Customer Reviews

Evo - England

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you're here in the U.S., don't let that put you off reading this fantastic magazine just because you won't see a lot of American cars. This magazine is worth every cent (more on that later). And reading of the miriad great cars, from cheap thrills to supercars, that you can't get here will bring tears to your eyes. Renault making a giant killer little Chevy Aveo-sized hatchback with 197 horsepower and 18-inch wheels? Yes, it happens over there.

It is simply SO much more than you see in any U.S. car mag. It's BIG, both physically and in content, and written with the kind of thorough evaluation and engrossing, you'd-swear-you-were-right-there-with-them prose above any other (including CAR, my pervious favorite).

What makes it so good? Three main things. First, the writers, of course, many of them springing from the former Performance Car magazine. That sad publication declined in just about every way over it's lifetime until, at the time of it's demise, it wasn't worth the bother anymore. Oh, how they've redeamed themselves!

Second, the cars they write about. The focus is on performance; but not just super-exotics and, thank God, tuner cars (although the latter pop up now and then in an entirely appropriate way), but anything that stirs the driver's soul, even if it's a $10,000 little hatch with a zingy engine and giddy handling.

Third, the writing. EVO is much more biased toward subjective evaluation in favor of just spouting instrument test numbers (hello U.S. car magazines with pages and pages of minute and often uninteresting stats), and their data panels are concise and have just enough information to be thorough without a bunch of fluff (brake swept area? Come on, Road and Track, who cares?).

The best example by far is their annual car of the year issue. Yes, everyone does these, but no one does it like EVO. It's much more free-form, much more subjective, and much, much more fun to read. Rather than evaluate each car in a distinct portion, it reads more like a road adventure with drivers swapping cars and really letting you know how each is to drive.

Frankly, you get the impression that EVO doesn't give a squat if one car pulls .89g on a skidpad while a competitor pulls .87g. What you're much more likely to read is how each car *feels* when that grip is being used, and used to the limit. Hard numbers matter less than true driving fun, which is why you might find the handling of a little hatchback rated above a wide tired monster's.

They do provide plenty of performance data, but the big difference is they don't get caught up in it. You'll find it's more important how a car handles than how it grips, how effective it's brakes are over a long, hard drive rather than how many feet it takes to do a single stop, and how the car works with or against you to provide real fun. All done with engaging writing and wit.

I'll stop babbling now. :o) But I do want to conclude with one item mentioned in almost every review here - price. It's cheaper to buy at a good bookstore. There is some convenience and peace of mind in having a subscription, but I'm baffled as to why British car mags are always more expensive to subscribe to than to buy off the shelf. EVO is still worth it, though.

This is my favourite car mag out there right now. It exceeds Car by miles in terms of writing quality. I only have to say one thing: It's cheaper to buy this at a local mega bookstore like Boarders than to buy this online. It costs $9.99/issue so a year would cost $120 plus tax. I thought getting a subscription should SAVE YOU MONEY, not make you PAY MORE!!!

Printed on premium quality paper with high-resolution printing and expensive ink. Seemingly unbiased reporting from editors with opinions which seem to closely parallel my own. Fantastic choice of cars. Great factual reporting.

And in the back of every issue: "The Knowledge"

The Knowledge is a huge table for hundreds of different cars giving such data as price, weight, 0-60 and various other very useful comparison points.

Jethro Bovingdon. Richard Meaden. Harry Metcalfe. Who are these men? Has it ever been important, even plausible that the reader would desire to not only know the names of, but get to know an automobile journalist? These exceptional men are not just magazine editors (Although Harry, and now Jethro, do hold that title), but the guys out there in the trenches putting the rubber to pavement, driving some the world's best vehicles to 9/10ths and telling you the absolute truth about their performance, handling, and day to day livability.

The MotorTrend so called "Car of the Year"? Fuggedabouit!

The EVO "Car of the Year" actually requires someone to have driven the car before handing it an award. To have driven it HARD.

I started reading EVO a little over 3 years ago. To be honest, at the time the initial appeal was the larger form factor (larger than any U.S. car magazine) and breathtaking full-page photography. However, it only took a short while to realize I was holding in my hand the gold-standard for automotive journalism. The on road and on track reviews in each issue, the hard-hitting interviews with the newsmakers, designers and industry leaders that are responsible for the direction of automotive performance, and the unique British sensibility and the pleasure of seeing a $500,000 supercar struggle on a classic B-road, put them together and you have the best English-language car magazine published in the world today.

I remember one time expressing to a female friend how EVO posseses not only incredible technical acumen--some of the most accurate road tests in the business--but nearly every issue embodies some of the finest prose put to page in _any_ monthly journal. It just so happend in that months issue there was a particularly moving passage from Harry Metcalfe on a group of Ferrari's that were being road tested. The beauty of Mr. Metcalfe's evocative language could bring a tear to any car lover's--even a grown man's--eye. With such automotive passion, is it any wonder that Sir Harry went on to own a 512TR himself? And how many auto journalist live with (and pay for!) the exotic cars they test and so readily praise?

