Most Loved Sports Car
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When the E-Type hit the streets, Enzo Ferrari declared it was the most beautiful car ever built. But to really grasp the car’s true nature within the context of the 1960s, you have to consult, nay, yield to your inner Freudian, and accept the fact that this is also the most phallic car ever produced. Sort of a horizontal expression of man’s intentions. Because without that slightly dirty connotation, the E-Type’s charm is completely lost. This Jag was Britain’s rebellious yet groovy “Yawp” from
The 300SL represents the perfect mixture of form and function, and is a surviving testament to German engineering excellence in 1954 when this car stunned the world at the New York Auto Show. It is undeniably pretty, but in a restrained sort of way–very disciplined, very Prussian. It was the fastest car in its day, partially because it was also the first production car to use fuel injection, and partially because of its super light tubular frame, which made the use of those idiosyncratic ‘Gullwi
No doubt there are two responses right now: those appalled by a Mazda-anything topping an F40 and those appalled that there is an extra 1 in front of its ranking. Well, to the first group, I submit to you the Miata most certainly belongs here, as it single-handedly saved the concept of the “British” sports car in the ’80s at a time when no one was making them, and became the best selling drop top of all time. It was cheap, reliable, and incredibly satisfying to drive, and cars like the Boxster,
By the 1980s, the once prestigious and honored Ferrari name had fallen into disarray. Their cars were no longer the fastest, nor the best looking, and Formula 1 racing was no longer their lady. Enzo Ferrari was 90 years old, and as his final creative act, he produced the F40 to serve as his eulogy. And what a statement it turned out to be. The F40 is one of the purest driving machines ever built, and from 1987-1989 held the title as the fastest street legal production car in the world, and becam
Here’s another archetypal story: Take a base model grocery getter and throw a more powerful engine at it, a bunch of suspension upgrades, make it look better, and drive faster around a track, slap a couple of dozen “M” badges on it and Voila! you have the M3. It’s very similar to the Muscle Car archetype, except this one can actually go around corners. The M3 has become to kids in the ’90s and 2000s what the Countach was to kids in the ’70s and ’80s–the wet dream of things to come when high scho
We all know this story. It’s sort of an archetypal one–take a small engine out of a small car and replace it with a big stonking V8, and Voila! performance paradise. That’s the long and short of the AC Cobra, with AC as a British racing car manufacturer and the V8 being the 427ci Ford V8, and the result was a car that made Britain implement national speed limits after Cobras were reportedly running at over 185 mph down the freeway. Carroll Shelby wanted to create a “Corvette-Beater,” and at 500l
Generally speaking, one can always tell when they are looking at a Porsche. You just scan across the parking lot for a VW Beetle, then focus, and see if it looks like it’s been to the gym recently. So it may be that when you look at the Carrera, it doesn’t look like a Porsche at all. It’s all flat, and low, and super wide. It has two spinal cords running up its back, and a spoiler that rises up and down like an oversexed Evo. It’s very very expensive as well, coming in at more than $400,000 when
Okay, fun fact of the day: The Murcielago, like most Lamborghinis, is named after a very famous bull, which in this case, refers to a bull by the same name who survived 24 sword strokes in an 1879 bullfight in Cordoba, and showed such spirit that the fighter spared its life. Indeed a rare honor. Another fun fact: If you are a rich football player (of either sort) and think that having a Murcielago will make you cool, or that the permanent four-wheel drive system handed down from the Diablo will
The F430 replaced the Ferrari 360, and though its chassis is identical to its predecessor and its bodywork is no more slippery–it generates more downforce and is even harder to look at without an embarrassing biological side effect. It is the third quickest Ferrari ever made, behind the Enzo and the 599, and its preternatural handling makes it one of the best driving cars ever built. It is mid-engine (it’s getting a bit redundant this far into the list, I know) and features a nifty E-diff, which
In Italian, the word Countach means something like Wow! and just looking at the car you can see why. The Countach is responsible for pioneering and popularizing the chiseled, wedge-shaped, cabin-forward design that became so popular in supercars of the 1980s. Inspired by F1 technology, the Countach owed much of its performance credentials to its exceptionally wide wheels and tires, and its powerful mid-engine V12 helped it exceed 150 mph. Its price also exceeded 150–thousand dollars that is, mak
