The Swedish-built CCX pushes over 800 horsepower through a lightweight carbon-fibre chassis. It’s so sharp that even Top Gear’s tame racing driver, The Stig, spun it into a wall. Koenigsegg eventually added a bigger rear wing for stability, but this remains a car that bites back hard if you cross the line. Every lap is an exercise in total focus.

The Ferrari F40 is pure, unfiltered performance. Its twin-turbo V8, ultra-lightweight build, and lack of electronic safety nets make it a handful even for experienced drivers. The turbo lag is huge — nothing, nothing, nothing… then all the power at once. It’s intoxicating and terrifying in equal measure.

The Pagani Zonda is rolling sculpture with a naturally aspirated V12 soundtrack. Minimal driver assistance means it’s all about you, your skill, and your nerve. It’s responsive, thrilling, and demands constant engagement — slack off, and it will remind you who’s in control.

The 911 Turbo S blends extraordinary speed with everyday usability. All-wheel drive, exceptional balance, and clever driver assists make it approachable, even for less experienced owners. You can unleash supercar performance without constantly feeling on the edge.

With Lamborghini Huracán DNA but wrapped in a more user-friendly package, the Audi R8 is precise, composed, and confidence-inspiring. Excellent visibility and a surprisingly comfortable cabin make it an exotic you can actually live with.

The latest NSX combines a twin-turbo V6 with electric motors for instant, stable torque delivery. Torque vectoring neutralises cornering drama, making it fast but forgiving. It’s less about intimidation and more about encouraging you to explore its limits safely.

The McLaren GT delivers genuine McLaren pace without the twitchiness of its track-focused siblings. Designed for comfort and distance, it still has supercar speeds, but its smooth ride and forgiving handling make it an easier companion.

Ferrari’s Roma is a grand tourer that blends over 600 horsepower with graceful road manners. It’s made for long, flowing roads, delivering the speed you crave without overwhelming you with aggression.

Knowing the Difference Could Save You

Every supercar, no matter how “friendly,” is still capable of serious speed and demands respect. The difference is in how they deliver it. The challenging ones will bite without warning, while the approachable ones let you enjoy the thrill without constant fear. Know your limits, pick the right machine, and remember — in the world of supercars, respect isn’t optional, it’s survival.

Capture the thrill of speed by using a slower shutter speed to create motion blur. Whether it’s a car drifting around a corner or cruising down a highway, this technique injects energy and dynamism into your images.

Look for reflective surfaces like puddles, windows, or polished floors to add an artistic twist. Reflections can create symmetry, depth, or abstract effects that make your photos more visually intriguing.

Sometimes the beauty is in the details. Focus on close-ups of badges, headlights, wheels, or interior stitching to highlight craftsmanship and design elements that might otherwise go unnoticed.

Use cityscapes, graffiti walls, or industrial settings as backdrops for your car photos. The contrast between sleek vehicles and gritty urban environments creates a compelling visual story.

Experiment with long exposures at night to capture light trails from passing cars or streetlights. This technique adds a futuristic vibe and makes your car pop against the dark surroundings.

If you have access to a drone, take your car photography to new heights-literally. Aerial shots reveal patterns, landscapes, and angles that ground-level photos can’t, offering a fresh perspective on your vehicle.

Incorporate the changing seasons into your shoots. Snow-covered roads, autumn leaves, or summer sunsets can add mood and context, making your photos more relatable and timely.

If you’re lucky enough to hit the racetrack, capture your car in action. Shots of tire smoke, aggressive cornering, or close battles with other cars bring excitement and authenticity to your feed.

Show the human side of car culture by photographing owners alongside their vehicles. Candid or posed, these portraits add personality and storytelling to your content, helping followers connect on a deeper level.

Bonus Tips for Stunning Car Photography  

• Use a polarizing filter to reduce glare and enhance colors.  
• Pay attention to composition-rule of thirds, leading lines, and framing matter.  
• Edit thoughtfully to maintain natural tones and highlight key features.  
• Engage with your audience by sharing stories behind each photo.

By experimenting with these photography ideas, you’ll not only improve your skills but also create a captivating Instagram feed that resonates with car lovers everywhere. So grab your camera, hit the road, and start capturing moments that matter. Your next viral post could be just one click away!

These electric vehicles represent a diverse range of options, from luxury sedans to compact SUVs, catering to different needs and preferences. They demonstrate the advancements in electric vehicle technology, offering impressive ranges, fast charging capabilities, and innovative features that make electric driving both practical and enjoyable.

By embracing electric vehicles, we can contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, improving air quality, and transitioning to a more sustainable transportation system. With ongoing advancements in technology and an increasing focus on sustainability, the future of electric vehicles looks promising, and these top 10 EVs are at the forefront of this exciting shift towards a greener and more efficient automotive industry.

Q1: What are the 4 types of electric vehicles? A1: The four types of electric vehicles are Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs), Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs), Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEVs), and Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles (FCEVs).

Q2: What are 3 disadvantages to an electric car? A2: Some disadvantages of electric cars include limited driving range compared to conventional vehicles, longer refueling/recharging times, and the availability of charging infrastructure in certain areas.

Q3: What are the top five electric vehicles? A3: The top five electric vehicles can vary depending on different factors, but as of now, some popular choices include the Tesla Model S, Nissan Leaf, Chevrolet Bolt EV, Audi e-tron, and Hyundai Kona Electric.

Q4: How long do electric cars last? A4: The lifespan of an electric car can vary based on factors such as battery technology, usage patterns, and maintenance. On average, electric car batteries can last anywhere from 8 to 15 years or more, and many manufacturers offer warranties on their batteries for a certain number of years or miles.

Q5: What is the most popular EV of all time? A5: The most popular EV of all time is the Tesla Model 3. It has gained significant popularity worldwide and has become the best-selling electric car globally.

Q6: What is the biggest EV problem? A6: One of the biggest challenges for electric vehicles is the limited charging infrastructure, especially in some regions. The availability and accessibility of charging stations remain a significant concern for potential electric vehicle owners.

Q7: Who is the largest EV seller in the world? A7: As of now, Tesla is the largest EV seller in the world. It has a strong presence in various global markets and has consistently delivered a significant number of electric vehicles.

Q8: Who is the largest EV car manufacturer? A8: Currently, Tesla holds the position as the largest electric vehicle car manufacturer in terms of market capitalization and production volume. However, it's important to note that the electric vehicle market is dynamic, and other manufacturers are actively increasing their EV production and market presence.

These ten cars have left an indelible mark on automotive history, influencing the industry, shaping trends, and capturing the imagination of drivers around the world. Each has played a significant role in advancing automotive technology, design, and driving experiences, leaving a lasting legacy that continues to resonate today.

Toyota MR2 - The MR2 was a two-seater sports car produced by Toyota from 1984-2007. It was also a mid-engine car and had a similar wedge-shaped profile to Lamborghinis.

Acura NSX - The NSX was a sports car produced by Honda from 1990-2005. It was a mid-engine car and had a sleek, aerodynamic design.

Dodge Stealth - The Stealth was a sports car produced by Chrysler from 1991-1996. It was a two-door coupe with a sporty design and was available with either a V6 or a V8 engine.

Mazda RX-7 - The RX-7 was a sports car produced by Mazda from 1978-2002. It was a two-door coupe with a distinctive rotary engine and a sleek, aerodynamic design.

Mitsubishi 3000GT - The 3000GT was a sports car produced by Mitsubishi from 1990-1999. It had a futuristic design and was available with either a V6 or a twin-turbo V6 engine.

Nissan 300ZX - The 300ZX was a sports car produced by Nissan from 1984-2000. It had a sleek, aerodynamic design and was available with either a V6 or a twin-turbo V6 engine.

Subaru BRZ/Toyota 86 - The BRZ and 86 are two nearly identical sports cars produced by Subaru and Toyota, respectively. They were introduced in 2012 and are known for their lightweight construction, rear-wheel drive, and nimble handling.

Fiat X1/9 - The X1/9 was a two-seater sports car produced by Fiat from 1972-1989. It had a mid-engine design and a lightweight body, and was known for its agile handling.

Lotus Elise - The Elise is a sports car produced by Lotus since 1996. It has a lightweight body and a mid-engine design, and is known for its precise handling and high performance.

When we refer to "poor man's Lamborghinis," we are highlighting a distinct category of sports cars that exude the same spirit and style as their Lamborghini counterparts but come with a considerably more affordable price tag. These vehicles manage to capture the attention and desire of automotive enthusiasts who long for the iconic Lamborghini experience without the six-figure price range. Let's explore some notable examples that have earned the reputation of being "poor man's Lamborghinis."

1. Nissan GT-R: The Nissan GT-R, often dubbed the "Godzilla," has become synonymous with high-performance driving and formidable capabilities. With its aggressive design, powerful twin-turbocharged V6 engine, and advanced all-wheel-drive system, the GT-R delivers blistering acceleration and precise handling. Its ability to compete with some of the most legendary supercars on the market at a fraction of the cost has solidified its status as a top choice for those seeking Lamborghini-like thrills.

2. Audi R8: The Audi R8, with its sleek and aerodynamic silhouette, bears a striking resemblance to Lamborghini's cutting-edge design language. This mid-engine sports car combines elegant aesthetics with exceptional performance. Available in various engine configurations, including V8 and V10 options, the R8 delivers exhilarating power and a thrilling driving experience. With its captivating presence and advanced technology, the R8 has earned its place as a notable "poor man's Lamborghini."

3. Chevrolet Corvette: The Chevrolet Corvette has long been celebrated as America's sports car, and its evolution has brought it closer to the realm of Lamborghini-like performance and style. With its bold and aggressive exterior design, powerful V8 engines, and refined handling dynamics, the Corvette offers a compelling package at a more accessible price point. The latest iterations, such as the Corvette C8, have raised the bar even further with mid-engine configuration, making it a worthy contender in the realm of "poor man's Lamborghinis."

These examples represent just a fraction of the diverse range of sports cars that have earned the "poor man's Lamborghini" distinction. Each model possesses its own unique charm and distinct qualities that captivate enthusiasts seeking the allure of Lamborghini at a more attainable cost.

Design and Performance

One of the key factors that contribute to the allure of "poor man's Lamborghinis" lies in their captivating design and exhilarating performance. These vehicles have been meticulously crafted to emulate the striking aesthetics and dynamic presence of Lamborghini cars while offering their own unique flair.

Design: The design of these affordable sports cars often features sleek lines, aggressive contours, and aerodynamic enhancements that command attention on the road. From the sculpted hoods and muscular fenders to the low-slung profiles and bold rear ends, these vehicles exude an air of power and athleticism. Many incorporate iconic styling cues reminiscent of Lamborghini, such as angular headlamps, hexagonal grilles, and aerodynamic spoilers, creating a visual connection to the legendary Italian supercar brand.

Performance: When it comes to performance, "poor man's Lamborghinis" aim to deliver heart-pounding experiences behind the wheel. Equipped with potent engines, advanced drivetrains, and cutting-edge technologies, these sports cars offer impressive acceleration, precise handling, and an overall thrilling driving experience.

Powerful Engines: Under the hood of these vehicles, you'll find robust power plants capable of unleashing impressive horsepower and torque. Whether it's a turbocharged V6, a naturally aspirated V8, or even a high-revving V10, the engines are engineered to deliver exhilarating performance on demand. The symphony of engine notes emitted from the tailpipes further adds to the excitement and sensory experience of driving these machines.

Enhanced Handling: To complement their powerful engines, "poor man's Lamborghinis" often feature advanced suspension systems, responsive steering, and well-tuned chassis setups. These enhancements contribute to precise cornering abilities, excellent grip, and an engaging driving feel. Whether attacking corners on a track or navigating winding roads, these cars offer a dynamic and connected driving experience.

Cutting-Edge Technologies: Modern advancements in automotive technology have made their way into these affordable sports cars, enhancing both performance and driver comfort. Features such as adjustable driving modes, launch control systems, and advanced stability and traction control systems provide drivers with the tools to optimize their driving experience and extract the most out of these vehicles.

The combination of captivating design elements and exhilarating performance characteristics sets "poor man's Lamborghinis" apart, offering enthusiasts a taste of the Lamborghini experience without the lofty price tag. From the head-turning aesthetics to the pulse-raising acceleration and handling, these vehicles deliver on the promise of a thrilling driving experience.

Affordability and Accessibility

One of the primary appeals of "poor man's Lamborghinis" is their more affordable price point compared to their Italian supercar counterparts. These vehicles offer enthusiasts the opportunity to experience a taste of Lamborghini-like performance and style without the hefty price tag. Here are some key factors that contribute to their affordability and accessibility:

1. Cost-Effective Performance: While Lamborghini cars are renowned for their sky-high price tags, "poor man's Lamborghinis" strike a balance between performance and affordability. These sports cars often deliver impressive power and handling capabilities at a fraction of the cost. Manufacturers focus on optimizing engineering and production processes, leveraging economies of scale, and incorporating components and technologies that offer great value for money.

2. Lower Maintenance Costs: Owning a Lamborghini comes with substantial maintenance and ownership expenses. On the other hand, "poor man's Lamborghinis" generally have lower maintenance costs. The availability of spare parts, wider service network coverage, and a larger customer base contribute to more accessible and cost-effective maintenance and repairs.

3. Widely Available in the Market: Unlike limited-production supercars, "poor man's Lamborghinis" are often produced in larger quantities, making them more widely available in the market. This increased availability helps maintain competitive pricing and provides enthusiasts with various options to choose from.

4. Insurance and Financing: Another aspect that makes these affordable sports cars more accessible is the relatively lower insurance premiums and more flexible financing options compared to high-end luxury and supercars. Insurance rates are typically more reasonable, and financing terms are designed to accommodate a broader range of budgets, making it easier for enthusiasts to fulfill their dream of owning a performance-oriented vehicle.

5. Aftermarket Support: The aftermarket support for "poor man's Lamborghinis" is often robust, with a wide range of performance upgrades, customization options, and accessories available. This allows owners to personalize their vehicles and further enhance their performance and aesthetics, tailoring them to their preferences and individual style.

