We catch up with the boys from Autocar magazine as they hit the track to find Britain’s Best Driver’s Car of 2016. We have seen them try out the Porsche 718 Cayman and the BMW M2. This time they take out the new Aston Martin Vantage GT8, a car built for this sort of job, to see how it fares against the competition.

The race-bred Aston Martin Vantage GT8 stands a good chance of winning the hearts of the judges seeing as it is basically a race car with number plates. But we should not forget that the Aston faces some tough opponents in this challenge such as the aforementioned two and Porsche 911 R, Honda NSX, McLaren 675 LT.

As the lightest and most powerful V8 Vantage ever, the Aston Martin Vantage GT8 uses a lot of carbon fiber in its construction, mainly the aerodynamically shaped body. With a super-sharp chassis tuned for track-focused agility, powered by a revised 446 PS version of Aston Martin’s 4.7-litre naturally aspirated V8 and available with a choice of six-speed manual or seven-speed SportshiftTM II paddle-shift transmissions, the GT8 is everything an old school driving aficionado likes in a sports coupe.