evo Car of the Year: every winner since 1998
It’s the eCoty honour roll – every car that's taken top honours at the each of our end-of-year showdowns, since the very first in 1998
All eyes are peeled when it comes time for evo Car of the year to drop through letterboxes and land on newsstands. Since 1998 it’s been a must-read for enthusiasts to find out which of the latest and very best performance cars, from hot hatches to supercars, has distinguished itself in the year’s toughest test.
There’s nothing like gathering performance cars great and small, most ordinarily incomparable, to really bring their idiosyncrasies and abundant talents (or lack thereof in some cases) into sharp focus. eCoty always brings surprises, revelatory drives and more than a few laughs. We hope as much has come across to our readers over the years.
Last year marked 25 years since evo first set up shop and as such, the evo Car of the Year test came some 25 years on from the very first in 1998. Over the following two decades eCoty has become a benchmark for this magazine, for the industry and, most importantly, for you the reader. You haven’t always agreed with our choices, you’ve certainly made your feelings felt about some of the winners and have quite rightly let us know when we got it all wrong. How cars have changed since then we don’t think anyone on that North Wales test could have predicted all those years ago.
Some things are as they would expect, however – last year as in 1998 and plenty of times since, a 911 won, albeit one very different to the original 996 Carrera that took honours first time out. We might have caught a bit of grief for glazing the 911 over the years but the cars are exceptional and, many conveniently forget, 911s have on a number of occasions been beaten to the top step by British, Italian, German and even Japanese machinery in the past.
In any case, as we prepare to ship 2024’s eCoty issue to subscribers and (latterly) newsstands, why not reacquaint yourself with the history of eCoty, its contestants, winners, locations and stories?
evo Car of the Year: the winners 1998 to 2023
1998: Porsche 911 Carrera (996.1)
evo early adopters only had to wait until issue 003 for the first eCoty. Held in north Wales, the ‘crushingly capable’ 996 Carrera walks it, with Lotus’s Elise 135 and Ferrari’s F355 also on the podium.
> Porsche 911 Carrera (996.1) review
1999: Porsche 911 GT3 (996.1)
To the Scottish Highlands, and a second 911 victory. And who could argue with that? Except maybe Ferrari, whose 360 Modena finishes second. A people’s champion, the Subaru Impreza RB5, takes third.
> Porsche 911 GT3 (996, 1999-2005) review – the purest GT3 of them all?
2000: Porsche 911 Turbo (996)
Back to Wales, and – well, this is getting awkward – another win for a 911. And Barker ruins it for everyone by giving away the result in his Ed Speak column.
> Porsche 911 Turbo (996) review
2001: Pagani Zonda C12 S
Tuscany, and Porsche’s dominance is broken as the 996.2 Carrera comes fifth. Newcomer Pagani wins; the E46 M3 comes second – BMW’s highest ever finish. And JB spoils it again.
> Pagani Zonda: history, reviews and specs of an icon
2002: Honda NSX Type R
A surprise winner in Wales – as long as you didn’t read the small print on the Ed Speak page first, that is. The 911 Carrera 4S (996.2) has to make do with second; Ferrari’s 575M Fiorano Handling Pack finishes third.
> Why the Honda NSX-R is one of the most significant cars of the last 25 years
2003: Porsche 911 GT3 (996.2)
eCoty splits into two. Winning the sub-£30k ‘real world’ test in Scotland (aka ‘McCoty’) is the Subaru Impreza STI Spec C, but taking overall honours in the ‘surreal world’ group in Italy is, of course, a 911.
> Porsche 911 GT3 group test: 996 takes on 997
2004: Porsche 911 Carrera S (997.1)
North Wales beckons again, and it’s back to a single big test. Just 0.4 per cent behind the winning 911, and sharing second place, are Lotus’s Series 2 Exige and Renault Sport’s feisty Clio 182 Cup.
> 997 Porsche 911 Carrera review - basic 911 still cuts the mustard
2005: Ford GT
The biggest ever eCoty, with 21 contenders over two parts. The Renault Sport Clio Trophy takes the, er, trophy in the real world (Scotland), while Ford’s GT is the overall winner (on the Route Napoléon).
2006: Ferrari 599 GTB
Another two-parter. Welsh real-world victory goes to the S2 Lotus Elise S, while on Route Napoléon Ferrari claims an overall win at last with its 599 GTB (above).
> Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano review
2007: Porsche 911 GT3 RS (997.1)
A single big test in central France brings forth another Porsche winner. Ferrari throws its toys out of the pram when its 430 Scuderia finishes second.
> Porsche 911 GT3 (997) review
2008: Nissan GT-R
The Renault Sport Mégane R26.R claims the real-world crown in north Wales, while on Mont Ventoux in France the Nissan GT-R is our second Japanese eCoty winner.
