The Best Cars Of All Time

The World's Greatest Cars. In Detail

From Bugattis to Ferraris and Porsches to Dusenbergs, the team at Sports Car Digest have decided to create profiles of some of the best cars ever produced. We didn't rank the top 100 cars ever because we don't want hate mail but we dive into the details and history of these historic, rare and desirable machines. Some of these cars are historically significant, some are about pushing the automotive technology of their time, while others are just the pinnacle of the driving experience - engaging, fast and fun. On this page we take a look at some of the most memorable sports cars of all time, all of them iconic and recognizable to any car-obsessed fan reading this site. These are the cars that get our blood flowing here at Sports Car Digest, from vintage racers to classics to the latest supercar offerings, we realize that there are myriad discussions debates over which ones are the most memorable, the most celebrated and the most remarkable. Ignore the debates and refrain from picking an overall winner. Just sit back and celebrate.

The Best Cars Ever Made

The greatest cars of all time. We tell you their stories.

Ultimate Cars. Ultimate Profiles.

The greatest cars, the greatest brands, the best drivers.

Pininfarina’s Design for the Lancia Gamma Coupé Was an Exercise in Restraint

Lancia brought two Gammas to Geneva in March 1976: a fastback saloon and, from Aldo Brovarone at Pininfarina, a three-box coupé on a shortened wheelbase, the reverse of the usual arrangement. Buyers waited more than a year for the coupé.

The Lamborghini Bravo: Bertone’s Defiant Baby Countach

Bertone showed the Bravo at Turin in 1974, the year of the oil crisis and the year Ferruccio sold his last Lamborghini shares. The V8 two-seater ran thousands of test miles and never reached a showroom.

The Lotec C1000 Was the Fastest Car of the ’90s on Paper Only

A member of Dubai's House of Maktoum ordered the fastest road car in the world in 1991 and wanted one built. Lotec delivered the C1000 in 1995 with 1,000 hp and a top speed nobody checked with a radar gun.

Venturi’s Atlantique 300 and the Championship That Outlived It

Hubert O'Neill had owned Venturi for seven months when he showed the Atlantique 300 at Paris in October 1994. Seventy were built; the company was liquidated 16 months later and the race series that helped sink it survived.

De Macross Epique GT1: the Korean-Canadian Supercar

Heo Ja-Hong "Keyser" Hur, great-grandson of the founder of Korea's GS Group, chose to start a car company rather than buy another limited-run supercar. Lorenzo Baer on de Macross and its only product, the Epique GT1.

The Jaguar XJ220 Was the Fastest Broken Promise in Supercar History

At the 1988 Birmingham show roughly 1,500 people put down £50,000 deposits on a car Jaguar had not decided to build. Four years later it was the fastest production car in the world, and many wanted their money back.

The Wedge That Outlasted the Competition: A History of the Lotus Esprit

Lotus commissioned Giugiaro's Italdesign in 1972 to style a new car on a modified Europa chassis; the M70 concept appeared at Turin that year beside Italdesign's Boomerang, and the Esprit S1 reached Paris in October 1975.

The Last Maserati of a Dying Era

December 14, 1989: Alejandro de Tomaso unveiled the Shamal in Modena nine days after Fiat had quietly signed for 49 percent of Maserati. The last coupe of his era, and one of the least discussed grand tourers of the decade.

The Hound of Blackpool: 30 Years of the TVR Cerbera

There's a start button under the steering wheel, an immobilizer sequence, switches on the wheel instead of stalks and a hidden door button under the mirror. Thirty years on, the Cerbera and Al Melling's from-scratch V8 have not mellowed.

Lotus Carlton: The Wildest Sports Saloon of the 1990s

GM Europe's president was tired of being called boring, so he sent Vauxhall's executive saloon, a fleet car with a 0.28 drag coefficient, to Lotus with one brief: the fastest-accelerating saloon in the world. The Carlton was the result.

Recreating History – The Ford GT40 MK IV

Riley Technologies and Kar-Kraft built a new Ford GT40 Mk IV from the original 1967 Le Mans winner's drawings in nine months from late 2022. Martin Raffauf on why that is possible, beginning with Enzo Ferrari's 1963 cash problem.

The Honda S600 and Its 9,500 RPM Redline

In 1964 Honda became the world's biggest motorcycle maker, entered Formula 1 and put the S600 on sale: 606cc, twin cams, 55 horsepower and a 9,500 rpm redline, built after customers told Soichiro Honda the S500 wasn't enough.

