What Happens When You Put Last Year's COTY Vs. This Year's COTY?

...Even though I had the GT3 a solitary point ahead on my personal scoresheet, I was secretly hoping the Lotus would win. Partly because this is all about The Car of the Year, and I think that when we look back at 2009 it will be remembered as The Year of the Evora. Mostly, though, because it had given me more of those precious moments.

I wasn’t present for the second part of last year’s eCoty, so I didn’t experience the GT-R’s moments of magnificence on Mont Ventoux. In fact I’d somehow missed out on driving the GT-R at all, until the week after this year’s eCoty. We’d booked one in so that we could compare it with this year’s winner. And what a fascinating comparison it made – two cars that have more in common than you might immediately twig, and yet are completely and utterly different.

The common ground is easy: both are coupes, both have big-capacity Japanese V6s, and both are two-plus-twos. In fact they’re both similarly useless in this last regard unless you’re talking small kids and even smaller distances (I’m 6ft and my 12-year-old son could just squeeze in behind me in both cars, but only if I compromised my own driving position by a couple of inches). Most important of all, they’re both top-drawer drivers’ cars and they’re in direct competition for your sixty grand...


2011 Toyota Sienna Photo Gallery

2009 LA Auto Show Photo Gallery

2011 BMW 5-Series Photo Gallery

2010 Lexus GX460 and 470 Photo Gallery

2010 BMW 7-Series M-Sport Photo Gallery