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Distilling the history of fast cars into just 60 selections is a recipe for arguments, migraines and tantrums. It was always going to

be tough. And the more involved we got, the more impossible it appeared. Just when we thought we’d nailed it, we’d think of another insanely good car that had to be included.

Of course, we didn’t just pluck this list

from our bottoms. Some of the world’s best motoring journalists submitted their personal top 10s. Between them, they’ve driven almost every important car of the last five decades, so we’re pretty confident in our top 60.

Judging criteria? Every car must offer a unique driving experience; it must be a star in the universe of performance cars.

And we did make life harder for ourselves

by stipulating each model could only be represented once. After all, how do you choose the best 911? Which is the greatest M3? Should the R32 or R35 GT-R make the final cut? You’re about to find out.

And lastly, our top 60 is unlikely to be the same as your 60, so if you feel the need to tear us a new one, feel free via email, Facebook or Twitter. Until then, read on.

Greatest Performance

Cars Ever

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59Built to conquer the world’s toughest sports car races, notably the Mille Miglia, (victorious in 1936 and ’37), coachbuilders then rejoiced in covering this race-winning package in some of the most beautiful shapes the automotive world has ever seen.

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ALFA 8c 2900

OK, so driving a Saab is about as cool as playing croquet, but everything from the Renault Clio to the McLaren P1 owes a debt of gratitude to this Swedish trendsetter. There had been turbo’d cars before, but they’d been peaky, tricky beasts to drive. The 99 fed boost to the masses, and became the first turbo car to win a WRC round in the hands of Stig Blomqvist.

Japan’s answer to the E-Type was an enormous hit in the US, where sadly, like a lot of other Americans, it got enormously fat – a shadow of its former self. But the original was light and powerful, with performance similar to its European counterparts at a fraction of the price.

SAAB 99 Turbo

DATSUN 240Z To become fixated on the way it looks is to lose sight of the other reason the E-Type dropped jaws in the early ’60s – its performance. A 241km/h top speed and 0-100km/h time of around seven seconds was supercar stuff, independently verified by the media. Of course, actual customer cars weren’t anywhere near as fast as the ‘press specials’ but let’s not let the facts get in the way of a good body.

There are plenty of desirable Mustangs, and plenty of reasons to want to own one. But if you want one to drive hard, the 2000 Cobra R stands above the rest. Independent rear end, supercharged V8, close-ratio six-speed ’box, stripped interior – Ford’s Special Vehicles Team went to town on the Cobra R, and it showed.

Ford’s XR6 Turbo proved you didn’t need a V8 to be the Aussie performance car king and FPV turned the wick up even further. The arrival of ZF’s slick six-speed auto with the BF facelift only widened the gap and it wasn’t until the supercharged Miami V8 broke cover that the bent-eight regained the upper hand – and even then, only just.

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JAGUAR E-Type

FORD Mustang Cobra R

To us, it’s sexier than an E-Type – but with performance to rival a 911. Toyota’s stunning 2000GT was Japan’s first supercar. Didn’t move the game on in any significant way but was pivotal in helping shift peoples’ perceptions of Japanese cars (a one-off convertible starred in the Bond film You Only Live Twice) and provided the inspiration for two other cars further up this list.

TOyOTA 2000GT

When it comes to American muscle, the 427-powered L88 has the Mr Universe title all sown up. Chevrolet quoted 320kW; adding another 100 got you closer to the truth. The race-spec engine, brutal ‘Rock Crusher’ gearbox and no heater made it wildly impractical for the road, but there’s no tougher Yank Tank.

55 ChevROLeT Corvette L88

56 FPv F6 Typhoon

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52The bad news is that to secure an RS1800 – essentially a ready-made rally car – you’ll have to a) find one and b) be prepared to part with an eye-watering amount of cash. The good news is much of what made the RS1800 such a brilliant competition car can be found in the Pinto-powered (and much more affordable) RS2000.

47 FORD Escort RS2000

Ettore Bugatti famously described Bentleys as “the fastest lorries in the world”. If that’s true, then truck driving in the ’20s must’ve been a lot of fun. Company owner Woolf Barnato proved their speed and reliability by driving from Cricklewood to Le Mans, winning the race (three times in succession!) then turning around and driving home.