Based on the Lamborghini Gallardo, the Audi R8 has a longitudinally mounted mid-engine, Audi’s trademark “Quattro” AWD system, and the Porsche 911 Turbo’s number. Released in 2007, the R8 became an instant worldwide success, combining Italian curb appeal with German engineering. Critics proclaimed that it could potentially be the best all around sports car ever built, thanks in part to its everyday usability as well as its neutral handling, which makes the car simultaneously less impressive but
Ah, yes. Goldfinger, 007, and his DB5. Aston Martin had already made its reputation as one of a handful of proud British car companies who hand-built their cars, but the Bond films made Aston Martin glamorous. Aston was mostly concerned with style rather than outright performance, even though the DB5 would do 150 plus in 1961. Problem was, you weren’t always guaranteed it wouldn’t break. Another (potential) problem enthusiasts have noted is that while the DB5 is no doubt one of the greatest gran
Development of the NSX began in 1984–six years before its actual release–when Honda enlisted the help of Italian design firm Pininfarina to design the HP-X (Honda Pininfarina Experimental). Originally, Honda’s plan was to create a car whose performance could exceed that of the Ferrari 328–and later, the 348–while exhibiting typical Honda reliability and build quality. Bodywork design was inspired by the 360-degree visibility within an F-16 cockpit, and the NS-X (New Sportscar Experimental) was t
The Boxster represents the first Porsche based on a roadster design as standard instead of a hard top, and since its debut in 1997, has set the standard for handling prowess, balance, and performance on a budget. It has been voted to Car & Driver‘s Top Ten list 9 times, and ranks as one of the best Porsches of all time. Its name is a portmanteau derived from the word “Boxer”–referring to car’s horizontally-opposed boxer engine –and “Roadster”–based on the fact that–it’s a roadster.
The Ferrari 365 GTB/4 is better known by its nickname “Daytona,” commemorating Ferrari’s triple success in the Feburary 1967 24 Hours of Daytona. While Lamborghini had just released the mid-engine Miura, Ferrari produced the 365 as a traditional front-engined car, though its styling was definitely more like a Lamborghini. In its day, it was the best grand tourer money could buy, and time has scarcely retracted from that acclamation, with Sports Car International voting the 365 the top sports car
The Viper is a completely American take on a supercar. It is loud, boisterous, and packs a monster V10 sitting way out front beneath a long perforated hood. It is unrefined, unfriendly, and unforgiving–and driving one you become convinced the car is crazy, and has every intent on killing you in dramatic viral-video-on-YouTube fashion. It also derives its inspiration from a classic sports car (another American sort of thing) which in this case is the Shelby AC Cobra, and two more American car ico
Named for an air current above Argentina, the Pagani Zonda is yet another delicious slice of car lust to come out of Italy. Less than 100 actual street cars have been produced since 1999, making the Zonda one of the most highly sought after supercars in the world. The mastermind behind these cars is an industrial-design fanatic, and as such many components of the Zonda have a minimalist beauty to them, such as leaving body panels in unfinished carbon-fiber, or leaving suspension and chassis comp
In the early 2000s Ford was beginning a “revival” of famous nameplates, most notably the Thunderbird and the Mustang. Among them was the Ford GT, an homage to the legendary GT40 race car which won four straight Le Mans victories in the 1960s. The Ford GT appeared as a concept car in 2002, and after a tremendous amount of positive feedback, was produced in 2003 with help of Steve Saleen and company. The new GT may have looked nearly identical to the original, but beneath its super plastic-formed
The Elise is a featherweight amongst refrigerators. Coming in at 200lbs under a ton, the Elise is a modern vision of something very old and very British–a super light, agile, capable, minuscule sports with an emphasis on handling over acceleration. Conceived in 1994, the insectoid face we’ve all come to know–and cringe at knowing–came about in 2002. There are a litany of versions in addition to the two seat roadster Elise, such as the hard top Exige, the 111R, and the American-friendly Californi
This is a car so extreme–it almost killed the Stig! Midway through a lap, the CCX lost control, slid off the track, and crashed into a tire wall. But thanks to its carbon fiber construction, the car survived unscathed (same goes for the Stig, and for the same reason). Later on, at the Stig’s request, Koenigsegg fitted the CCX with a nonproduction spoiler and performed suspension tweaks, both of which helped the CCX become the fastest car around the Top Gear track at the time. The CCX is the Swed
