If you have been reading My Life With Porsches, you know that I love my lists. It's so orderly and all. Almost a wee bit British, not that there is anything wrong that that. We should probably set some qualifications. 250K when they were new and add something to the automotive landscape. Should be easy right? Wrong, there are probably a bunch of cars that are not on this list for a good reason. They probably sucked, or worse, they were ugly, or worse and generally we did not care too much for them. 10. BMW M1 - BMW needed a halo car, the M1 fit the bill. BMW ended up taking it in house and farming out the production to their M or Motorsports division. 9. De Tomaso Pantara - Take sexy Italian styling and combine it with Detroit iron (AKA a FordMoCo 351 Cleveland V8) and what do you have?
Well besides a car that could easily catch on fire, it could be purchased at your local Lincoln Mercury dealer. 11,000. But that was 1971 dollars, which means it would cost you a million today. 8. Ferrari Testarossa - Ferrari needed a car that could go up against the Lambo Countach. The mid-engine flat-12 Testarossa carried the banner. It was very wide, probably too wide for narrow Italian (and European B-Roads) and it has these deep side strakes that gave it an aggressive stance. It screamed Ferrari, even when standing still. And Sonny Crockett drove one. Think the 80's, think pastel colored South Beach, think Miami Vice. Yeah it had that kind of vibe. 6. Honda NSX - Honda was deep into motorsports in the 80's and it wanted a road car to showcase its technology. Their partnership with McLaren produced several Formula One World Championships with the likes of Alain Prost, Niki Lauda and the incomparable Aryton Senna.
5. Ferrari 288 GTO - The 308 series of cars were Ferrari's most popular cars to date. Just ask Thomas Magnum, he drove one it Magnum PI for a number of years. It became one of the most recognizable cars of all times as America got a weekly dose of fun loving action adventure. But Ferrari needed a faster car for the FIA Group B rally series and it chose the 308 as the basis for the new race car. The series may have ended, but Ferrari went forward and built more than 270 road going versions. 4. Porsche 959 - Talk about a tour de force. The 959 was supposed to have battled with the 288 GTO, but Group B got scrapped. Porsche (like Ferrari) went ahead and built the car anyway. Rumor had it, that it lost money on every 959 it sold. The car was very ahead of its time - AWD, sequential twin turbos, active ride height adjustment, aluminum and Kevlar shell, the list of forward looking technologies built into the 959 goes on an on.
And it was even faster than the GTO with the sport version clocking in at 197 MPH. There is a great story about Paul Allen and Bill Gates (two Microsoft heavy weights) who both wanted to drive a 959 in the US. 200,000. That's on top of the price of the car. 3. Ferrari Daytona - The Miura was stealing all the automotive press thunder, but Ferrari did not have a mid engine car to fight it. That would come later, when the 365 GT4 BB came along in 1971. So Ferrari needed a car that would carry the torch until its mid engine fighter would be ready. The Daytona (or more accurately the 365 GTB) was the perfect foil to the Miura. Front engine versus mid engine, they each took a different path to reach the zenith of late 60's performance. The sharp edged styling was penned by Pininfarina and it is one of those designs that have stood the test of time. It still looks great (from any angle).