35 YEARS OF BBDC

There have been plenty of changes to 'Handling Day' since 1989 - although in some ways, not much has changed at all. Illya Verpraet takes a look back

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The fundamentals of Autocar's BBDC event have never changed: we assemble a field as varied as possible of that year's best driver's cars and then decide which is the most fun.

However, making the field varied is a more difficult exercise now than it was 34 years ago, because the bottom has fallen out of the performance car market.

In 1989, the cheapest contender was the £9350 Renault 5 GT Turbo and the most expensive the £47,697 Ferrari 328 GTB. In 2023, the most affordable, the Honda Civic Type R, costs more than the Ferrari did back in the day. Even with inflation in mind, that's a sobering statistic.

We've also brought science and democracy to the process over the years. In 1989, there were no scores, no lap times, not even a basic factfile on the contenders.

"The original motivation behind this rare gathering of contemporary handling greats, and we make no bones about it, was to have a good time," David Vivian explained.

One thing that hasn't changed is Porsches doing well. Rather than arriving with a brown envelope in the glovebox, they're just incredibly consistently good. Is the following sentence about the winning 1989 944 S2 or this year's 911 GT3 RS? "The [Porsche's] limits were very high, yet it approached them with such grace and easy confidence, it was virtually impossible not to be seduced." It could be either.

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