The affordability and accessibility of "poor man's Lamborghinis" have made them a popular choice among automotive enthusiasts seeking a thrilling driving experience without breaking the bank. These vehicles offer a more attainable entry into the world of high-performance sports cars, providing an avenue for enthusiasts to enjoy Lamborghini-like qualities at a fraction of the cost.

Enthusiast Community and Camaraderie

The world of "poor man's Lamborghinis" is not just about the cars themselves; it's also about the vibrant community and camaraderie that surrounds these affordable sports cars. Enthusiasts come together to share their passion, knowledge, and experiences, creating a supportive network where like-minded individuals connect and celebrate their shared love for these captivating machines. Here are some key aspects of the enthusiast community:

1. Online Forums and Communities: The internet has played a significant role in connecting enthusiasts of "poor man's Lamborghinis" from around the world. Online forums and communities provide platforms for discussions, sharing experiences, technical advice, and even organizing meet-ups and events. These digital spaces foster a sense of belonging and offer a wealth of information for enthusiasts to learn and connect with others who share their passion.

2. Social Media Groups and Pages: Social media platforms have become hubs for "poor man's Lamborghini" enthusiasts to come together, share photos and videos of their cars, and engage in conversations. Facebook groups, Instagram pages, and YouTube channels dedicated to these affordable sports cars provide a space for enthusiasts to showcase their vehicles, exchange ideas, and build connections with fellow enthusiasts.

3. Local and National Clubs: Enthusiast clubs dedicated to "poor man's Lamborghinis" exist in various regions and countries, bringing together owners and enthusiasts at a more localized level. These clubs often organize group drives, track days, and social events, allowing members to bond over their shared love for these exciting sports cars. Being part of a club offers opportunities to meet fellow enthusiasts, gain insights, and forge lasting friendships.

4. Car Shows and Events: Car shows and events specifically cater to "poor man's Lamborghini" enthusiasts, where owners proudly display their vehicles and engage in friendly competitions and showcases. These events serve as gathering points for enthusiasts to network, admire other cars, and immerse themselves in the vibrant atmosphere of the automotive community.

5. Knowledge Sharing and Support: The enthusiast community surrounding "poor man's Lamborghinis" is known for its passion and willingness to share knowledge and support one another. Whether it's technical advice, maintenance tips, or recommendations for aftermarket upgrades, enthusiasts readily offer assistance and guidance, creating a supportive environment for owners to enhance their ownership experience.

Being part of the enthusiast community adds another layer of enjoyment to owning a "poor man's Lamborghini." It provides opportunities to connect with fellow enthusiasts, expand knowledge, participate in events, and share in the excitement and camaraderie that comes with being part of a passionate community.

The Future and Evolution

The world of "poor man's Lamborghinis" continues to evolve and adapt to changing trends and technologies. As automotive advancements progress, these affordable sports cars are poised to offer even more exhilarating experiences and cutting-edge features. Here are some key aspects of the future and evolution of "poor man's Lamborghinis":

1. Performance Enhancements: With advancements in powertrain technologies, we can expect "poor man's Lamborghinis" to become even more powerful and efficient. Manufacturers are constantly pushing the boundaries of performance, incorporating lightweight materials, aerodynamic improvements, and advanced engine tuning to deliver exhilarating driving dynamics and impressive acceleration.

2. Hybrid and Electric Options: As the automotive industry embraces electrification, it's likely that "poor man's Lamborghinis" will follow suit. We can anticipate the introduction of hybrid and electric versions of these affordable sports cars, combining thrilling performance with eco-consciousness. Electric powertrains offer instant torque, lower emissions, and the potential for futuristic features that enhance the driving experience.

3. Technological Advancements: The future of "poor man's Lamborghinis" will undoubtedly incorporate the latest technological advancements. Features such as advanced driver-assistance systems, connectivity options, and enhanced infotainment systems will become standard, providing a seamless integration of technology and driving experience.

4. Design Innovations: Design plays a crucial role in the allure of sports cars, and "poor man's Lamborghinis" will continue to push the boundaries of aesthetics. Expect futuristic and aggressive styling cues, incorporating sharp lines, sculpted bodywork, and attention-grabbing details that emulate the visual appeal of their high-end counterparts.

5. Sustainability and Eco-Friendliness: As environmental concerns grow, manufacturers of "poor man's Lamborghinis" are likely to emphasize sustainability and eco-friendliness. From using recycled materials in the manufacturing process to implementing sustainable production practices, these vehicles will strive to strike a balance between performance and environmental responsibility.

The future of "poor man's Lamborghinis" is exciting, promising enthusiasts an ever-evolving driving experience. As technology advances, design evolves, and sustainability takes center stage, these affordable sports cars will continue to captivate and inspire automotive enthusiasts around the world.

In conclusion, "poor man's Lamborghinis" offer a captivating and accessible entry into the world of high-performance sports cars. Throughout this article, we've explored their appeal and allure, highlighting their striking designs, exhilarating performance, and affordable price points. These vehicles embody the spirit of Lamborghini without the hefty price tag, allowing enthusiasts to experience the thrill of a Lamborghini-like driving experience.

Whether you're a budget-conscious enthusiast or someone looking to make a statement on the road, "poor man's Lamborghinis" provide an enticing option. They offer a blend of style, performance, and affordability that can't be ignored. So, why not embark on your own journey into the thrilling world of affordable sports cars?

Take the opportunity to explore the wide range of "poor man's Lamborghinis" available, discover their unique features, and experience the adrenaline rush they deliver behind the wheel. With their remarkable value proposition and growing enthusiast community, these cars are more than just affordable alternatives – they are symbols of passion, freedom, and the pursuit of automotive excellence.

So, go ahead, unleash your inner speed enthusiast, and discover the exhilaration of a Lamborghini-like driving experience without breaking the bank. The world of "poor man's Lamborghinis" awaits you.

Thank you for joining us on this exciting journey, and happy driving!

    Which "poor man's Lamborghini" is known as the "baby Lambo"?
    a) Audi R8
    b) Nissan GT-R
    c) Acura NSX
    d) Porsche 911

    The Toyota Supra gained popularity as a "poor man's Lamborghini" due to its resemblance to which Lamborghini model?
    a) Lamborghini Huracán
    b) Lamborghini Gallardo
    c) Lamborghini Diablo
    d) Lamborghini Countach

    The Chevrolet Corvette has been nicknamed the "American poor man's Lamborghini" due to its powerful performance and aggressive styling.

True or False?

    The Ford Mustang GT500 is often referred to as a "budget Lamborghini" because of its impressive horsepower and striking design. How much horsepower does the current GT500 produce?
    a) 450 horsepower
    b) 550 horsepower
    c) 650 horsepower
    d) 750 horsepower

    The Honda Civic Type R is sometimes called the "affordable Lamborghini" for its sporty performance and aggressive styling.

True or False?

    The Subaru WRX STI, with its rally-inspired heritage and powerful performance, is often compared to a "poor man's Lamborghini". Which Italian supercar manufacturer does the WRX STI draw inspiration from in rally racing?
    a) Lamborghini
    b) Ferrari
    c) Maserati
    d) Lancia

    The BMW M3 has been hailed as a "budget-friendly alternative to a Lamborghini" for its blend of luxury and high-performance capabilities.

True or False?

    The Dodge Challenger Hellcat is renowned for its muscle car appeal and impressive power output. How many horsepower does the Hellcat engine produce?
    a) 500 horsepower
    b) 600 horsepower
    c) 700 horsepower
    d) 800 horsepower

    The Lotus Exige, with its lightweight construction and agile handling, has been considered a "poor man's Lamborghini" for its track-focused performance.

True or False?

    The Hyundai Veloster N has gained recognition as a "budget-friendly performance car" that offers an engaging driving experience.

True or False?

Answers:

1. a) Audi R8
2. b) Lamborghini Gallardo
3. True
4. c) 650 horsepower
5. True
6. d) Lancia
7. True
8. c) 700 horsepower
9. True
10. True

How did you do? Let me know your score!

Tips for Going Viral

• Use trending music and hashtags to boost your reach.

• Keep your Reels short, punchy, and visually engaging.

• Encourage viewers to comment, share, and tag friends.

• Post consistently to keep your audience engaged.

With these 10 creative ideas, you’ll be ready to take your car content to the next level and capture the attention of car lovers around the world. Start filming, have fun, and watch your Instagram Reels go viral!

Everyone has a list of dream cars they’d love to own. Share yours by creating a quick-fire countdown, using catchy background music and slick transitions. Highlight what makes each car special-whether it’s the design, performance, or nostalgia factor. This format invites viewers to comment with their own dream cars, sparking engagement and conversation.

Car restoration projects are always crowd-pleasers. Capture the journey from rust bucket to showstopper with a dramatic before-and-after Reel. Use close-ups, time-lapses, and satisfying reveal shots to showcase the hard work and dedication behind the transformation. This type of content is not only visually satisfying but also inspires others to take on their own projects.

There’s something undeniably soothing about watching a car go from dirty to sparkling clean. Film the process with relaxing music and focus on the satisfying sights and sounds of washing, foaming, rinsing, and detailing. ASMR-style car wash videos are a hit with viewers who crave a little zen in their feed.

From wild paint jobs to outrageous engine swaps, car mods are a staple of automotive culture. Create a Reel that spotlights the most unique and creative modifications you’ve seen or done yourself. Use quick cuts and close-ups to highlight the details, and don’t be afraid to show the “before” and “after” for maximum impact.

Channel your inner Dominic Toretto with a tribute to the Fast and Furious franchise. Feature your favorite movie cars, recreate iconic scenes, or simply show off your own ride with a nod to the films’ style. Use action-packed music and dynamic editing to capture the adrenaline and excitement that fans love.

Take your followers on a virtual road trip by filming your drive through breathtaking landscapes. Whether it’s coastal highways, mountain passes, or city skylines, scenic driving Reels are visually stunning and make viewers feel like they’re along for the ride. Add a playlist of road trip tunes to set the mood.

If you attend or participate in car races, capture the action with a time-lapse Reel. Speed up the footage to show the build-up, the race itself, and the aftermath. This format delivers all the excitement and intensity of motorsport in a bite-sized, shareable package.

People love peeking into the garages of the rich and famous. Create a Reel highlighting the jaw-dropping car collections of celebrities like Jay Leno, Jerry Seinfeld, or Lewis Hamilton. Use photos, clips, and fun facts to give your audience a glimpse into the world of automotive luxury.

If you have the skills (and the safety precautions in place), film yourself or others performing jaw-dropping car stunts. Drifting, donuts, jumps, and burnouts always draw a crowd. Make sure to emphasize safety and responsible driving, and use slow-motion or multi-angle shots for maximum drama.

Take your followers behind the scenes at the hottest car shows and events. Capture the atmosphere, interview owners, and showcase the most impressive vehicles on display. These Reels not only highlight the latest trends in the car world but also help build a sense of community among enthusiasts.

In conclusion, these ten classic cars represent some of the best and most iconic models in automotive history. Whether you're a fan of American muscle cars, Italian sports cars, or German engineering, there's something on this list for everyone.

Is this the Group B car with the longest front overhang ever? It was powered by a CX Turbo-based engine mounted longitudinally, and rather a long way forward. The 4WD system was never going to make up for this car's bulk and unflattering weight distribution - and in 1985, company overlord Peugeot sensibly pulled the plug. If you want one now, you'll have a hard time finding a working car. Citroen actually tried to buy and destroy as many as possible, and the remaining cars are often bought as museum or collector pieces.

(Specs taken from the highest performing version/evolution available for each car.)

Groub B specs:

Engine: 2.2L Turbocharged Inline 4, making 380hp and 340 lb-ft..

Configuration : Front engined, Four-wheel drive.

Weight: 1150kg.

Best finish: 6th place.

Road car specs:

Engine: 2.2L Turbocharged Inline 4, making 200hp ad 217 lb-ft..

Weight: 1280kg.

A sensible first entry for Citroen into Group B rallying, with four-wheel drive and a 1.6-litre PSA engine and four carburettors. Against the mighty Audi quattros, though, it was outgunned - pure and simple.

Groub B specs:

Engine: 1.6L Inline 4 with x2 Weber carburettors, making 145 hp and 110 lb-ft.

Configuration : Front engined, Four wheel drive,

Weight: 810kg

Best finish: Class victory, Mille Pistes

Big props to Lancia for producing a mid-engined supercar to go rallying, just like the Stratos back in the '70s. The 037 was an early Group B challenger, that would soon make way for the amazing Delta S4. This early prototype of the Lancia Rally shows that the company had long since given up with the idea of producing a car that looked like the delectable Montecarlo, even if that had been the intention. The mid-engined 037 was the last bastion of RWD success in a category soon to be swamped by the Audi quattro.

Groub B specs:

Engine: DOHC 2.1L Supercharged Inline 4, making 345 hp and 236 lb-ft.

Configuration : Mid-engined, Rear-wheel drive.

Weight: 970kg.

Best finish: 1983 manufacturers championship.

Road car specs:

Engine: DOHC 2.0L Supercharged Inline 4, making 205 hp and 166 lb-ft.

Weight: 1170kg.

Austin Rover Motorsport was moving towards a hugely successful period in touring cars, and it was hoped that the Metro would do the same in the forests, and eventually joined forces with Williams Grand Prix Engineering to produce the wonderful little spaceframe Metro 6R4 for Group B. Unlike its rivals, the car didn't boast any form of forced induction, and its jewel-like V624V engine - contrary to popular opinion - was not based on the Rover V8 or Honda V6. It did go on to gain a couple of turbos and power the Jaguar XJ220, though... 

Groub B specs:

Engine: 3.0L Naturally aspirated DOHC 24V V6, making 410hp at 9000rpm! and 270 lb-ft.

Configuration : Mid-engine, Four wheel drive.

Weight: 1040kg

Best finish: 3rd, 1985 Lombard RAC.

Road car specs:

Engine: 3.0L Naturally aspirated DOHC 24V V6, making 240hp and 225 lb-ft.

Weight: 1000kg.

