1. British car designer Gordon Murray wanted to implement Formula One technology and spaceage materials to create theultimate road carduring the 1988 Formula One season. With the help of McLaren team principal Ron Dennis, he made that dream a reality.When it was released in 1993, the McLaren F1 was the most expensive production road car in the world at a staggering $857,000. Only 64 were built. While it has been eclipsed dozens of times in price ove .....
2. The Lamborghini Countach was designed to shock. The name itself is an exclamation countach in a Piedmontese dialect conveys exclamation. Its the equivalent of the English word wow, although there does exist a more risque undertone to the word, according to some. Legend says that car designer Bertone uttered the slang the moment he saw the final car designed by Marcello Gandini. Company owner Ferruccio Lamborghini reportedly liked his reaction so .....
3. The extensive and extravagant customization options of the MercedesBenz 600 Pullman Limousine (or the ?Grosser, as it was affectionately known) attracted a very specific type of user:dictators. Saddam Hussein, Mao Zedong, Fidel Castro, Nicolae Ceausescu, Idi Amin Dada, and Kim JongIl all enjoyed the luxury of being chauffeured in a 600 Grosser.That isnt the most fascinating aspect of the Grosser, though. That honor goes to the complex hydraulic s .....
4. Every year, the International Automobile Federation (FIA) gives an award to the manufacturer whose car performs best in races over the course of the season. The first few years that it awarded this title, the FIA focused on sports prototypes. Then in 1962, it changed its rules, allowing only cars that weremassproduced for the public. To stay in the running, Ferrari needed a new model, and it needed to produce several units.The result was the 250 .....
5. Citroen has always been at the cutting edge of automotive innovation, Their current claim to fame is a small SUV named the Cactus that hasdeformable body panelson the bumpers and sides to eliminate fender benders and parking lot scratches. Citroens most famous car perhaps is the 2CV, noted for bothlooking like a duckand getting France moving after World War II.The companys DS, which debuted in 1955, came with a suspension so smooth that it was li .....
6. The Viper was to be a modernday Shelby Cobra, one of the worlds greatest muscle cars. The new car was to be just as pure and bare bones as the Cobra, a counter statement to just how bloated and complicated all cars had become. The design is perhaps the greatest example of a sketch come to life, and when it debuted as a concept car in 1989 at the Detroit Auto show, it caused such a sensation that it was put into production with very few changes to .....
7. Theres no doubting the prestige of Englands premier sports car manufacturer. Over the last century, Aston Martin can lay claims todozens of wonderful and beautiful automobiles. The Lagonda, however, wonderful as it may be, wasnt exactly beautiful. The first thing youll notice is its extreme and polarizing design, but its whats on the inside that counts.While it might seem commonplace now for cars to have electronic parts, the Lagonda was the firs .....
8. Perhaps the most dull and uninspiring vehicle type on the road today is the minivan. Its a rolling appliance designed to ferry kids from destination to destination. It wasnt always like this, however. As with many other things in history, the first rendition had the best intentions, and the Stout Scarab in 1936 paved a glorious path for minivans (a path none followed).American aircraft engineer William Bushnell Stout had been involved with the au .....
9. Morganis a small familybased automobile company headquartered in Malvern, England and founded in 1909. From the very beginning, the company produced threewheelers, and when inspecting their modern take on their classic design, youd be hardpressed to find any differences. Besides looking like a relic from the past, the modern threewheeler is constructed in ways that even boutique auto manufactures abandoned long ago, with 40,000 paint colors and 5 .....
10. The Reliant Motor Company was founded in 1935 in Tamworth, England, and the small auto manufacturer produced threewheeled vehicles from the start. Threewheeled automobile areclassified as motorcyclesin the UK and thus are cheaper to register and insure. But as so often is the case with cheap motoring, theres a catch. The Robins catch is that it rolls over. Almost everyone can recall a childhood memory of falling off their tricycle and scuffing a .....
