The Breakdown: 2019 Best Driver’s Car
While Best Driver’s Car is undoubtedly a car-lover’s dream
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00:00 Best Driver's Car is what dreams are made of.
00:01 There's nowhere else you can have this many high-performance super and
00:04 sports cars in one place at one time.
00:06 [MUSIC]
00:13 >> The Best Driver's Car is the best performance vehicle on open roads,
00:17 on a hill climb, at the racetrack.
00:19 It can be the most powerful vehicle in the world, but
00:21 if you don't feel comfortable driving it, it's not the Best Driver's Car.
00:24 >> Best Driver's Car to me, and it's the best time of the year.
00:27 We gather the best sports cars and put them through a battery of tests.
00:30 If you're a driver, and we all are at Motor Trend, picking a Best Driver's Car
00:35 is kind of like the most important thing we do all year.
00:37 >> We drove up from LA, driving each car in different conditions to kind of
00:42 replicate a real world sort of test.
00:44 >> So we have an amazing stretch of road, and
00:46 we get to drive up and down it as fast as we can.
00:49 It's gonna be great.
00:50 >> And then from there, we moved on to Laguna Seca.
00:53 We were there for three days, lapping cars, getting time.
00:55 And then finally, then headed to Vandenberg Air Force Base and
00:58 got to do the world's greatest drag race.
01:00 >> Welcome to the 2019 Motor Trend Best Driver's Car.
01:05 This year, it's a real smorgasbord of new performance cars.
01:09 Everything from a million dollar all carbon fiber McLaren,
01:12 to a Lamborghini SUV, to a Toyota Supra.
01:15 >> Each year, the Best Driver's Car field is chosen from
01:19 vehicles that are new for that model year.
01:22 We usually choose down from a field of about 25 to 30.
01:25 >> We initially instrument test the cars.
01:28 Once we have that data, then we're sort of armed to begin the test.
01:32 >> But I think it helps probably to keep in mind that the fastest car doesn't have
01:35 to win, the car that has the most horsepower doesn't have to win.
01:37 What makes a good driver's car to me, it's engaging to drive always.
01:40 It could be just as much fun at 25 miles per hour in traffic as it is on an open
01:46 highway or on a track.
01:47 It helps to spend a week with the cars,
01:49 really putting them through the paces to see where they all fall.
01:52 [MUSIC]
01:54 >> Have you met my friend Senna?
01:56 It's purple, and it only costs a million bucks.
02:00 >> Every once in a while,
02:00 we have a big ask for a car that we don't expect we're gonna get.
02:04 This year, that car was the McLaren Senna.
02:06 That was absolutely clinical for a Best Driver's Car.
02:09 It was literally disorienting and
02:12 made me nauseous because of the G-loads and how fast it goes.
02:15 I wasn't adrenaline shaky.
02:17 I was literally nauseous, and it was just disorienting how fast that car is.
02:22 >> Boy, never have I wanted to get out of a car so fast, but
02:25 also get back into it.
02:26 I don't know how I got up the hill as fast as I did in that Senna.
02:29 I was just like, I'm here.
02:31 >> I sort of run out of guts at around $100,000 a vehicle, and
02:36 this is ten times that.
02:37 It's extremely fast, extremely lightweight.
02:40 You will, I guarantee you, hit the brakes too soon.
02:43 But it is a fantastic, fantastic closed course driving machine.
02:47 >> We finally brought a Hellcat, but not just any Hellcat, the Redeye.
02:52 All 800 horsepower of it.
02:54 >> We did see some rather epic burnouts in the Challenger Hellcat.
02:57 I haven't done something like that since I was a kid.
03:00 It was just put on the brake, put on the gas, slowly roll off the brake, and
03:04 just watch the smoke clouds furl upwards into the great evening sky.
03:08 >> It was really nice to get the new 992 Generation 911 in.
03:12 They're not flashy, but they drive so well, so it was really nice to get that in.
03:15 It was also really nice to get the Shelby GT350.
03:19 That car is just insane.
03:21 It finished second a few years back, and so
03:23 it was nice to kind of see what three years change has done to that car.
03:27 >> The GT350 was just incredible.
03:30 It was glued to the road.
03:31 It felt like it had exotic car levels of performance.
03:34 I had to keep reminding myself this was a car that was costing a quarter as much as
03:39 a lot of the exotic cars out there, and yet it was putting out the same performance.
03:42 >> It's just interesting to see how the idea of what makes the best
03:46 drivers car has kind of evolved.
03:47 The Urus did fantastic this year.
03:49 The Stelvio Quadrifoglio did great the year before.
03:51 Used to all be mid-engine little sports cars, and now we have Grand Tours.
03:55 We have hypercars.
03:56 [MUSIC]
04:02 Electrification will change BGC.
04:04 Not only will it make this logistics more difficult with charging, but
04:07 the potential for performance vehicles with electricity is insane.
04:11 And I'm just really excited to see how it shakes up compared to the best
04:14 gas-powered cars, the last really gas-powered cars.
04:17 [MUSIC]
04:27 (upbeat music)