The ZR1 name is itself the revival of a long history of souped up ‘Vettes, and this newest version is the most powerful Corvette ever. Using a supercharged version of the base-model LS9, this bow-tie bombshell produces 620 spleen-tingling horsepower, and hauls the carbon fiber and aluminum body around the Nurburgring faster than any other production car in the world to date. Now, we know Detroit has all the design credibility of a 9-year old cosmetology student with scissors, and the interior be
Since its appearance in 2003 the Gallardo has become Lamborghini’s most popular model in its history, with more Gallardos on the streets than every other Lamborghini model combined. Like most of its predecessors, the car excelled in looks and sound and acceleration, but lagged behind in handling despite its all wheel drive set-up. However, after a major overhaul in 2009, the Gallardo became a world class sports car in addition to a sexy smooth Italian exotic. Upgrades included a larger, more pow
The SLR was the love child of a partnership between two of the best names in the business, and still stands of one of the few successful national partnerships between Britain and Germany. Drawing from the legendary Mercedes 300SL Gullwing, the SLR had a front-mid-engine arrangement, which made it more of a grand tourer, but a grand tourer with a collegiate track and field background. It still wasn’t as nimble as a Murcielago around the track, but there are few cars that can match this car’s fera
The 300ZX added to Nissan’s performance credibility following the 240Z and 280ZX. The updated Z32 model in 1990 blew the competition away with a strong 222 HP N/A 3.0L V6, and the Twin-Turbo edition churned out an incredible 300 at the crank, making the 300ZX one of the fastest accelerating cars in its day. It managed to combine the brute strength of American Muscle with the sex appeal of an Italian exotic, and the critics just ate it up. The year it was released, Motor Trend named it the Import
There’s a reason why V-TEC has a following. The S2000 sported a high-revving 240 HP 2.0L inline 4 known as the F20C, an engine which was recognized as the International Engine of the Year from 2001 to 2004. In those same years, the rest of the car’s finest attributes, namely its silky smooth six speed tranny, its razor sharp handling, and surprisingly gorgeous aesthetics (I mean, it’s Japanese. Come on!) made its $30,000 price tag seem like a steal. But the cost of ownership was high in everythi
There was a time when mid-engined cars were not cool. That time was anything before the year 1971, when rising young designer Marcello Gandini (famed for the Lamborghini Miura and Countach) revealed a stunning masterpiece–the Stratos Zero concept–a car that would revolutionize the way we saw mid-engined cars, not to mention the world of rally car racing. The Stratos was the first car designed from scratch specifically for rally competition, and it won three straight FIA rally manufacturer’s cham
You are looking at the future of sports cars via 1986. Starting life as a Group B rally car, 200 street cars were produced to comply with FIA homologations. It was one of the first high performance cars to use an all-wheel drive system, and the success of the 959 convinced Porsche to make AWD standard on the 911 Turbo beginning with the 993 model. During its illustrious three year production run, the 959 was the most technologically sophisticated road car ever produced, and was without performan
The aforementioned rise in the performance thresholds of late-model cars has corresponded with a similar rise in girth. Technology allows us to make heavy cars fast, but at the expense of driving purity. Well, here–here is driving purity in its absolute purest pureness. The Ariel Atom is indeed a street car, sans doors, roof, and body work. By using a super rigid exoskeleton design, the Atom benefits from exceptional chassis rigidity while tipping the scales at a touch over 1000lbs. This feather
Based off the Celica platform, the Mark IV Supra was a more performance oriented car than previous versions. Utilizing a Sequential Twin Turbo configuration similar to the RX-7, the Supra was capable of 0-60 runs of 4.6 seconds and a top speed in excess of 170mph, all very impressive stats for the mid-’90s. What was most impressive, though, was the durability of the 3L 2JZ-GTE Inline 6. These cars were capable of pavement-pealing 800 to 1000 horsepower figures without major modifications, and as
Steve Saleen is a cult icon of the highest order amongst aftermarket aficionados, especially those with Mustangs. The S7 was the first original Saleen design, and went it appeared in 2002, it was the only mid-engined American exotic and the only car with 500bhp. But in the next few years, with new competitors on the streets stealing his cred, Saleen was unwilling to hold the status quo, so the S7 was upfitted with two jumbo Garrett Turbo chargers which boosted output to 750HP, making the S7 Twin
