Day 2 What Goes Up Must Race Down

The second day of Best Driver’s Car began right on schedule. All nine judges and (more important) 12 cars arrived on time, as did three members of the California Highway Patrol.

- Jonny Lieberman

Good part is, the officers were on our side, as we had a slithery 4-mile hill climb of State Route 198 permitted for video and photographic purposes, and as such we would have their assistance in intermittently closing the road.

Hey, man, safety first. Well, OK, maybe not exactly safety, but we wanted to eliminate the possibility of an innocent party being involved if something went wrong. Self-inflicted injury? It’s a dirty job filled with risks, but 12 of the best new performance, sports, and supercars ain’t gonna drive themselves. Yet.

Due to some inside baseball mishegas, instead of our usual cadre of 12 judges, for 2019 we went with only nine. For some reason, I was very worried about this fact until I realized that having only nine judges looping per road closure meant that each run took only 75 percent as long as in years past. Work smarter, not harder, and all that. Was the outcome in any way impacted by having fewer drivers driving the car? Naw. If anything, it made us a more efficient unit and saved a bit of wear and tear on the cars. Oh, right, the cars! Let’s get to it.

After one run, the Mercedes-AMG came down the hill with smoke billowing from its brakes. Not a good sign, but if you’ll allow me the fleeting pleasure of tossing one of my colleagues under the proverbial bus, Scott Evans was driving, and, well, he does that.

Smoking brakes aside, the AMG rocked on 198. “Sure, it’s heavy and solid as a bank vault, but it tears up the asphalt as though it’s mad at the earth,” Mark Rechtin said. “It's baritone engine note is menacing, its cornering fleet and nimble like Lawrence Taylor at his peak, and its brakes confident (though a bit thin and prone to igniting under intense labor). Plus, it has a great rear-seat room and a thunderous stereo to regale your passengers with Wagner as you blast toward your destination.”