Most Beautiful Cars Ever Made…So Far: Chapter One
The cars are not ranked or in any specific order other than trying to keep you interested.
I will be looking back at some of motoring’s finest art work in the following weeks to come. I will only do a five cars per chapter and try to fit them according to a theme of some sort. I will only acknowledge cars that were built for public use and give race only cars an honourable mention watchmojo style. The cars are not ranked or in any specific order other than trying to keep you interested.
This chapter contains old school cars of the front engine and rear wheel drive type. I will also give specs and some facts to go with the particular car. Interestingly all the following cars also have widened rear ends that look like a women’s hips. Enjoy.
1. Ferrari 250 GT California Spyder SWB.
Just look at that picture up top, I will wait for you. I’m not a Ferrari fan nor a convertible guy but this is how styling should be done. It is so pretty it makes the Ferrari Daytona look ugly. The normal 250 GT was designed and styled by Pininfarina. Ferrari wanted the California to be extra special so they went to Sergio Scaglietti. A man who did not bother with drawings or even measuring panels for fitment and therefore no two California’s are quite identical. Chris Evans (the one who killed the new Top Gear and then sort of saved it by leaving) bought one which used to belong to James Coburn for 5 million pounds in May of 2008. The 250 GT also spawned arguably one of the prettiest race cars ever, the 250 GTO which is a race version of the normal 250 GT with a sleeker roofline. Only 39 road legal GTO’s were built. Evans then went on to buy a 250 GTO in May of 2010 for an eye watering 12 million pounds.
Specs and Facts:
Only 56 were made (some say 55). Only 37 had the front light covers on which I love. They produced roughly 270-280hp from a sweet sounding 3 litre V12 and weighted around 1050-1100kg. It could do 0-100km/h in about 8 seconds dead. Pretty fast for 1961. In 2015 at an auction in France, a dirty black barn find 250 GT California with the front light covers fetched a record 18.5 million Dollars (US $).
autoweek.com/article/auctions/french-barn-find-collection-brings-285-million-sets-10-record
Here is a link of James May driving Chris Evans’s black California. www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvsL8WEnJdQ
2. C2 Chevrolet Corvette.
Who said Bud and Bob from Kentucky can’t make a masterpiece. Again, just look at that thing. My father is a big Corvette fan and dreams about owning a 70/71 C3 Corvette. He is massively wrong according to me. The short wheelbase with that sleek fastback style roofline is awesome and was also used in the C4 till now in the new C7 Corvette. The prettiest factory C2 in my opinion is the red one shown and is the rarest Vette ever. It is a 1967 C2 L88 Corvette with the rarest options ticked. It had a 427 big block with Aluminium heads (high tech for America in 67), a gigantic solid lifter camshaft, upgraded brakes, 12.5:1 compression and instead of the tri power triple two barrel carburetor’s, it had one big 850cfm Holley 4 barrel on it. This particular one is the only red one made in 1967 and the only one with 4.56: rear end drag ratio. Since it is so rare and so cool it sold at a Barrett Jackson auction for a record of 3.5 million dollars (3.85 million including auction fees). A bargain compared to the 250 GT California. Link to check it out: www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHaHYGDrn6
Specs and facts:
Only 20 made in 1967 and 216 in total. They were rated at a measly “435hp” just like the normal 427 Stingray, but has been dyno tested and proven to make around 550-560hp. Corvette race cars were called Z06’s.
3. Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing.
This is one of my strange mentions. There is no doubt it is a legend and a very important car for the evolution of performance, but I just don’t want one. It is the very first hypercar in my opinion. Extremely fast, extremely expensive, extremely unpractical. It was too fast for its own good since the brakes and suspension components at that particular time was not as advanced as the rest of the car was. Plenty of Gullwing’s ended up like its “silver arrow” race versions; in a ditch upside down. The race version had plenty of Magnesium parts including certain body panels to make it light weight and therefore faster. In 1955 one of them got a tap from a jag and went flying into the crowd. It caught fire and the Magnesium immediately exploded sending flames and shrapnel everywhere. It is said that 79 spectators were killed in the accident. This caused sales to drop massively. The following link gives good insight as to how it happened. www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCg0zmWUKDM
Specs and Facts:
It was the first production car to have fuel injection. It had a 3 litre straight six with about 210hp. It was the fastest production car in the world with a top speed of 146mph with the stock 3.64:1 rear gear ratio. Hardtops were built from 1954 until 1957 and roadsters from 1957 until 1963. In 1961 they got disc brakes front and back which was introduced a few years earlier into racing by Stirling Moss who saw disc brakes being used on airplanes at the time. Initially it cost $11000 but the price fell to $7300 at one point.
