Cool Car: Difference between revisions

Of course, the villain [[Wrecked Weapon|messing with]] the heroes ride is always a sign that he [[It's Personal|means business]].

 

 

When a car ''literally'' becomes a character, see [[Sentient Vehicle]]. For a living creature that serves as both a vehicle and a character, see [[Sapient Steed]].

See [[Improbably Cool Car]] for cars that are just ''too'' cool for the setting or the characters.

 

* The Mach 5 from ''[[Speed Racer]]'' is so goddamn cool it's even listed as a [[Super Robot Genre|Super Robot]].

** Other cool cars graced ''[[Speed Racer]]'' too, of course. Racer X's car, while not explicitly equipped with an arsenal of super gadgets, was shown jumping from one clifftop to another in flagrant violation of the Earth's gravity. The Car Acrobatic Team all sported miniature wings which turned them into gliders. The "evil twin" of the Mach 5 had full-blown airplane wings and a jet engine, in addition to a [[Death Ray]]. The Mammoth Car was the size of a passenger train, and {{spoiler|made of solid gold}}. The GRX could go faster than human reflexes could handle, necessitating use of [[Super Serum|V-Gas]] which reacts badly with water and dehydrates the user. The X3 Melange was driven by remote-control (with a robot dummy driver) by the revenge-fueled son of a dead racer. The "assassins", who were clearly ninjas, drove around in ''ninja cars''. And in one episode, Speed even test-drove a ''supersonic rocket car''.

* Just about every single race car in ''[[Future GPX Cyber Formula]]'' in its many iterations. The main car, the Asurada series of racers, is able to shapeshift (especially in its much later versions) has 6WD (except for GSX, which has the standard 4 wheels), rocket boosters, and needs an AI supercomputer to be driven properly. Its rivals over the years are just as colorful, including, but not limited to:

* Misato's Renault Alpine A310 in ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' certainly qualifies, even when it's so badly driven.

* In ''[[Riding Bean]]'', Bean Bandit has a stylish car, called the Roadbuster, that not only has a high performance engine that can match most race cars, but it can orient its wheels to move sideways or extend brake blades for extremely rapid stops.

* Roger Smith's Griffon in ''[[The Big O]]'' definitely qualifies. It has surveillance equipment, machine guns, a big beefy engine, and it can ''change color''.

* Iina from ''[[Kokoro Library]]'' drives what appears to be a Volkswagen Schwimmwagen amphibious car used in the second world war by the German army. Hers is white with cute cat print seat covers. The huge rear propeller isn't only for show though, since it functions perfectly fine as a boat.

* The G2 in ''[[Science Ninja Team Gatchaman]]'' not only transforms from a Nissan Skyliner into an awesome-looking racer, it's equipped in later episodes with a ''[[Gatling Good|Gatling gun]]''.

* All the racers in Takeshi Koike's ''[[Red Line]]'' are cool cars taken [[Up to Eleven]] and then some, from JP's yellow TRANSAM, to a pink dragster styled to look like a [[Does This Remind You of Anything?|woman lying on her back with her legs in the air]], and a giant montrosity where the driver becomes part of the machine.

* Sheryl Nome's Ferrari California in ''[[Macross Frontier]]'' Nyan Cli, a cool car by definition. Every detail inside and out was exactly drawn, from the 8000 RPM red line tachometer to the shiny Ferrari badges to the six-speed manual shift column. Yes, that's right, Sheryl Nome drives a stick.

** Intriguingly, Ferrari has reportedly still not built one with a six-speed manual, instead all of them have a paddle-shifted seven-speed dual-clutch transmission. Sheryl probably picked a manual because it's [[Badass]] (or because she's [[Playing to The Fetishes]] ''again'').

 

* The Batmobile from ''[[Batman]]'', in its various incarnations, has [[Trope Namer|come to define this trope]] to the point where any character's cool car may be dubbed the [[Thememobile|(Character's Name)-mobile]] (real-world example: the famous "[[The Pope|Popemobile]]"). Just to let you know, the Batmobile (nicknamed "The Tumbler") in ''[[Batman Begins]]'' is ''a Lamborghini Gallardo-Hummer H2 crossover''. When Lt. Gordon gets a view of the Batmobile, he says:

{{quote|'''Lt. Gordon:''' I ''gotta'' get me one of those.}}

* Especially in the Golden Age, a lot of super-heroes had Cool Cars. Star-Spangled Kid had [[Flying Car|one]] in spite of ''not actually being old enough to drive''.

