Re: The Greatest Cars of the last 50 years

 @ SJH - My comment wasn't intended as a complaint but rather in answer to B&N's post as well as my personal opinion 

@ Lokinen - In spite of my prefering individual categories my choice was equally as simple once I'd read down the list a few times ; The McLaren F1 . For better or for worse ( the Veyron being for the worse ) the single most influential car built in the last 50 years with technology so far ahead of its time most everyone is still trying to catch up to it .... including the majority of Supercar manufactures . 

Re: The Greatest Cars of the last 50 years

There are other cars that certainly equal or overshadow many of the vehicles in this list.  The Alfa Romeo Giulia, the Fiat 128 and the Citroen SM (well, I would, wouldn't I?) come to mind.  But none of them is a contender for top place.  The VW Golf was arguably the most influential, and far more ‘important’ than any sports car, but I wouldn’t use a term like ‘great’ to describe it.  In my mind that word limits the choice massively and, if I was being entirely objective, that would make the Veyron The Greatest, because of its hugely competent technology.  But I couldn’t possibly countenance voting for that soulless device, the multi-function, radio controlled Casio watch of the car world.  Yes, the McLaren has the depth the Bugatti lacks, and is a fantastically elegant piece of pure engineering but, considering these vehicles as they were viewed when they first appeared, the car that seemed to come from another planet, and pushed your expectations of a motor vehicle to another level, was the Citroen DS.  However it always had horrid engines, so I’d vote for the runner up in my memory of awestruck wonderment, the Lamborghini Miura, forever beautiful, forever orange, no matter its many deficiencies.

Re: The Greatest Cars of the last 50 years

Greatness, in a car?  The car should have mattered in the impact it had, which could include numbers sold. Pinin Farina´s Cisitalia mattered but few were made.  Any number of GM cars have sold by the millions and left no trace. The same goes for Toyota´s output. Take the 1976 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme, once one of America´s best selling cars. Now it´s invisible and forgotten. Some of Lancia´s post war cars are not known by many but they blazed a trail followed by others that led to front wheel drive as standard, the fitting of a full electrical system and a five speed gearbox...and so on. The Citroen DS seems to stand in the pantheon without much need for further support. Setright called it the last modern car, and I think he was right, at least until a car comes along that uses a revolutionary suspension, engine and construction technology. Pick a post-war Mercedes, such as the W123 or (W124) and you have a great car not because it looked hot or drove nicely but because it set the template for what a category-killing executive saloon should be. It fought off and killed pretenders (some very good indeed) from France, Italy and Britain and the US. I haven´t thought of any sports cars but I suppose I´ll nod to the McLaren F1, the sports car to end all sportscars. The Veyron is just a Pamela Anderson distension of the genre: all the stuff we like in the form but blown up to grotesque proportions. Delete. Leaving space for the Honda NSX and quite possibly McLaren´s own follow up about which we hear very little. Naturally the VW Golf gets a mention. These are some of my ideas about what constitutes a great car. Chrysler Horizons, Talbot Tagoras and Buick Centuries need not apply.
 

Re: The Greatest Cars of the last 50 years

bertandnairobi said:

I find it intriguing that there is so little discussion of this theme. Wouldn´t you imagine that there would be a lot of different views on what constituted a great car and which ones fitted the bill? And how did this thread end up at the top of the heap with so little interest shown?

 

 

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For some reason I didn't see this thread listed in the 'latest comments' table until earlier today. Cockup or conspiracy?

I'll vote for the Renault 4. Partly because it is almost exactly 50 years old, but mostly because I can.