45BeNTLey Speed Six

The Ariel Atom has an exoskeleton, just like a lobster. This makes it interesting. But install a 373kW 3.0-litre V8 into this exoskeleton and the end result turns completely feral, buzzing with rage and fury like a lobster that’s just been dunked in a vat of boiling water. A car that needs its own straitjacket.

ARieL Atom V8

It might’ve been a horrendous financial failure, but in the mid-’60s, if you wanted the fastest thing on four wheels, you needed a 427 Cobra. After all, this is a car that could hit 100mph (161km/h) from rest and return to zero again in under 14 seconds, despite the fact it was still wheelspinning at the 100mph mark. Not enough? Carroll Shelby put two turbos on his.

SheLBy Cobra49

Marks the point at which AMG finally threw off any semblance of sensibility and embraced its inner hooligan. Lacks the delicacy and precision of an M3, but more than makes up for it with wonderful chassis balance and one of the greatest engines of all time. MOTOR will be holding a large wake when this thing ceases production.

5 0 MeRCeDeS-BeNz C63 AMG

46Being the ram-raiders’ weapon of choice, early STIs became Australia’s version of the Jaguar Mk II, the car famously favoured by British bandits in the ’50s and ’60s. Any and all are a great drive, but the arrival of tricky diffs and sticky tyres – while retaining the forged 2.0-litre boxer – makes the MY05 our pick.

SUBARU Impreza WRX STI

48 AUDi RS4No arguments here. In a long line of RS Audis one car stood head and shoulders above the rest – the B7 RS4. Remember, this is the car that knocked off the 997 911 Turbo on its way to PCOTY glory in 2006. Unusually for a product of Ingolstadt, while the screaming 4.2-litre V8 was a highlight, it was the balance and compliance of the incredible chassis that left everyone with their prejudices well and truly smashed.

Felix Wankel’s wacky engine concept found no finer home than the last iteration of Mazda’s iconic sports car. The compact dimensions of the 13B rotary did wonders for weight distribution and two turbos (acting sequentially) produced a beautifully progressive power curve. Rare, Aussie-built SP is the pick of the litter.

51 MAzDA RX-7

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Before the 86 came along, we were wondering if we might have seen the last of the affordable, rear-drive coupe. Thankfully not, but at least it would’ve gone out on a high. Crappy local fuel robbed us of 37kW, but it mattered little as the sublime chassis and telepathic steering more than made up for it. The cheapest car ever to win PCOTY, and it beat a 911 Turbo to do it.

NiSSAN S15 200SX40

39 PeUGeOT 205 GTI

Whereas VW’s Golf GTI matured over the years, inevitably getting fatter and slower as a result, Peugeot’s landmark hot hatch refused to grow up, the motoring equivalent of those 30-year-old guys that still go to Schoolies – only less creepy. Die-hards will argue the merits of the 1.6- or 1.9-litre cars, but both will induce massive smiles by lift-off oversteering at the drop of a beret.

Six straight WRC manufacturers’ titles don’t lie. Back when the word ‘homologation’ actually meant something, this spoke volumes about the competency of the base product. The perfect example of how motorsport improves the breed, continual improvements demanded by the world’s toughest motorsport series meant each Integrale was that little bit better than its predecessor.

LANCiA Delta Integrale

Drive an Exige and you’ll probably never want to get out. Which is just as well, as getting in and out of Lotus’s pocket rocket is a right pain in the arse. Early K-Series-powered cars are the purest, but later cars with the supercharged Toyota engines offer true supercar performance for a fraction of the price.

LOTUS EXIGE

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vOLKSWAGeN Golf GTI

It didn’t invent the hot hatch concept, but it might as well have. Automotive compromise was suddenly a thing of the past, the Golf GTI proving a car could be fast and fun yet practical and economical at the same time. Vee Dub nerds will debate whether the original eight-valver or Mk II 16-valve is the sweeter package, but we’d happily drive either.

The world needs cars like the Koenigsegg. It may lack the jewel-like detailing of a Pagani or the romantic allure of a Prancing Horse, but it more than makes up for it with the brutal savagery of its twin-turbo 5.0-litre V8 while continuing Sweden’s proud history of aviation-grade engineering. Wonderfully unhinged.

KOeNiGSeGG Agera R

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For all the smooth, suave, James Bond connotations, what Aston does best is make thumping muscle cars. Ok, so shoehorning a 6.0-litre V12 into the Vantage robbed it of some visual purity, but the ferocious, wheelspin-in-every-gear excitement that resulted was ample compensation. Latest ‘S’ version one of Aston’s best.

