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The Lotus Evora has won Autocar’s annual Britain’s Best Driver’s Car comparison for 2009.

Lotus’s new 2+2 coupe beat last year’s winning car, the Nissan GT-R, plus nine performance cars launched within the past 12 months, to seal a victory after three days of driving on roads and at Goodwood Motor Circuit in Sussex.

Sideways driving lovers click here - see the mega Handling Day picture galler...Read the full article

That might be my last bit of faith towards autocar gone. I've been reading autocar since I was 6, but the rididulous Brit pride has gone a step too far, and for way too long.

Come on- a vantage and evora better than a gt3 as a drivers car! Load of c***!

I totally agree with ryaner.  I have read Autocar for over 30 years and a year ago stopped buying it with the excessive pro British articles. So your previous winner the Cayman does not feature?   

Couldn't agree more, time for poor old Steve to hang up his pen in shame, what ever credability he had for reporting the truth to us ( the people who pay for his lifestyle ) has gone. Every new Lotus is is better than anything else comparable at the time, remember the reviews for the 340R, the projected weight claims, clearly these guys have little practical engineering knowledge, when even a simple draughtsman like myself can see that this that when you take away a clamshell weighing 15 kg and replace it with a smaller one weighing 5 kg you are not going to get a 100 kg plus, overall weight saving. To my great surprise it was Andrew Frankel in this months edition of Motor Sport who told a more revealing story about the Evora. Only a few weeks ago this very magazine carried a brief test of the latest Corvette, among the bullet points against the car was "width", from the published figures the Evora is actually wider, does this get mentioned as a negative when its a Lotus ? I note from the Evora Forum that at a very recent Lotus event at the Nurburgring, the factory Evora had to be retired after 13 laps due to "gearbox overheating", years, and years of personal Nurburgring driving I've never ever experienced "gearbox overheating", in any type of car ! Guess the poor old Avensis diesel gearbox is a bit marginal ! Whilst talking gearboxes, that leads neatly to the Evora's emissions/economy/performance claims, it seems to me that these figures are being cherry picked, we are given the emissions and economy for the non-sport gearboxed car, and the performance for the sport-gearboxed car as though they were one and the same. Then comes the price, widely quoted as £49K, but you can't actually buy one for much less than £60K, because the first 100 cars only come fully specced. Lotus raping its very loyal customer base ? Judging by my local Lotus dealers Evora demonstrator, the general fit and finish is very "kit car", the doors don't fit, the panel gaps are appalling, and worst of all in my eyes is the cheap and nasty expanded metal ( litter bin material ) grill ! I'm shocked that such a beacon publication is so willing prepared to tarnish itself with such slanted, and clearly flawed journalism, boys, I no longer believe you ! Finally, I'm not a raving Lotus hater, I'm lucky enough to own and run two Lotuses, but I also run a Porsche or two, sadly there is no comparison in terms of depth of engineering. I suspect the Evora will prove to be a terrible folly, and in years to come will be about as desirable as a 1970's Elite or Eclat. Lotus should stick to what they do well, producing a credible Caterham alternative. The one thing that Lotus don't need is for UK journalists to continuously blow smoke up their backsides, they need to get great reviews on merit. Regards.

Autocar has confirmed what motoring journalists from around the world have found - the Evora is a sublime handling car.

I know we moan a lot on this forum (myself being a case in point), and there is nothing that makes me happier seeing British marques being 'genuniely' the best in their classes, but I've gotta agree with the comments posted.

I admit, I haven't been fortunate enough to drive the Evora or the Aston V12, but I've got to raise an eyebrow when both these cars beat all comers, including the GT3. Let's also remember that we've already had Autocar repeatedly favouring other Brit marques, like Jag XF and Jag XKR, over their rivals.

What are the chances of the new Jag XJ being declared the best luxury car in the world by the Autocar to complete the set, I wonder?

 

@ Ravon.

 Nice rant there.  Unfortunately the article is about the 'Best Drivers Car' so your diatribe is mostly irrelevant.

 Cheer up.

 

Overdrive:

What are the chances of the new Jag XJ being declared the best luxury car in the world by the Autocar to complete the set, I wonder?

 

 

100% it will be more sporting and better handling than a 7 series, while being quieter and more comfortable than the S-Class. It will be so good it will bend the laws of physics.

i can see the front cover of the Mag now "New Jag the best car in the world ever ever ever and we wont be told otherwise *fingers in our ears* LA LA LA LA LA LA LA" 

back on topic,  a big heavy aston handles better than a GT3 *cough BULL$HIT cough*

 

ive read many car reviews from all over the world, different car websites, and they all rate the GT3 as the best driving machine in the world, this when talking bout a car that can be as comfortable on road as it is on track, the car is perfect and for the price, how can the the evora beat the GT3 and even the other cars when a cayman s is still better, i bet its even gna be beta than the new 458 ferrari hey lol

I haven't read the magazine article yet, so I could be a bit off base here, but having driven quite a few of these cars here (although not the Evora), I would imagine what they are aiming at it is the completeness of handling.

Yes, all the cars shown handle exceptionally well, but vehicles like the Jags and the Lamborghini are heavy which has a detrimental effect on feel - the most intangible aspect of handling.

Handling is not all about grip or G forces or even lap time figures which of course cars like the GT3 and GT-R will excel at and thoroughly smash the Evora.  It's all about delicacy, a lack of inertia, a feeling of being at one with the car.

An illustration of this can be seen on the test in last weeks magazine, where the Lotus was compared to the Cayman.

Unfortunately, handling is very difficult to quantify and is completely subjective. 

I tend to agree with a lot of the points raised so far about the cars in question.  As much as I like the Aston Vantage V12 and the fact that it is probably the best Aston for an age, for it to be a better track day car than the GT3, is some what questionable.

Porsche have been perfecting this car for years and have got the balance spot on when it comes to driver involvement, handling, chassis development etc.  For the Aston to come along and defeat the Porsche in one swoop, almost borders on the realm of fantasy.

As superb as the Vantage is, the GT3 is the better car around the track.  On the road, the AM trounces the Porsche.  And I am sure when these two cars met in the pages of autocar, the Aston shone as a car for both occasions, but the GT3 was better as a true sports car. 

The GTR has, by so many accounts, rewritten the rule book when it comes to the sports car.  How many times have we heard how the GTR has broken this record going around the Nuremburg, or how it scares the daylights out of the established super cars.  And yet the Evora has dethroned the "benchmark" and not only that, the GTR has come fourth!

I am a massive fan of Aston, Jag, Lotus etc and it's great to see that these cars can mix it with the best in the world.  However, I am realistic, and to say that all these cars are the best, does a massive disservice to all their rivals.

While everyone's entitled to their own opinion - and choosing a best driver's car is always going to be subjective - can I recommend everyone tries to read the accompanying article in today's (12 August) Autocar magazine to get a fuller idea of how the decision was made.

Hopefully, it will become clear then that the decision (made by ten judges, with nine placing the Evora first) is not based on British bias but bald facts.

The article runs over 19 pages, so for obvious reasons we can't run it all here. I appreciate you can only draw conclusions from what's presented, but from the article it's pretty clear the Lotus won on its merits, and nothing else.