You have to love any car that features both a supercharger and turbochargers – it's a shame there aren't more out there. The Lancia Delta S4 was one such car, and proved to be an even wackier rally weapon than the 037 that preceded it. Again, a great idea, who's best competitive days were denied it thanks to the abandonment of Group B at the end of 1986.

Groub B specs:

Engine: 1.8L Abarth DOHC Twin-charged Inline 4, making 480hp and 360 lb-ft.

Configuration : Mid-engine, Four wheel drive.

Weight: 950kg

Best finish: 5 WRC wins.

Road car specs:

Engine: 1.8L Abarth DOHC Twin-charged Inline 4, making around 250hp and 215 lb-ft.

Weight: 1200kg.

Developed under the auspices of Ford's brilliant motor sport boss Stuart Turner, the RS200 was a pure-Group B challenger that replaced the stillborn Escort RS1700T. Cosworth developed the turbocharged engine, and Reliant ended up putting the cars together at its factory in Tamworth. A brilliant piece of design which would have dominated Group B rallying had events not got in the way.

Groub B specs:

Engine: 1.8L DOHC Turbocharaged Inline 4, making 444hp and 360 lb-ft. Later Evolution-engined cars make 650hp.

Configuration : Mid-engine, Four wheel drive.

Weight: 1050kg.

Best finish: Never competed due to Group B being cancelled. A modified version with 840hp was driven to victory at Pikes Peak in 2004 by Stig Blomqvist.

Road car specs:

Engine: 1.8L DOHC Turbocharaged Inline 4, making 240hp and 207 lb-ft. Later Evolution-engined cars make 650hp.

Weight: 1180kg.

The Group B car that will need no introduction at all. But the GTO never actually competed in any Group B events and ended up being one of the most delectable road cars of all time. Massively different from the 308GTB that many people mistake it for - featuring a longitudinal V8 twin-turbo, Kevlar panels, and a Harvy Postlethwaite designed chassis.

Groub B specs:

Engine: 2.8L DOHC Twin-turbocharged V8, making 395hp and 366 lb-ft.

Configuration : Mid-engine, Rear-wheel drive.

Weight: 1160kg

Best finish: Never competed.

Road car specs:

Engine: 2.8L DOHC Twin-turbocharged V8, making 395hp and 366 lb-ft.

Weight: 1160kg.

Initially known as the Gruppe B, the Porsche 959 became known as the '80s ultimate supercar, being the fastest production car in the world at the time of its release. During its production run it was hailed as the most technologically advanced road-going sports car ever built, and forerunner of all future super cars. Maximum speed was close to 200mph, and its performance was easily exploited... but wouldn't you rather have the Ferrari 288 GTO?

Groub B specs:

Engine: 2.9L Sequential Twin-turbocharged Flat-6, making 444hp and 370 lb-ft.

Configuration : Rear-engined, Four-wheel drive

Weight: 1450kg.

Best finish: Never competed.

Road car specs:

Engine: 2.9L Sequential Twin-turbocharged Flat-6, making 444hp and 370 lb-ft.

Weight: 1450kg.

The original quattro was engineered for Group 4 rallying, but became the Group B era's most potent force in its early years due to being the first four-wheel drive rally car. However, by the arrival of purpose built cars (such as the Peugeot 205 T16), it was shortened to become the Sport quattro (in roadgoing trim) and S1 (on the stages). Developed in 1984, the Audi Sport Quattro S1 had an all aluminum alloy 2.1 L engine slightly smaller than the Audi Quattro. The Sport Quattro S1 E2 was an update to the S1 and featured an inline 5-cylinder engine. 

Groub B specs (in S1 form):

Engine: 2.1L Turbocharged DOHC 20V Inline-5, making between 450-590 hp and 405 - 435 lb-ft.

Configuration : Front-engine, Four-wheel drive.

Weight: 1100kg.

Best finish: 1981, Michèle Mouton: first win for a woman driver in Rally.

Road car specs:

Engine: 2.1L Turbocharged DOHC 20V Inline-5, making 302hp and 243lb-ft.

Weight: 1270kg.

The 205 T16 was the most successful Group B car, establishing the formula for all challengers to follow – mid-engine, turbo, four-wheel drive and a spaceframe chassis. Jean Todt, who masterminded the programme, went on to greater things at Ferrari and the FIA.

The T16 shares a general look with the regular 205 road car, such as the front grille and light arrangement. The iconic Pepperpot alloys actually preceded the GTI too. In reality very little was shared with the production car, but the extremely successful rallying exploits ultimately helped to transform Peugeot and the 205's image through the 1980s.

Groub B specs:

Engine: 1.8L Turbocharged DOHC Inline 4, making between 460 and 550hp and 361 lb-ft.

Configuration : Mid-engine, Four-wheel drive.

Weight: 910kg.

Best finish: 16 First place finishes between 1984 and 1986.

Road car specs:

Engine: 1.8L Turbocharged DOHC Inline 4, making 197 hp and 188 lb-ft.

Weight: 1145kg.

Enjoy the List? Well then check out the video Top 10:: Group B cars, featuring some awesome clips of these bonkers machines in action.

The 1955 300SL was the first production car to feature Bosch mechanical direct fuel injection, a groundbreaking piece of tech of the time. Allowing for more power and efficiency, it made the 300SL a dominating race car, and a fantastically capable road car, whilst also being one of the most gorgeous cars ever made (In my humble opinion). At the time of its release, the 300SL was the fastest road car you could buy.

Adaptive suspension, four-wheel steering, and active aerodynamics are things you find on the supercars of today, but were all virtually unheard of in the early 1990s. The 3000GT VR-4, which debuted in 1994, had all of them. All these features were not heavily tested at the time, and all this tech stuffed into the 3000GT/ GTO meant that it was unreliable, expensive to buy and to fix and heavier than it's rivals. When everything was working, though, it gave us a glimpse of what sports cars would look like in the future. Bigger, heavier and packed full of tech, it's getting rarer to find a sports car that sticks to the old philisophy of "simplify, then add lightness."

Preston Tucker had big plans for his 1948 sedan of the future. Things like disc brakes, independent suspension, and lights that rotated with wheel direction made the Tucker lightyears ahead of anything else of its time. Ultimately, though, Tucker failed to mass-produce his rear-engined sedan, and only 47 examples remain today.

The FCX Clarity was the first hydrogen fuel cell car available to the public. But nobody could buy them because Honda only leased them, and only to people living in Southern California. The problem is that there's still no real infrastructure for hydrogen fueling, which makes these cars more experiment than replacement for production car.

No, really. The 1987 Honda Prelude previewed design language that eventually made it to the NSX and is arguably the first mass-produced car to offer four-wheel steering. Are you a fan of how the Porsche Turbo, GT3, and 918 Spyder have it? Well, Honda had Porsche beaten by almost 25 years in offering the technology in a road car.

First off: Awesome name. Second: The Jetfire (and the Chevy Corvair Monza) was the first mass-produced turbocharged car in 1962. The Corvair had an air-cooled, rear-mounted, and turbocharged flat-six engine. The Jetfire has a 3.5-liter V8 that made 215 hp. It relied on "Turbo Rocket Fluid" to combat detonation problems. You know how almost all cars are turbocharged these days? These two started it all.

When you think of an electric car these days, your mind will almost automatically jump to a Tesla Model S. But Tesla isn't the first American automaker to create a mainstream EV. Back in the late 90s, GM had the EV1 for lease-only. Automakers have been playing around with EVs since the 1800s, but the EV1 was the first modern mass-produced EV. It was good for 137 hp and had a 70- to 100-mile range.

The DS21 wasn't just beautiful, it was also innovative. It was the first production car ever to come with front-disc brakes. It also had a self-leveling hydropneumatic suspension, which raised and lowered the car and gave it a "magic carpet" ride feel. Today, the system is used by Citroen, Rolls-Royce, and Maserati.

Every time the exotic silhouette of a mid-engined car catches your eye, the Lamborghini Miura's influence is there. It was the first serious production mid-engined supercar, and had a transversely mounted V12 tucked behind the passenger compartment. It delighted in being driven fast, and is still very expensive today.

When it was introduced in 1986, the 959 was the fastest street-legal production car, with a top speed of 195 mph, and was widely recognized as the most technologically advanced road car ever built. Porsche only made 337 examples, and each car had a complicated AWD system that standardized AWD for all Turbo models following it. The twin-turbo flat-six made an obscene 444 hp. You could control ride height. It was the first passenger car to have an electronic tire-pressure monitoring system. Besides the Ferrari Testarossa, it was also one of the few cars to have zero lift aero. And it had titanium connecting rods. Who at the time was packing this stuff into their road cars? Nobody, that's who.

No really, I'm serious. Now, I dislike this car just as much as you do (apart from the fact Walter White owned one, but even that cannot redeem it in my eyes) but Pontiac absolutley had the right idea with the Aztek. With the popularity of 'lifestyle' crossovers through the roof in the last few years (eg. CR-V, Rav-4, Santa Fe etc.) Pontiac were actually ahead of the curve, that it wasn't car to kick-start the crossover sensation was due to, well, just look at it. And thats not a bad picture of it either.

Although Triumph is now best-known for its motorcycles and also has a long history of selling cars and other products in their early days. Just like the bicycles they initially sold, one of these divergents was sewing machines which had been imported from Europe. They stopped selling sewing machines to focus on bicycles and then on motorcycles and cars.

Motorised vehicles did not exist in the early years of the company, and the focus was on producing and selling bicycles. Triumph did not produce their first motorcycle until 1902, using engines purchased from another company. The first motorcycle, the Triumph No. 1.  had a 2.2 Minerva engine. They were produced at their factory on Much Park Street in Coventry. As the Triumph No. 1 was a success, they took the decision to produce their own engines. To grow their manufacturing capability Triumph bought an old spinning mill on Priory Street in Coventry in 1907 which they transformed into a new factory providing the facilities needed to produce the engines.

To aid in the war effort Triumph were called upon to manufacture vehicles like many other major manufacturers in Britain. The Allied military service in 1915 selected Triumph to supply them with Type H ‘Trusty’ motorcycles. Triumph actually manufactured 57,000 of these 499 cc air-cooled single-cylinder motorcycles  during the war but it is believed that only 30,000 ever saw active service. Thanks to these lucrative manufacturing contracts during World War 1 Triumph became the largest manufacturer of motorcycles in the UK by 1918.

Triumph was once again called on by the government World War II began in 1939 to manufacture motorcycles for the military. Triumph geared up production towards the production of military motorcycles manufacturing an estimated 50,000 for the war effort. During the Coventry blitz, the Priory Street factory was hit on November 14, 1940. As was the British way, production did not stop and they used temporary premises in Warwick with a new plant in Meriden opened in 1942.

Triumph motor racing is well known throughout the world. They have been particularly successful at the Isla of Man TT events. Malcolm Uphill won the Production TT In 1969 riding a Triumph Bonneville. Malcolm's win was especially notable as he famously achieved the first ever 100mph lap average on a production motorcycle. He won the event again the following year and this time riding a Triumph Triple and was given the nickname Slippery Sam. Between 1969 and 1975 Uphill won the Production TT for seven consecutive years.

In 1897, 12 years after it was founded, the second name change of this company occurred. Originally S. Bettmann & Co. the name was changed to simply Triumph.

In 1897 they decided to rename the company the Triumph Cycle Company focusing on manufacturing their own range of bicycles.

In 1930 Triumph focused their attention on the motor industry manufacturing both motorcycles and cars. They decided on another name change when it became the Triumph Motor Company.

Years later in 1983 John Bloor established Triumph Motorcycles Ltd.

In 1983 Triumph went into receivership and the name and the manufacturing rights were purchased by John Bloor from the Official receiver who formed a new company initially called Bonneville Coventry Ltd.

This was later changed to Triumph Motorcycles. John didn’t relaunch the company immediately as he updated plant and the designs  to compete against new rivals, such as the Japanese motorcycle manufacturers. The Bonneville continued to be produced and Bloor spent the next five years redesigning Triumph with designers creating new models.  Bloor invested £80 million into the company before it eventually broke even in 2000.

Triumph experienced many ups and downs since it's creation and has weathered such turbulent events leading to the company having to almost start from scratch. An example is when a massive fire ripped through the factory completely gutting it. This unfortunately was where the majority of production took place.

Triumph refused to lay down and although this temporarily halted production, it didn’t stop Triumph. The factory was rebuilt and fitted out with state-of-the-art equipment. Within six months of the devastating fire, Triumph were back manufacturing their motorcycles launching the Daytona 600 super sports bike.

Thanks to aggressive expansion over the last few decades, Triumph is now the biggest and most successful motorcycle manufacturer in the UK. The company has over 2,000 employees around the world, including, management, designers, administration, sales, and assembly staff.

Triumph sold more than 63,400 motorcycles in the 12 months preceding June 2017 with revenue for 2017 totaling £498.5 million (a growth of 22 percent from the previous year). Profit was £24.7 million which was up from  £16.6 million the previous year.

In the UK Triumph has a loyal fan base, however, they are also massively popular with motorcycle rider overseas with an estimated 85% now sold there. Through the use their subsidiaries around the world Triumph ensure their products appeal to different markets. In 2017, despite selling the majority of their motorcycles overseas, Triumph still sold a record 9,400 motorcycles in the UK .

In the past Triumph chose to buy their motorcycle clothing from other manufacturers but in 1995, they decided to launch and produce their own range called the Triple Collection.  Iconic designs were based on celebrities who held an association with Triumph motorcycles. Elvis Presley, Marlon Brando, Steve McQueen, James Dean, and Bob Dylan to name just a few. Steve McQueen was an important influence as Triumph had already named a special edition of the Bonneville after him.

Spirit of Ecstasy is modeled after a woman called Eleanor Velasco Thornton who had an open-secret affair for many years with a gentleman at the very forefront of early car culture, John Walter Edward Douglas-Scott-Montagu, the second Baron Montagu of Beaulieu.

In the early 1900s, the Baron commissioned a hood ornament for his newly acquired Rolls-Royce from an English sculptor named Charles Robinson Sykes. Sykes modeled the ornament based on Thornton, an actress.

