Cars don’t just appear, they evolve, built on the technology and the style of what came before. Every now and then, it’s useful to take a step back, appreciate history, and get a glimpse of how today’s efforts stand in the pantheon of preceding hardware. Now not necessarily the Best cars but certainly the COOLEST.
Light, airy, drives like the wispy little thing it is. Mazda’s first rotary-engined car and the machine that kicked off the brand’s half-century love affair with the technology. Without this, you have no twin-turbo RX-7, no Le Mans-winning four-rotor, nowhere to look for proof that car engineers still have silly, impractical, awesome dreams.
Somehow European and American all at once. A truckish, unrefined brute, in the good way. Tame one, you’re a man.
Looks the business, sounds like unbridled hell. Gold wheels need no explanation.
1967 Ferrari Dino 206 GT
Ferrari’s small, simple Dino in its purest form, with alloy bodywork and gobs of grace. Dollar for dollar, Enzo never did better.
Alfa’s Type 33 racer made streetable. Few fit inside, but you’d buy one solely to look at.
The Graduate, sure. But also Alfa’s masterful aluminum twin-cam. A boattail. And no roof.
Benchmark, legend, step-off point for a thousand stories. The result of taking a sports car that beat everybody and doubling the power, but also the embodiment of American car culture: crazy ambition plus screw-you attitude and a heaping dose of louder-faster-better. Still the standard by which all supercars are judged.
Everyone knows why the E-Type makes it—sex, speed, and more sex—but why this one? Because the coupe somehow added to the roadster’s perfection without seeming gratuitous. Because the early, covered-headlight cars were almost pornographically.
“So aerodynamic, it went 140 mph with just 170 horsepower. To this day, it still looks like the future.”
Ford V8, ZF five-speed, basically a GT40 for the middle class. Knocked as a redneck supercar, but a good one is more riot than you’ll ever need.
The name is an Italian expletive. The Miura was inarguably prettier, but the Countach seemed far more impossible. And impossible always wins.
Out-of-the-box thinking shouldn’t care what people think. On that note, here’s a front-driver with its engine mounted backward and heeled way over to fit the transmission, with visibility so good it seems you’re outside, but with heated Swedish seats, so you don’t feel like you are. And driving it is so fantastic, you don’t care how it looks. But it looks cool.
In July 1987, we published a test called “The World’s Fastest Cars.” It included, among other things, F1 champ Phil Hill, Peter Egan, VW’s high-speed oval, an Isdera Imperator, and two Porsche 959s. Also this—a humble, 470-hp turbo 911 built days before by a little-known German tuner named Alois. The Ruf won, at a revolutionary 211 mph; the nickname got out, madman Stefan Roser took the car to the ‘Ring (YouTube it), and the legend grew from there. The Bird is R&T lore, Porsche touchstone, and engineering masterstroke rolled into one. There had to be a 911 on this list—for us, it could be no other.
At 147 mph, the fastest factory saloon of the day. Engine lifted from the M1 Supercar. Sold in America only in black. Woke up an industry. Ate Porsche whole.
1992 McLaren F1
The story of the McLaren F1 – widely acknowledged as the greatest car of the 20th century – began in an airport lounge.A prototype F1 was revealed at the 1992 Monaco Grand Prix, as was the cost. Yet despite its cool £634,500 price, McLaren lost money on every one produced. Today they can achieve upwards of £9 million on the rare occasions they come up for sale. It’s still one of the fastest road cars – and is still the fastest naturally aspirated car – ever made.
Not the first Elise, but the first one sold here, a literal wish come true. At 2000 pounds, it was a rolling reminder that lightness is king. Plus an unburstable Toyota drivetrain and that impossibly sharp steering rack. As of this printing, you could buy a used example for the price of a loaded Honda Fit. Which is likely the most dangerous thing you’ve heard all week.
When is a supercar not a supercar? When it’s a carbon-fiber-bodied, three-cylinder hybrid that aims to rethink how we view speed, mass production, and everything that makes an exotic tick. The proportions are borrowed from BMW’s awesome M1, a 1970s flop that waited 30 years for the world to appreciate it. Prediction: This won’t take nearly as long.
Beautiful, fast, and the first practical EV from a company that hadn’t built a car, ever. Only amazing when you stop and think about it.
Aston Martin DB9
The DB9 is rated well by car critics, who appreciate the car’s interior and exterior design, DB9 is the iconic heart of the Aston Martin model range. A Grand Tourer combining an intoxicating blend of elegance and engineering, refinement and technology. DB9 is also the latest progeny of the most illustrious automotive bloodline in the world.
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