4. Jaguar E-Type.
When it comes to styling the E-type has been a sensitive subject lately. Fifty percent of petrolheads claim it is their “precious” and the other fifty percent say it is extremely overrated and not that pretty. I say if Enzo Ferrari himself said that the E-type, a-non Ferrari, non-Italian car is the prettiest car he’d ever seen, it has to be beautiful. It was unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show in 1961 and destroyed the competitors like the Ferrari 275GTB. Not only was it much cheaper than the Ferrari but the Jag was also faster. The series one E-type sold over 38000 units from 1961 to 1968. It goes to show a car does not have to be rare to be special. I will give credit to EAGLE for making extra special modern versions of the E-type which they call the Speedster and the LowDrag GT which can be seen below.
Specs and Facts:
The series one 4.2 litre straight six produced around 260-270hp and could reach a top speed of 153mph. If you had driver mod activated it could go from 0-100km/h in around 6.6 seconds and munch the quarter mile in 14.9 seconds. Even though the V12 made more power and was faster people prefer the big straight six.
Here is a link of Jeremy Clarkson driving a E-type and the EAGLE Speedster.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=66owXqZaexs
5. 427 Shelby Cobra.
No the 427 Cobra is not just a just an AC Ace with a gigantic Ford engine in it. Yes the first Cobras were like that. Shelby got a bit tired of importing AC bodies and then having to make modifications to fit the 260 and 289 Ford V8’s and the 4 speed toploader gearboxes. They made their own moulds and presses and the Cobra bodies underwent a couple of visual changes. It now had a longer and wider wheelbase helping stability. It had flared wheel arches which made it look like a road racer. Carroll Shelby also had the best advert ever. He would take you for a spin and if you can grab a dollar bill that was taped to the dash, you could have the car. No one got a free Cobra. Unfortunately there were supply issues with the 427 engines and some “427” Cobras ended up with the milder 428 Ford engine. The Cobras did well in racing but always lost against Ferrari. In 1964 they started building Cobras with a sleek, aerodynamic hardtop to be faster and more competitive. I wonder where they got the idea. They were called Daytona’s which I love much more than the Cobra, but since there were not street version it does not make it officially on my list. They also looked identical to a Ferrari 250 GTO and can see that below. In 1964 the Daytona lost the World Sportscar Championship by 6 points and came back in 1965 to dominate and the championship by 19 points.
Specs and Facts:
There were only 260 big block (427 and 428) street Cobras built. They did 0-100km/h in 4.5 seconds and the quarter mile in a hauling 12.4 seconds. Bonus Facts: Shelby built two 427 big block Cobras with twin Paxton centrifugal superchargers and a three speed auto which he called the Super Snake. One for himself and one for Bill Cosby. Bill Cosby drove it once and sold it because it was too much for him. The new owner drove it off a cliff making Shelby’s personal Super Snake the only one left. It sold for 5.115 million dollars in 2015. It is estimated to make 800hp and do 0-100km/h in 3.2 seconds. Drag racing Cobras were called Dragon Snakes.
Link for the Super Snake:
www.barrett-jackson.com/Events/Event/Details/1966-SHELBY-COBRA-427-SUPER-SNAKE-178567
That’s it for this Chapter. I hope it wasn’t too longwinded or boring. More pics below. Please comment, till next time.
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Comments (13)
Very nice selection of cars :)
Chapter 2 coming Fridayish if you're interested. Different them.
I'll keep my eyes open. Thanks :)
All amazing looking cars!
Fabulous!
Thanks Sundeep. I feel bad lucky, haven't seen a Porsche in a long time.
I felt the same til I saw this Cayman!
Such a great list, and nicely curated a-ROUND (oh, they write themselves) a wonderful theme! Speaking as a designer, there is nothing that conveys raw power in a vehicle like pronouncing the hip via either an exaggerated line or a wild bulge to throw some hefty tire underneath. Compare the first 289-powered Cobras to the wider, far more-aggressive 427 cars, and it's instantly recognizable what raw power lies beneath. Fun series of articles! Glad I dug a bit for this one!
True. Thank you for the reposts and reading and commenting. I really appreciate it
Thank YOU for the great stories and support as well!
title should be: Most beautiful cars ever made and some corvettes.
So you don't like the Corvette?