In the past year, many iconic cars celebrated milestones. If they are included in this selection, it means they have not aged and will probably never grow old. The history of outstanding cars is always worth telling – and these round dates have given us good reasons all year. This is also an opportunity to check the timeline of your feelings. Are we all ready for the Golf to turn 50 and the Mustang to turn 60?
The editors of Motor celebrated the 40th anniversary of the famous Mercedes-Benz E-Class W124 with undisguised pleasure. A truly great car – timeless design, fantastic reliability and serious technology!
Alexey Sulima
Did you know that the strict body of the W124 is excellent in terms of aerodynamics, the advanced versions included an all-wheel drive system, and the letter E in the name initially had nothing to do with the established name of the line? The sports sedan 500 E/E 500 is widely known, but we remembered little-known facts from its biography and went through the rarest modifications from AMG tuners. Note that last year the no less legendary “one hundred and twenty-sixth” turned 45.
At the turn of the eighties, Japanese companies had a reputation as serious players in the mass segment and the technological field, but the emergence of a mid-engined supercar from the Islands still seemed like a completely fantastic scenario. Until Honda got down to business!
The story of the NSX super coupe is amazing: created from scratch and without any experience in an ambitious segment, the car turned out to be far from shy and even surpassed its competitors. It turned out that a grand tourer can delight not only with speed and dynamics, but also with comfort. In addition, overtake a Ferrari with a V12 engine on the track! The Japanese masterpiece made do with just a V-shaped “six”, but what a one! Atmospheric, highly accelerated and with a variable valve timing system. The NSX might not have reached such a high level of perfection if it weren’t for one legendary racer who pointed the engineers in the right direction from the very beginning. Read the material about the supercar, although you, of course, already know who we are talking about!
We’ve been waiting for the legendary supercar from Maranello to turn 40 years old to talk about it, and the momentous moment has arrived! The 288 GTO is in the shadow of the iconic F40, but it came first, and without it it is not certain that one of the most revered Ferraris would have seen the light of day. The production car with racing features was based on the 308 model, but the scale of the alterations is truly grandiose! The wheelbase has been increased, and the V8 engine is mounted longitudinally rather than transversely, and in addition is equipped with two turbochargers! What makes the hypercar of its era especially valuable is the fact that it was worked on by the brilliant designer Nicola Materazzi, who later worked on the Ferrari F40 and Bugatti EB110.
No matter how great the GTO was, even it paled in comparison to the homologation Evoluzione with a radically redesigned body, rethought aerodynamics, a 650-horsepower engine and a weight reduced to 940 kg. Be sure to check out all the details about the history of the 288 GTO – it’s interesting!
How can you open the door to a fundamentally new market segment and almost immediately win universal honor and respect? Ask Toyota – they will know for sure! Surprisingly, it is an iron fact: the appearance of the first Lexus LS came as a shock to the class of full-size premium sedans. The Germans then became very tense.
The venerable Toyota set the bar very high from the start. The new product was supposed to reach 250 km/h, have an aerodynamic drag coefficient Cx of no more than 0.29, and a noise level in the cabin at 100 km/h of up to 58 dB. Simply put, outperform direct competitors in ride comfort. To design the world’s best sedan, the company attracted super-resources – 1,400 engineers, 2,300 technicians, 60 designers and over two hundred support specialists. All the details about the birth of the Lexus LS are in a fascinating historical saga.
Technically, the C111 is a concept car, but it breaks every possible rule of the genre. It was not produced in a single copy, but in a rather large edition for an experimental machine (four versions and sixteen copies), played the role of an engineering laboratory and set more than ten speed records.
The uninitiated is unlikely to see a fundamental difference between the C111 iterations. Here the design is a little nicer, there it’s a little clumsy. But appearance is just the tip of the iceberg! Where else can you see concepts with different types of engines?! Early Mercedes-Benz was equipped with a three-section rotary piston unit producing 280 hp. and could reach 260 km/h. Its successor has a four-section engine. The C111 with a petrol 3.5-liter V8 is also known, but the turbodiesel supercar distinguished itself the most. During a 60-hour testing session, he set 16 world records! However, we will not reveal all our cards. To mark the 55th anniversary of the wonderful family, “Motor” has published detailed material. Read!