The first mascot to be commissioned by Sykes had a finger to her lips because of the secret relationship and was named 'The Whisperer'.

The Whisperer” was later remodelled as the famous Spirit of Ecstasy we know today. Sykes called it, "a graceful little goddess, the Spirit of Ecstasy, who has selected road-travel as her supreme delight and delighted on the prow of a Rolls-Royce motorcar, to revel in the freshness of the air and the musical sound of her fluttering draperies.”

Charles Stewart Rolls was an avid aviator, he flew his Wright Flyer over the Channel and back in 95 minutes.

He then won the world’s most famous motorcycle race using a car in 1906.

These days, the Isle of Man TT is at the top of any bucket list for motorcycle enthusiast, but in 1906, there was a category for cars. Rolls entered two cars, and won. Charles also hold the most unenviable of records. on July 12th, 1910 the tail of his Wright Flyer fell off and he plummeted to his death. Charles  was the first Britain to die in a plane crash

In 1907 a Rolls Royce was driven back and forth between Glasgow and London 27 times, This incredible feat of reliability and endurance established the brand as a major player in the motoring world.

Like many early manufacturers, Rolls Royce were essentially running chassis builders. They would manufacture the very best chassis' and marry the best engines letting specialized coach builders handle the body. This led to some strange and interesting designs, like the famous one made for an Indian Maharaja.

Back in 1931 the “R” airplane engine powered a Supermarine S6B to over 400 mph, winning the ultra competitive Schneider Trophy air race.

Not only that, it also powered the fastest boat too. The water speed record set by Sir Henry Segrave ended in disaster as his boat hit a log. He died shortly after they told him he'd

This legendary engine also powered the fastest thing on land. A supercharged R was shoe-horned into Blue Bird in the early 1930 and the car exceeded 300mph.

It is said that Sir Henry Royce made the initial engineering sketches of the “R” whilst walking with his top engineers on a beach.

Once they had figured out how to make it more reliable it is credited with helping to beat the Nazis. The Merlin engine that superseded it was designed to give the same performance, but last longer. It succeeded, and went on to become the beating heart of the legendary Spitfire.

On little more than a hunch, Rolls-Royce dropped the Merlin engine into a P-51 Mustang to see what would happen. The marriage transformed it from a 'better than average', low-altitude fighter to one of the best warplanes ever built.

Rolls-Royce makes its own nuclear reactors for British submarines under an agreement dating back to the 1950s. They're built with some U.S. tech help, in exchange for Rolls-Royce helping the U.S. make their sub marines a little quieter.

Rolls-Royce jet engines power everything from Gulfstreams and 777s to British Harriers They famously powered the iconic Concorde past Mach 1. What else would power the best passenger jet of all time other than a Rolls-Royce engine?

Henry Royce felt the first Rolls-Royce-produced Bentley was too fast, and wanted a better way to control the suspension. Henry drew up some sketches, handed them to his nurse, and died the next day. These days, adjustable shocks are on every serious race car, and many performance street cars.

It became one of the most iconic muscle cars in American, but no one knew what the Camaro name meant when it was introduced in 1966. GM claimed it was an old French slang term for friendship and camaraderie. Rumor has it that GM executives told the press the Camaro is “a small, vicious animal that eats Mustangs.” Other accounts claimed it meant a rare disease that kills horses (i.e. Mustangs).

In 1967 the average household income was $7,305 per year, the cost of a new house was $14,425, a movie ticket sold for $1.25, and a gallon of gasoline required just 33 cents.

The base price of the debut Camaro was a mere $2,572. Fifty years later that amount won't even pay for the Camaro's RS appearance package with 20-inch wheels valued at $1,950 and the $800 Technology Package including an 8-inch touchscreen display.

Adjusted for inflation, $2,572 in 1967 dollars is equal to $19,668.22 in today’s dollars. According to the National Automobile Dealers Association, that sum is not enough to purchase a 2018 Camaro with no options at a price of $25,700.

Famous for their obsession for speed, in 2013 the Dubai Police force added Camaro SS coupes to their fleet of patrol cars. It was the first Camaro to be selected by a Middle East police force.

The Camaro SS is powered by a 6.2L V8 engine that boasts 426 hp and a torque of 420 lb-ft. With a top speed of 160 mph and acceleration of 0-60 mph in 4.7 seconds, the Camaro had the performance to meet Dubai Police force requirements. 

“The Camaro is highly regarded around the world. It is the ideal car for Dubai Police as we look to upgrade our vehicles to meet the Emirate’s world-renowned standards in safety and security,” said Dubai Deputy Police Chief Major General Khamis Mattar Al Mazeina.

With current technology and the Internet, teleconferences and video conferences are commonplace. However, in 1966 when Chevy scheduled the launch and announcement of the Camaro (Panther) the communication technology was a bit more primitive.

On June 28th, more than 200 journalists and the Chevy PR team assembled at hotels in fourteen American cities to hear the conference call announcement. It was the first large-scale teleconference requiring more than Bell 100 technicians on-hand to ensure success.

Although the "Panther" name was dropped before production, it did make it into the press release when the car was launched. Chevy's used an unusual PR campaign to promote the launch. It was billed as the first and last ever meeting of SEPAW, or "the Society for the Eradication of Panthers from the Automotive World." And so the Camaro was born!

Although the station wagon body style has its appeal to a specific segment of the car-buying public, a growing family is a perfect example. It is one better left to cars not destined to be among the highest performing muscle cars ever manufactured.

Never-the-less, Chevy considered producing a Camaro station wagon right up until the launch. Cooler heads prevailed, and the idea was abandoned. However, the concept reared its ugly head again for the second generation but was summarily disregarded.

Had Chevy gone ahead with the station wagon Camaro, who knows what other bizarre vehicles may have developed, like the Mustang Minivan, the Corvette Camper or the Dodge Viper hatchback?

Perhaps best known for the famous actor, Steve McQueen, who owned one, the classic Ferrari Lusso 250 GT was also an inspiration to GM designers when they created the second-generation Camaro. The body style similarities are apparent when compared side by side.

Other features of the two cars are vastly different. Ferrari only made 350 units, making them extremely rare. The first year of the second-generation, 1970, GM made nearly 125,000 Camaros.

The Ferrari Lusso 250 GT was equipped with a 3.0 L V12 "Colombo" engine that produced 240hp and 178 lb-ft of torque. It was the fastest passenger car of the period with a maximum speed of 150 mph and an acceleration of 0-60 mph in 7 seconds. The 1970 Camaro SS boasted 6.5 L L78 rated at 350 hp.

Phone lines opened at noon on Tuesday, October 19 and it was over in just three minutes; the time it took for one hundred limited-edition Neiman Marcus Chevrolet Camaro Convertibles to sell out. The convertible was available only in a special Bordeaux red hue with “ghost” racing stripes.

Powered by a 426 hp LS3 engine coupled to a 6-speed manual or automatic transmission, extensive engineering was required to transform a coupe to a convertible.

More than just a fancy paint job, the windshield surround was painted silver, the cabin was finished in amber leather with red accents on the center console, steering wheel, and gear shift knob. The $75,000 Neiman Marcus version was sold at a premium of roughly $30-40,000 over car's price in the standard format.

The very first Camaro, pilot prototype number 100001, was assembled at the GM Assembly Plant, at Norwood, Ohio, just down the road from Cincinnati, on May 21, 1966.

The company planned to built Camaros in Norwood and at their Van Nuys, Los Angeles plant. Forty-nine pilot prototypes were built in Norwood to develop the equipment and assembly line required for the planned high volume, serial production. At the Van Nuys plant, Chevy built three pilot prototypes eight weeks later in preparation for manufacturing and assembly there.

Amazingly, the first pilot prototype Camaro (No. 10001), pictured here, still exists. The Historic Vehicle Association (HVA) has added this special machine to its National Historic Vehicle Register.

Engineers were so obsessed about the fifth-generation Z/28’s weight that they shaved 0.3mm from the rear window. They saved 400 grams by going from 3.5 mm to 3.2 mm. Other weight saving measures included using less foam padding in the rear seat, and killing the A/C completely.

The 1969 COPO Camaro was the ultimate off-menu item. Chevy’s 427 cid engine never appeared on any order sheets and wasn’t a part of any official package. You had to know who to call at GM in order to get one. The COPO, or Central Office Production Order, roughly doubled the cost of the car. Today, it's one of the most highly sought after, and priciest, Camaros in the collector world.

The story goes like this. A GM corporate edict forbade Chevrolet from installing engines larger than 400 cu in (6.6 L). Requests from dealers (notably Don Yenko) who were dealer-installing 427 cu (7.0 L) engines in the Camaro caused Chevrolet to use an ordering process usually used on fleet and special orders (taxis, trucks, etc.) to offer 427 engines in the Camaro. Two Central Office Production Orders (COPO), numbers 9560 and 9561, were offered in the 1969 model year.

The COPO 9561 used the solid-lifter L72 big-block engine, making an underrated 425 hp (317 kW) SAE gross at 5600 rpm and 460 lb⋅ft (624 N⋅m) of torque at 4000 rpm. Yenko ordered 201 of these cars to create the now-legendary Yenko Camaro. Other dealers also became aware of the L72 engine package and ordered it. Around 900-1,000 Camaros were fitted with the L72 engine option.

10. Mercedes-Benz 300SL

The 1955 300SL was the first production car to feature Bosch mechanical direct fuel injection, a groundbreaking piece of tech of the time. Allowing for more power and efficiency, it made the 300SL a dominating race car, and a fantastically capable road car, whilst also being one of the most gorgeous cars ever made (In my humble opinion). At the time of its release, the 300SL was the fastest road car you could buy.

9. Mitsubishi 3000GT VR-4

Adaptive suspension, four-wheel steering, and active aerodynamics are things you find on the supercars of today, but were all virtually unheard of in the early 1990s. The 3000GT VR-4, which debuted in 1994, had all of them. All these features were not heavily tested at the time, and all this tech stuffed into the 3000GT/ GTO meant that it was unreliable, expensive to buy and to fix and heavier than it's rivals. When everything was working, though, it gave us a glimpse of what sports cars would look like in the future. Bigger, heavier and packed full of tech, it's getting rarer to find a sports car that sticks to the old philisophy of "simplify, then add lightness."

8. The Tucker

Preston Tucker had big plans for his 1948 sedan of the future. Things like disc brakes, independant suspension, and lights that rotated with wheel direction made the Tucker lightyears ahead of anything else of its time. Ultimately, though, Tucker failed to mass-produce his rear-engined sedan, and only 47 examples remain today.

7. Honda FCX Clarity

The FCX Clarity was the first hydrogen fuel cell car available to the public. But nobody could buy them because Honda only leased them, and only to people living in Southern California. The problem is that there's still no real infrastructure for hydrogen fueling, which makes these cars more experiment than replacement for production car.

6. Honda Prelude

No, really. The 1987 Honda Prelude previewed design language that eventually made it to the NSX and is arguably the first mass-produced car to offer four-wheel steering. Are you a fan of how the Porsche Turbo, GT3, and 918 Spyder have it? Well, Honda had Porsche beaten by almost 25 years in offering the technology in a road car.

5. Oldsmobile Jetfire

First off: Awesome name. Second: The Jetfire (and the Chevy Corvair Monza) was the first mass-produced turbocharged car in 1962. The Corvair had an air-cooled, rear-mounted, and turbocharged flat-six engine. The Jetfire has a 3.5-liter V8 that made 215 hp. It relied on "Turbo Rocket Fluid" to combat detonation problems. You know how almost all cars are turbocharged these days? These two started it all.

4. General Motors EV1

When you think of an electric car these days, your mind will almost automatically jump to a Tesla Model S. But Tesla isn't the first American automaker to create a mainstream EV. Back in the late 90s, GM had the EV1 for lease-only. Automakers have been playing around with EVs since the 1800s, but the EV1 was the first modern mass-produced EV. It was good for 137 hp and had a 70- to 100-mile range.

3. Citroen DS21

The DS21 wasn't just beautiful, it was also innovative. It was the first production car ever to come with front-disc brakes. It also had a self-leveling hydropneumatic suspension, which raised and lowered the car and gave it a "magic carpet" ride feel. Today, the system is used by Citroen, Rolls-Royce, and Maserati.

2. Lamborghini Miura

Every time the exotic silhouette of a mid-engined car catches your eye, the Lamborghini Miura's influence is there. It was the first serious production mid-engined supercar, and had a transversely mounted V12 tucked behind the passenger compartment. It delighted in being driven fast, and is still very expensive today.

1. Porsche 959

When it was introduced in 1986, the 959 was the fastest street-legal production car, with a top speed of 195 mph, and was widely recognized as the most technologically advanced road car ever built. Porsche only made 337 examples, and each car had a complicated AWD system that standardized AWD for all Turbo models following it. The twin-turbo flat-six made an obscene 444 hp. You could control ride height. It was the first passenger car to have an electronic tire-pressure monitoring system. Besides the Ferrari Testarossa, it was also one of the few cars to have zero lift aero. And it had titanium connecting rods. Who at the time was packing this stuff into their road cars? Nobody, that's who.

Honoroble mention: Pontiac Aztek

No really, I'm serious. Now, I dislike this car just as much as you do (apart from the fact Walter White owned one, but even that cannot redeem it in my eyes) but Pontiac absolutley had the right idea with the Aztek. With the popularity of 'lifestyle' crossovers through the roof in the last few years (eg. CR-V, Rav-4, Santa Fe etc.) Pontiac were actually ahead of the curve, that it wasn't car to kick-start the crossover sensation was due to, well, just look at it. And thats not a bad picture of it either. 

Four-wheeled flops don’t have to be miserable to drive or nauseating to look at (although it certainly helps speed things along), and they don't necessarily have to be sales disasters. They simply must leave an indelible mark of unforgettable wrongness, be so bland and uninteresting that the public forgets they even exist, or be designed as a metal death trap with a propensity to explode and burn. With that in mind, we give you the greatest vehicular face plants of the past 30 years.

