New TG mag out now: it’s the world famous awards issue!

Awards season... aka that time of the year when we realise that despite some gale force headwinds, it’s been a cracking trip around the sun for new cars. Especially if you had a lucky streak on the scratchcards.

Rewind two weeks and we’re pulling up the roller door on the mammoth hanger 113 at Bicester Motion. In they come... all 17 awards winners for the cover shoot. A heavy EV contingent (quite literally) spanning the full gamut from impossibly cute Lego brick (Dacia Hipster), all the way to a purple EV Rolls-Royce... via a Kia van that’s far more exciting than it sounds and a £26k Renault with the desirability of something triple its price.

A pair of Ferraris swagger in – a striped 296 Speciale resplendent in green, followed by a unicorn, a Rosso F80 that immediately hoovers up all the attention in the room. Until the Ford Mustang GTD trundles over and steals the show with its lumpy idle and chain-smoking exhaust. At which point the Kimera EVO37 says hold my Peroni, and fills the football pitch sized hangar with eye-watering fumes until it looks like we’re all weeping at its beauty.

We start piecing together perfect three car garages and admiring the sheer breadth of talent under one roof. It feels like a turning point. You may not like or care about them, but EVs are now fully integrated into the mainstream, their powertrain no longer the main talking point. And the petrol engine is being deployed differently – for noise and smells and fire – to preserve emotion in the performance cars we all lust after.

Our aim with the awards is to simply honour the world’s best cars. To find out why each one was successful, grab a copy of Top Gear magazine now. You don’t even need to get up off the sofa to do it, just click this link and you’ll be able to have one delivered direct to your door. Or if you want even more from Top Gear magazine you can click here to start a subscription, it’s currently just £5 for your first five issues, after which you’ll get six issues for just £23.50. Bargain.