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" This story originally appeared at . 1960s   1966 Eagle Mark 1 (Pictured Above) Gurney remains the only American to win a Formula 1 race in a car of his own construction. That car, a 1967 Eagle-Weslake Mk 1, won the 1967 Belgian Grand Prix; it is widely believed to be the most beautiful F1 car ever built. The virtually identical 1966 model is shown. &amp;quot;&amp;#039;Cause Dan drove it.&amp;quot; \u2014Sam Posey  1967 Mazda Cosmo  Light, airy, drives like the wispy little thing it is. Mazda&amp;#039;s first rotary-engined car and the machine that kicked off the brand&amp;#039;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.  1969 Lola T70   Its shape has been seared into your brain, most likely without a name. Blame Speed Racer, George Lucas, Steve McQueen, or the countless kids who sat in study hall doodling generic race cars in their notebooks\u2014the T70 long ago became the epitome of the breed. The Lola may not have been the fastest of the Sixties sports racers, but it was an anything&amp;#039;s-possible, Swiss Army knife of a car. It remains the apex of Eric Broadley&amp;#039;s design genius and (right, at Daytona in 1969) a standout chapter in the Great Book of Duct Tape.  1963 Chevrolet Corvette (C2)  Somehow European and American all at once. A truckish, unrefined brute, in the good way. Tame one, you&amp;#039;re a man.  1967 Ferrari 330 P4  Yin to the Lola T70&amp;#039;s yang\u2014as rarified as the former was not. Looks the business, sounds like unbridled hell. Gold wheels need no explanation.  1967 Ferrari Dino 206 GT  Ferrari&amp;#039;s small, simple Dino in its purest form, with alloy bodywork and gobs of grace. Dollar for dollar, Enzo never did better.   1967 Alfa Romeo Tipo 33 Stradale  Alfa&amp;#039;s type 33 race made streetable. Few fit inside, but you&amp;#039;d buy one solely to look at. (Proof: the gent who owns our photo car did just that.)  1966 Oldsmobile Toronado  No front-driver\u2014let alone one from Michigan\u2014has ever said &amp;quot;Go to hell&amp;quot; more eloquently.   1966 Alfa Romeo Spider   The Graduate, sure. But also Alfa&amp;#039;s masterful aluminum twin-cam. A boattail. And no roof.  1965 Matra Djet  The first mid-engine, mass-production road car. Born in 1962 (as a Bonnet) with four-wheel disc brakes and independent rear suspension at a time when the latter wasn&amp;#039;t found on a new Ferrari. Steel backbone chassis and bonded-fiberglass body. Yuri Gagarin drove one. French, in the best way.  1965 Shelby Cobra 427  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. &amp;quot;Homer describes Odysseus as &amp;#039;a man skilled in all ways of contending.&amp;#039; That was Shelby. He had the touch.&amp;quot; \u2014Peter Egan  1965 Shelby GT350R  Carroll Shelby&amp;#039;s street Mustang built into a winning, genuine badass. The move saved Shelby American and &amp;quot;made&amp;quot; the Mustang, giving both the base Stang and the street GT350 road-racing cred through a combination of good timing and hot-rodder smarts. Fast, crude, and staggeringly effective.  1965 Jaguar E-Type Coupe Series 1 4.2  Everyone knows why the E-type makes it\u2014sex, speed, and more sex\u2014but why this one? Because the coupe somehow added to the roadster&amp;#039;s perfection without seeming gratuitous. Because the early, covered-headlight cars were almost pornographically clean. Because 4.2 liters is as large as that wonderful straight-six got.  1965 Lincoln Continental Convertible  You could sit down and try to think of a Detroit convertible with more presence, design mojo, subtlety, and grace. You might come up with an answer. You would be incorrect. 1970s   1970 Citro\u00EBn SM   &amp;quot;So aerodynamic, it went 140 MPH with just 170 HP. To this day, it still looks like the future.&amp;quot; \u2014Jay Leno  1970 Chaparral 2J  A snowmobile engine sucked the car to the ground. So fast it was banned. Inspired a generation of engineers to stop asking permission.  1970 Chrysler Wing Cars - Dodge Daytona / Plymouth Superbird   Mopar Street/Track siblings with absurd power and functional NASCAR aero. All-day, 200-mph insanity.  1972 De Tomaso Pantera  Ford V-8, ZF five-speed, basically a GT40 for the middle class. Knocked as a Redneck supercar, but a good one is more riot than you&amp;#039;ll ever need. &amp;quot;The Stratos was a monster, but it was, at the same time, easy to understand.&amp;quot; \u2014Sandro Munari  1977 Pontiac Trans Am  Smokey and the Bandit: The movie was equal parts fluff and camp, and the car was nothing special. But if you were born in America, you desperately want to jump it over a downed bridge with a young sally field in the right seat.  1977 Lamborghini Countach (LP400)  The name is an Italian expletive. The Miura was inarguably prettier, but the Countach seemed far more impossible. And impossible always wins.  1977 Ford Bronco  Everyone loves trucks, even the guys at a sports-car magazine. And this was the hairy-chested sports car of trucks: small, ballsy, rarely left stock. Made Jeeps look girly.  