ASTON MARTiN V12 Vantage

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No-one expected the Gen-F GTS to be as good as it is. While its E3 predecessor was a fine drive, HSV’s new flagship moves the Aussie performance car game so far forward it renders any comparison redundant. Huge power, benchmark brakes and clever electronics make this the archetypal 21st-century muscle car.

hSv GTS32

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TOyOTA 86Regarde le renaissance. Of all the companies that could’ve revived the affordable, rear-drive coupe segment, few would have bet money on Toyota, that most conservative of corporate giants, being the one to take the plunge. Even better, thanks to the 86’s success, we’re guaranteed to see more challengers in the near future.

35Everything a hot hatch should be. Frenzied and frantic at maximum attack, in its own way the Clio RS200 is as intensely focused as a 911 GT3. The driving position is iffy, the ride is bouncy and the gearing will drive you mad on the highway, but on your favourite road few cars will completely immerse you in the art of driving as well as the Clio.

34ReNAULTSPORT Clio 200 Cup

The definitive super sedan, and its supremacy over its rivals was never more apparent than with the V8-powered E39. With a greater breadth of ability than the earlier straight-six E28 and E34, yet refreshingly simple compared to the techno-loaded V10 E60 and current F10 that succeeded it, the E39 was, and is, a masterpiece.

33 BMW M5

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If there was any justice in the world, the A9X would command similar reverence to the Phase III. It’s rare (just 405 were built; 305 sedans and 100 hatches), has impeccable race credentials and represents the pinnacle of Torana development, rectifying the (many) shortcomings of the L34.

hOLDeN A9X Torana37

When it comes to pure automotive theatre, you can’t go past the ultimate evolution of the Murcielago. Thanks to a 100kg diet and the legendary Bizzarrini V12 – that could trace its roots back to 1963 – bellowing out 493kW in its final appearance, performance was shattering, accompanied by foot-long flames from the exhaust and a noise that could topple buildings.

LAMBORGhiNi MuRCIELAGo SV

Before the Miura turned the supercar game on its head, all the truly fast cars had their engines in the front. And they were all trying to catch the Daytona. Beautiful, sophisticated and incredibly fast (280km/h flat out), in its day it was every bit as impressive as the F12 is now.

31FeRRARi Daytona

30Anyone who thinks front-drive is boring needs to steer a Type R. Ok, so Honda’s hardcore Integra only really made sense when you were thrashing the beejeezus out of it, but boy did it reward you in spades when you made the effort, with every single element finely honed and full of feel.

29hONDA iNTeGRA Type R

If corners are your thing, you’ll find no better partner than the Porsche Cayman R. To be honest, the current Cayman S is just as sweet, but it’s hard not to be seduced by the hardcore focus of the previous-gen Cayman R. If only it had the engine from a 911 GT3, it’d be a lot higher up.

2527 PORSChe Cayman R

26FORD GTIf you’re going to re-interpret arguably the greatest car you’ve ever built, you’d better make sure you get it right. Thankfully Ford did, producing an intoxicating blend of good ol’ brute force (that 410kW/675Nm supercharged V8) and surprising sophistication. Is it better than the equivalent Ferrari? Irrelevant. It is its own wonderful thing.

How could the world’s fastest car not make our top 60? Many scoffed (including us, if we’re honest) when pictures and details of the Venom GT first broke four years ago, but US tuner John Hennessey has more than backed up his boast, the car recently clocking over 435km/h. Even more eye-opening is the fact, by all accounts, the Venom’s ride, handling and steering are just as impressive as its acceleration.

heNNeSSey Venom GT

From the fastest car on the list to possibly the slowest. But if any car is able to punch above its weight, it’s the MX-5. Any and all are a pleasure to drive, but we’ve gone with the non-power assisted, 1.6-litre original. You won’t get anywhere quickly but hey, the journey is the reward, man. Peace.

MAzDA MX-5

Germany’s A9X Torana, the 3.0CSL was a homologation special built to dominate the European Touring Car Championship; which it did convincingly, the winged ‘Batmobiles’ winning five years straight from 1975-’79. Think of it as BMW’s first M-car and you’ll understand its significance.

