Any thoughts to the best Bearcat kit in 48 scale?

I think your only choices are Academy and Hobbyboss. The Academy will be marginally cheaper. I've built the Academy - not a bad kit and it fits pretty well. I have the Hobbyboss kit, have not built it yet but it looks to have more detail out of the box and, if previous experience with Hobbyboss kits is any indication, the fit will be good.

There is also an offering from Italeri that began life as a Hawk kit, and later went to Testors. I'm not sure how available that Italeri is.

In 1/48 there are pretty much three choices in order of appearance: Hawk, reboxed by Testors then Italeri; Hobbycraft, reboxed by Academy; and Hobbyboss. I am building the Academy kit currently, have the Hobbyboss kit in my stash, and helped my son build the Testors boxing of the Hawk kit many years ago. I'd say OOB, that the Hobbyboss kit is the best, but the Hobbycraft kit is not too far behind in quality and finesse of detail. Both offer recessed panel line detailing, but Hobbyboss also has rivets running alongside the panel lines while Hobbycraft does not. The engines are something of a toss up with Hobbycraft having better cylinders, but Hobbyboss having a superior crank case housing. I like the look of the wheel wells better on the Hobbycraft kit. As far as compared to line drawings for contours and that sort of thing, I don't usually go into that level of depth on most subjects, unless it's something I have a more personal connection or attraction to, which I do not in this case. But the Hobbyboss engine cowling looks a bit better than Hobbycraft. One thing that I really like about the Hobbyboss kit is that it offers an option to build the kit with wings folded.