2009: Lotus Evora
The Isle of Skye, and Lotus keeps a 911 GT3 (the 997.2) off the top step. In third, the Noble M600.
2010: Porsche 911 GT3 RS (3.8, 997.2)
Third place is the best the 911 GT2 RS can manage on the North York Moors. Consolation for Porsche probably came with a win for the GT3 RS. The Ferrari 458 Italia was the prosciutto in the Stuttgart sandwich.
2011: Porsche 911 GT3 RS 4.0 (997.2)
But only just… A single point behind in the Algarve was newcomer McLaren with its MP4-12C.
> Click here to watch our eCoty 2011 video
2012: Pagani Huayra & Lotus Exige
Back to the Borders, via Blyton Park, and our first and only tie for the top spot with this mid-engined duo.
> Click here to watch our eCoty 2012 video
2013: Porsche 911 GT3 (991.1)
Route Napoléon again, a GT3 winner again and a second place for Ferrari again (this time the F12). Alfa Romeo’s 4C, meanwhile, comes as last as it’s possible to come.
>Click here to watch our eCoty 2013 video
2014: Ferrari 458 Speciale
Speciale by name… The pared-back Ferrrari 458 Speciale gets a unanimous first place from the judges. In second? Blimey! It’s Jaguar’s F-type R Coupe.
>Click here to watch our eCoty 2014 video
2015: Porsche Cayman GT4
Scotland’s spectacular North Coast 500, and another duo of Porsches in the top three, the Cayman GT4 and the 999.1 GT3 RS split by McLaren’s 675LT.
> Click here to watch our eCoty 2015 video
2016: Porsche 911R
Unobtainium rules in Scotland’s Southern Uplands, the 911R winning and VW’s Golf GTI Clubsport S nipping at its heels.
> Click here to watch our eCoty 2016 video
2017: McLaren 720S
McLaren gets its first eCoty title, and becomes our eleventh non-911 winner. And it won’t be the last…
> Click here for our review of the McLaren 720S
2018: McLaren 600LT
McLaren backs up its victory the year before with the exceptional 600LT. Focused, direct, interactive. The smaller Sports Series chassis also finally shines, and only just beats out the fantastic Alpine A110 for the win.
> Click here to watch our eCoty 2018 video
2019: Porsche 718 Cayman GT4
Porsche’s latest victory in the sunshine on and around the Ascari race circuit was built around a familiar package, achieved amongst what was a compact year with two very different AMGs hot on its heels.
> Click here to watch our eCoty 2019 video
2020: BMW M2 CS
Weirdly one of our biggest eCoty contests came in 2020, the year a global pandemic largely shut down the world. The two-parter started at Anglesey with a 16-car elimination round, before an eight-car contest concluded in Scotland, with the BMW M2 CS on top – a first win for BMW, over two decades in the making. Second came the McLaren 765LT and third the Lamborghini Huracán Evo RWD.
> BMW M2 CS v Porsche Cayman GT4
2021: BMW M5 CS
BMW’s eCoty victories came all at once, as the sublime BMW M5 CS took shock honours in the Scottish highlands. We say shock honours, as it came out of the blue to convincingly defeat both the Lamborghini Huracán STO and the Porsche 911 GT3 Touring, showing that the right incremental changes can turn a good car into an all-time great. The Ferrari SF90 Stradale was a surprise straggler.
> BMW M5 CS v Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing
2022: Maserati MC20
Coming to the relief of all who love the Maserati brand, was the revelation that its ambitious new supercar goes as good as it looks. The Maserati MC20 wielded old-school supercar thrills and road-ravaging alacrity wrapped in drop-dead gorgeous Italian looks, for a heady cocktail that claimed victory up against the Toyota GR86 and in joint third, the McLaren Artura and Ferrari 296 GTB.
> Best supercars 2024 – our favourite show-stopping driving machines
2023: Porsche 911 GT3 RS (992.1)
The latest in a long string of victories for Porsche’s iconic rear-engined sportscar, believe it or not, came as a bit of a shock even to us in our 25th anniversary year. Because to look at, the latest Porsche 911 GT3 RS is the most extreme to date and, you’d imagine, not a fit for road use. Not a bit of it. The GT3 RS’s unprecedented configurability allow you to mould it into a road-hungry cross-country weapon, entirely comfortable attacking the UK’s varied road network. Still, it only narrowly bested the Alpine A110 R and McLaren 750S.
> McLaren 750S v Porsche 911 GT3 RS v Radical SR3 XXR – car pictures of the week
As for 2024's winner? You’ll have to pick up a copy of this year’s evo Car of the Year issue and find out for yourself…
