Welcome to our PCOTY track notes. These are the stream-of-consciousness scrawlings from our resident hot shoe, editor-at-large Jethro Bovingdon, following his hot-lap sessions in each contender:

All cars ask you to adapt to their particular foibles to a certain extent to achieve a competitive lap time. With the E-Ray, though, the car challenges you to think and proactively utilize its strengths. Where in the Z06 you?d want maximum momentum and apex speed, the hybrid Corvette is more about unleashing the full force of its power and deploying the massive traction afforded by the driven front axle. In shorthand, get the thing slowed and straight as soon as possible, and then fire it out of each corner like a cork from a bottle.

The E-Ray is a truly fascinating car. On paper, there are some absurdities. It weighs as much as a small desert community, for a start. And thanks to its tiny battery, it will only manage about a lap and a half of Thunderhill?s short track before depleting. This can be easily extended by selecting Charge Plus mode, but doing so reduces power slightly in the name of longevity. But our very limited ?qualifying? laps feel even more pressurized than in the other contenders as messing up a corner means more charge laps before we?ve got enough juice to go again.
Yet, the E-Ray overcomes these problems convincingly. It?s not as sharp as a Z06, but even on Pilot Sport 4S tires, it really turns in nicely. And although the front axle is clearly helping at time...