The 39 cars that changed the world

Nothing changed the world like the car.

Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost (1907)

Why kick off with this rather than the Benz Patent Motorwagen, better known as the world’s first car? Pedantically, you can’t change a world that didn’t exist prior to your arrival, but perhaps more persuasively the Benz was so unsuited to doing distances that Benz didn’t even see fit to equip it with a fuel tank.

The Silver Ghost by contrast, was the first car with modern car reliability. Officially known as the 40/50hp model, one car was painted silver, given a name that would pass into motoring folklore and sent off to drive from London to Glasgow 27 times. It was 15,000 miles on roads we’d probably recognise as tracks and, save a fuel tap shaking itself shut, not a damn thing went wrong. The reputation of what came to be regarded as the world’s greatest car company was started here.

Ford Model T (1908)

It would take 22 years from the birth of the car until the Model T brought motoring to the masses. The car was awkward to drive even by the standards of the day, the revolution being the way in which it was built: mass production on an assembly line of a single car in a single colour. It went on sale in 1908 at a cost equivalent to around $20,000 today, a price which then but fell and fell as the efficiencies of the new production method became apparent.

Soon half of all cars sold in the US were Model Ts and by 1923 it cost under $300, around $4200 in modern money. Built in 12 countries on four continents in unprecedented numbers totalling 15 million -  this was the car that did more than any other to put the world on wheels.

Cadillac Type 53 (1916)

Outwardly, the Type 53 deserves no special mention. It was its predecessor, the Type 51, that featured the pioneering L-head engine – the world’s first mass-produced V8 – and Cadillac only built it for a year before replacing it. But with hindsight, the Type 53 was the first car to land upon the peculiarly intuitive arrangement of control surfaces that we now consider conventional.

Whereas previously the automobile had been operated by levers and handles and pedals in (what now seem) bizarre configurations, the Cadillac had a gear lever and handbrake in between the front seats, and three pedals for the clutch, brake and throttle. Millions followed the trick. It also had an electric starter – vital since hand cranking an eight-cylinder engine would have been arduous and probably perilous.

Austin 7 (1922)

That the Austin 7 enjoyed a 17 year production run totalling nearly 300,000 vehicles could be enough to warrant inclusion here on its own. But the ‘baby Austin’ really finds its place on this list because of what it would become; it was a packaging template, demonstrating how it was possible to make a car using so few materials that it was small and cheap like never before.

Which is why BMW licenced it to make its first car, while Nissan didn’t licence it but used it as an example when it came to producing its first vehicle. They even sold Austins in the US, though American Austin, the company, is more significant because it made the first prototype Jeep. Ironically BMW would end up owning Austin’s successor company, Rover, 70 years later. (late model pictured)

Lancia Lambda (1922)

We tend to think of independent suspension and monocoque construction among the innovations of the latter half of the car’s life to date. Not so: this brilliant Lancia had both when almost every other car bolted a body to a ladder chassis and used steel leaves as a springing medium, the same technology used by the horse and cart.

The Lambda also had a V-formation engine. To fair, the Lambda didn’t change the world: but it damn well should have done.

BMW 328 (1936)

Proof if ever there that it’s not the ingredients that matter, but the cook putting them together. Attention to detail was the 328’s watchword, which is how a pretty but apparently conventional roadster became one of the most revered pre-war cars of all.

Clever cylinder head work, world class aerodynamics and rigorous attention to weight saving created a car that was light, fun and capable of 100mph on just 2 litres of engine capacity. BMW built its reputation on the back of it and dines out on it to this day.

Volkswagen Type 1 (1938)

You know it better as the Beetle. Ordered by Hitler, designed by Ferdinand Porsche, star of far too many Herbie movies and sneered at late in life for being slow, uncomfortable and terrible to drive. But it was the Model T of the post-war era and by the time the last was built in 2003, some 65 years after the first, over 21 million had been made.

If you stick to cars that remained directly related through their production runs, and didn’t just use the same name like Golf or Toyota Corolla, it remains the best-selling car of all time.

Willys MB (1941)

Many cars in their unconventionality or novelty or originality have duly inspired others without they themselves being great – not so the Willys Military model B. It may have only been produced for four years, and others assisted in the trail blazing of the stupendously large segment that followed – but the “Jeep” was world-famous in its own right and an icon before others embellished it.