BMW 3.0 CSL28 The NSX’s 14-year lifespan gave Honda’s engineers plenty of time to hone it to the nth degree, and their efforts culminated in the second-gen NSX-R in 2002. Its headline numbers are nothing special, but a Nürburgring lap time of 7min56sec (same as a 996 GT3) provides some hint as to its ability.

24 hONDA NSX-R

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When it’s worth $50 million you know it just has to be good. Ok, so the 250 GTO’s sultry, feminine curves go some way to explaining its wallet-wilting value, but they’d be scant compensation if it drove like a Datsun 120Y. Substantial competition success proved that not to be the case, as we’re reminded every year when GTOs rub panels at the Goodwood Revival.

Yes, it has the interior ambience of a tupperware container and all the design flair of an Adidas tracksuit, but no other car can extract grip from a surface like an Evo. No matter how ambitious the entry speed or outrageous the oversteer angle, the Evo’s clever electronic diffs always provide hope that the situation can be saved, making the driver look a hero in the process.

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22 FeRRARi 250 GTo

The greatest front-wheel drive of all time is the Mini Cooper S. Of course it is. ‘The Flying Brick’ tore up the motorsport rulebook, dominating racetracks and rally stages alike, including winning four straight Monte Carlo rallies and filling the top nine positions at the 1966 Bathurst 500. Drive one today and you’ll truly know the meaning of the phrase ‘go-kart handling’. A legend.

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MiNi Cooper S

LAMBORGhiNi Gallardo LP550-2

This or the Audi R8 V10 Plus? Given the two cars’ similarities there was only room for one, and in the end the Italian got the nod. Why? Well, as awesome as the R8 is, we all agreed that if the keys to both were laid before us, it’d be the Lambo that would be barking into life, the combination of over 400kW, rear-wheel drive and an open-gated six-speed manual impossible to resist.

MiTSUBiShi Evolution IX

21PORSChe Carrera GTThe product of a stillborn Le Mans program, at launch the Carrera GT’s tricky handling famously made even Walter Röhrl sweat. Now, thanks to a decade’s worth of advancement in tyre technology, the Carrera GT is rightly regarded as one of Stuttgart’s greatest creations, with a fearsome V10 howl that would have you hunting tunnels all night long.

From fledgling start-up to one of the supercar elite in less than a decade is no mean feat, but Pagani’s rise to stardom was thanks to one incredible car. The Zonda’s stunning design, incredibly well-sorted chassis and thumping AMG V12 created a weapon that was fired across the bows of Ferrari and Lamborghini.

PAGANi Zonda

18 NiSSAN R32 GT-R

With the advent of the R32 GT-R, Nissan was responsible for launching the greatest technological terror since the Death Star. The clever, continuously-variable ATTESA all-wheel drive system put the power of the twin-turbo straight-six to devastating effect on the racetrack, while on the road it banished the parasitic understeer that plagued traditional all-wheel drive setups. Also changed the face of Aussie motor racing.

Its core design has changed little in almost 60 years, which speaks volumes about how right Colin Chapman’s original concept was. But while the basics remain the same, the details differ drastically. In ballistic 620R form, the Seven now develops 231kW (just 201 more than the original), fed through a six-speed sequential ’box.

CATeRhAM 620R

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9Remember when you traded your old Nokia brick in for a new iPhone? Remember the world of new possibilities it opened up? The Ur Quattro was an automotive smartphone, its all-wheel drive traction consigning wheelspin to the annals of history in 1983, even with a monstrous 147kW (hey, it was 1980).

Beautiful, yes, but the Miura’s substance can’t quite match its style. That gorgeous shape created aerodynamic lift, aspects of the driving experience had strong ties with Lambo’s agricultural past and Ferrari’s Daytona could show it a clean pair of heels. But the Miura’s mid-engined layout set the template for all future supercars.

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AUDi ur Quattro

LAMBORGhiNi Miura

An incredible technical achievement, the Veyron redefined what was possible from a production car. It also proved there was a market for ₤1m hypercars; without it the 918, P1 and LaFerrari would not exist. So why does it rank so low? In chasing those all important numbers, VW created an engineering dead-end and failed to remember cars should be fun as well as fast.

