Past, present, Future: 13 photos that every car lover should see

1. BMW M3

Five generations of the M3 are proof of how strong and how important a car it is for BMW. The E30 M3 is a classic every enthusiast wants to own. The car that still is the purest M3 there ever was, is considered as one of the best driver’s cars in the world. It has won more races than we can list and it has led to the birth of four successors. Agreed the latest generation car is called an M4, but it is the E30’s spiritual successor.

2. Mini

From what started off as a necessity for personal transportation, no one could a scripted such a chequered journey for the Mini. It started off as a BMC(British Motor Corporation) Mini in 1959 to help get Britain on wheels. The benefits of its compact dimensions and lightweight design were realized soon and the tinny hatchback started will rallies everywhere. The fun to drive nature translated to new Minis under BMW leadership, and although they are larger than the original, can be easily recognized as successors to this baby legend.

3. Porsche 911

Porsche internally changes names of the 911 with every successive model but the connect with the ‘911’ is so strong that it will live through the life of the company. It started off as the 911 in the foreground in the early Sixties when a rear engine rear wheel drive sportscar was trying to do something different and unnatural. Porsche has managed weight distribution and finesse so well in its cars over the years that the present 911 (991 internally) is one of the best handling sportscars you can find.

4. Land Rover 

Unlike a particular car, for Land Rover legacy grew through its models. Rover’s chief designer Maurice Wilks wanted a British counterpart to the American Jeep and so designed the Series 1 a utility vehicle capable of traversing the toughest British Countryside terrain. From there started Land Rover’s supremacy in building off-road vehicles. The Defender cemented its place in Land Rovers history books with over 30 years of service and the DC100 concept to the right of the original Land Rover is the Defender’s successor. 

5. Ford GT

When the deal between Henry Ford and Enzo Ferrari fell apart to build racecars for Le Mans, the former instructed Ford engineers to build a car themselves to beat Ferrari at their own game, and so was born the Ford GT. The original was 40 inches tall and so called the GT40. It won four consecutive Le Mans titles. It took Ford over three decades to come up with the next GT, a car that had to live up to the original’s name. As gorgeous as it looks, the 2002 Ford GT wasn’t as special a car as the original. But there’s a new one coming in 2017, the car in the foreground. And we can’t wait!

6. Fiat 500

If there’s a better way to remind you of the original, we’d like to know. The new 500 with the original Cinquecento outlined on the side is hilarious and nostalgic at the same time. It was Italy’s Beetle and Mini and arguably the cutest of the troika. Italian flair for design, however simple the product, can be best represented in the automotive world by the humble little Cinquecento. While the 500 has grown, it has deviated the least from its original.

7. Volkswagen Beetle

I for one don’t appreciate the bug that put Germany on wheels or its modern interpretation. But design is subjective so I’ll let you decide for yourself. It has however had the longest run among the cars in this list, right from the year 1938. Designed by Ferdinand Porsche, the original was meant to be functional but also be able to handle high speeds on the Autobahn and thus could be credited to leading the German obsession with bulletproof engineering.  The original Beetle was called the People’s car. The new one could very well be a fashion accessory. 

8. Ford Mustang

Six generations stand between these two cars. The original poster car, the Mustang was a car every boy has probably every wanted to own. The long bonnet, short rear coolness led to a new pony car class every manufacturer wanted to enter. It gave birth to the Camaro, Firebird and the Challenger, and these are properly epic cars to brush shoulders with. The latest gets right hand drive models, so we can only hope and wish that it comes to India some day.

9. Aston Martin DB5-DB9

Grand Tourers don’t come as special as these. Aston Martin had been building GT cars before the Fifties set in and were doing a damn good job at it, but true recognition came with the DB5, a car made popular by one Mr James Bond in the movie Goldfinger. Its latest spiritual successor is the DB9, a car that came over a decade ago and has seen its own set of successors since. 

10. Mercedes-Benz SLS

That’s one epic shot… Two Gull-wing Coupes, two roadsters, all legends. The 300SL might look cute now but it was fast, the fastest production car of its day, and had unique gull-wing doors at the time. Mercedes later offered it as an open top roadster too, a formula replicated with the SLS AMG, its spiritual successor. The 300SL is a vintage car collector’s crowned jewel, and can fetch over $1 million dollars easy, making it costlier than the modern SLS AMG by a huge margin.

11. Jaguar E- & F-type

There hasn’t been a more beautiful car to have graced this world than the E-type. Coupe or convertible, the E-Type is stunning and just hearing its exhausts sing will make your day. Naturally such royal blood must lead to one handsome hunk with a voice so enchanting, you’d hear it instead of the Opera. The F-Type had huge boots to fill and we are glad to know that it does so with a lot of panache. Keep calm and ogle at these cars that are worthy of the prime spot in a museum, as much as they are on the race track.

12. Chevrolet Corvette

While seven generations of the Vette make it an icon, it really is the second Stingray generation that set the ball rolling. It had distinctive design elements like the Mako Shark inspiration, split rear window and hidden headlamps. A design so ahead of its times, it led to a revolution in American automotive design. In fact, the next three generations that ran through decades were heavily inspired by this classic but as years went by, people’s perception of the Vette began to change. It was seen as a old man’s toy and so the new C7 Corvette was designed to appeal to younger audiences, shedding the past but remembering it in this picture. It does. Just look at it!

13. Ferrari 

Ferrari has such a cloured (mostly Scarlet) history of successors that it is impossible to pick one. From the V8 308s in the Seventies to the 458, from the 250 GT to the F12 Berlinetta, there has been one iconic car after another. Testarossas, F40s, Enzos, this picture sums up just why Ferrari is ground zero in the automotive world. The 250 GTO and the F12 Berlinetta are our current favourites if we’d have to pick with a gun pointed at our face.