DELOREAN DMC-12 (1981-1983)

Yes, the DeLorean has become a legend, but not in a way founder John Z. DeLorean foresaw. After spending most of the ’70s promoting his car as the sports car of the future, and negotiating with the British government (for about $120 million in grants), DeLorean agreed to build his factory in war-torn Belfast, Ireland, promising thousands of new jobs.

DeLorean expected to sell around 12,000 units a year. By late 1981, the company was out of money, and just 6,000 cars had been sold. One problem was that the DMC-12 only had 132 hp but weighed 2,866 Pounds (1300 kilos), which meant that it performed more like an economy car than a performance car and cost as much as one too, another was John DeLorean's well publicized drug bust. After that, the British government seized the company’s assets, and closed the factory in December 1982. Back to the Future may have kept the car’s legacy alive (about 9,000 were built in total), but the company fell well short of its grand plans.

YUGO (1985-1992)

The Yugo should have been a footnote in automotive history, but it was so incredibly bad that it will never truly disappear. Malcolm Bricklin — the man who introduced Subaru to America and launched a failed sports car, the Bricklin SV-1 in the ’70s — brought the ancient Fiat 124-based Yugo to the U.S. in 1985. Billed as the successor to the Model T and Volkswagen Beetle for $3,990, Yugo launched a massive PR campaign to promote what was essentially a 15 year old car built in a factory in communist Yugoslavia. Reviewers were shocked once they got their hands on one.

Despite having a model called the “Great Value,” build quality was atrocious, it was horribly unreliable, and was dangerously underpowered for American roads. By the time the company folded in 1992, the car had already become a joke. Astonishingly, the Yugo (known in Europe as the Zastava Koral) remained in production until 2008.

FISKER KARMA (2011–2012)

The Fisker Karma seemed so promising. The first production car from the startup company created by legendary designer Henrik Fisker, it was gorgeous, full of futuristic tech, and one of the first plug-in hybrids to hit the market in the United States. The Karma used a 23.5-kWh battery pack, two electric motors, and a turbocharged 2.0-liter Ecotec four-cylinder sourced from General Motors acting as a generator to produce 402 horsepower, good enough for a 6.2-second rip to 60 mph. That's not bad for a car weighing 5297 pounds (2400 kg)! too bad its efficiency— basically the whole point of a plug-in hybrid—fell woefully short of expectations. A Karma tested averaged only 24 mpg, 10 mpg less than the Chevrolet Volt plug-in that beat the Fisker in a 2012 comparison test. The Chevy even beat the Karma's electric-only driving range by two miles despite using a smaller battery pack, not to mention offering superior powertrain refinement. And did we mention the Karma was also expensive, with a base price close to $100,000? After some battery recalls, more than a dozen fires (some thanks to Hurricane Sandy), and the halting of production in 2012, Fisker finally went bankrupt in late 2013. Around 2450 Karmas were built in total, though the car has recently been reborn as the Revero under the Chinese-run Karma Automotive brand, which snapped up Fisker's assets post-bankruptcy.

JAGUAR X-TYPE (2001–2008)

At a time when Jaguar reliability was finally approaching respectable, the all-wheel-drive X-type was the lone, laughable holdout. It was obnoxiously underbuilt, remarkably overpriced, and about as charming as a hernia. The X-type was Coventry's business-case company saver, an entry-level sports sedan for the wooden-drawing-room set built on the bones of Jaguar parent Ford's Mondeo/Contour. (There was also an impossibly unpopular wagon version.) It was intended to resurrect Coventry's financial fortunes, providing the dignified marque with a way to snag young, affluent buyers—except that the bean counters failed to recognize that young, affluent buyers are generally not idiots.

THE MAYBACH BRAND, TAKE TWO (1997–2013)

When Britain's Vickers sold off Rolls-Royce, the convoluted transaction saw it go to BMW while Bentley was siphoned off to the Volkswagen Group. This left Daimler as the only member of the German automaking triumvirate without an ultra-premium luxury brand. That situation could not stand, so Daimler dusted off the Maybach brand—which had been dormant since 1941—and set about turning it into a ultra-lux Rolls/Bentley competitor. The resultant Maybach debuted in two variants, the massive 62 (pictured above), as well as the smaller 57, though, at nearly two feet longer than an S-class, it wasn't really what you'd call small. Features including individually reclining rear seats and an electroluminescent roof panel—and prices that started above $300,000—couldn't hide the fact that the Maybach was little more than a stretched S-class. And when a new S-class debuted for 2007, the Maybach became a stretched old S-class. Although a handful of silly variants were trotted out, Daimler gave up and didn't bother redesigning its ultra-luxury flop, abandoning the marque in 2013. The name has returned as a range-topping Mercedes-Maybach S-class trim level, a role to which it's far better suited.

PONTIAC AZTEK (2001–2005)

Pontiac had the right idea with the Aztek. Really. Sport-utility vehicles were taking off in popularity, but most offerings were still truck based and emphasized their off-road abilities—which often were to the detriment of on-road abilities. The notion of the more street-friendly crossover, today's car-based wagons with a high seating position and all-wheel drive, was just starting to take hold. The Aztek, then, was poised to capture a rising wave. That it didn't was due to—well, just look at it.

The vehicle was unveiled simultaneously in concept and production form at the Detroit auto show with a cheering throng of youthful paid actors whose enthusiasm did not match the stunned silence of the assembled media. Basing the vehicle on GM's minivan architecture made for tall, dorky proportions, which were little disguised by the  plastic cladding and schizophrenic detailing. Incredibly, the lead designer was later given the task of penning the next Corvette. Mercifully, it looked nothing like the Aztek.

VECTOR (1971–PRESENT)

Vector Motors founder Jerry Wiegert has been compared to P.T. Barnum, his company to Never-Never Land, and his cars to, well, most of the things said about his cars have been suspiciously positive, or virtually unprintable. The Vector Motors Corporation was established in the early 1970s with the stated aim of producing an affordable American supercar. Its first running prototype, built in 1980, sported outlandish looks and a twin-turbo 650-hp Chevy V-8. Wiegert claimed that the car, dubbed the W2, would see production the following year and cost $125,000. To no one's surprise, the first customer Vector, a modified version of the W2 known as the W8, didn't appear until almost nine years later. Just 22 cars were built, and by the end of production, list price approached half a million dollars. Vector was acquired by an Indonesian manufacturing conglomerate in 1993, and Wiegert was forcibly removed from command. A host of abortive projects followed, including the Lamborghini-powered M12, a machine that British journalist Jeremy Clarkson once called "very probably the worst car in the entire world." Wiegert recently regained control of Vector, and according to the company’s website, a new, 1800-hp "hypercar" is currently undergoing development... Or so they say.

VOLKSWAGEN PHAETON, IN THE U.S. (2003–2006)

The Volkswagen Phaeton owes its existence to the hubris of one man: Ferdinand Piëch, the former chairman of the Volkswagen Group. Against all logic, he decreed that Volkswagen would have a model to compete against the Mercedes-Benz S-class and the BMW 7-series, despite the fact that the Audi A8 already did so. The Phaeton shared almost nothing with its Audi sibling, most notably not the A8's aluminum architecture—part of the reason the VW was more than 500 pounds heavier. It was assembled in a purpose-built glass-walled factory, which never operated at capacity. Top models used VW's hideously complex W-12 engine and weren't bad to drive, but with prices approaching six figures, they were a tough sell with a VW badge on the grille. The model was dropped in the U.S. after three years in which just 3354 sold. As one VW insider said, "We couldn't give them away."

 GM EV1 (1996-1999)

In 1996, GM somehow found itself at the forefront of electric vehicle development. The EV1 was developed on a shoestring budget and was shockingly advanced for its time. Radically aerodynamic with a .19 drag coefficient (The Tesla Model S has a .24 Cd), a 90 mile range (the current Nissan Leaf has a 107 mile range), and a charge time of just three hours (the Leaf takes four to six from a 220 volt source), the EV1 was the first and only car sold with a GM badge, and was available for a monthly lease as low as $299. There was a market too; when the company launched a pilot program for the first 50 cars, over 25,000 people volunteered for it.

By 1999 (the year Toyota released the Prius, and Honda the Insight), 1,117 EV1s had been built, and there was still demand. But at a time where hybrids were beginning to soften drivers’ resistance to alternative powertrains, GM unceremoniously shut down the program, confiscating and crushing the bulk of the cars. It was a public relations nightmare for GM as high-profile protests and an award-winning documentary, Who Killed the Electric Car?, demonized the company just as fuel prices started to soar and it teetered on the verge of bankruptcy. Instead of leading the pack of the EV segment, GM are still playing catch up: It released its first production EV, the Chevy Bolt in 2017.

FORD PINTO (1971-1980)

The explosive Ford Pinto will go down in history as one of the biggest car flops of all time. Manufactured during the 1970s as the domestic alternative to popular subcompacts like the VW Beetle and the Toyota Corolla. The Pinto was a great car in concept — economical and small but with enough room for storage, thanks to the hatchback. Unfortunately, there was a major flaw in the design of the vehicle. The fuel tank was located behind the rear axle, and to help shave off weight and bulk, the Pinto lacked the traditional bumper that would be used to cushion collisions. While that may have been alright if additional precautions were taken to compensate, just the opposite was true: the gas tank had virtually no reinforcements protecting it.

Taken together, these design choices meant that if a Pinto was ever rear-ended, it was extremely easy for its fuel tank to be punctured and cause a massive fire.  If a fire did occur, occupants were unlikely to escape: the doors had a tendency to jam shut after an impact, often trapping victims inside as the wreck burned. Before long, the Pinto’s defective design began causing serious injuries — and fatalities.  An official total of 27 deaths were tied to the vehicle, though some estimates are far higher, with up to 180 possible deaths becasue of the fault.  Of course, even at the conservative end of the spectrum, 27 preventable fatalities caused by a car with a tendancy to explode and burn is still 27 too many. After several lawsuits, Ford initiated a nationwide recall to fix the problem but the damage was already done. Ford stopped production of the Pinto in 1980.

Probably the coolest and most iconic incarnation of the Batmobile, The Dark Knights Tumbler might not be a normal "car" but it does have four wheels and drive on the street. Sounds like a car to me. The rocket thruster is another nice touch.

The Dukes of Hazzard ran 147 episodes over 7 seasons and a large number of 1969 Chargers were destroyed in filming. Some sources place the figure at over 300.  In the last years of the show, producers found they had created a shortage of 1969 Dodge Chargers, so they used AMC Ambassadors, painted them orange and used fancy camera angles and editing techniques to try and hide the switch.

When the population of Chargers and Ambassadors got to a critical stage, the producers of the show went so far as to have a special effects company shoot some of the jumps using miniatures.

In an attempt to combat the shortage of Chargers they had caused, producers on the show were said to have placed notes on the windshields of 1969 Chargers in parking lots, asking owners if they wanted to sell them.

When production ended, 17 General Lees – in various stages of disrepair – survived.

These days, Georgians can get all the Coors they want. But in 1977, it wasn't sold east of the Mississippi River. Getting 400 cases to Atlanta required the help of Bo "Bandit" Darville and, of course, a now-legendary black Trans Am.

For car enthusiasts, Bullitt is easily Steve McQueen's best movie. The movie is full of outstanding cars and has some of the best car chases ever filmed. In celebration of the Mustang GT's starring role in the film, Ford's released several Bullitt-edition Mustangs.

It's hard not to think of the Ecto-1 when you hear the Ghostbusters theme song. the Converted 1959 Cadillac is easily recognized by the iconic logo on each door.

If it weren't for Back to the Future, who knows how the DeLorean DMC-12 would be remembered. But thanks to Doc Brown and Marty McFly, John DeLorean's failed supercar is now the world's most famous time machine (Well, The Delorean or a certain blue Police box)

It's usually a bad idea to drive your car into the ocean (unless you drive an Aztek, then please do us all a favour) but not if you're James Bond. His Lotus Esprit could transform into a submarine. To this day, it's still one of the coolest things a car's ever done.

Following the destruction of Brian's Eclipse,  he asked his commanding officer Sergeant Tanner for another car to repay  Dom Toretto with. When he arrives to Dom's garage, he brings a rusted Supra taken from a junk yard. In the movie, Dominic and his friends spent about $15,000-$20,000 on restoring it. (I need to meet their mechanic) When they're done the car is so fast it's able to smoke a Ferrari in a street race, and inspire a generation of kids to find a love of cars.

Both the Volvo and the Jaguar E-type were launched at the Geneva motor show in 1961 and while the Jaguar would overshadow the P1800, something happened there that would eventually change the Volvo's fortunes dramatically. The producers of a new TV series were looking for a car for their dashing hero to drive and approached both Jaguar and Volvo to supply a car for filming. Jaguar declined, but Volvo accepted.

That TV series was The Saint, the dashing hero was Simon Templar, played by Roger Moore and the P1800 would go on to become a legend. Sales immediately increased when the series aired in 1962 and the P1800 would be a great financial success for Volvo, helping to hugely raise the brand's profile in the US market. Not only did Roger Moore drive the car in the series, he also owned one. One that was used in the series, in fact.

These didn't quite make our top 10, but were still too iconic to leave out.

If you're going to ditch school and see Chicago, there's not many better cars to do it in than a beautiful 1961 Ferrari 250 GT California Spyder. I highly recommend picking one up.

One man might be enough to make a difference, but one Trans Am certainly wasn't enough to keep Knight Rider a hit TV show between 1982 and 1986. That's why NBC had to build around twenty.

It won't shock you to learn that in its debut year, demand was very high for Pontiac's hottest sports car. This meant NBC could only get four cars to do Knight Rider's entire first season. Then, they got lucky. In 1983, a car transporter derailed in California, and although the cars were fine, GM sold 10-12 Firebirds off that train to the studio for a dollar each, with the condition that they had to be destroyed once the cameras stopped rolling. Universal honoured that request by dropping a wrecking ball on them, but not before buying another six cars to ensure "Super Pursuit Mode" could be a thing.