Perhaps uniquely, it possessed both the Spartan purpose of a war machine – and the uncanny car-like qualities of cheeriness and freedom and expression. Like the GIs that rode it into battle, only America could have produced it – and together they can justly claim to a starring role in making the world in which we live.

Jaguar XK120 (1948)

Consider not just the car, but the context. It’s 1948, the country is broke, its people mired in post-war austerity. Rationing still exists. Then, out of nowhere, comes a new car from a company with a new name. It is the most beautiful thing you have seen on or off wheels. It has a brand new twin cam straight six motor and it goes like the wind: 120mph is promised in an age when most cars on the road struggle to reach half that speed.

Yet this is no one off concept, nor an ultra-exclusive plaything for the fabulously wealthy: it’s a standard production model and it’s almost affordable. That was the proposition of the Jaguar XK120 and, in 1948, it was arguably the most desirable car this or indeed any country had yet produced.

Land Rover (1948)

A car of the purest expedience, built with an aluminium body because there was so much scrap after the war, and shaped to have as few curves as possible to save on tooling costs, it was a stop gap designed to last a few years. In fact and as we all know, the light and rot-free bodies and the iconic shape that would result in a life span of almost 70 years.

Not the first, but the definitive off-roader which, incidentally, also probably did more to save lives in far off and inaccessible places around the planet than any other car.

Mercedes-Benz 300SL (1954)

People will dispute forever the identity of the world’s first supercar, but the 300SL with its distinctive gullwing doors has as good a claim as any. Light and beautiful, its aerodynamics and direct-injected 220bhp 3-litre engine were literally decades ahead of their time, its 140mph top speed seemingly straight from science fiction. How fast was it at the time? Well put it this way: a near showroom standard car was entered for the 1955 Mille Miglia and among all the purpose built pure race prototypes, came home fifth...

Citroën DS (1955)

What if the DS has been rubbish? With a name that phonetically made it sound like its creators thought it was a God, it’s doubtful Citroen’s reputation would have survived the hubris and ignominy. But it wasn’t rubbish. It was brilliant with its revolutionary hydropneumatic suspension, and sufficiently beautiful to be considered a work of art in its own right.

So good indeed that 60 years after it was born, Citroen turned the name into a brand of its own. Time alone will tell how that one works out.

Toyota Toyopet Crown (1957)

Not here because it was successful, because it was a complete failure – in the United States, at least – but the Toyopet Crown’s fame is that it was the first Japanese car to be sold in the US. It had been selling well in Japan, but proving too small, too slow and too unreliable for the USA, Toyota racked up $1.42m in losses and sold only a couple of thousand before suspending passenger car sales in 1960 (continuing only with the Land Cruiser).

But, sensing compact cars like the Crown were part of America’s future, US carmakers began making their own, which, having learnt its lesson, Toyota returned to compete with in 1964. By 1966 it had 600 dealers and today the Camry is often the best-selling car in the US, and Toyota USA one of America’s largest car producers.

Fiat 500 (1957)

If the Mini that followed it was a small car revolution, the 500 was the ultimate evolution of accepted small car wisdom of the day. Tiny and cheap it may have been, but Italy’s best brains were behind it: that iconic shape was the work of Dante Giacosa, its minute two cylinder engine that of Ferrari F1 engine designer Aurelio Lampredi. For sheer inner city chic plus park and turn anywhere effectiveness, to this day we’ve not seen its equal.

Trabant (1957)

The Trabant, for all its stupendous warts, provided concrete evidence that personal mobility was no less valued beyond the iron curtain than it was in Milan, London, Paris or New York. The ‘spark plug with a roof’ was dirty, turgid, ugly and notoriously uncomfortable.

But it was very hardwearing – the Duroplast body parts made it a recycling groundbreaker – and highly sought after by East Germans. Around 3.7 million were built; proof enough that the car was to be undeniably the 20th centuries definitive chosen mode of transport.

Lotus Seven (1959)

So simple you could assemble it in your garden shed, yet ultimately so quick it got banned from various race series to let the others stand a chance. Even more than the Elan – see below – this is the apotheosis of Colin Chapman’s minimalist philosophy and the car upon which two companies, first Lotus and from 1973, Caterham, built their reputations.

Morris Mini Minor (1959)

Constant velocity joints. It’s bizarre to think that had its engineers not adapted these joints to eliminate unwelcome steering inteference, Alec Issigonis might have canned the car altogether. In the event he came up with a packaging revolution, making better use of limited space than any car in history. It was by no means the first front-wheel drive car, but it was the first to perfect the technology, starting a revolution that changed the way almost all affordable cars would be designed.

