There is no doubt about it: while tech gadgets like the world’s first manned drone or even the hoverboard may be on the rise, it is cool cars that defend their seat on the throne of all gadgets for men. Even more so when you think back to the time you attained full age: Can you remember the first time you ever sat behind the wheel alone, right after you received your driver’s licence? How it felt and the freedom that came along with it?

The feeling of pushing the pedal down with your right foot, hearing the engine roar up and thus sending the machine forward in heavy acceleration was – and is – as priceless as it gets. Cruising, driving and speeding off in a cool car is as much a joy as it has been 40 years ago. The one thing that has changed tremendously in the past decades, however, is the technical makeup of cars.

Need an example? Our first car in the list stems from a well-known German manufacturer and closes in at a maximum speed of 140 km/h. If you now compare the 140 km/h of the Porsche 356 to the 210 km/h vmax of its successor, the Porsche 911, then you get a first idea about the immense progess made in the development of, let’s face it, some of the coolest cars the last century has seen.

This sets the stage for the first car in our list. First produced in war-ridden Germany of 1948 the Porsche 356 has received notable fame for its design, its high-quality manufacture and, last but not least, for its endorsement by none other than the ‘King of Cool’ himself, Mr Steve McQueen.

The Porsche 356 almost did not make our list. As Porsche’s first car that went into serial production 1965 actually was the very last year on the assembly line for the two-seated sports car. It was from 1948 up until 1965 that the Porsche company produced a total of more than 76.000 Porsche 356 with one noteworthy anecdote: the first 50 copies were built in pure manual work – good old German ‘Qualitätsarbeit’, if you will – while assembly line production set in during the spring of 1950 only.

If you take a closer look at the Porsche 356 and you start seeing a vague resemblence of the VW Beetle that had been introduced in 1938 then you are not too far off: behind the looks of both cars stands the same man. Austrian-born engineer and designer Erwin Komenda is responsible for the look both of the world’s most sold car as well as Porsche’s first car to go into serial production.

Fast forward just one year after production of the Porsche 356 ceased and we get to the year that saw the arrival of Chevrolet’s first car to be later named a Muscle Car, the Camaro. Designed in 1964 as a competitor to the overly successful Ford Mustang the Camaro was meant to be positioned in between heavy-engined pickup trucks and European-style sports cars which were seen as too high-allure by American engineers. In this regard, the now-household name of the Muscle Car originated in the literal meaning of the term: with muscle cars a relatively basic chassis was  merged with an engine that was overflowing with horsepower. In short, muscle cars were designed to “kick sand in the face of the 98 horsepower weakling“, as author Peter Henshaw put it in his 448 page strong monography on the topic.

It is crucial to understand how much muscle actually was involved with Muscle Cars like the Camaro: the first model going on sale in September 1966 came with nine different classes of engines, all ranging from 3800cc to 6500cc. The amount of horsepower featured with the 6500cc model? A striking 375 HP.

The year 1970 marks a turning point in international car design. While the vast majority of sports cars until then had been designed in a rather ‘convservative’ fashion, drawing heavily from the design of racing cars popular in the 1930s and 1940s, the year 1970 sets an end to that era.

1970 saw the arrival of a new wave of cars. These came in a more aerodynamic, more technically advanced and thus more ‘modern’ design. Cars like the Lotus Esprit (1976) act as perfect examples for the described paradigm shift in car design. To give an example: heightened fenders blending into big and bulky headlights became more and more rare. They were ultimately replaced by the latest fashion trend of that time: pop-up headlights.

The Ferrari Dino 246 GT stands at the pinnacle of that transformation. From the back a classic Ferrari featuring the characteristic hatchback of the Italian manufacturer, the front of the Dino 246 GT reminds of the pre-1970 era with headlights that seem to virtually grow out of emphasized fenders.

When the Ferrari Dino was a good example for the transition from classic sports car design to a more modern one then the Lamborghini Countach has to be seen as the first fully modern sports car. Separated from all tradition in terms of design – with the pop-up headlights being a negotiable exception – the futuristic and almost stealth-like look of the Lamborghini Countach was a mini-revolution in the superior-class of sports cars.

When the Countach was first introduced to the public on the 86th Geneva Motor Show in 1971 it clearly stuck out. Without any heating, ventilation or even windshield wipers the futuristic looking prototype, then named LP500, did not have much in common with any of the other cars on display. Did that keep it from making a favorable impression with basically every visitor of one of Euope’s most important auto shows?

It did not. In fact, people’s response to the Countach prototyp was so overwhelmingly positive that the car derived its name from it: Pronounced “Coun-tush” – and not “Count-tatch”, as one might think – the car’s name is the vocalisation of a common expression in Piedmontese, a minority language that is spoken in the area around Lamborghini’s headquarters in Northern Italy. The meaning of said expression? It is a locally used outcry of astoundedness, easily translated into English as “Jesus!” – if that isn’t a fitting expression to what visitors used to classic cars have seen in the Geneva of 1971 then I don’t what is.

From sports and muscle cars we are taking a short detour to an entirely different section of cars and manufacturers alike: welcome to perhaps the most distinguished car manufacturer of them all. Mercedes Benz has a well-deserved reputation for producing some of the finest, most sophisticated and most reliable automobiles in the world. And the Mercedes Benz 450 SEL, which saw its release in September 1975, is no exception to that rule.

Not only was the 4.50m long limousine the fastest one of its time. At a maximum speed of 225 km/h the most-equipped model of Mercedes’ 116 production line has also been the flagship of what today is known as the Mercedes Benz S-Class. In fact, the 116 production line has been the first S-Class ever. And the 450 SEL 6.9 is coming out at the very top of Mercedes’ newfound high-end segment.

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