The Range Rover's Evoque has won the top motoring accolade at the 2011 Scottish Car of the Year Awards.

The Evoque drove off with the prestigious Scottish Car of the Year title at a gala dinner held in Glasgow's Thistle Hotel on Friday evening.

The audience of over 200 was made up of people drawn from all aspects of the motoring industry plus members of the Association of Scottish Motoring Writers who select the winner.

To win the overall title, the Liverpool-built Evoque had first to win its own category and then defeat tough opposition from the other 11 category winners in a final vote. This year the category winners were drawn from the following -- Small, Family, Estate, Executive, MPV, SUV/Crossover, Drop Top, Diesel, Sporting, Electric and Eco.

Competition was strong right across the board and very tight in the Small category where the excellent Kia Picanto came out on top ahead of the second placed Audi A1.

The fine new Ford Focus was the runaway winner of the Family car sector with the Peugeot 508 having to settle for second place. The Estate sector was won by the all-new Hyundai i40 with Peugeot again taking second place with their 508 SW.

There was another close contest in the Executive sector where the Audi A7 came out on top just ahead of the Volvo V60. The MPV category had a very clear winner with the superb Seat Alhambra winning comfortably with the Ford C-MAX in second place.

The Range Rover Evoque won the SUV/Crossover category by a large margin ahead of the BMW X3 which finished in second spot.

In the Drop Top section the VW Golf emerged as the winner despite some very expensive opposition from BMW and Audi. The BMW 6-Series was second.

The diesel section is always hotly contested and this year's winner is Jaguar's XF 2.2d with Volvo's V60 DRIVe in second spot. The Sporting category was won by Jaguar's XKR-S with the BMW 1 Series M Coupe in second place.

Peugeot's iON took the first ever Electric category award beating the Nissan Leaf into second place. The Eco category was very tough this year with the frugal Seat Ibiza Ecomotive taking the title ahead of the Fiat 500 Twinair.

In addition to the category winners, the ASMW praised the IAM’s proactive contribution towards road safety, naming the organisation as recipient of its Safety award.

The awards, held in the ASMW’s 50th anniversary year, also recognised a great British design icon. To mark the occasion, members voted for their most iconic car launched since the group’s inception with the Jaguar E-Type winning the Bridge of Weir Leather Company sponsored accolade.

John Murdoch, President of the Association of Scottish Motoring Writers commented: "Some superb new cars entered the market during the past 12 months and our members had a tough time selecting the category winners. Manufacturers are responding to market challenges and continue to provide improvements in safety, emissions and economy at an astonishing rate.

"One car stood out from all the others with its stylish good looks, sound packaging, fine driving dynamics and desirability and the Range Rover Evoque is a worthy winner of the Scottish Car of the Year title. With 18,000 advanced orders already in the bag it will provide job security for hundreds of people and generate huge exports for the British economy."

Colin Green, Land Rover UK managing director said: "We are absolutely delighted that the Range Rover Evoque is the 2011 Scottish Car of the Year - undoubtedly one of the most important accolades in the industry. On behalf of everyone at Land Rover, I would like to thank the Association for the award and for recognising that the Evoque is the most exciting car to be driven on Scottish roads this year."

John Edwards, global brand director, Land Rover, added: "We are all very proud to see the Range Rover Evoque win the Scottish Car of the Year title. The Evoque is the result of a real team effort - Design, Product Development, Manufacturing and Marketing worked together with other functions across the company to create a truly unique, exciting and altogether outstanding new vehicle."

Land Rover is no stranger to awards north of the border. Its Discovery 4 received the top honours in 2009 while the Freelander 2 won its category shortly after launch in 2006.