Jaguar E-type (1961)

Oh to have been at the Geneva show when the wraps came off this. It would have seemed scarcely possible that a car this beautiful could be anything other than a styling study rather than tooled up ready for production, let alone as fast as it looked. Yet it was all this and one more crucial thing besides: it was affordable. For people shopping in the real world, probably the greatest single advancement of the sports car art there has been.

Lotus Elan (1963)

That the Elan was light, beautiful and quick was almost incidental. It was the fact that no road car up until that time had handled so well that ensured it it’s place in history. The surprise today is how few have got even close to it since.

Ford Mustang (1964)

The original Pony Car and a greater influence on the American muscle car scene than even the Corvette. Achingly cool, better to drive than any US car built up to that time and, crucially, dirt cheap too. A proper legend.

Lamborghini Miura (1966)

Because the matter is so subjective, no one can categorically state the Lamborghini Miura is the best looking car ever to go into production. But we can perhaps agree that no other has a substantially better claim. But it was more than just a pretty face: by placing its 4-litre V12 engine behind the driver, it was a revolution too that transformed the way supercars would be designed.

Range Rover (1970)

The pedants will tell you the Range Rover wasn’t the first true luxury SUV – it was the Jeep Wagoneer – and therefore it can’t have invented the category. Ignore them. In terms of influence there had been no SUV of greater significance since the original Land Rover. Until the Range Rover, the simple ability to go off road was considered all any SUV had to exhibit. The Range Rover showed it was possible not only to be devastating effective in mud, snow and sand, its occupants could be comfortable too. Happy 50th birthday, Range Rover.

Porsche 911 Turbo (1974)

Even in 1974, turbocharging was an old and dark art. Aircraft had used it, racing cars had used it (most improbably a Cummins turbo-diesel engine had powered a car to pole position at the 1952 Indy 500) and even the odd American street car. But it was Porsche who first perfected it as a road-going technology. How? Through years of racing turbocharged cars in Can-Am racing in North America, culminating in the 1100bhp Porsche 917/30 that in 1973 won every race it contested.

The 911 Turbo was seen that autumn and put on sale the following year, pioneering a technology whose relevance over 40 years later is greater than ever.

Volkswagen Golf GTi (1975)

No, it wasn’t the first hot hatch any more than was the Range Rover the first luxury SUV or the Renault Espace the first MPV. But like these others, it was the Golf that caught the public imagination and turned an interesting curio into a class and then an entire movement within the automotive industry. And it was so simple: a slightly larger engine, some better suspension and a mildly tweaked appearance. All the clear thought required to give birth to a true legend.

Audi Quattro (1980)

The first car to prove that four-wheel drive could be used for something other than going off road. The Quattro showed that it could also broaden the ability of cars only ever intended stay on road, by providing levels of traction in a performance car not even Porsche 911 drivers could imagine. Simply put, it made more of the car’s performance available more of the time and, at the same time, created a legend upon which Audi dines out to this day.

Renault Espace (1984)

One of the most clearly realised cars ever conceived. Light, mechanically unremarkable, yet so spacious and full of common-sense storage and packaging ideas it immediately seemed extraordinary that the car had existed for near 100 years without anything like it being invented. If a car’s place in the annals of automotive history can be defined by its ability to do the job for which it was designed, few have ever done better in their own time than this.

Ferrari F40 (1987)

To this day there are journalists who will tell you that for sheer visceral excitement the F40 remains unmatched, at least among production cars, and I’m one of them. Everything has moved on in the 30 years since the F40 was revealed, everything except the thrill. One more thing: this was Enzo’s last car and, of his street machines, undoubtedly his greatest hit. What did the ailing and ancient Ferrari think of it?

Happily we know the answer thanks to a reply he gave to precisely this question in 1987. With undisguised glee he simply said, ‘This car is so fast it’ll make you soil your pants.’ And though I am pleased to report he was not literally correct, figuratively speaking he was right on the money.

Lexus LS400 (1989)

When Toyota despatched a group of engineers and managers to the US in 1984 to learn about luxury cars they discovered several things, most of them unsurprising: that people like high residual values and status, advanced performance and safety. And that after they’d upgraded from a Toyota they bought a BMW or Mercedes-Benz.

