(Issue 105)

COVER FEATURE:
Road and Track Car of the Year 2007 - 16 contenders, the greatest circuit in the UK for two full days, and Lincolnshire's finest roads. It was a gruelling few days but such are the lengths to which we're prepared to go in order to find Our Road and Track Car of the Year, First John Barker dissects each car's ability on the rough-and-tumble of Britain's dilapidated roads, dodging stones and wildlife in the crazy Atom, inhaling pure Super Unleaded in the Hi-Tech GT40 Continuation and praying that his licence will be intact when it's all over. Then Richard Meaden straps himself into all the contenders and goes for broke around the tortuous, wonderful and slightly scary Cadwell Park race circuit. What will be quickest? Which of his dozen heavily branded overalls will he model? All will be revealed over 37 pages and 12,000 words. Best put the kettle on...

FEATURES:
Freddie Hunt - James Hunt was perhaps the most charismatic world champion ever. Now his son is embarking on a racing career of his own. Mark Forsyth talks to Freddie on the eve of his first race
Super-estates: M5 Touring v RS4 Avant - 2000 miles, five countries, over 900bhp and an awful lot of boot space: 'epic' is the only way to describe this test. Jethro Bovingdon melts his credit card in dozens of European petrol stations. Kenny P relaxes in the passenger seat
Legends: Jaguar XJ13 - Usually our Legends' have incredible competition history, or ushered-m a new era in their particular race category. The XJ13 is famous for what might have been - and for being one of the most beautiful cars ever created. John Simister reports
Icons reborn? Clio R27 F1 and Peugeot 207 GTI - Once upon a time Peugeot made great cars, and then it all went horribly wrong. Renault took up the baton, but has recently fumbled slightly with the gifted but gutless Clio 197. Can the new 207 GTI capitalise and recapture the magic of the iconic 205 GTI? And has Renaultsport sprinkled its magic dust on the 197 just in time with the new R27 version? Catchpole decides

DRIVEN IN THIS ISSUE:
Audi S5
Renaultsport Megane dCi 175
Honda Civic Type-R-R
Mini Cooper D
Mazda MPS Sports Aero Kit
Skoda Octavia vRS TDi
Vauxhall Astra 1,6i Turbo

REGULARS:
News - BMW reveals its Porsche Panamera rival, powered by that fabulous 5-litre V10 engine. We've also got all the secrets of the new M3's A-litre V8. full details of the new Impreza WRX (you might want to skip these pages) and pictures of Rut's new supercar
Letters - The agonies and ecstacies of being a Lotus follower, both sides of the 4x4s/global warming debate, and one reader leaps to Gordon Murray's defence. And after another reader slammed Harry Metcaife for driving too fast when he was 17, this month Harry's dad has a go at him not tidying his room. Probably
Long-term tests - Peter Tomalin says 'toodle-pip' to the XK. Porter bids farewell to our SEAT Leon and Harry's Zonda hasn't broken down! Don't worry, normal service will be resumed the next time he drives it
The Knowledge - The Porsche 911 is featured here 29 times, the Caterham 7 appears 10 times. So in terms of Knowledge appearances. Porsche wins again
Birth of an Icon: Lotus 7 - Quite simply the icon of icons. In 2007 the Lotus 7 celebrates its 50'" birthday. We're just happy some bloke called Colin designed it in the first place, lan Eveleigh charts the evolution from 40bhp dawdler to 250bhp screamer