evo 226 on sale now! - Alfa Giulia vs rivals, Clio RS16 and more
It's crunch time for the Alfa Romeo Giulia as it faces its rivals in this month's evo magazine
Has Alfa Romeo finally given us a world-beater in the form of the Giulia Quadrifoglio super-saloon? That’s the question answered in this month’s edition of evo magazine, and to help us reach a verdict, we’ve enlisted the help of the BMW M4 Competition, Mercedes-AMG’s C63 S and the Lexus RC F. Oh, and one of the most mesmeric driving roads in Europe, too, all spread over 14 pages of stunning photography. Where should your £60,000 go? It’s a very tight call…
Staying in a super-saloon vein, there’s also the low-down on the first Porsche Panamera that could perhaps be described as ‘good-looking’. Yes, really. The new Panamera looks more like the 911 than ever (a very good thing) and is bubbling over with clever tech.
But why go for a Panamera when you could force the kids into the tiny back seats of the new Aston Martin DB11? We were impressed with a development mule we drove earlier this year, but it’s a big jump from testing prototype to final production vehicle. Fifteen-hundred miles from Gaydon to Italy ought to be enough to see whether it’s a jump Aston has successfully made.
Less luxurious than the Aston Martin but probably no less quick is the upcoming TVR, which is being built with help from Gordon Murray. We’ve been given access to the development car and spoken to the people who know where TVR has come from and where it’s going. Be in no doubt: TVR is coming back, and if you’re not excited about it yet, you will be after reading the story in this month’s mag.
Hot-hatch fans can also get stuck into a review of the Renaultsport Clio RS16. It’s just a concept for now, and only two exist, but the notion of a manual-’box Clio with the running gear from a Mégane 275 gets us very excited indeed. If you want this car (and you will), start badgering your local Renault dealer now, we say.
Elsewhere, Dickie Meaden pays tribute to the third-generation Mazda RX-7 at a time when Japanese exotica of the 1990s is becoming increasingly popular, and evo goes behind the scenes in search of secrets at the Bugatti factory in Molsheim.
There’s also this month’s Art of Speed, which tells the story of arguably the greatest leap in sports car engineering ever made, and of course there are updates on evo’s long-term Fast Fleet, with everything from the editor’s Porsche 996 GT2 to the Honda Civic Type R.