Best Racer’s Car: The Story Behind the First-Ever BDC Grand Prix

We race five Best Driver’s Car contenders and one stand-in on Laguna Seca

Welcome to the first MotorTrend Best Driver's Car Grand Prix: six of the best road cars racing wheel to wheel on WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.

Why? Well, we got to thinking that although the data taken from our hot laps with Randy Pobst is fascinating, multiple laps with other cars in close proximity might yield very different results.

Sometimes Randy emerges from a contender sweating. It's taken every ounce of his skill to extract the optimum time. Think of the McLaren 720S last year. Could that pace be replicated with the added pressure of other cars sharing track space and also right on the limit? Maybe the strain would start to show on the cars, too. Sure, those impressive-looking brakes might endure an out lap, hot lap, in lap cycle, but what about a longer session and without running in clean, cool air?

The MotorTrend Best Driver's Car Grand Prix would be all about consistency, confidence, and endurance. It sounded like a hell of a lot of fun, too. Amazingly, the car companies we asked all approved of this damn-fool stunt and consented to our running more than $1 million in sheetmetal around the track simultaneously.

The rules are simple. Three laps, with the grid run in reverse order, fastest car at the back, slowest car in pole position.

Our front row is the much-hyped Toyota GR Supra driven by three-time Formula Drift Champion and Drift This co-host Chris Forsberg, beside the 715-hp Aston Martin DBS Superleggera driven by endurance racer and 12 Hours of Sebring winner Marino Franchitti.

Next back are the Jaguar Project 8 and Shelby Mustang GT350 nestled alongside each other piloted by Axel Stein and Patryk Mikiciuk of the German and Polish affiliates of MotorTrend, respectively. This is an international Grand Prix, after all.

In row three, hailing all the way from Georgia, is our very own Randy Pobst in the Porsche 992 Carrera S. Finally, there's me, the token Brit, in a flame-spitting McLaren 600LT. (Sorry, no Senna. McLaren wisely had second thoughts but sent along a proper substitute as an apology.) I'm way off the back of the grid to make things as "fair" as possible. Yeah, someone doesn't want me to win.

We have front-, mid-, and rear-engine contenders, driven by drifters, racers, and motor journalists; more than 3,200 hp generated by six-, eight-, and 12-cylinder engines; and the simply awesome Laguna Seca as our playground.