Yahoo Autos Britain's Best Driver’s Cars 2024
Five of our writers took nearly £2 million worth of metal on road and track to determine the best cars for this year
Our annual best driver's car contest always throws up some surprises, and the presence of a 2.1 tonne super saloon from Audi to a sub-900kg Peugeot bears stark witness to that.
While none of the cars ranked below are direct competitors, each one has been picked because they excel in one area: driving ability. Some, however, do it even better than others.
Helping to guide you through this smorgasbord of eclectic machinery are our road testers; Matt Prior, James Disdale, Richard Lane, Illya Verpraet and Andrew Frankel. They will provide you with first-hand experience at what it's like to pilot each of these cars at the absolute limit.
Listed below are a group which we think are the best driver's cars, unmatched in their capabilities, both on road and on track.
1. Lamborghini Huracan Sterrato
Time after time, judges would come back from a run up the road in this car and start pontificating at anyone in earshot. By not sacrificing all at the altar of adhesion but by backing off spring rates and tyre sizes a little, Lamborghini has created a car with a feel unlike that of any in the modern era.
No longer do you play the role of observer; instead, you’re in the thick of the action. But, like the 911 Dakar (mentioned below), here too was a slight concern: cars that are this good on the road rarely meet such standards on track.
Given the harsh conditions on track at Anglesey, it was a surprise to detect a certain V10 ripping up to its 8500rpm red line as it fizzes by the pit wall. It’s Illya Verpraet, who at only his first outing as a BBDC judge doesn’t appear to be taking prisoners.
Yet far from appearing reckless, his eagerness with the 601bhp Huracán Sterrato only underscores what we all learned on the road: this is a remarkably confidence-inspiring supercar. By lunchtime everybody has been in the Lambo’s perched bucket seat and the plaudits flow.
“Hilariously adjustable and exploitable,” said Disdale, who like of all us had discovered that (a) the Sterrato’s all-terrain Bridgestones must use a compound concocted with black magic, so well does it resist understeer, and (b) this chassis will let you take a sliver of oversteer through even the fastest bends, as if it were a Caterham Seven exiting a second-gear hairpin.
The near clown car that is the Sterrato is not by any stretch a track-day tool, and yet today its specific brand of precision hooliganism isn’t just working well: it’s excelling.
Lamborghini Huracan Sterrato review
2. Ariel Atom 4R
On our wet test roads the Ariel is simply too fast to exploit any more than a fraction of its potential, and while it was as reassuring as you can expect such an extreme car to be – and now with the benefit of both ABS and traction control – you cannot escape the sense that this is not what it was designed for and that, to an extent at least, it was merely humouring you while waiting for its moment to shine.
In torrid weather on track, however, the class of this little jewel of a supercar slayer shines through.
Verpraet is a touch dubious – “It’s like riding a tiger: very exciting but not particularly enjoyable” – yet everyone else seems sold. The featherweight, sequential-gearboxed, outrageously unfettered 4R can bite if you fail to anticipate the arrival of turbo boost, and care needs to be taken not to lock the brakes.
The driving controls, however, give you an innate confidence and you’re soon steering the car well and truly on the throttle. Might you have more fun in the regular 4? You might, but that’s splitting hairs.
3. Porsche 911 GT3 RS
This car's secret, and it’s a good one, is its ability to allow you to slacken the dampers and relax the diff from the comfort of your figure-hugging seat to provide a level of dynamic control we know of in no other car.
Suddenly, this stiffly sprung downforce monster starts to ride acceptably well – at least as well as a stock GT3. On more street-friendly Goodyear rubber than the usual no-nonsense Michelin covers, a first taste is nothing like as wild as you might imagine. Not even slightly scary when properly configured it bodes well for its prospects over the next couple of days. And that’s putting it mildly.
On track, the 911 GT3 RS shows poise, precision and confidence-inspiring drivability in conditions somewhat outside of its comfort zone. As much is in evidence when back into the drivers’ briefing room stormed a breathless Frankel: “Makes a gen-two 991 GT3 RS look incompetent in these conditions.”
Quite a statement, that, but understandably it goes unchallenged. On a day like today, the GT3 RS is nowhere near its potential but still finds grip where you don’t expect it to and moves with the exquisite precision we’ve come to expect from Porsche’s GT-badged cars.
Cold semi-slick tyres mean direction changes require some initial patience, rather than being ripped into with abandon, but it’s crackers how much full-throttle activity the Beast of Weissach will tolerate.
“Those tyres don’t work in its favour on a damp circuit,” said Disdale. “But manage the turn-in and this car is incredibly immersive. It sucks you in and goads you into being a faster, better and smoother driver.” Prior echoed Disdales’ sentiment: “Not intimidating, not unfriendly, just poised.”
4. Porsche 911 Dakar
The Dakar showed us something different. It’s quite softly sprung and light on contact patch even by normal 911 standards, but out here that confection works exceptionally well. You don’t need the additional grip but appreciate instead the way it breathes its way over the road rather than bludgeoning it into submission.
It feels more natural, so you feel more in control. There’s also a sense that, because grip is not limitless on those on/off-road Pirelli Scorpion tyres, you need to manage the car more while thinking harder about placing it and setting it up for the corners ahead. And that means more involvement and, therefore, more fun.
The Huracan Sterrato is a tough act for the 911 Dakar to follow. Both have been created in the same moment and would always be compared intimately, but how do you compete with something as joyfully cohesive as the Sterrato? As we found on the road, the answer is with a better driving position and more intuitive steering.
Moreover, once on track it’s clear that while the Dakar lacks the wild performance of the Lambo, get it sideways and it’s the more natural operator. “You can exploit it with confidence, and the way the 4WD system works is actually very sweet,” said Frankel.
Once the Sterrato goes beyond a certain angle of yaw, its driveline can squirm, as if it can’t decide whether to let you ride out the drift you’re requesting or pull the car into line and fling it forward. The Porsche is more malleable; it gives you options. Its handling is pedigree, but you do wonder if the desert-grade 911 is joyful enough in the face of a very competent Lamborghini that administers laughs intravenously.
5. Tolman Edition Peugeot 205 GTi
The Tolman is better tied down than the original upon which it is based, and therefore less ridiculously eager to pivot around its mid-point according to throttle setting. But anyone who recalls just how feisty they once were will probably accept this is not all bad news.
The engine doesn’t feel like it’s giving the full 200bhp – which would put its power-to-weight ratio on a par with a Porsche Cayman – and its on/off throttle mapping needs finessing, but there’s plenty to keep the chassis busy and leave you grateful for that optional Quaife differential. It’s a promising start.
You’d rightly expect it to be lost on a circuit, drowned by the scope of the place and even more so in these grip-limited conditions. But it isn’t; in fact, it’s a little marvel. It has all the throttle adjustability you could ever want, and then some. It rolls and pitches but never, it seems, to any problematic extent.
With increased physics at speed also comes increased – and gloriously controllable – oversteer on turn-in, but it’s all so measured and the car’s torque-biasing Quaife differential unobtrusively gives enough traction to maintain momentum and drag yourself out of corners. With only 895kg to corral, the brakes don’t fade, and feedback is, in general, immense. There are some questions of the Tolman’s throttle mapping and gearshift quality, but these are just niggles, really.
Tolman 205 GTI vs Hyundai i20 N
