£3m donuts, police joyrides and a Ferrari Enzo (almost) in a ditch

I love evo magazine. Always have, always will. I remember seeing the first issue on the newsstand and being so excited to see that the boys from Performance Car were back, but with a much better, much more beautiful product and without the slightly dumbed-down project cars that had been introduced for readers theoretically graduating from Max Power. Don’t you just love big publishing company strategy?

Anyway, that first issue, with a sinfully cool Maserati 3200GT on the cover, seemed so fresh and clearly lived and breathed its tagline. Devouring every page and every glorious photograph, I too was immersed in the Thrill of Driving. Little did I know that the magazine would one day become home to me, present so many opportunities and provide so many brilliant memories.

> Great Ferrari hypercars driven: 288 GTO, F40, F50 and Enzo head-to-head

From the very first day I arrived at the OG evo Towers back in March 2001, there’s been an oh-my-god moment every few days. The early years were all about education for me. Sitting beside John and Dickie as they laid down lap times and trying to absorb as much information as possible, watching how Peter Tomalin could turn a rough and not really ready story into something polished and pristine with a few seemingly effortless tweaks, and just driving as much as possible. Building up my own data bank of experiences and sensations.

For me, the real highlight was always the group tests. Bloody hell we used to drive fast. Hanging on to the back of the group was in equal parts fascinating, challenging and terrifying. Every car was driven on the door handles. For example, I vividly remember following the unlikely combination of John Barker and a Toyota Yaris T‑Sport (105bhp, 118mph, £11,995) back from a shoot for a good couple of hundred miles in a Peugeot 106 GTi. In all that distance I don’t think we took a breath from absolute maximum attack. Well, maybe John did. But for a relatively inexperienced Bov in a super-sharp Peugeot hot hatch it was a wild ride. There were several other cars in the convoy and later somebody said to me, ‘Well, I think you passed the test.’ Who’d have thought clinging on to the rear bumper of a Yaris could decide the fate of a hopeful young writer for the most exciting car magazine on the planet?

So, my best memory has to be a group test. And it has to be in north Wales. Probably on those soaring, epic roads now ruined by average-speed cameras. (Perhaps the only detrimental thing evo has done for the car-loving community is making these roads widely known. For that, I think we all have heavy hearts.) And it can’t involve a Yaris! No, despite adoring hot hatches, the very best days are the pinch-yourself ones that often involve truly special cars. The most special of all? It has to be the gathering of 288 GTO, F40, F50 and Enzo back in issue 064. What a surreal few days…

The Enzo, very much the latest and greatest at the time, turned up on a giant transporter, which somehow slid into a ditch. Luckily, the car was undamaged. The owner couldn’t make the dates so just gave us the car for a few days to enjoy. The F50 we had for two weeks as its owner was travelling on business. Two weeks. Can you imagine? The 288 GTO was supplied by friends in the industry. It arrived the next day with much fanfare. By which I mean several donuts in a bumpy, puddle-strewn layby. We couldn’t quite believe the sight of a precious GTO being driven like a hire car, but it set the tone for a few days of testing these cars to the fullest. Len, the owner of the F40, was a good sport, too. We all knew this was going to be a special event.

There was police attention (they loved the rides in the Enzo and F50 and speed limits were suddenly very elastic), an irate farmer, rain, sunshine and plenty of liquid refreshment in the evenings. Most of all there was joy and awe and a shared sense that we were doing something no other magazine could hope to make happen and doing it our way. The cars were enjoyed and pushed hard, not revered and wrapped in cotton wool. It was a regular group test, just with highly irregular cars.

So often I’ve eagerly read tests of fantastic cars in other places, hoping to find out something new… only to hear the old clichés and received wisdom trotted out as fact because the ‘driving’ had been minimal and carried out at a dawdle. The Thrill of Worship. Understandable but ultimately empty. Cars are for driving and we drove those Ferraris. It was and remains the evo way.

On the final evening the weather cleared and the journey back to the hotel was pure magic. The unsilenced Enzo screamed its lungs out, the 288 GTO lit up dusk with great curls of flame and the F40 sparked against the road surface like an F1 car through Eau Rouge. I watched it all from the F50. Hanging on again. Just. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

This story was first featured in evo issue 315.