Boy oh boy does time fly when you're enjoying yourself. 2007 has been a year of non-stop action, fun, hard work, laughter and most of all, one of the steepest learning curves we've ever had to go through in our lives. When we first took it upon ourselves to bring evo, our favourite car magazine in the world to the Middle East we thought we would just be adding another magazine to our line-up of offerings. Little did we know that evo would be the most demanding project that most of us had ever undertaken. Demanding in the sense that it really requires one to think, think, and then think some more, rather than just being demanding in the sense that it requires a lot of work. Every single word put forward, opinion proudly declared, and judgment passed in these hallowed pages was the result of plenty of thinking, careful measurement and much debate among one of the most diverse group of car freaks you'll find anywhere.

When we first started out, our launch editor Nik Howe (an experienced and very motivated fellow) took the helm of evo M.E. and successfully launched a great product. A few months later however, the sterile and very polite Nik had to take his leave, as he was moving away from the Middle East. Boy did he have a surprise in store for us though.

It was at approximately 8pm in the evening, just a few hours before I was to drive my wife to the airport that I had the good fortune of meeting a Mr. Jonathan P. Saxon for a cup of coffee at the media lounge of the Radisson hotel, Media City. Nik and I were questioned, poked and prodded with an endless array of questions and queries. Jon had a certain mischievous twinkle in his eye though, despite how polite and civilised he was trying to be, I could just tell that this guy would rather have been doing 'the funky mashpotatoes' across the top of the bar, in true James Brown style, than asking questions and taking notes. The gears turned though, the stars aligned and things fell into place for all of us. Having seemingly made the right connection Jon was soon on board as our new editor-in-chief, which is when a whole new chapter in the company's history started.

Rather than the usual regimental atmosphere at the office, which we had been used to for the previous 3 or so years, we were know transitioning into a phase where things got more relaxed, the atmosphere was more humorous and sometimes just downright silly. That's right. We were now having ten times more fun with our work. The initial worry and anxiety that accompanies the launch of a magazine with standards as high as evo's gradually melted away as we got better at what we were doing. Along with the addition of Jon to our team came his highly acclaimed Colombian sidekick Alejandro, the wizard behind the superb photographic images you see in evo, from issue five onwards.

Yes, we were a superbly put together team, working in close harmony and apart from the little spat between, evo's motoring editor Bassam (Genghis) Kronfli and sometimes not so (LL Cool) Jon at the autodrome on a particularly warm day in the early months of last summer during which the two gentlemen had gotten acquainted with each other's less patient and slightly grumpy side. Being the shining examples of gentlemanly conduct, this was soon followed by a much more civil and business-like resolution to their argument. Yes Bassam and Jon can both be easily set off, but quickly understanding what the other person's modus operandi was and those early teething pains of putting a new team together quickly disappeared into hangover pains after long nights of work followed by even longer jaunts to the nearest pub to celebrate our effort and ahem - ingenious work.

The year saw Bassam, Jon, Alejandro and I travel to places such as Spain, the UK, Italy, Germany, Oman, Jordan, Hungary and many others in search of that perfect drive. It also saw a few near scrapes with the law due to our sometimes heavy footed driving, and of course a few too many hairy driving experiences. If only you saw Bassam's face while driving the Ariel Atom to Hatta Fort for the 'Mad Hatta' feature, or my face the first time I was a passenger in Bassam's Radical SR3 for a few blistering laps of the Dubai Autodrome. The scariest moment of all must have been when I barely got a lap and a half around the Autodrome in an Audi R8 only to have the engine cut-off . Yes, there I was thinking that I had just pushed the world's newest and most sought-after supercar from Audi just a tad too much around the track. At least it got my passenger to stop talking so much. Luckily, the car was one of the early test mules and had overheated numerous times before. Jon on the other hand had the misfortune of not even completing a full lap of the same race track in Rod Stewart's Ferrari F50, and later neatly wrapping his 260bhp Caterham around a traffic signal somewhere in the neighbourhood of Festival City, due to a dust-covered road, or so he claims. For Alejandro, his least favourite moment must have been running after the ultra rare Spyker Laviolette in 44 degree heat in the middle of Dubai's burning hot summer for several hours. Snapping away what must have seemed like several hundred pictures while Jon and I sat holding back our laughter in the perfectly cool, crisp, climate controlled interior of the car. Alejandro's fitness calorie counter thingamajig, which was attached to his wrist that day, said that he apparently lost around 900 calories, while his blood pressure dropped to that of a beagle's, by the end of the photoshoot. Funnier still is senior graphic designer Rizwan's monthly facial expression around six hours before our print deadline, especially when nothing seems to be getting done. Yes, its been one of the best years for us, driving great cars and some not so great cars, meeting all sorts of people, exploring new countries, experiencing the best driving roads around and raising a few eyebrows with some of our articles.

The best thing of all, however, has to be the amount of incredible feedback we've gotten from you, our loyal readers. You are never shy to interject and give your opinions on our content, whether good or bad, approving or disapproving, and all the while helping us to make evo even better than it already was. The sheer number of people coming up to our stand at the Dubai Motorshow to talk to us and take the time to tell us just how much they loved our magazine further cemented this dedication and was really one of the most flattering moments of the year for us all, until Jon scared them away once he donned one of his numerous wigs and fired up his turntables for a lesson or two in funk, soul and jazz.

2008 looks like it will be an even better year for us here at evo, which translates into an even better magazine for you to enjoy. Once again, to you the reader, and the car industry too, thank you for the support and continually entrusting us with the keys to the exotic and the toxic. Thank you all.MK