20 Revolutionary Automobiles That Shaped Our Modern World | By Peter Brock
By Peter Brock
Apr 6, 2021 |
Design | Posted in
Features | From the March 2010 issue |
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What makes an automobile an icon of its era? To be universally recognized as exceptional, it must have that indefinable combination of design, engineering and sheer presence that we feel simply as admiration.
There’s also the matter of quantity. Wide availability can make certain designs instantly recognizable and influential. On the other hand, even great cars can be bogged down by high production numbers; after all, dismissing the ordinary is a common mistake of collective wisdom.
And what about the very limited-production icons? Many of them were able to gain fame and acceptance because of their celebrated performance on the racing circuits of the world. Certain cars, like the legendary Ferrari 250 GTO or Daytona Cobra Coupe, were produced in such small quantities that even if you have the millions necessary to acquire one, you may have to wait years to make the purchase.
These cars fall into a special category of rareness: They’re so valuable that they’re seldom driven for the pure sensual pleasure of experiencing the unique characteristics that made them so successful. In this sense, scarcity itself is part of their allure. They are unobtainable art, outside the realm of what most of us could ever own and enjoy.
To qualify on my personal list of the 21 “most,” a car must be beautiful, desirable, exciting or even cool, but it should also have been important enough to set new standards or somehow change history. For this reason, each of my picks has a total production of at least 3000 units.
Anything less, and the car becomes too out of reach for those of us who simply want a great driver. Fortunately, that means every car listed here can be acquired for a relatively reasonable sum. Healthy quantities and availability have kept the prices within reason.
Age is also an important factor. While some great cars were produced in the right quantities before World War II, they are still very difficult to track down. Sure, thousands—even millions—of Fiat Topolinos, Citroën 2CVs and early VW Beetles were made, and time has proven that they were three of the greatest examples of revolutionary engineering from Italy, France and Germany. However, no matter how special they were for their time, their availability today is virtually nonexistent. So for this list, we’ll stick loosely to the past 60 years. Let’s say 1950 through 2009.
There’s simply no comparison of “best” with these cars, so this is a list of the “most.” Each of these machines is special in its own unique way, and each will evoke a variety of feelings depending on our preferences for style or engineering excellence.
MG TC: The Sports Car America Loved First
Photography credit: Plain English Archive
Let’s start with the car that essentially created the appreciation and sport of driving for the pure fun of it here in America. Before World War II there were no modern “sports cars” west of England, so when the hostilities were over and GIs began returning home with their newly discovered English treasures, the sport took off.
The then-ubiquitous TC possessed some of the fine classic lines of the best of the prewar era, the Squire and Jag SS. The success of the TC in America encouraged MG to produce the improved TD as well as the last of the series, the TF. Both were better-engineered cars, but they lacked the classic beauty of the TC.
Jaguar XK120: The Finest Car of Its Class in the World
It’s hard to explain the effect that the first XK had on the American public. It arrived soon after the MG TD and completely reversed the world’s perception of the sports car. Nothing like it had ever been seen here, and it sold out for months almost immediately after its release.
Even though the basic design is lifted from an earlier BMW, the XK120’s form and signature grille is so handsomely executed that its design theme has never really been improved upon. The last performance versions, known as 120Ms, emit a sound as distinctive and bewitching as any great classic ever produced. Later versions of the theme, the XK140s and 150s, feature improved engineering. However, these heavier, rather bloated examples never really matched the taut beauty of the original. Pity.
Porsche 356: An Exciting New Concept of Personal Motoring
Teutonic efficiency is written in every line of Ferry Porsche’s landmark 356 design. This was the car that introduced the Porsche name to the general public. The idea of aerodynamically efficient, air-cooled, rear-engined vehicles was revolutionary for its time, and the basic design is still revered.
In truth, the early 356 was simply a refined VW Beetle—swing axles and all—but what a marvelous car it became with the simple addition of Erwin Komenda’s new, aero-efficient body. The quality of the hand-built Reutter bodies is still impressive today, even in a world of precision-built competitors assembled by automated robots.