This 1968 Alfa Romeo Concept Predicted the Future of Supercars

Bertone's 1968 Carabo sat on a real Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale chassis, one of about 18, with a mid-mounted racing V8 underneath, which is why Marcello Gandini's wedge could run. Scissor doors and the wedge, years before the Countach.

Three-quarter front view of a blue Lancia Hyena by Zagato at a racetrack

The Lancia Hyena by Zagato: Rare, Special, and Almost Forgotten

Dutch Lancia importer Paul Coote thought the Delta HF Integrale Evolution deserved a better suit and took it to Zagato, where Marco Petrasini had a sketch in a drawer. Just over twenty Hyenas were built in the early 1990s.

3/4 front view of a red Ferrari 208 GTB Turbo

Born of Bureaucracy: The Ferrari 208 GTB Turbo Story

Italy's VAT jumped sharply on engines over two liters, so Ferrari kept the 208 GTB's 1,991cc V8, added a single KKK turbo and Bosch injection and took output from about 155 hp to 220. Its first turbocharged road car.

Three-quarter side view of a 1995 black Aston Martin Vantage V550

The Forgotten Supercar Killer

Gauntlett couldn't afford a clean-sheet car, so the 1989 Virage reworked the 1960s DBS bones with Callaway heads and 330 hp. Birmingham 1992 brought the twin-supercharged Vantage: nearly 150 hp more than a Porsche Turbo, only the McLaren F1 stronger.

Heritage Series – BMW M1 – i8

The M1 began as a homologation special with Lamborghini building it, until Italian money ran out and BMW took over a production scattered across countries. The i8 shares none of its hardware, only the experience of being misunderstood, then admired.

Heritage Series – Aston Martin ‘Muncher’ – Valour

Aston Martin's Valour of July 2023, built for the 110th anniversary, reaches back to the 1970 DBS V8 "Muncher" Le Mans car and the 5.3-liter, roughly 390 hp V8 Vantage that refused to soften when rivals did.

Heritage Series – Ferrari F40 – F80

The F40 was the last Ferrari Enzo signed off, built from the bones of the canceled 288 GTO Evoluzione program at 1,110 kg with a 2.9-liter twin-turbo V8. The F80 of 2025 answers with hybrid power and extreme aerodynamics.

512 Testarossa Spider: The Ultra-Exclusive Ferrari

Ferrari took 37 orders for the Testarossa during the October 1984 Paris show alone. Leonardo Fioravanti led the Pininfarina team, Emmanuele Nicosia's concept the starting point. Lorenzo Baer on the car and its rare Spider variant.

The sleek lines of the Tornado Ventury are well illustrated in this photo, ca. 1967. ©Wally Vorlaufer Wally Vorlaufer

Tornado Ventury Record Breaker

Wally Vorlaufer emigrated from Austria to South Africa at 14 and designed his first car at 17 on Opel parts. Glen Smale on his third, the Tornado Ventury, begun in 1963 on a ten-year-old Riley RMF 2½ litre.

Heritage Series – McLaren F1 – GMA T.50

The McLaren F1 of 1992 put Gordon Murray's ideas into carbon: a central seat, a 6.1-liter BMW V12 with 627 horsepower, and balance over brute force. Thirty years on, the GMA T.50 restates them against touchscreens and electrified hypercars.

Renault’s ‘New Spirit 1994’ — The Amazing Argos

Patrick le Quèment found a 15-centimeter doodle on Jean-Pierre Ploué's board at Renault's new Boulogne-Billancourt studio in 1990; Ploué thought it looked like a cockroach. It became the Argos concept. Karl Ludvigsen tells the story with le Quèment himself.

The benefit of wider tires of this M-B 500E are visible as it’s pressed hard through a bend. The Porsche touch ensured a near-50/50 front/rear weight distribution.

Porsche Makes a Mercedes: The 500E Story

In 1989 Porsche had an empty Reutter building in Zuffenhausen, the 959 line finished, and a falling dollar. A contract signed on 19 March 1990 put Daimler-Benz's 500E on that floor. Karl Ludvigsen on Michael Hölscher's first big project.

Opala: American by Heart, Brazilian Excellence

General Motors of Brazil built only trucks for decades after 1925, then imported Impalas and Opel Kadetts, Olympias and Rekords to learn what Brazilians wanted. Project 676 was the answer: Impala space, Opel maneuverability. Lorenzo Baer on the Opala.

Best of the Best Cars

We decided to rate and rank some of the best cars ever made. Check out our curated list of the greatest cars by category.

Ultimate Garage Profiles

Some people have all the luck. We take a look at some of the most amazing car collections from across the globe. Museums, private collections and exhibits that are the envy of the automotive world.