Everyone wanted Magnum P.I.'s Ferrari. The guy showed a generation of TV viewers in the '80s that you didn't actually have to be able to buy a Ferrari to drive a Ferrari. It also spawned the awesome dorm drinking game that required a drink whenever the Ferrari appeared on-screen, which was all well and good until Magnum sat in the car during a stakeout for half the show...

It's hard not to remember the original Volkswagen Beetle fondly. Even people who couldn't care less about cars love Beetles. And part of that is because of the starring role the Beetle had in The Love Bug.

And that wraps up our list of our Top 10 4-wheeled movie-stars. Is there any you feel we missed, did we forget your favorite? Feel free to rant in the comments below!

The general state of roads, together with the proliferation of speed humps and speed cushions, is a campaign issue called Cash (the Campaign Against Speed Humps). Not only do speed humps, and particularly speed cushions, damage vehicle tyres, suspension and engines (through grounding of their sumps), a constant pounding from vehicles also destroys the substructure of the roads. That’s why you see subsidence and potholes in and around speed humps. Money that should have been spent on road maintenance was diverted by the previous government into “traffic-calming measures” that have damaged the roads, increasing the maintenance bill. A speed cushion with a pothole in it is a metaphor for the state in which the previous administration left the country.

These are split into three:

• Protected No-Claims Discounts (for which policyholders pay a premium) don’t amount to much when, even after a “no fault” claim, they find their premium has escalated because they are then judged to be an increased insurance risk.
• Valuation disputes occur when insurers write off a car that could easily be repaired and pay the owner a settlement that is inadequate to replace the car like for like, only for the owner later to see his written-off car fully repaired and for sale. One garage even had bailiffs threaten to obtain the spare keys from the previous owner of a repaired write-off that was supposedly scrapped.
• Credit Hire expenses are where an “accident management specialist” takes over a claim, puts the injured party in an equivalent hire car for the duration of the repair, then delays the repair to extend the period of the hire. A repair cost of 4,000 and a hire car cost of 9,000 are typical where, if the insurer had anticipated the hire car bill, it would have written off the car in the first place. Never sign any document that leaves you liable for hire costs if the other party’s insurer (rightly) refuses to pay. The worst examples have been hire car bills of 29,000 and 40,000 – sums that could have bought the hire cars outright.

Most garages and all franchises are now members of www.motorcodes.co.uk under which garages subscribe to a set of standards of service and repair and agree to a conciliation and arbitration process over customer disputes. However, thousands of garages remain non-subscribers to Motor Codes, so disputes over repairs to increasingly complex vehicle engines, transmissions and emissions systems are escalating, often forcing car owners to take to the small claims track at the county courts.

A legacy of our departed administration is Penalty Culture, by which means the nasty process of fining people for minor breaches of petty rules. This has extended to demands of 50 to 100 penalties for overstaying the allotted or paid for time in private car parks, including those at motorway service areas where we are urged by Government to “take a break”. The car park operator uses an exemption from the Data Protection Act to buy the car owner’s details from the Licensing Agency and then hits them with an official-looking “fine”.

However, all the operator can legally do is sue the car driver for a breach of the contract by which he parked, and if such cases ever go to court the concept of “reasonable” compensation for the breach of contract comes into play. A court is unlikely to affirm that 100 is “reasonable” compensation for overstaying a two-hour motorway service area limit by 10 minutes. Like you or I, it is more likely to consider this totally outrageous. Some people who have received a penalty notice from a private parking operator have sent a cheque for 5 to 10, together with a letter stating that they consider that amount to be “reasonable” compensation for the minor breach of contract and if the parking operator considers it to be “unreasonable” they will see them in court.

Because car taxation is CO2-based, the race has been on to lower certified emissions. All kinds of tricks are applied to achieve the lowest possible CO2 in tests conducted by the manufacturers themselves. You would be delighted to be able to buy cars with low annual CO2 tax or free of tax altogether but are less enamoured with the consequent certified average fuel economy from the lab tests, which many of them find completely impossible to achieve (or even get close). Telegraph Motoring publishes the EU Urban fuel consumption figures wherever possible these provide a more realistic guide to what you might achieve in everyday driving.

An Electronic Stability Program (ESP) is now being legislated into every car by EC Directive for “safety reasons”. Unfortunately, failure of valves inside ESP modules is rife from about four years old. When this happens, VW prescribes a complete new module costing about £1,500, but will partially contribute depending on the age, mileage and history of the car. BMW offers a fix costing about £500. Audi, Seat, Skoda, Volvo and Mazda have different policies. A British company, ECU Testing, offers a fix that is claimed to eliminate the fundamental problem. VOSA refuses to issue a vehicle safety recall because it holds the view that drivers are adequately warned of the failure of a system that is supposed to compensate for their lack of skill and save their lives.

Another brilliant EC Directive (EU5) has led to the fitting of particle filters to diesel cars to trap unburned hydrocarbon particulates on start-up, then burn them off safely later in the car’s journey. There are various ways of persuading the filter to do this but few are compatible with the use of a diesel car to drive short distances from cold starts. Because there is then no “later” in these cars’ journeys, the particulates are not burned off and eventually choke the filter. Worse still, where particulate regeneration is achieved by injecting additional fuel to the engine, but the filter is choked, this fuel dribbles down the bores into the sump, raising the sump level to the point where an engine can start running on its own sump oil and, being a compression ignition engine, becomes impossible to stop. More recent DPFs work better.

“My car ran away with me,” is a plaintive cry attempting to transfer blame from the driver to the manufacturer. “Out-of-control” automatics kill between 10 and 120 people a year in Britain which is why it is recommended drivers use their left foot to brake. If drivers are taught that the only way to drive an automatic is with the right foot operating both accelerator pedal and brake, problems are inevitable. The accelerator pedal and automatic “creep” cannot be relied upon to finely control the speed of an automatic car, especially in a confined space. A sudden surge can move the car several metres, and a panic misjudgment (when the driver hits the accelerator instead of the brake) can result in catastrophe. This was recently put to the test in a scientifically controlled and observed wet braking exercise at ADAC in Germany. Right-foot braking, the car could be stopped from 80kph to 10kph in a best of 32 metres. Using left-foot braking, the figures ranged from 25.6 to 28 metres.

In the Nineties, Mercedes-Benz’s management decided that it was over-engineering its cars, previously claimed to be “engineered like no other”. Accountants cut costs and Mercedes went for volume, introducing models such as the A-class and getting involved with Smart. They also introduced a “30-Year Mobilo Warranty”, which many buyers took to mean that the bodywork of their Mercedes would be warranted against corrosion for 30 years. Unfortunately, the cost-cutting meant that Mercedes cars built between about 1996 and about 2004 have a fairly shocking propensity to rust. To limit the damage (to its balance sheet), Mercedes seems to have decided to limit its “no perforation” body warranty to eight years. It will repair fully and correctly serviced Mercedes up to eight years old. After that, judging by feedback from readers, owners might find they have a problem.

How much can you comfortably afford to pay on the car each month? What is the manufacturer’s recommend list price?

Does the car come with a CD player and air conditioning, for example, or are you charged extra to have these installed?

If you’re buying a new car you must think beyond the monthly payments and consider how much the car will cost to run. How many miles does it get per gallon and does that apply to city or motorway driving? Which tax band does the car fit into? Is it easy to get the car repaired if necessary? How much will it cost to insure?

Every car’s value depreciates greatly as soon as you drive it away from the dealership – but some vehicles hold their value better than others, which is important particularly if you plan to sell the car sometime in the future. According to a recent analysis by a contract hire specialist, the top five least depreciating cars in the UK are as follows:

1. Mini – Worth 54% of its original value after three years.
2. Audi TT – Worth 52% of its original value after three years.
3. Audi A5 – Worth 51% of its original value after three years.
4. Range Rover Sport – Worth 50% after three years.
5. Mercedes SLK – Worth 49% after three years.

Of course, depreciation is more important if you are considering leasing a car – the higher the residual value of a car, the less you will have to pay on a car lease. However, it should also be considered when buying a new car too. The top three cars in this list are all new and have waiting lists which suggest that if you sell them on in three years, you will still attract a healthy return.

If you’re environmentally conscious be sure to look into your prospective vehicle’s CO2 emissions. You might be particularly interested in hybrid and electric vehicles which are generally more cost effective in terms of miles per gallon and are grouped in lower tax bands than their petrol guzzling alternatives.

Generally speaking, you should be much safer in a new car than a used car as you know it has no history of being involved in accidents and it should benefit from the latest crash testing technology. By visiting the Euro NCap website you can discover the safety ratings for any vehicle you wish to drive.

BUYING NEW CARS – PREPARING YOURSELF

There’s no point in knowing everything about the car you wish to buy if you don’t have enough knowledge about your personal circumstances. Salesmen may attempt to tell you what’s right for you… but in truth, only you should decide. Here are some important questions you should know the answer to before you attempt to buy:

Do you know your credit rating? If not, you can request your profile at a number of agencies including Experian and Equifax. Your credit rating will determine the loan rate offer you receive (if you get one at all). If you have no credit history or know you have bad credit, you should attempt to build your credit score before you buy. More details on this can be found in part one of the car buying tips guide.

Work out what you can comfortably afford to use as a down-payment ahead of time and stick to it. A down-payment will reduce your monthly bills – but you should not put down more than you can afford.

If so, it’s best to know the value of your car ahead of time. Seek an independent evaluation or at least scan around used car websites and magazines to discover the price that cars of the same make and model are fetching. Don’t allow yourself to be short-changed on how much the car is worth. However, you must be honest – consider its condition and be realistic about its depreciation.

Remember that the car loan will still belong to you until the dealer pays it off so you must make sure your loan provider picks up the payment in time. Have the new car dealer produce a statement in writing that they will pay off the car within the time you require.

Whatever the answer to this question may be, don’t let the dealer know you need a new car urgently. If your current car is dying or perhaps you don’t have a vehicle at all, you could feel rushed into a deal you shouldn’t agree to. Take your time, and where possible plan ahead – don’t wait until your car is spluttering before looking for a new one!

Ensure you have a fully charged mobile phone with you that has the number of your breakdown service provider stored.

If your car breaks down on the motorway you should wait for help on the hard shoulder. Make sure you leave your car and stand to the left side of it behind the barrier – even in the cold weather. Many accidents on the motorway involve traffic colliding with vehicles on the hard shoulder.

When you experience a break down in the rain, ice, sleet or snow, your body temperature will fall rapidly. A useful precaution is to take some warm clothes and a blanket with you to keep you warm.

A small bag of sand or an old bit of carpet will give you better traction if your wheels are left spinning in snow and ice. Carry either of these in your car boot throughout the winter.

Don’t rely solely on a satnav to guide you with your journey. There will be times when your satnav loses its signal. Ensure you have a road atlas to hand in case you get lost, and that you understand how to read it.

Keep a mini first aid kit in your car boot. You never know when you might need this so it’s best kept all year round.

With often only eight hours of daylight during the depths of winter, ensuring you are visible if your car breaks down is critical. Carry a red warning triangle and high visibility vest.

Keep a snow shovel handy as you never know when your car will get stuck during freezing conditions. However, if weather conditions worsen where you are you should avoid travelling altogether.

Don’t forget road salt stains lights and obscures glass significantly, so keep your windows and lights clean with water.

Rodger said:

“The average motorist is very poorly prepared for bad weather and the winter. We have named items here that every motorist should have in their vehicles – I can be sure less than a quarter of them will have them all.

Drivers need to realise that they cannot assume someone will be on hand to rescue them if they run into difficulty. Good preparation will save you time and money. Don’t gamble lives for the sake of a few pounds.

• Bold - Automobile museums owned by automobile manufacturers
• Italics - no longer open to public access, excludes private or invitation only collections that was never intended for public access
  

China

Grand Prix Museum, Macau, China

• Beijing Classic Car Museum
• Beijing Auto Museum
• Grand Prix Museum, Macau
• Shanghai Auto Museum

Toyota Automobile Museum, Nagakute, Japan

• Hino Auto Plaza (Hino Motors), Hachiōji, Tokyo
• Historic Car Gallery, Dachi, Toki, Gifu
• Honda Collection Hall (Honda), Motegi, Tochigi
• Humobility World (Daihatsu), Ikeda, Osaka *pre-reservation required
• Maehara 20th, Kiryū, Gunma
• Matsuda Collection
• Mazda Museum (Mazda), Hiroshima, Hiroshima *pre-reservation required
• Mitsubishi Auto Gallery (Mitsubishi Motors), Okazaki, Aichi *pre-reservation required
• Motorcar Museum of Japan, Komatsu, Ishikawa
• Il Museo della Cinquecento, Tsuruoka, Yamagata
• Nissan Engine Museum (Nissan), Yokohama, Kanagawa
• Nissan Heritage Collection (Nissan), Zama, Kanagawa *pre-reservation required
• Prince & Skyline Museum , Okaya, Nagano
• Shikoku Motor Car Museum, Kōnan, Kōchi
• Suzuki Plaza (Suzuki), Hamamatsu, Shizuoka *pre-reservation required
• Toyota Automobile Museum (Toyota), Nagakute, Aichi
• Toyota Commemorative Museum of Industry and Technology (Toyota), Nagoya, Aichi
• Toyota Kuragaike Commemorative Hall  (Toyota), Toyota, Aichi
• Yamaha Communication Plaza (Yamaha Motor Company), Iwata, Shizuoka
• Wakui Museum, Kazo, Saitama

• Renault Samsung Motors Gallery (Renault Samsung Motors)
• Hyundai Kia R&D Museum (Hyundai Motor Group)
• Samsung Transportation Museum (Samsung Fire&Marine Insurance Co. LTD)
• Hyundai Motorstudio Seoul (Hyundai Motor Group)

• Sudha Cars Museum

Emirates National Auto Museum, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

Cyprus

• Cyprus Historic & Classic Motor Museum[non-primary source needed]

