EVO and paradoxical personalities are two things which go together like peas and carrots. Nearly every single member involved in evo’s production, writing orE photography has at least a few eccentricities to their personality, which we have been told by our loyal readers more than once is something that probably makes our evo all the more entertaining and forthright, which is exactly what it is meant to be and has always been.

Take our former editor in chief, Jon Saxon who was as well known for his coarse yet blunt conversational skills as he was for his great writing and plaid pants. Or even our new editor in chief, Bassam Kronfli who loves everything car related and can be the nicest person to be around, yet is known to surprise people with a sudden turn of his temperament for no apparent reason. Rizwan, our chief graphic designer is as passionate about evo as any member of the team, yet can be spotted falling asleep at his desk every now and then while evo’s snapper Alejandro, well..his sudden change of hairstyle from Colombian forest sloth to Colombian anti-narc agent is just about the same as the contrast of how his personality can be, either very amicable and easy going, or a little too serious and cynical. God knows I’m not perfect either; I know my flaws all too well. I can be the most relaxed person one minute and switch to being a complete stressball the next. Even my musical taste varies, switching from Mozart to Metallica and back whenever the mood suits me, or the car I happen to be driving. Then you have our contributors Blair, Luca and David. Blair is just incredibley passionate about Lamborghinis, yet we marvel at how clinical and well organized every hour of his life is. Luca is pure Italian, very fanatical, loud and in love with cars, yet quite surgical and concentrated once in the driver’s seat. David is one of those people who can elicit laughter simply by the way he walks or talks yet has the intellect and conversational skills to shred any argument you hurl at him in 15 seconds flat.

And that’s just for starters. Put all of this together, and all of the people involved in putting evo into one space, or several cars for that matter, and you have a group of guys who surprisingly, get on together very very well. What makes it all work despite our shortfalls? Our mutual love for evo.

Yes another year has come and gone, and little has changed at evo apart from our said former editor, Lord Jon Saxon, having departed our illustrious company only to have been replaced by Bassam Kronfli, evo’s new torch-bearer and lover of all things that go vroom in the night. Our love for cars is still there, as is our relentless search for anything interesting to drive (so long as it has four wheels) through any kind of conditions, day or night.

Following our steep learning curve in year one, this year has been just as challenging with our small but passionate team stretched thin at times covering all sorts of different launches and driving events in different parts of the world. While Bassam was gallivanting around the deserts of Nevada and New Mexico in an LP560-4, Jon was off to a launch in Iceland and I drove through the gorgeous countryside of North Carolina in the new X6. And so it has been for much of the year, with many fun-filled trips to keep us all entertained, laptop heavily used, and suitcase worn out.

Sure, we had our bit of fun lapping the semi-submerged autodrome earlier in 2008 when the winter rains drenched Dubai, only we weren’t counting on needing a jet-ski and an inflatable dinghy to do so! What was a quickly put together feature which we weren’t sure would be very well received by the public ended up generating tons of phone-calls to our office from readers and manufacturers alike, all of whom loved every word of it. We also had our hairy moments, including nearly running out of fuel in between the Saudi border and Doha at 1 am on the desert highway in our sky blue Lamborghini Gallardo, or nearly plowing more than one or two cars into a pole or street sign while showboating for the camera at slightly unsafe speeds.

Jon looked like a little schoolboy who just discovered the peep-hole in the wall between the boys and girls changing rooms when he first came up on the Sultan of Brunei’s Ferrari F40. Boy did he go on about that for quite some time afterwards. One of the moments we’d rather forget however was the unfortunate meeting between Jon’s Caterham G7 260 and a dust-covered road late at night, resulting in a less than sightly encounter with a light-pole. Luckily Jon was virtually unscathed, attesting to just how effectively the car’s passenger compartment was shielded.

A very memorable moment for the whole team was our hot-hatch feature (evo 014) where we not only enjoyed a great day flogging our group of cars up and down Jebel Hafit, but were also given a lesson in humility, learning that great cars can come in the smallest of packages, something which we do tend to forget at times, being privileged enough to test drive the latest and greatest machines from all corners of the world. Case in fact: the first Middle-East test drive of the unbelievable Caparo T1 (evo 018) which I could unfortunately not drive as I do not hold a racing license, but which Bassam gleefully wrapped his paws around while doing several laps of the autodrome. It was all a bit too surreal getting to drive the incredible T1 and just being privileged enough to have been entrusted with the Caparo T1 for it’s first ever Middle East track test was reason enough to give myself a pat on the shoulder. Losing out to Jon, Luca and the Peugeot 205 GTI in the two-tonne challenge was one of those moments where I did my best to fend off the silly comments and annoying banter of the other team who by the way won purely by luck.

So what can you expect from us for year three? Well, you can certainly rely on us to continue taking the road less travelled by bringing you only the most interesting and fun cars and honest opinions no matter whom they may upset from our group of rabid car lovers endlessly debating, discussing and writing whenever we aren’t actually driving. Despite the world’s economy being on the brink of disaster, there are still quite a few interesting cars which make their debut in 2009, so even if we can’t necessarily afford all these cars, at least we’ll be able to get through these tough times dreaming of what we’d like to have once things turn rosy again and Dollar bills once again start becoming as abundant in our region as sand, oil and of-course sunshine!

The most important thing I have learned this year however, and especially over the past few months of witnessing the doom and gloom following the collapse of the world economy, is that we are lucky, plain lucky to be able to do what we really love. Once again, I’d like to thank our readers for the support and enthusiasm they’ve shown, as well as our critics for the flaws they’ve helped point out. It would not be possible without either of you.