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, willing engine, accurate steering and reasonable grip" brought some delight for our testers, although its combination of such a fantastic set-up with so little power taking 10.2sec to hit 60mph from rest divided opinion.

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Some reckoned it competent, others frustrating, wishing we had picked a punchier 325i instead. Special guest Derek Warwick was "quite impressed", highlighting its "outstanding drivability", good ride and lack of brake fade. "In the end, it just wasn't enough fun" for the Formula 1 and sports car racer, and the BMW cruised to sixth place.

The same couldn't be said for the big Peugeot, whose stability and comfort on the road translated to a lacklustre performance on track. Amusingly, it was quicker around Castle Combe than the MX-5 (which would finish second), but that was thanks to its lusty V6, rather than dynamic sheen. "It was no fun at all," said Warwick. Ouch.

It took until 1999 for anything without a hint of sporting pretension to resurface. At the "notoriously evil" Oulton Park circuit, we took a flier on the Volkswagen Bora V6 4Motion on account of its punchy engine and its four-wheel-drive hardware (the Haldex system shared with the Audi S3, also present).

As expected, the narrow-angle 204bhp V6 was impressive, offering a "smooth, muscular" drive. But the rest of it was something of a shambles; the suspension that offered great comfort on the road was much too soft for anything approaching enjoyment on track, disappointing a field of testers who had hoped for a spiritual successor to the Golf VR6 of old.

"There's always one car that's out of its depth," said our Colin Goodwin. "This year, sadly, it was the soft and sloppy Bora V6."

At the turn of the millennium came an all-timer of a BBDC field: Lamborghini Diablo GT, Noble M12 GT, Lotus 340R and Audi A2.

"A high centre of gravity and a mere 75bhp are hardly the stuff of which handling dreams are made," we acknowledged, noting that Audi's supermini had hardly a sporting bone in its body.

But it "brilliantly defied" its humdrum specification, with shocking agility and brilliantly communicative steering. "Everybody loved driving the A2, yet it was the slowest car here by 10 seconds," we remarked. "That says more about how good the basic handling was than mere words ever could."

Three years later, it was the turn of the Honda Accord Type S (rather than the rarefied Type R), which faced stiff competition in the form of the Audi S4 and Volvo S60R.

With 187bhp and four cylinders, it had half as much engine as the S4 yet sparkled on track. "Japan beats Europe" was our verdict, thanks to precise, accurate steering and a great gearchange. "The Accord wins by trumping, easily, the Euros in terms of chassis sensitivity and poise."

You might be surprised by the lack of a Ford so far. Up to this point, the firm's contenders had all been sporty flavours of the Mondeo, Focus and Fiesta. In 2007, though, we finally entered a regular Ford a 2.5-litre five-cylinder turbo Mondeo. We had already declared it a winner against the BMW 3 Series in the run-up to 'Handling Day', but could it really stand up in comparison with a Lotus 2-Eleven, Porsche 911 GT3 RS and Lamborghini Murciélago?

In a word, no. But it was still something of a delight on road and track, with precise steering, great feedback and a sonorous note from under the bonnet. It was the slowest car of our pack around Bedford Autodrome although it could have gone quicker were it not for its hilariously long gearing ("why it should need to hit nearly 100mph in third is anyone's guess").

It did just about well enough to avoid a last-place finish, pipping the thuggish Mercedes-Benz SLK 55 AMG ("a £52,000, 355bhp under-achiever").