BUGATTi Veyron15FORD GT-Ho

Phase IIIIt’s easy to forget with the passing of time that the Phase III, a limited-run homologation special built by a tiny local team, was in its day the fastest four-door car in the world. Mel Nichols best captured the ferocity of this beast in his famous story ‘HO Down the Hume’; you are left in no doubt that this was a car unlike any other. This was a car that meant business.

14 Welcome to Mercedes’ dark side. Giving a car the Black Series treatment is essentially like sending it to SAS training, and the SLS emerged a fitter, harder version of itself. The hardcore revamp transformed the gullwing supercar from a slightly wayward hot-rod into a GT3 racer with numberplates.

MeRCeDeS -BeNz SLS AMG Black

FeRRARi F40If you like your driving to be a challenge, the F40 could well be your number one. Massive power that comes on in mighty turbocharged lumps, marginal brakes and a complete lack of driver aids (including power steering and brakes) offers a driving experience that makes you feel truly alive. If it doesn’t kill you first.

BMW

M3 C

SL

Wow, did this start a few

arguments. Every gen bar the E36 had its

backers, but in the end we chose the E46 CSL. Yes, SMG sucks and the brakes are weak, but it makes a noise to die for and has one of the best rear-drive chassis ever. Bested a 911 GT3 and came within a whisker of beating the Gallardo

in PCOTY 2004.

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Drive an LFA and you can almost understand why it took Lexus 11 years to finish the thing. The speed and the superb quality were to be expected, but what came as a complete shock was the passion engineered into it. The idea of a $750K Lexus seems absurd – until you experience it. One of the most complete and exciting cars of the 21st century.

LexUS LFA

58MeRCeDeS-BeNz 300SL

Stuttgart’s latest hero car proves that environmentalism and excitement need not be mutually exclusive. It may be the slowest of the new hypercar trio, but it also pushes the game furthest forward. Electric motors not only provide 30km of ‘zero emissions’ travel but also offer handling abilities impossible to achieve with conventional mechanicals. And let’s be honest, a 6min57sec ’Ring lap isn’t exactly pedestrian.

PORSChe 918 Spyder

This one had the younger members of the MOTOR crew scratching their heads, but the fact three of our more seasoned correspondents (who’ve actually driven one) had it high in their personal top 10s made it a shoo-in. Any performance car that still feels sharp 60 years after its introduction is something truly special.

When it comes to Ferraris, the latest is indeed the greatest. Just ask anyone who’s driven an F12. Or don’t, because you won’t be able to shut them up. It has probably the greatest road-car drivetrain currently on sale matched to faultless brakes and perfect steering, yet it’s comfortable, quiet and as easy to drive as your mum’s Fiesta. It’s truly spellbinding.

FeRRARi F12

Criticised at launch for being too harsh and no faster than the F40, two decades on the F50 is finally getting the recognition it deserves – have you seen the price of one lately? Being bolted directly to the chassis means its 4.7-litre V12 is spine-tingling in more ways than one, but the last ‘analogue’ Ferrari supercar is seriously one of the true greats.

FeRRARi F50

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Just as it did with the F1, McLaren has again redefined what a production car is capable of. It’ll eat Veyrons in a straight line,

but it’s the P1’s braking and cornering abilities that draw new lines in the sand. There’s only one thing jeopardising the

P1’s place on this list, and that’s the fact it’s yet to go head-to-head with LaFerrari.

MCLAReN P1Righto,

your turn

Putting the McLaren F1 first: bit of a cop out, or

maximum respect? Is YOUR number one something else? Go on, tell us! Crack open a new email and tell us your

number one, and why: motor@bauer-media.

com.auF1You should have had a feeling the F1 would finish here. And it deserves to – to put it anywhere but first would be plain shit-stirring. It’s unlikely we’ll ever see another car like the F1. Unlike the Veyron, the numbers were never the end goal, simply the product of no-compromise engineering and the design nous of Gordon Murray. Update its brakes and give it ESP and the F1 would still hose most of today’s supercars. It’s the ultimate driving experience. And it’s our number one. M

PORSChe 997 GT3 4.0Any number of 911s could’ve appeared on this list, but only one deserved to rank this high. The 997 GT3 RS is one of the greatest cars this magazine has ever driven, but adding another 200cc sent its abilities into the stratosphere. Porsche cherry-picked the best components from its race and road cars (RSR crankshaft and aero; GT2 RS suspension) to create this: the ultimate 911.

MCLAReN

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