• Tbilisi Auto Museum

• National Car Museum of Iran

• Tefen Car Collection, Tefen
• Ralex Automobile museum, Ashdod

• Historical, Vintage, and Classical Cars Museum

• Key Classic Car Museum, Torbalı, Izmir,
• Rahmi M. Koç Museum, Hasköy, Istanbul,
• Sabri Artam Classic Car Museum, Çengelköy, Istanbul,
• Tofaş Museum of Cars and Anatolian Carriages, Bursa,
• Ural Ataman Classic Car Museum, Tarabya, Istanbul,

• Al Ain Classic Car Museum
• Emirates National Auto Museum

Bulgaria

• Retro-Museum, Varna shopping centre

Škoda Auto Museum, Mladá Boleslav, Czech Republic

• Škoda Auto Museum (Škoda Auto)
• Tatra Muzeum, Kopřivnice

• Muzeum Inżynierii Miejskiej w Krakowie

• Tiriac Collection, Bucharest

• AvtoVAZ Museum, (Lada), Tolyatti
• Retro auto museum, Moscow
• Lomakov`s old-timers cars and motorcycles Museum, Moscow
• Autoville, Moscow
• First Private Museum of Retro and Military Vehicles, Moscow
• Vintage cars museum, Saint Petersburg
• Retro cars museum, Vyborg
• Retro cars museum, Zelenogorsk
• Retro cars museum, Yekaterinburg
• UMMC auto museum, Verkhnyaya Pyshma (Yekaterinburg)

• AvtoZAZ Museum (ZAZ), Zaporizhia

Estonia

• Automuuseum, Halinga

• Mobilia, Kangasala

• Riga Motor Museum

Volvo Museum, Gothenburg, Sweden

• Saab Car Museum (Saab)
• Göran Karlsson's Motor Museum
• Marcus Wallenberg-hallen (Scania)
• Motala Motor Museum
• Volvo Museum (Volvo)

England

British Motor Museum, Gaydon, United Kingdom

Donington Grand Prix Collection, Castle Donington, United Kingdom

National Motor Museum, Beaulieu, United Kingdom

• Bentley Wildfowl and Motor Museum
• British Commercial Vehicle Museum
• British Motor Museum
• Brooklands Museum
• Bubble Car Museum, Langrick, Boston, England
• Cars of the Stars Motor Museum
• Cotswold Motoring Museum
• Coventry Transport Museum
• Donington Grand Prix Exhibition
• Haynes International Motor Museum
• Ipswich Transport Museum
• Lakeland Motor Museum
• London Motor Museum
• Mercedes-Benz World (Daimler AG)
• National Motor Museum, Beaulieu
• Oxford Bus Museum

• Myreton Motor Museum

• Pembrokeshire Motor Museum

Croatia

• Ferdinand Budicki Automobile Museum

• Hellenic Motor Museum

Museo Ferrari, Maranello, Italy

Museo Nazionale dell'Automobile, Turin, Italy

• Museo Casa Enzo Ferrari (Ferrari)
• Museo Ferrari (Ferrari)
• Museo Ferruccio Lamborghini (Lamborghini)
• Museo Lamborghini (Lamborghini)
• Museo Nazionale dell'Automobile
• Museo Storico Alfa Romeo (Alfa Romeo)
• Museo Mille Miglia
• Museo Vincenzo Lancia
• Museo Lancia (Lancia)
• Centro storico Fiat (it) (Fiat)
• Museo Targa Florio
• Museo Nicolis

• Maranello Rosso (it) (Ferrari and Abarth)

• Muzej automobila, Belgrade

• Museo Automovilístico de Málaga (es)
• Museo de Historia de la Automoción de Salamanca (es)
• Museo de Coches Clásicos y Antiguos Torre Loizaga (Galdames)

Austria

• Rolls-Royce Museum
• Automobilmuseum Aspang

AutoWorld, Brussels, Belgium

• AutoWorld

Musée national de l’automobile (Cité de l'Automobile), Mulhouse, France

Musée de l'Aventure Peugeot, Sochaux, France

• Cité de l'automobile - Musée national - Collection Schlumpf
• Renault Classic (Renault)
• Musée de l'Aventure Peugeot (Peugeot)
• Conservatoire Citroën (in French) (Citroën)
• Musée des 24 Heures du Mans
• Musée national de la Voiture et du Tourisme - Château de Compiègne
• Musée automobile Reims Champagne

Autostadt, Wolfsburg, Germany

Mercedes-Benz Museum, Stuttgart, Germany

Porsche Museum, Stuttgart, Germany

• August Horch Museum Zwickau (Audi)
• Automobile welt eisenach (de)
• Automuseum Dr. Carl Benz
• Autosammlung Steim
• Autostadt (Volkswagen Group)
• BMW Museum (BMW)
• Mercedes-Benz Museum (Daimler AG)
• Museum Autovision
• Museum for Historical Maybach Vehicles
• museum mobile (Audi)
• Porsche Museum (Porsche)
• Sinsheim Auto & Technik Museum
• Technikmuseum Speyer
• Prototyp - Personen.Kraft.Wagen in Hamburg
• PS Speicher
• EFA-Museum für Deutsche Automobilgeschichte (de)
• Rosso Bianco Collection (de)

• Monaco Top Cars Collection, Fontvieille, Monaco

Louwman Museum, The Hague, Netherlands

• Louwman Museum

• Swiss Transport Museum
• Fondation Pierre Gianadda, Martigny

Canada

• Canadian Automotive Museum
• Manitoba Antique Automobile Museum
• Reynolds-Alberta Museum

• Cayman Motor Museum

America On Wheels, Allentown, PA, United States

Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame Museum, Speedway, Indiana, United States

Eastern United States

• AACA Museum, Hershey, Pennsylvania. 90 cars on display. Named as one of the 12 car museums worth a detour by MSNBC.
• America On Wheels, Allentown, Pennsylvania. 75 cars, trucks & motorcycles.
• Bruce Weiner Microcar Museum, Madison, Georgia. This museum has closed and the cars sold.
• Buffalo Transportation Pierce-Arrow Museum, Buffalo NY. Features a Frank Lloyd Wright gas station.
• Champlain Valley Transportation Museum, Plattsburg, NY. 25 cars plus model trains.
• Cole Land Transportation Museum, Bangor, ME. Anything with wheels. Open in summer only.
• Fort Lauderdale Antique Car Museum, Fort Lauderdale, FL. Features the largest collection of Packard Cars and historical memorabilia from 1900 and on. https://www.antiquecarmuseum.net/
• Frick Car & Carriage Museum, Pittsburgh, PA.
• Larz Anderson Auto Museum, Brookline, MA. Eclectic collection of cars, motorcycles and artifacts.
• Memory Lane Motorsports & Historic Auto Museum, Mooresville, NC. Specializes in motor sports.
• Miami Auto Museum at the Dezer Collection, North Miami, FL. 200 cars and other vehicles.
• Muscle Car City, Punta Gorda, FL. 200 GM muscle cars. Named as one of the 12 car museums worth a detour by MSNBC.
• Northeast Classic Car Museum, Norwich, New York. 160 cars.
• Old Spokes Auto Museum, New Smithville, PA. Small collection of mostly Hudsons.
• Owls Head Transportation Museum, Owls Head, Maine. 50 cars from 1885-1940, plus airplanes, motorcycles and other forms of transportation. Named as one of the 12 car museums worth a detour by MSNBC.
• Saratoga Automobile Museum, Saratoga Springs, NY. Cars and artifacts.
• Seal Cove Auto Museum, Seal Cove, Maine. 50 cars and motorcycles from 1895-1917.
• Simeone Foundation Automotive Museum, Philadelphia, PA. 65 racing sports cars. Named one of America’s best car museums by Autoweek and Jalopnik.
• Tallahassee Automotive Museum, Tallahassee, FL. 130 cars plus a wide variety of other collectibles.
• Tampa Bay Automobile Museum, Pinellas Park, Florida. 58 cars.
• The William E. Swigart, Jr. Antique Automobile Museum, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania. 35 cars on display.

• America’s Packard Museum (The Citizens Motorcar Co.), Dayton OH. 60 Packards.
• Antique Car Museum of Iowa, Coralville, IA. 90 cars.
• Auburn Cord Duesenberg Automobile Museum, Auburn, Indiana. 120 cars on display. Named one of America’s greatest car museums by Autoweek.
• Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum, Birmingham, AL. 50 Lotus race cars, large motorcycle collection.
• Beller Museum, Romeoville IL. 70 cars, mostly from 1928-33. Not open to the public.
• British Transportation Museum, Dayton OH. 30 British cars. Not open in 2015 because moving locations.
• Canton Classic Car Museum, Canton, OH. 40 cars.
• City Garage Car Museum, Greeneville, TN. 40 cars.
• Classic Car Collection, Kearney, NE. 200 cars.
• Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum, Cleveland, Ohio. About 90 cars, mostly horseless carriages. Named as one of the 12 car museums worth a detour by MSNBC.
• Dick's Classic Garage Car Museum, San Marcos, TX. 80 cars.
• Dream Car Museum, Evansville, Indiana. About 60 cars.
• Ford Piquette Avenue Plant, Detroit, Michigan. Birthplace of the Ford Model T and the oldest car factory building on Earth open to the general public (built 1904).
• Four States Auto Museum, Texarkana, Arkansas. About 20 vehicles including motorcycles. 217 Laurel Street, Texarkana, AR 71854. Open Saturdays from 10am - 4pm, Sundays 1pm - 4pm, Special Tours May Be Arranged - Please Call:(870) 772-2886
• Gilmore Car Museum, Hickory Corners, Michigan. 300 vehicles.
• GM Heritage Center, Sterling Heights, Michigan. 600 GM cars. Not open to the public
• Hemken Collection, Williams IA. 50 cars. Open Wednesdays and Fridays, May–October.
• Henry Ford Museum (Ford Motor Company), Dearborn, Michigan. Cars, artifacts, historical displays. Named as one of the best car museums in the country by MSNBC, Autoweek and Edmunds.
• Hostetler’s Hudson Auto Museum, Shipshewana IN. Named as one of the most interesting car museums in the country by Popular Mechanics.
• Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum, Speedway, Indiana. Named as one of the best car museums in the country by MSNBC and Autoweek.
• Kansas City Automotive Museum, Olathe, KS. 40 cars.
• Kokomo Automotive Museum, Kokomo, IN. 100 cars plus memorabilia.
• Lane Motor Museum, Nashville, Tennessee. 300 cars. Named as one of the best car museums in the country by MSNBC, Jalopnik, and Popular Mechanics.
• National Automotive & Truck Museum, Auburn, IN. Adjacent to the better-known Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum.
• National Corvette Museum, Bowling Green, Kentucky. 70 cars. Named as one of the best car museums in the country by MSNBC and Edmunds.
• National Packard Museum, Warren, OH. 40 Packards.
• Pioneer Village, Minden, NE 350 Cars Including the Oldest Buick in existence
• Pontiac-Oakland Museum & Resource Center, Pontiac, IL. Cars and memorabilia.
• R. E. Olds Transportation Museum, Lansing, MI. 60 REOs and Oldsmobiles.
• Speedway Motors Museum of American Speed, Lincoln, NE. Gearhead Nirvana.
• Stahls Automotive Foundation, Chesterfield, MI. 80 cars, mostly from the 1930s and 40s. Open Tuesdays.
• Studebaker National Museum, South Bend, Indiana. Historic Studebakers, Packards and artifacts. Named one of the best car museums in the country by Edmunds and Popular Mechanics.
• Tupelo Automobile Museum, Tupelo, Mississippi. 100 cars.
• Vehicle Vault Auto Gallery, Parker, CO. 50 Cars. Family Owned Collection. Open to the public.
• Volo Auto Museum, Volo, IL. 50 cars, eclectic collection. Named one of the most interesting car museums in the country by Popular Mechanics.Popular Mechanics.
• Walter P. Chrysler Museum (Chrysler Group), Auburn Hills, Michigan. Not open to the public. Named one of the best car museums in the country by Autoweek.
• Wheels O' Time Museum, Peoria, IL. Eclectic local historical displays.
• Wills Sainte Claire Auto Museum, Marysville, MI. 10 Wills cars. Open 2nd Sundays only.
• Wisconsin Automotive Museum, Hartford, WI. 105 cars.
• Ypsilanti Auto Heritage Museum, Ypsilanti, MI. Features Hudson, Tucker, Kaiser-Frazer and Corvair.

• Academy of Art University Automobile Museum. Located in San Francisco, California on the campus of Academy of Art University with a Forbes estimated car value of $70 million.
• Allen Unique Autos, Grand Junction, CO. Private collection of Tammy Allen. Closed and all cars sold at 2016 Barrett-Jackson auction in Las Vegas.
• America's Car Museum, Tacoma, Washington. 350 cars.
• The Auto Collections, Las Vegas NV. Rotating collection of 300 cars.
• Automobile Driving Museum, El Segundo, California. 130 cars.
• Blackhawk Automotive Museum, Danville CA. 50 cars. Named one of America’s greatest car museums by Autoweek.
• California Automobile Museum, Sacramento, California. 150 cars.
• Cussler Museum, Arvada, CO. 100 cars, open in summer only.
• Fountainhead Antique Auto Museum, Fairbanks Alaska. 80 vehicles. Named as one of the 12 car museums worth a detour by MSNBC.
• The Franklin Auto Museum, Tucson AZ. Collection of Franklin cars.
• Gateway Auto Museum, Gateway, CO. 50 cars.
• J.A. Cooley Museum, San Diego. 20 cars plus memorabilia.
• LeMay Family Collection, Tacoma, WA. 500 cars plus other vehicles and automotive artifacts.
• Marconi Automotive Museum, Tustin, CA. Private collection open to public that houses approximately 75 rare and exotic automobiles including Ferrari and Lamborghini.
• Martin Auto Museum, Phoenix, AZ. Small private collection open to public.
• Mullin Automotive Museum, Oxnard, California. Collection of art deco French cars. Open only 10 Saturdays a year, but also open on most Tuesdays and Thursdays for semi-private tours. Named as one of the best car museums in the country by MSNBC, Autoweek, and Jalopnik.
• Murphy Auto Museum, Oxnard, CA. 60 cars plus model trains.
• Museum of Automobiles, Morrilton, AR. 50 cars.
• National Automobile Museum, Reno, Nevada. 200 cars. Named as one of the best car museums in the country by MSNBC, Autoweek, and Edmunds.
• The Nethercutt Collection, Sylmar CA. 250 cars. Named one of America’s greatest car museums by Autoweek.
• Nostalgia Street Rods, Goldstrom's Automobile Collection, Las Vegas, NV. 75+ cars plus memorabilia
• Penske Racing Museum, Scottsdale, Arizona. Racing cars and artifacts.
• Petersen Automotive Museum, Los Angeles, California. Large collection of cars, other vehicles and artifacts. Named as one of the best car museums in the country by MSNBC, Autoweek, and Edmunds.
• San Diego Automotive Museum, San Diego, CA. Cars and motocycles.
• Toyota USA Automobile Museum (Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc.), Torrance, California. Not generally open to the public.
• Western Antique Aeroplane & Automobile Museum, Hood River, Oregon. 130 cars plus large collection of antique planes.
• Woodland Auto Display, Paso Robles, California. Focus is on motor sports.

