astonishing 1970s poster supercars revisited – only in the July issue of evo
In the 1970s the supercar hit its stride, with the Lamborghini Countach and Ferrari 512 leading a legion of wedges. We drive the best of the decade in the July issue of evo
Our new evo Eras series continues in issue 347 of evo (July 2026). This month we reach the 1970s, where the supercar is a well-established breed, with the jaw-dropping, shock-and-awe Countach taking over from the elegant Miura. Even Ferrari finally bit the bullet to set a 12-cylinder engine behind the driver in the 512, while Porsche elected to widen the hips of its rear-engined sports car and strap a turbocharger to its flat-six to create the first 911 Turbo.
Aston Martin beefed up its V8 to create the Vantage, Maserati brought out its glorious wedge-shaped V8 Bora flagship and even BMW joined the party, albeit with primary designs on competition and more than a little help from Lamborghini. And this month in evo, we’ve driven them all – yes, Countach, 512 BB, Vantage, 911 Turbo, Bora and M1, all assembled in our study of genus supercar.
Some five decades on, arguably the world’s most recognisable supercar brand, or car brand in general even, is breaking brave, controversial new ground. The Ferrari Luce is perhaps the most talked-about new car this century, for all the wrong reasons. We get under its skin and talk to its creators and designers, to understand exactly what the plan is. Other companies have ideas of what Ferrari ought to be doing and are doing it themselves. We drive Evoluto’s reinterpretation of the Ferrari 355 to find out if perfection can be improved upon.
Lotus is at least seemingly finding its way back to the path of righteousness. Though the new 1000bhp, plug-in-hybrid Esprit might not do much in the way of simplifying and adding lightness compared to bygone Elises and Exiges, it’s a definitive course correction after its heavyweight EV SUV and saloon. In the hot hatch world, the Mk8 Golf GTI has finally come good in the new GTI Edition 50. But can it live with the current hot hatch champs from Japan, the Honda Civic Type R and Toyota GR Yaris Aero Performance? We put them to the test on road and track, to find out.
Toyota Gazoo Racing keep teasing us with hot hatch forbidden fruit, giving us a drive of the GR Corolla that it now builds, but doesn’t sell, in the UK. Speaking of what we missed, we also get behind the wheel of Petroyle’s E46 BMW M3 Touring, a faithful recreation of the one-off skunkworks concept BMW never had the bottle to productionise. We also drive Morgan’s Supersport 400, its most powerful model yet, as well as the Porsche Taycan-rivalling Polestar 5. All this, plus Mission Motorsport founder James Cameron in the My Life & Cars chair, columns from Richard Meaden and Richard Porter and updates on our evo Fast Fleet and much more. Head to the evo shop to have a copy of issue 347 delivered straight to your door.
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