After a failed merger between Ferrari and Ford, Henry Ford II demanded a win at Le Mans in ’66 for revenge. After years of development and racing failures, three GT40′s took the top three podium positions at the 1966 Le Mans in a controversial finish. The GT40 went on to win the next three years in Le Mans, giving Ford II the racing dominance he had desired, and giving Enzo Ferrari a tremendous case of post-merger-rejection-remorse. Long, lean, and low (the nomenclature is derived from the 40” r
In 1977 the V8 Vantage was hailed as Britain’s first supercar because of its 170 mph top speed. While it shared an engine with the Lagonda, the Vantage made use of high-performance camshafts, increased compression ratio, larger inlet valves and bigger carburettors mounted on new manifolds for increased output, which allowed a 0-60 mark of 5.3 seconds, one-tenth of a second faster than the Ferrari Daytona. There were many distinct features that set the Vantage model apart from the V8 model, inclu
The third and final iteration of the highly popular RX-7 hit the streets of Japan in 1992, and America a year later. Power was generated by the first-ever mass-produced sequential twin-turbocharger system to export from Japan, an extremely complex piece of machinery that gave the RX-7 a wide and usable torque curve throughout the entire RPM range. Car and Driver voted it to their 10 Best list ’93-95, and Playboy awarded the RX-7 victor in a head-to-head contest against the Dodge Viper. Handling
The M1 was the first and only mid-engined supercar BMW ever produced, and it rounds out our little MR triplets here early on in the list. The car utilized a twin-cam M88/1 3.5 L 6-cylinder engine capable of 800+ HP in racing trim. 456 examples were handbuilt between 1978 and 1981, making it one of the rarest and most desirable BMW’s of all time. Though it didn’t enjoy immense racing success, the M1 is remembered for its remarkable handling and stellar build quality, and in 2004 Sports Car Intern
The Pantera was another MR car that followed on the heels of the Mangusta. Italian for “Panther,” the Pantera got its bite from a Ford 351 Cleveland engine, and in 1971 De Tomaso began exporting them to the Stats as the Ford Pantera. But the cars were notoriously unreliable, reportedly causing Elvis to shoot his own Pantera after it wouldn’t start, and exports ended after 1975. De Tomaso would continue to offer increasingly powerful and luxurious models for more than a decade afterward.
Following the success of the Miura and the Mangusta, and following reports of Ferrari’s production of a similar format car, Maserati proposed the design of their own mid-engined car: the Bora. The Bora played second fiddle to the flamboyant Countach (with the sole exception perhaps being Top Gear’s James May) but presented the public with a more mature and refined alternative to Lamborghini and De Tomaso. Interesting note, the Bora was the first production car to feature adjustable clutch, brake
The M12 was a great car in its own right, but it was still just another thinly disguised race car in street trim. And Lee Noble knew it. So when he created the M15, it was with the intention of creating a genuine competitor to Italian and German exotics twice its price by including luxury amenities such as Sat Nav and providing ample storage space for all those groceries every moderately wealthy gear head needs–and needs fast. But despite all the fluff, the M15 is still one of the purest driving
Any petrol head learns that the true beauty of an Alfa is in the intangibles–things besides dependability, build quality, handling, and performance. In terms of performance the 8C is an exception. Making use of a Maserati-sourced V8, the 8C rockets to 60 in 4.2 seconds, and even pulls 1.02G around the skid pad. But the driving dynamics are all off. The steering is numb, there is tremendous oversteer, and the paddle-shifter gear box is quite possible one of the worst ever constructed (to cite Aut
This could easily have been called the Gumpert Phlair because its go-fast aesthetics are just that redundant, and in this the Apollo is the exact opposite of the 8C: It is form following function, and at times, following very very far behind indeed. Intended to be a street-legal but track-ready sports car, every inch of the Apollo’s bulbous surface is made for generating downforce or sheeting the air over and under the car as efficiently as possible, enabling the car to allegedly drive upside do
The 599 is a Grand Touring car from Ferrari that combines svelte looks with superb handling AND outrageous performance in a way none of the previous cars on the list could do. It is also the most powerful street car Ferrari has ever produced, with 612 HP at the flywheel, and features an “F1 Superfast” sequential manual gearbox that changes gears faster than most of us can blink. And while the 599 will no doubt prove to be another classic from Maranello, the car’s technological innovations, at le