Every car firm has a star, looks-wise.
So we decided to choose the car we reckon represents every major car brand at its best. We know you won’t agree with every choice, but we do hope you enjoy the journey:
Alfa Romeo: 8C 2900 (1935)
An almost preposterously long bonnet, voluptuous wheel fairings, a rakishly compact cockpit of a cabin – this was rapid transit, 1930s style. Rapid, indulgent transit from eight cylinders.
AC: Cobra 289 (1962)
Brawn on wheels, the Cobra appears to be bursting with power and indeed, usually is. It’s because the AC Ace from which it swelled was so well-proportioned that the Cobra works.
Alpine: A110 (2017)
A perfect blend of Alpine’s A110 Berlinetta past and the design language of the present, the new A110’s pretty, trim and athletic alloy bodywork makes you want to step inside and drive.
Aston Martin: DB4 GT Zagato (1962)
These were almost unsalable new, skewered by astronomical prices despite their lightweight beauty. Prices eventually hit the millions for the 19 originally made, prompting the 1990s build of four more utilizing unused chassis numbers.
Auburn: Boattail Speedster 851 (1934)
As glamorous as any pre-war Alfa Romeo, Hispano-Suiza or Mercedes, Auburn’s straight eight series reached its lofty design zenith for the 1935 model year. Despite this achievement, Auburn ceased manufacturing in 1937.
Audi: TT (1998)
Clean-sculpted to the point of utilitarianism, the original TT combined modernity with an irresistible flavour of avant garde 1930s design, a theme abandoned in subsequent generations.
Austin-Healey: 100M (1955)
Still one of the most handsome two-seater sports cars ever, and purest in its early, folding windscreen form that turns it into a speedster. Crude mechanicals are part of the charm.
BAC: Mono (2011)
This is the spare look of your 21st century single seat roadster. There’s not much bodywork, but what there is turns compellingly shapely the more you stare.
Bentley: Continental GT (2003)
Among the most handsome Bentleys ever, and it shares a platform with a Volkswagen. It’s decidedly more handsome than a Phaeton however and though big, does not look as unnecessarily large as its current successor.
BMW: 507 (1956)
Albrecht von Goertz’s 1956 507 was as handsome as any contemporary Ferrari, but a costly build pushed its price too close to these exotics, killing the car after only 252 were built, and bankrupting BMW.
Bugatti: Type 57 Atlantic (1938)
Extravagant, fantastical, sculptural and suggestive of exotic lives lived by the few, the Atlantic borders on the mythic. And the intrigue continues with the clamshell doors and the vertical fin continuing the split screen’s vee.