Welcome to the 35th running of our annual Britain's Best Driver's Car contest, which, as you may know, we refer to by its Auto car office code name of Handling Day.Because that's how it started out: a day of testing cars' handling on a circuit.
The format has since been honed into one that most accurately guides us towards a great driver's car: three days of driving, one spent on great roads and two at a great race track. It gives us the time and the space to get to know the cars inside and out and explore their limit handling. A number of places will do it, but Wales and Anglesey tend to do it best, so we're back.
It's worth remembering, too, that these are the 10 best sports cars of the year plus last year's winner (of a fashion, but we'll get to that in a moment). There isn't a duffer among them. So if a car finishes 11th here, it would still end up top of most group tests in which it might find itself. Perhaps the question, then, is: if our daily commute happened to involve a few laps of a circuit followed by 30 miles of twisting, challenging open roads, which of these cars would we drive most over the next 12 months?
To decide, we take five experienced testers (Matt Saunders having been called away to test a 1000bhp Lamborghini), each of whom has up to 50 points to allocate per car, scoring for how much fun a car is on road and track. Then we tot up the results and declare a winner.
Before we continue, a quick word on the Porsche 911 GT3, which has won the past two BBDC contests. As is very occasionally the way, a winning car gets superseded or overwhelmed by other cars in its range: the GT3 RS and Dakar are new in the past year, both deserve a spot and we can hardly have three 911s in the line-up...
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der November 01, 2023-Ausgabe von Autocar UK.
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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der November 01, 2023-Ausgabe von Autocar UK.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
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LAND ROVER DEFENDER
Our new 130-all 5358mm and £96,745 of it - has its first taste of life as a daily wagon
RENAULT CLIO
Trip down to Spa reveals its talents aren't diminished with another two men aboard
Make mine a slightly smaller one
The Little Car Company has hit new heights of scaled-down kerb appeal with its recreated
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Old-school vehicle breakers' yards are rare these days, but a handful of marque specialists are soldiering on to provide a vital service. John Evans pays one a visit
THAT'S WHY WE GO TO ICELAND
Smooth, empty roads snaking through epic scenery are one reason. Experiencing erupting volcanos is another. Matt Prior goes in search of both in Kia's latest Sorento and finds 50mph ways to leave your lava
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Dream-like on German asphalt, does this curious Rennsport also excel in the UK?
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New Transit sprouts seats and windows, gets a PHEV system that works differently
TESTED 24.5.24, BERKSHIRE ON SALE NOW - MINI COUNTRYMAN SE
Flagship version of the larger and pricier third-generation SUV arrives in the UK
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Refreshed saloon targets class supremacy with electric powertrain updates
TESTED 23.5.24, BEDFORDSHIRE ON SALE NOW PRICE £446,742 - LAMBORGHINI REVUELTO
We've sampled Sant'Agata's new-era, 1001bhp supercar on track. Now it's time to see how it fares on a decent B-road