Chic styling, huge dimensions, luxurious interior, progressive 253-horsepower four-liter V8 engine and… front-wheel drive. The combination is more than strange, but the Oldsmobile company, which has long since sunk into oblivion (it was part of General Motors), built the full-size Aurora sedan precisely according to such an unusual concept. The original approach did not guarantee success at all – one of the most spectacular and charismatic American cars of the 90s failed on the market. Neither design, nor engineering, nor constant updates helped.
There are plenty of reasons for this – for example, price hikes and the fact that they tried to promote the Aurora as an advanced product without reference to the Oldsmobile brand. In turn, the latter was inextricably associated among consumers with mass-produced and quite smart cars in the middle price segment. And here it is… Nevertheless, Aurora showed the engineering and creative potential of General Motors. Follow the link for everything you need to know about the forgotten American cruiser.
Porsche began thinking about a sports car with more than two doors long before the appearance of the Panamera and the Cayenne crossover. The first experiments date back to the early fifties – then the German company built the Z-87 sedan for the American Studebaker. It should be noted that it is very progressive – with a liquid-cooled engine and independent suspension on all wheels. But it was not only the manufacturer who thought about a practical model. A similar idea was hatched by the Bertone atelier, namely by Giuseppe “Nuccio” Bertone himself.
Any analogies with the Porsche 989, the forerunner of the Panamera from the mid-90s a la the elongated 911, are inappropriate. The Italian carrozeria built the Karisma concept based on the Porsche 911 without regard to the company’s affairs, and in Zuffenhausen they were not aware of Bertone’s grandiose plans. During the premiere, journalists from Autocar asked Senor Giuseppe whether his project had anything to do with the 989. The question is strange – the Italians have created a distinctive sedan with huge gullwing lifting doors and no Porsche quotes. The concept is reminiscent of the iconic Marzal concept car from the mid-sixties by the young and at that time not very famous Marcello Gandini. The question is, which side is Porsche here?
Suspension on double wishbones, rigid power structure, minimalistic interior that fits you like a glove and a two-liter naturally aspirated “four” with a capacity of 240 hp. with a top speed of 9000 rpm and a thrilling burst thanks to variable valve timing. Supercar? Almost – the coolest Honda S2000 roadster! He makes people scream out loud, is addictive and remains forever young, although he celebrated his 25th anniversary last year.
Only Honda could create the S2000! At the turn of the century, the company revered the philosophy of fun naturally aspirated engines, had enormous experience in this area and a most valuable asset in the person of engineer Shigeru Uehara. If his name doesn’t mean anything to you, remember the NSX-R and Integra Type R (DC2/DC5) – high-end sports cars made by him. Read the story about the roadster, which shocked even the brand’s accustomed fans!
We can’t help but mention: another very important car celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2024: the BMW Z8. And we managed to meet him personally.
For the half-century anniversary of Golf, we thoroughly delved into this topic. And you know, you can make a film about the biography of a bestseller! Let’s start with the fact that back in the early fifties, Volkswagen took up the successor to the rear-engine Beetle. It was not possible to quickly produce something adequate, but the developers did not deny themselves experiments. The result was an army of prototypes, including a mid-engined one with rear-wheel drive.
The serial Golf is completely different – a transverse engine, front-wheel drive, styling by Giorgetto Giugiaro and Italdesign. By the way, this is not the first Volkswagen with front-wheel drive – a new word was said by the Passat B1 with a longitudinal layout like the Audi 80. Not only did the Golf give its name to an entire class, it also formed the basis for the famous GTI hot hatch. By the way, this marking has also become a household name.
The iconic Mustang is turning 60! True, blindly praising a pony car is not the “Motor” method. We have analyzed both the bright and dark sides of the biography of the first generation model. It was born in an era when Americans did not bother too much with the complexity of the anatomy of conventionally sporty cars. The hero of films and songs is also quite simple and straightforward – developed on the platform of the mass-produced Ford Falcon. Lee Iacocca, one of the most famous top managers in the auto industry, subtly grasped the wishes of young buyers and offered them an affordable car with different body types and a range of engines, including powerful V8s.
Alas, the early Mustang is not only super popular. By the way, in 1965 and 1966, 559,451 and 607,568 copies were sold, respectively. The pony car turned out to be, to put it mildly, a fire hazard. A rear-end collision could have tragic consequences. At the end of production in the early seventies, the car grew significantly in size, for which it was mercilessly criticized. These and many other facts are at the link. And by the way, not only Mustang celebrated its 60th anniversary. This company also includes a Plymouth Barracuda. /m
PS All materials about anniversaries should be found here, and we collect various results of the year here.
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