1977 Lotus 78:  Used air like no one ever had, turning the entire car into a purpose-built wing and changing racing forever. Livery was icing on the cake.   1977 Lancia Stratos HF  The shape came from the futre but was still pure seventies. For all its brilliance, the hastily assembled, hand-built Stratos was shockingly off in execution, a lightning bolt made of nine-volt batteries and extension cords. That it won everything just makes it cooler.  1972 BMW 2002tii  BMW&amp;#039;s claim to inventing the sport sedan here is phooey\u2014the true author was likely Italian and far earlier. But the Germans took the idea and perfected it. The rear-drive, 125-hp tii was small but practical, fun but sensible, highly tuned but stone reliable. And more fun than a drunk monkey. 1980s   1984 Ferrari 288 GTO and 1987 Ferrari F40  &amp;quot;The 288 is a great car, but you wouldn&amp;#039;t know it until you drove it. The F40 spells it out before you get in, then frightens you when you do. It&amp;#039;s sort of the Incredible Hulk on wheels\u2014just don&amp;#039;t make it angry.&amp;quot; \u2014Nick Mason  1984 Mercedes-Benz AMG Hammer  In the mid-Eighties, a Mercedes tuner best known for wide-body kits and fancy wheels debuted its first complete car, a $120,000 big-block V-8 conversion of a $40,000 E-class sedan. It made no sense; it seemed stupid. It was actually brilliant. It was a five-second car and a Lamborghini competitor, and it&amp;#039;s the reason AMG is a Mercedes division today.  1984 Audi Sport Quattro S1 E2  Group B rally cars would get faster but no crazier. The Quattro&amp;#039;s wonderfulness, pyrotechnic as it was, was based in a street car, unlike the lab-rat specials of other brands. Add recirculating turbos to keep boost up, 500 hp, Haldex, Walter R\u00F6hrl, and a tiny wheelbase, and you get crazy German hot-rod magic flung hard through the midnight woods.  1984 SAAB 900 SPG  Out-of-the-box thinking shouldn&amp;#039;t care what people think. On that note, here&amp;#039;s a front-driver with its engine mounted backward and heeled way over to fit the transmission, with visibility so good it seems you&amp;#039;re outside, but with heated Swedish seats, so you don&amp;#039;t feel like you are. And driving it is so fantastic, you don&amp;#039;t care how it looks. But it looks cool.  1987 Buick GNX  The last good &amp;quot;old&amp;quot; Buick, a turbo-V-6 sleeper that beat Corvettes. Everything worth loving about cheap speed, old Detroit, and GM.  1987 RUF CTR-001 &amp;quot;Yellow Bird&amp;quot;  In July 1987, we published a test called &amp;quot;The World&amp;#039;s Fastest Cars.&amp;quot; It included, among other things, F1 champ Phil Hill, Peter Egan, VW&amp;#039;s high-speed oval, an Isdera Imperator, and two Porsche 959s. Also this\u2014a 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 &amp;#039;Ring (YouTube it), and the legend grew from there. The Bird is R&amp;amp;amp;T lore, Porsche touchstone, and engineering masterstroke rolled into one. There had to be a 911 on this list\u2014for us, it could be no other. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s pretty extraordinary to take a car you can drive on the street and go this fast. What&amp;#039;s 339 km/h in miles per hour? Two ten or so? Amazing.&amp;quot; \u2014Phil Hill, R&amp;amp;amp;T, 1987  1988 BMW M5 (E28)  At 147 MPH, the fastest factory sedan of the day. Engine lifted from the M1 supercar. Sold in American only in black. Woke up an industry, at Porsches whole.   1988 BMW M3 (E30)  A demon in touring-car racing, but also the first, rawest version of a model that&amp;#039;s still the sport-sedan barometer. Chassis remains an eye-opener.  1989 Audi 90 Quattro IMSA GTO  Wastegates glowing and four wheels scrambling, it won seven of its 10 races in its only season. Then it was gone, leaving dumber cars stunned in its wake.   1982 Porsche 956  The 956 won its first time out, at the Silverstone 6 Hours, victorious in its shakedown cruise. A month later, it won Le Mans, starting from pole and never relinquishing the lead. Over the next few years, the &amp;#039;56 or its safer twin, the 962, would win five times at Le Mans, three times at Daytona, and land at least one championship in every race series it entered. All this from a less-than- bleeding-edge design\u2014save a few bits of revolution (the first dual-clutch gearbox, for example), this was just Porsche being Porsche, tackling a problem with gusto. Which makes the car&amp;#039;s 6:11 lap of the N\u00FCrburgring, the record to this day, all the more transcendent. 1990s   1992 McLaren F1  &amp;quot;This car would be a force to reckon with at Le Mans.&amp;quot; \u2014Paul Fr\u00C8re, R&amp;amp;amp;T, 1994  1992 Dodge Viper  Bob Lutz wants a modern Cobra, but Chrysler has rules. Rules are broken: No ABS, traction control, or roof. Lutz wins. