evo 217 - on sale now!
We drive an extreme F40LM, Ferrari's new 769bhp F12tdf, plus, the McLaren 570S faces rivals and we get a first taste of Honda's hybrid NSX
The new issue of evo is on sale now! And issue 217 is another must read for every performance car owner and enthusiast.
Our two cover stars couldn’t be two very different examples of Marnello’s finest and yet, they represent what is at the heart of every Ferrari.
The Michelotto F40LM is the most extreme racing variant of Enzo’s last road car. This example, painstakingly restored and rebuilt over three years, featured on road and track in its past, but today it is once again an F40LM built purely for the track and one that Richard Meaden is still pinching himself having had the opportunity to drive it.
And our second Ferrari? The F12tdf won’t ever race, not officially at least, but as Jethro Bovingdon discovered it is both as extreme and uncompromising, exhilarating and exciting as its more famous predecessor. It’s quite possibly the most extreme Ferrari production car of the modern era, but is it the best?
For a car company that’s less than a decade old McLaren’s product range grows with the speed of its P1 hypercar. This month we have the company’s new 570S lined up alongside Audi’s new R8 V10 Plus, Jaguar’s new F Type R AWD and the class leading 991 Turbo S. And what better test for this quartet than two days in a soaking wet Wales and an autumnal dry day lapping the track? Oh, and Dan Prosser making notes.
The £100,000+ sports car market is going to be a crowded one in 2016, for as well the four protagonists in this month’s group test. Honda’s new NSX will finally go one sale. Well, that’s the plan today who knows what Honda has planned for its next delay. This month, however, we have finally driven the 1700kg, 565bhp mid-engined sports car; so is it a mini-918? Chris Harris has the verdict.
In the time Honda has taken to delivery its new NSX, Porsche’s 911 has gone through a revolutionary change. If electric power steering got our nerves twitching in 2012, how on earth were we going to react to the thought of the Carreras being turbocharged and losing their legendary normally-aspirated flat-six howl? To answer our concerns, and yours, we dispatched Henry Catchpole to drive the new 911 Carrera S.
We also dispatched Antony Ingram to the desert to see how he would get on navigating a Dakar prepared Mini across the vast dunes of Dubai. As he returned to file his story we can only assume he was rather good at it. He is still awaiting Mini’s offer to co-drive in next year’s Dakar, though.
There is one car we will do anything to drive at the moment – Ford’s Focus RS. But we’re going to have to wait until January 18 2016 (put a note in your diary, the first drive will appear right here) to date all Ford has offered is a passenger ride. As educated readers you don’t need telling that manufacturer passenger rides are as insightful and informative as a six year old telling you what they did at school. So instead, we sent Dan Prosser to Ford’s Lommel proving ground to ask Tyrone Johnson, Engineering Manager Ford Performance, why he thinks the third generation Focus RS will be the best hot hatch you can buy.
And that’s not all. Issue 217 also features first drives of the Bentley Bentayga, Mercedes-AMG C63 S coupe, Mini Cooper S Clubman, Kia Proceed GT, Porsche Macan GTS and Audi S8 Plus.
evo Market takes a look at the used fast Ford market, pits Audi’s B7 RS4 against BMW’s E46 M3 and Mercedes C55 saloon and this month’s Model Focus takes a look at the Lamborghini Gallardo. Fast fleet, meanwhile, says goodbye to our much admired Audi S1 and hello to a Skoda Octavia vRS and MX5.
Enjoy the issue, see you next month.
