Everyday heroes: When ‘normal’ cars sneak into supercar showdowns

This pairing wasn’t quite as preposterous as it might appear

When Mondeo meets McLaren: Our annual driver’s car showdown unearths unlikely handling heroes

Think of Autocar’s annual Britain’s Best Driver’s Car (BBDC) test and your mind will rightly project visions of Porsche 911s, V12-fired Ferraris and scaffold-like lightweights.
But once in a blue moon, something entirely ordinary slips into the field. Not even a GTI, ST or anything to that effect, but common-or-garden machinery that lines the nation’s streets.
Read: Britain’s Best Driver’s Car 2025
The first two such cars came in 1991, the contest’s third edition. The Peugeot 605 SVE 24 and BMW 318i joined our group on account of their terrific manners in regular road use. Other contenders included the Honda NSX, Mazda MX-5 and Porsche 911 Carrera 2, so it was a total wash, right?
Not in the case of the 318i, the “utterly vice-free chassis” of which made it a surprisingly effective tool on track. A “terrific gearchange, willin