Every month this magazine covers the creme of performance oriented automobiles, many of which are only available in Europe or the UK. From the Renault Megane to the Pagani Zonda, EVO will give an accurate, thorough review of it's performance in both on track and real world driving conditions. Due to their location in Europe, and their extensive connections throughout the car world, EVO often travels to Australia or even Africa to see some of the best sedans, coupes, convertibles and exotics in their native or not so native environment. How does a Rolls Royce fair under the harsh conditions of Turkish roads? Find out in EVO!

You could buy EVO just for the pretty pictures and there are a lot of them. You could read it for the articles as some would be wont to do. Combined, with its superior prose and gorgeous photos, there can be no higher recommendation for car enthusiasts than EVO magazine.

To those of you who are sceptable concerning British car magazines, as an enthusiast I must say British magazines are plain better than American automotive magazines, maybe in exception to Car and Driver. But evo magazine is easily the best of them. No one can match evo's articles, stories, comparisons, special cover stories (such as Performance Car of the Year and Trackday Car of the Year), photography that no one else can match, and everything else you'd want from an automotive magazine. In short, evo magazine is brilliant. My only complaints is that their acceleration times are almost always about 1/2 second off (which is an extremely small problem, a problem that is forgiven by everything else that is given in this magazine) and a price tag that is higher than any other I've seen. Buying from America, I spend about $10 per issue, but let me tell you, it's worth it. No doubt evo is the best automotive magazine out there, and it is worth the money. Well... only if you're very interested in cars. Just don't expect to find any rednecks in their 4x4s in the mud.

This is simply one of the greatest car mags in any country. It focuses simply on performance models of all price ranges. Printed on big, thick, shiney quality paper but rather pricey. Why does the subscription price cost more than the newstand though? Most US car magazines will have maybe one feature on a desirable sports car, but my last issue of EVO had stories about Enzo Ferrari, Pagani Zonda, Ford GT, Porsche Carrera GT, and a 600+ hp Benz. The writers are very entertaining and no article ever bores you.

Like a lot of Brit car magazines, this one may strike U.S. readers as a bit pretentious. But I like it better than CAR or Top Gear (or most U.S. auto mags) because it doesn't clutter up its editorial pages with reviews of minivans, pickups and SUVs. Instead, it chooses and gives star-ratings to mostly sports cars and sports sedans, with a few econoboxes/"super-minis" thrown in, on the basis of their interest to and satisfaction of performance enthusiasts. They call this quality "evoness" and it describes how I judge cars....

I just received my first issue of EVO about a week ago, and I'm impressed. It does, in my opinion, live up to all the hype. The writing and photography are excellent. It's also jam packed with material, as opposed to many US car magazines that are jam packed with advertisements. The quality of the paper it's printed on is also very high, which I suspect is part of the reason for the high price.

As a US reader, one of the only downsides is that I like to see the US$ base and as tested prices of the cars reviewed for a buyer in the US - obviously I can't hold the lack of this information against EVO as it's a UK magazine (pricing information, obviously, is in pounds, but you can't simply convert pounds to US$ because cars are MUCH more expensive over there). One other drawback is that it doesn't provide a comprehensive table of data for most reviewed cars, as does Car and Driver. I'll keep my subscription of C&D to provide the 2 pieces of information mentioned in this paragraph, but as far as reading the articles/reviews EVO is a superior publication.

One big positive of EVO (and I say this with limited experience as I've only received one issue), but it is focused exclusively on cars an enthusiast would be interested in. That means you don't have to sift through page after page filled with boring reviews/photos of the Ford 500 and Toyota Camry in order to find one review of a car you're actually interested in reading about. You also get to read about a number of great cars that can't be purchased in the US, which is both interesting or frustrating. It truly is an enthusiast magazine in this regard.

Based on content alone I'd probably give EVO 5 stars, but I feel like I need to ding them a star simply because of the astronomical price. I got my subscription as a gift, but I WOULD pay the $160+ price myself if I had to, albeit reluctantly.

It did take awhile for me to start receiving the subscription, which was purchased on Amazon in mid-December and I didn't receive the first issue until mid-February. This is just a minor gripe, though, and I didn't deduct a star for it or anything.

In all, if you're into cars, I'd rate EVO Magazine as highly recommended if you can swallow the price.

Evo magazines are more than just reading material. They are filled with extremely high quality full page, and quite often two-page spread pictures that are as stunning as they are artful. Also this magazine is very hard to find in stores, and if you do find one, its been read a thousand times, so I highly reccomend a subscription. Bottom line this is the ultimate supercar publication. Well worth the high cost, trust me.

Evo is one of a three great UK car magazines (car, top gear and evo) that re-set a standard for the US competitors (Automobile, MT, C&D and R&T). Better writing, far better photography and more insightful evaluations of cars. Sports Car International is the best US version of the non brand specific. Problem here is price....cheaper at newstand than via subscription and about 10x the cost of the US competition.. You get what you pay for.....