Australia

• Ford Discovery Centre
• Motor Museum of Western Australia
• National Automobile Museum of Tasmania
• National Motor Museum, Birdwood
• National Military Vehicle Museum
• National Road Transport Hall of Fame
• The Australian Motorlife Museum
• Gosford Classic Car Museum
• Qld Motorsport Museum, Ipswich. "A diverse array of Road & Race - Cars & Bikes - includes a specific speedway section"

• Museum of Transport and Technology
• Southward Car Museum
• Bill Richardson Transport World
• World of Wearable Art

Argentina

• Museo Juan Manuel Fangio

• Museu do Automóvel do Ceará
• Museu do Automóvel de Curitiba

Auctioned by Artcurial in Paris, France, on February 6, 2015

Gérard Blain, a French film actor, bought 2935GT six days after it left Ferrari's display stand at the 1961 Paris Motor Show. Its covered headlights, a sought-after rarity, leap out at first glance. It also has American turn signals, installed in the Euro-market body when Blain's fellow actor and friend, Alain Delon, bought the car and had it shipped to California in 1964. 

Five consecutive owners drove the car frequently in its first decade; its third owner put more than 25,000 kilometers (about 15,500 miles) on it in the nine months he owned it. Sold to its sixth possessor in 1971, it became a sheltered car driven very little but stored safely indoors for 44 years until crossing the auction block in Paris. The car has never been restored.

Price: $19,800,000

Auctioned by RM Sotheby's in Monterey, California, on August 20, 2016

Alfa Romeo today is a mid-level nameplate positioned beneath sister brands Maserati and Ferrari, but the Alfa Romeo of the pre-war era led at the highest level of motorsport, road-going market, and technological innovation. On the 8C, the pinnacle of sports car development before the war's interruption: twin superchargers upon an alloy dual-overhead-camshaft straight eight, four-wheel independent suspension, and—by way of Touring, which supplied this example's body—an advanced lightweight Superleggera construction of aluminum body panels mounted over hollow steel tubing. These Touring bodies have always been the most valued of all 8C bodywork.

Chassis 412041's early history is unknown. Its whereabouts surface first in 1949 in a Brazilian newspaper clipping that shows an amateur racer in Sao Paulo importing the car from Italy to use in local races. It made appearances at two Brazilian races, one in 1949 and another in 1950. It won both. Announcement of the latter victory was the last anyone heard of the car for decades. The chassis appeared again, without its body, in a collection of parts sold in late 1972. Meanwhile, in Argentina, 412041's original body reappeared on a different 8C 2900B in 1953 when its owners – also amateur racers – removed it and sold it to a body shop near Buenos Aires, where it sat unused until 1986. Chassis and body were reunited in 1994, and the car began a three-year restoration half a century after the two had parted.

Price: $21,780,000

Auctioned by RM Sotheby's in Monterey, California, on August 19, 2016

The first of the D-Types created for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, XKD 501 sat out the June race after two crashes in practice the previous month sent the car to the Jaguar factory for repairs. It rode to five victories and four second-places from July to season's end in September, but it was XKD 501's 1956 season that made it famous.

Five D-Types lined up the grid at Le Mans that year, three of Jaguar's factory team and two privateers fielded by the Belgian team Ecurie Francorchamps and the Scottish team Ecurie Ecosse. Only two laps after the green flag, an accident wiped away two of Jaguar's factory cars. Four hours later it's third was sputtering fuel and as good as done. Ecosse's car, XKD 501, gained the lead at 5 p.m., and for the rest of the race its drivers, Ron Flockhart and Ninian Sanderson, dueled continuously for the lead with an Aston Martin driven by Peter Collins and Stirling Moss, seven laps ahead of the third-place car.

By the checkered flag, XKD 501 was in the favored spot. Ecurie Francorchamps' D-Type came in fourth. Jaguar retired all factory-supported race efforts in 1957 and sold off its racing fleet of later-model D-Types, several going to Ecurie Ecosse. These 3.8-liter I6 D-Types saw great success that year, taking one-and-two victories at Le Mans in 1957. The older XKD 501, though, with its smaller 3.4-liter engine, wasted away the season with a few decent finishes, a few did-not-finishes, and many did-not-enters. It was retired from racing in June 1957 and passed to a succession of collectors. Its engine is unoriginal, but it's the only Le Mans-winning C- or D-Type left intact in the world.

Price: $22,550,000

Auctioned by RM Sotheby's at the Monterey auction on August 19, 2017

The Aston Martin DBR1 race car is considered one of the most important Astons ever. Built under David Brown (the "DB" in so many Aston model names) to win Le Mans in the 1950s, only five examples were ever made. That's why this one—DBR1 number one- sold for over $22 million.

DBR1/1 was built in 1956, and featured a host of upgrades over its DB3S predecessor. A lightweight tube-frame chassis, a more powerful 3.0-liter straight-six, a five-speed transaxle, and disc brakes made it a serious contender on the circuit.

Though this particular car never won Le Mans, one of its sister cars did in 1959. The DBR1/1 you see here did compete in several legendary races in period, including Le Mans, the 12 Hours of Sebring, and the Nurburgring 1000KM, the latter of which it won in 1959.

Famous drivers such as Carroll Shelby, Roy Salvadori, Stirling Moss, and Jack Brabham sat behind the wheel of DBR1/1 before it was sold to Aston Martin Owner's Club President John Dawnay in the 1960s. The car saw vintage racing success throughout the years, passing through collectors' garages before eventually ending up for sale. Currently, the car is fitted with a reproduction engine, but includes the original block.According to RM Sotheby's, this is the first time ever a DBR1 has been auctioned publicly.

DBR1/1 sold for $22,550,000 at RM Sotheby's 2017 Monterey auction, making it the most expensive car sold during the weekend, and the most expensive car sold at public auction in 2017 thus far. The sale price also makes DBR1/1 the most expensive British car ever sold.

Price: $25,244,909

Auctioned by Bonhams in Chichester, England, on July 12, 2013

Streamlined and sleek in the national German racing shade of silver, the W196R was meant to restore German contention to the top levels of international motorsport—this time in the new Formula One series, four years old at the time. It was also only Mercedes-Benz's third racing season since World War II, and the W196Rs stunned crowds with their enclosed fenders that swallowed the traditionally open-wheel designs. 

Of twelve World-Championship-qualifying Grand Prix in 1954 and 1955, W196Rs won nine. A pair finished one and two in their debut race at Reims-Gueux in the French Grand Prix, the first German victories of a major sporting victory since 1939. This example is the most successful of all surviving W196Rs, and the only one not relegated to a museum.

Price: $26,400,000

Auctioned by RM Sotheby's in Monterey, California, on August 16, 2014

The first of only three ever built, 06701 was hand-built to defend the marque's dominance in sports car racing. Ferrari at the time was under intense pressure as American Shelby Cobra Daytonas and Ford GT40s were chasing down the company's 250 GTOs.

Engineers threw a number of firsts into the 275 GTB/C Speciale. It was the first Ferrari to mount an independent rear suspension and the first to mount a transaxle gearbox. But circumstance took away much of its chance to ever shine. The Federation Internationale de l'Automobile, which sanctioned the World Sportscar Championship, was angry at Ferrari for trying to incorrectly homologate the 250GTO and 250 LM for competition in previous years, and the FIA refused to let the 275 GTB/C Speciale race.

The FIA and Ferrari eventually came to agree that only one 275 GTB/C Speciale would be homologated and allowed to compete in 1965, and it was not this one. Ferrari sold the car to a private owner who used the hand-built race car exclusively on the road, for which the factory fitted front and rear bumpers and repainted it from Rosso Cina red to the gray it wears now. It bounced from collector to collector over the years, trying its hand in several historic races but never seeing the professional racing career for which it was created.

Price: $27,500,000

Auctioned by RM Sotheby's in Monterey, California, on August 17, 2013

Sold new to a buyer in North Carolina, this one-family car was one of ten N.A.R.T. Spiders ever built. N.A.R.T. stands for North American Racing Team, and it amounted to a badge on the rear of the Scaglietti bodywork. Dark blue from the factory, it spent most of its life in that hue until its owner repainted it red, but the normal value-drop that a color change brings had little effect on this pristine example of a rare car.

It was also fitted with an unusual chromed grille guard particular to this car. Years later, according to the owner, concourse car show judges protested the "unoriginal" grill guard, to which the owner replied "Well, if that's not original, I'll be as surprised as you are, because it was on there when I picked the car up (from the factory) myself in Modena." 

Chassis 10709 stayed in the same family until 2013, when it went up for sale and became the highest-priced road car to ever leave an auction block.

Price: $28,050,000

Auctioned by RM Sotheby's in New York City, New York, on December 10, 2015

Enzo Ferrari pinned upon this car his hopes of securing the manufacturer's title for the World Sportscar Championship, a series Ferrari had dominated in its inaugural years before losing the title to Mercedes-Benz in 1955. Engineer Vittorio Jano convinced Enzo to once again mount a V12 between the fender walls after several years of using four- and six-cylinder engines. Juan Manuel Fangio, who'd become a five-time champion of the series, was chosen to drive 0626 in the Mille Miglia.

Behind other, equally famous hands, the car placed well in follow-up races at the famed Nürburgring, Rouen-Les-Essarts, and Kristianstad, where a second-place finished secured Ferrari the 1956 World Sportscar Championship. By the time it raced its last professional race in 1964 and passed to private ownership, 0626 had never been crashed, a rare bit of luck in a sport in which most cars eventually sorted into two categories: crashed or parted out. Ever since, it's made regular appearances at Goodwood and the Concours of Elegance, raced sporadically in amateur historic races such as the Mille Miglia Storica, and featured in French museum exhibits and collections.

Price: $35,711,359

Auctioned by Artcurial in Paris, France, on February 5, 2016

Chassis 0674 began life as a Scaglietti-bodied 315 S factory race car, entered by Scuderia Ferrari in the 1957 12 Hours of Sebring. Driven by factory drivers Peter Collins and Maurice Trintignant, it finished sixth. The 315 S was handed to driver Wolfgang von Trips that May for the Mille Miglia, Italy's famed 1,000-mile race across closed public roads. 

Afterwards, it was returned to the factory to have its 3.8-liter V12's displacement increased to 4.1 liters, thus turning the car into a 335 S. Now able to top 185 miles per hour, it appeared at the 24 Hours of Le Mans driven by Mike Hawthorn and Luigi Musso, where Hawthorn set the race's first-ever lap record. Chassis 0674 finished out the year racing in the Swedish Grand Prix and Venezuela Grand Prix and won Ferrari the Wold Constructors' Title of 1957.

With its mission accomplished, Ferrari sold it. The 335 S spent two years as a privateer racer in Cuba and America, and thereafter retired from full-time competition.

Price: $38,115,000

Auctioned by Bonhams in Carmel, California, on August 14, 2014

The 250 GTO was an immediate favorite to win when it debuted, with Ferrari having proven itself a front-running racing car by 1962. This car, Chassis 3851GT, was bodied by Scaglietti and sold to Jo Schlesser, an emerging privateer racer who planned to share driving duty with his friend Henri Oreillier, ex-professional skier and hero of the French Resistance in World War II. During the car's second race, Oreillier was killed at the wheel in a crash at Coupes du Salon. The heavily damaged vehicle was repaired at the Ferrari factory and sold to an Italian privateer who used it to win 12 of the 14 hill climbs he entered in 1963.

Now a famously winning car, 3851GT was sold again—and crashed again. During the 1964 Coppa Inter-Europa, it rolled over, caving in its roof but causing little other than cosmetic damage. It was repaired once more by Ferrari, but the following year its owner considered parting out the tired car. He sold it instead for 2.5 million lire, about $33,500 USD adjusted for 2014 inflation. The buyer hung onto the car for 49 years until he sent it to auction in 2014, where it set the world record for the most expensive car ever sold.

The record for the highest sale price achieved at auction has been broken again at RM Sotheby's

This rare 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO became the most-expensive car ever sold at auction when bidding reached for $48.4 million at an RM Sotheby’s event in Monterey, California.

The red Ferrari coupe is one of just thirty six that were made, each slightly different and unique.

This model has an impressive racing pedigree, with a national championship and several major wins to it credit, won during its competitive career in the 1960s. It has been a fixture on the historic racing circuit.

Incredibly, unlike most racing cars, it has never been crashed or repaired.

The beautiful car was owned since 2000 by former Microsoft executive Greg Whitten, and was purchased by an anonymous bidder for a hammer price of $44 million, which translates to $48.4 million after auction fees.

The sale price smashed the previous $38 million auction record set by a similar car in 2014. However, another GTO reportedly changed hands in a private sale for $70 million earlier this year but this is not confirmed.

In the past decade, the world's most valuable cars have started going for private-jet money. What makes a car fetch such high prices is elusive, but it boils down to the intangible. Timeless beauty, altough often a matter of opinion, is a large factor in a high value car, some being all-out works of art. Race history, especially when attached to a household name, drives up value. Rarity, too, is a given. More than anything, though, the cars that bring top money are those with the best stories.