If you want to join them, beat them, Toyota decided, and so made the Lexus LS400 that appeared in 1989 set such new standards that industry engineers were still calling it an Noise-Vibration-Harshness benchmark seven years later.

Mazda MX-5 (1989)

You could argue the MX-5, aka the world’s most successful sports car, is actually too good for inclusion here. You might suggest that a car that was so good it deterred almost all manufacturers from making a rival can by definition have hardly changed the world.

Then again, if you were around when the MX-5 came out and thought you knew what a fun and affordable sports car was like, it would have blown your mind into a thousand pieces. Changed the game so much, it’s played pretty much by itself ever since.

Honda NSX (1990)

You have to remember the context. The MX-5 had appeared from nowhere and claimed undisputed rights to being the best affordable sports car in the world. The Lexus LS400 had also appeared left field to do the same in the luxury car field. The new Nissan Micra was as good a small car as could be built and then Honda pulls the NSX out of the hat.

It was better to drive than a Ferrari 348 (much), as good to live with as a Porsche 911 and as easy to drive as a Ford Fiesta.  It looked like Japan’s strongest suit in its apparent attempt to take over the automotive world. And the NSX did change things, just not for Honda or Japan. Its real influence came elsewhere: Ferrari, in particular, hasn’t built a complacent car since.

McLaren F1 (1994)

We thought we knew what fast was, after all we’d driven the Ferrari F40, the Porsche 959 and even the Jaguar XJ220. Turns out we knew nothing. The McLaren F1 provided the single greatest step in street legal performance there has ever been or will ever be. And it did it with space for three and their luggage, yet cast a shadow no greater than a Porsche 911. Oh, and in scarcely modified form it won Le Mans first time out.

Toyota Prius (1999)

You may like the Toyota Prius, you may think it an abomination on wheels, but you cannot deny its claim to have changed the automotive world. And remember its influence is not most keenly felt in Europe where the proliferation of diesel has held it back, but in its native Japan and, particularly the US. Whether you look forward in horror or wild anticipation to our increasingly hybridised future, it all started here.

BMW X5 (1999)

BMW called it an ‘SAV’, a Sports Activity vehicle, but really it was the first off-roader anyone might choose to drive for fun. And when fitted with a 4.8-litre V8, fun it undoubtedly was. Of course with Cayennes, F-Paces, Bentaygas, Levantes and soon Aston Martin and Lamborghini SUVs, the idea of the entertaining SUV is now well established. Back in the 20th century it was a revolution.

Rolls-Royce Phantom (2003)

After its disaster with Rover, many feared a BMW-engineered Rolls-Royce could spell the end for our most blue-blooded brand. In the end nothing could have been further from the truth: the Phantom was the finest riding car ever built, and offered one of the most tasteful yet opulent interiors anyone could imagine. It redefined luxury travel and regained Rolls-Royce its reputation.

Audi R8 (2006)

You might have backed BMW to be first finally to produce a viable alternative to a Porsche 911, or even Mercedes-Benz. But Audi, creators of sporting cars renown the world over for their aversion to apexes? None other. The R8 was a sweet sounding, fine handling, great looking thunderbolt from the blue and the most accessible mid-engined supercar since the NSX.

Tesla Model S (2012)

Probably the most influential large saloon of the 2010s decade. If it had been made by Mercedes-Benz, BMW or Audi it would have been hailed as an all-electric revolution. In fact it was the work of a company that, ten years before the birth of the Model S, did not even exist. If you want the single biggest reason all mainstream premium manufacturers including Jaguar now regard all electric cars as an integral part of their future plans, you’re looking right at it.

Porsche 918 Spyder (2013)

This could have been the LaFerrari or McLaren P1, but as the first to be announced and shown, Porsche’s claim to have ushered in the era of the hybrid hypercar is indisputable. Even now probably the most sophisticated supercar to come to market, offering an envelope of performance, technology and usability never before conceived, let alone achieved.

BMW i3 (2013)

Perhaps this should be the Nissan Leaf, the first affordable purpose built all electric car from a major manufacturer, but BMW’s commitment and innovation was on a different level, resulting in a carbon-fibre constructed, lightweight, fun and fast electric car that in no way betrayed the promise of the BMW propeller in its nose.

Ariel Nomad (2015)

It’s not every day an entirely new kind of car is invented but that’s what the Nomad is. A car that works in all environments from road to track, from sand dune to forest track. It might be the first such car, it will emphatically not be the last.

Written by Nic Cackett, Andrew Frankel and Matt Prior