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s lethal; I have one, and I burn my ankles getting out. Gotta love a car like that.&amp;quot; \u2014Sam Posey  1995 Mazda Miata  More than the sum of its parts, the ubiquitous roadster didn&amp;#039;t conquer the world. It made friends with almost everyone in it. &amp;quot;The car Britain should have built. If it had a Porsche badge, it never would have gotten the chick-car rap. Plus, you can&amp;#039;t kill &amp;#039;em.&amp;quot; \u2014Jay Leno &amp;quot;Still the ultimate tool for the trip to the supermarket.&amp;quot; \u2014Nick Mason  1997 Thrust SSC  Broke the sound barrier. The fastest wheeled thing ever (763 mph). Fitting that the man wearing the jet engines was an RAF pilot.  1997 Panoz Esperante GTR-1  Don Panoz turned a front-engine GT car into a Le Mans Prototype. Everyone said he was wrong, and in the end, he probably was. It was still amazing.   1991 Mazda 787B  With a four-rotor motor, carbon-ceramic brakes, and a brilliant plan, Mazda wins Le Mans with a shriek like the sky being torn apart.   1992 Williams FW14B  Patriack Head&amp;#039;s active suspension in Adrian Newey&amp;#039;s chassis equals a car that made even Nigel Mansell&amp;#039;s mustache look like a champion.  2000s   2013 Caterham Seven  It constantly evolves but somehow stays the same. It&amp;#039;s a bunch of steel tubes, a rude little engine, not much else. You sit mere inches above the road. You laugh a lot. You outrun supercars and get bugs up your nose. The basic design is old enough to have grandchildren. It&amp;#039;s the last new-car remnant of Colin Chapman&amp;#039;s genius. Long may it run.  2005 Lotus Elise  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&amp;#039;ve heard all week.  2006 Chevrolet Corvette C6.R  Its shape remains the definitive modern American racing car\u2014always in yellow, always from Detroit masterminds Pratt &amp;amp;amp; Miller. The C6.R wasn&amp;#039;t as dominant as its predecessor, the C5.R, but it looked better and still won Le Mans, so it tips the scales. Watching nighttime in-car from the race will chill your bones. The noise out the side pipes will thaw them.  2011 Cadillac CTS-V Sport Wagon  They call this a journalist special\u2014sky-high price and microscopic sales, but one drive and you fall in love anyway. A better nickname would be &amp;quot;Unicorn&amp;quot;: 556 hp, a tailgate, a rear-drive V-8 out for blood. And an available clutch pedal, because, to paraphrase Ben Franklin, God loves us and wants us to be happy. Be still our ink-stained hearts.  2012 Ford Mustang Boss 302  Consider this the final solve of the old-school Mustang equation. It goes and stops. It handles and talks to you. With 444 hp and 7500 rpm, it holds the most soulful iteration of Ford&amp;#039;s 5.0-liter &amp;quot;Coyote&amp;quot; V-8. Sorted live axle. Chassis that makes an M3 seem like a prude. You seek out track days and go everywhere sideways. And you thank Iacocca, just because.  2014 BMW i8  When is a supercar not a supercar? When it&amp;#039;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&amp;#039;s awesome M1, a Seventies flop that waited 30 years to for the world to appreciate it. Prediction: This won&amp;#039;t take nearly as long.  2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray (C7)  Corvettes used to make you forget their flaws. You brushed off the bad in light of the good: cheap speed, big grip, the oddly empowering idea that if you weren&amp;#039;t in control, you&amp;#039;d be eaten. This changes that. It&amp;#039;s friendly. It&amp;#039;s comfy. It&amp;#039;s far faster than you need. It&amp;#039;s so rewarding, you stop seeing the bad altogether. Hyperbolic? Sure. But what Vette isn&amp;#039;t?  2006 Ford GT (with the 1968 Ford GT40 Mk 1)  We are considering these cars simultaneously, because really, how can you not? On one hand, you have the Ford GT40 of the Sixties, the 40-inch-tall sexpot that Carroll Shelby and his brilliant chief engineer, Phil Remington, developed into a Le Mans-winning Howitzer. It carried names like Foyt and Gurney and McLaren and Miles, and it let Henry Ford II tell Enzo Ferrari where to stick it. Good ones are now worth well into the millions. On the other hand, you have the modern tribute, the car Ford built to celebrate its centennial\u2014a 550-hp, rear-drive, nanny-free supercar that was sold new for relative pennies. The two machines are purposely similar, though the modern car is slightly larger and feels more considered, the better to do its job on the street. At their handling limits, neither has room for amateurs. Either one can make you feel like a hero. Like your heroes. Like ours.  2013 Tesla Model S  Beautiful, fast, and the first practical EV from a company that hadn&amp;#039;t built a car, ever. Only amazing when you stop and think about it. Which you should. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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