Best Drifting Cars: Our 2019 BDC Contenders Ranked by How They Drift

To emerge victorious from the heat of Best Driver's Car requires a car with multilayered talents, subtle feedback, honed dynamics, and a nuanced, cohesive character. But sometimes you just want to go sideways. After a string of days testing at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, here's our guide (in order of preference) to which of this year's contenders drifts around corners the best.

12. Jaguar Project 8

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Jaguar's track-focused sedan is sharp and angry, and it feels lighter than it has any right to. But it's no drifter. The all-wheel-drive system feels optimized for speed rather than drama, but sometimes it's a bit too uptight. Trail-brake, give the supercharged V-8 everything before the apex, go for the full Scandinavian flick, and the results are the same; the Project 8 just shrugs and understeers gently.

11. Lamborghini Urus

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Lamborghini's super-SUV initially feels very promising for a bit of tail-out action. The front end resists understeer brilliantly, and power is very obviously being diverted rearward on corner exit to create a lovely, neutral balance. You might even get a little burst of oversteer up over the curbs at Laguna. But ask for some really lurid action, and the Urus shuts things down pretty quickly, reverting to the more expected and one-dimensional understeery stance. The Urus isn't as wild as Lamborghini would like you to believe.

10. Bentley Continental GT V8

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The Conti GT doesn't trouble the best sliders here, but for an all-wheel-drive Bentley, it's actually a bit of a riot. Turn in hard and then lift the throttle, and the tail arcs around neatly. Now pick up the throttle, and the GT holds its angle, the all-wheel-drive system finely judged to make the car controllable without immediately dragging it out of the slide. It even smokes its rear tires. A happy and incongruous surprise.

9. BMW M850i

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The M850i slides beautifully but to its own rules. You won't find long, full opposite-lock heroics, but instead a remarkable ability to four-wheel drift. I've never driven a car where you can see tire smoke billowing over the hood from the front tires as well as pouring out of the back from the rears. It's an odd sensation to feel the car slipping sideways but also driving forward, but I grew to absolutely love it. Ken Block could make a good Gymkhana car out of an M850i.

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8. Mercedes-AMG GT 63 S

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Here's an all-wheel-drive system designed to always pour as much power at the rear tires as possible. If only it didn't feel quite so contrived as it snapped to oversteer rather suddenly and felt more intuitive once the slide was underway. Oddly disconnected though sometimes quite spectacular. Of course, the secret weapon is Drift mode, which disengages the front wheels and allows the full AMG-patented shock, smoke, and awe. Feels like cheating, but that's fine by us.

7. Mustang GT350

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The Mustang should be a killer drifter with all that power, a manual gearbox, and the perfect front-engine/rear-drive layout. But, boy, does this thing grip, and it tends toward understeer at the limits. However, despite being a little light on torque, you can get it sliding with some provocation. Sadly, the steering can't cope with the forces at work, and the assistance seems to disappear, making the rack feel like it's literally locked up and making further corrections extremely difficult.

6. McLaren Senna

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Can you drift a car built to produce lots of downforce and decimate lap records? When it has 789 hp, the answer is a resounding yes. It's not easy, and you need fast hands and sensitive throttle control, but like all McLarens it responds beautifully to a sharp lift on turn-in to tuck in the nose and get the rear moving. Be careful with all that boost, and you might just nail a long, dramatic drift. Not really the Senna's raison d'être, but a lot of fun, nonetheless.

5. Dodge Charger Hellcat Redeye

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There is no car on sale that instigates oversteer as easily as a Hellcat Redeye. It has so much more torque than traction that half throttle in any of the first four gears and even a gentle curve should do it. Once it's going you can pretty much slide until the tires pop. The only demerit is that its soft body control makes getting the car straight again very messy at times, plus all that power can catch you out pretty fast should you lose focus. Handle with care.

4. BMW M2 Competition

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Get past the slight understeer phase early in the corner, and BMW's M2 Competition is brilliantly slidey. The engine has such linear delivery, and the chassis has a transparency that makes long, elegant slides extremely easy to execute. Even better, the car has intent even when it's sideways thanks to the M differential's ability to really hook up and deliver proper acceleration as the slide progresses. It's a real little drift car.

3. Toyota Supra

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It had to be good, right? There's enough controversy surrounding Toyota's revived icon already. If it didn't oversteer on top of being built in Austria from mostly BMW parts, the world might implode. Fortunately, the Supra is a natural drifter. It's softer and a shade less accurate than the BMW M2 Comp, but it gets into a slide more easily. You seem to sit over the rear wheels, right where the action is and perfectly placed to manipulate it.

2. Porsche 911 Carrera S (992)

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Logic says a 911 shouldn't be an intuitive, easy-to-handle car beyond the limit. However, the old tail-snappy horror stories are a distant memory (and mostly inaccurate, anyway), and 911s feel strangely perfect when cranked over on the lockstops. The 992 is no exception. Get the weight swinging, let the car find its happy place (which is really, really sideways), and then use all that creamy power to tease and tweak it as you please. It's so easy yet unfathomably exciting.

1. Aston Martin DBS Superleggera

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I debated long and hard whether to give the DBS Superleggera the top spot. It's definitely not a car for novices and initially feels too big, too sharp, and palm-sweatingly intimidating. But persevere, learn to trust the quick steering and that the endless, monstrous V-12 torque won't tip the car into an immediate spin, and you'll eventually find huge slides in pretty much any gear. Always traction limited but wonderfully faithful once you get comfortable with its quick reactions, the big Aston Martin has composure and balance to spare but enough edge to make dancing it over the limit feel illicit and utterly thrilling. Big fun.