* ''[[Jet Dream (Comic Book)|Jet Dream]] and her Stunt-Girl Counterspies'' drive a variety of sports cars laden with all manner of gadgetry, including machine guns, rear-mounted "stench bomb" launchers, and an [[Awesome but Impractical]] (and quite large) TV camera with a zoom lens on a boom extending from the trunk such that Petite can see the faces of the bad guys chasing her on a dashboard-mounted screen.

* Almost every car used in ''[[Sin City]]'' is a vintage car with many main characters discussing their love for them. [[Frank Miller]] has mentioned that Sin City was spawned from an excuse to draw things he considered cool, such as old cars.

* Jen's 1958 Corvette in ''[[The Maze Agency]]''.

* The Turbotraction Turbot-Rhino I and its successor were the cool cars owned by ''[[Spirou and Fantasio]]''. [[Andre Franquin]]'s backgrounds were populated by great representations of actual cars of the [[The Fifties]] and [[The Sixties]]. The Turbotraction, which was his design, blended in perfectly with the 'real' cars as it was based on rocket car concepts of that era. Part of its coolness was the realism with which it was portrayed (and it was really fast because of some sort of jet engine and had a magic roof, too). After the comic was taken over by other artists, Spirou and Fantasio's rides were 'real' and mundane cars, although very likely chosen for their unique design as well.

* Since ''[[Green Arrow]]'' originally followed in the footsteps of Batman, it's no surprise that he drove around in the ''Arrowcar.''

 

** J's Mercedes in the sequel is a nice [[Flying Car|upgrade]].

* The old police cruiser used by ''[[The Blues Brothers]]'' was emblematic of the brothers' style and situation. It survived the film's stunts, held together by the [[Mission from God|very will of The Almighty]], until its mission was over. Then it fell apart on the sidewalk.

* ''[[The Fast and the Furious]]'' is a series ''runneth over'' with Cool Cars so hard, they're pretty much about this trope. Just pick a car, any car. Except for the Chevelle and the Ferraris, being the former apparently uncool and the latter portrayed as "already awesome", all these cars are rigged with the most powerful, badass engine upgrades in the world, enough to make them run like Formula 1 cars, and on top of that, all of them are equipped with bangin' sound systems, neon lights, all sorts of sophisticated control computers (except for the muscle cars, of course, which rely on good ol' [[Bigger Is Better|humongous block]]), LCD monitors, and, of course, a lot of [[Nitro Boost]]. The list includes:

** Not [[Truth in Television]]. A racer would have stripped his car of everything but the bare essentials to lose weight. Not even rear seats are spared. Not to mention turning off the radio and AC for that little bit of extra power. A giant ICE<ref>In-Car Entertainment, not [[Neuromancer|Intrusion Countermeasures Electronics]] or [[American Law Enforcement|Immigration and Customs Enforcement]]</ref> system? Unnecessary weight and power drain.

* Herbie the Volkswagen Beetle from ''[[The Love Bug]]'' and its sequels. Even though the Última Edición version, with its marginal 50-70&nbsp;hp, is ''the most powerful version ever made'' (a stock 1963 model- Herbie's [[Canon]] age- had 40&nbsp;hp), it still manages to be as powerful as a stock car.

** Notice, however, that thanks to the Beetle's extremely light weight (~750&nbsp;kg / 1650&nbsp;lb) it ''is'' possible to turn an ordinary Beetle into something as fast as a stock car without having to use a huge engine.

** In ''[[Casino Royale 1967]]'' David Niven drives a suitably old-school Bentley roadster.

** ''[[Diamonds Are Forever]]'' seems him [[Lemming Cops|flummox the Las Vegas Police]] with a Mach I Mustang.

** [[Subverted Trope|Subverted]] in ''[[GoldenEye (film)|GoldenEye]]'' where James gets a car as cool as any of the others, but never uses it.

* The DeLorean in the ''[[Back to the Future (film)|Back to The Future]]'' film trilogy. The version in ''[[Back to The Future The Animated Series]]'' had even more gadgets attached.

{{quote|'''Doc Brown''': The way I see it, if you're gonna build a time machine into a car, why not do it with some ''style?''}}

*** And the Lamborghini Countach? A DeLorean on steroids.

** If you think the time machine was cool, you might not want to know [http://www.bttf3delorean.com/Where_are_they.html what happened] to most of the cars after production ended; most of them have sat in warehouses, some even being disassembled for spares to be used on replicas ([[Fridge Logic|Why not just restore the cars and use them?!]]) The pictures are absolutely [[Tear Jerker|heartbreaking]]...until you learn the story of [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|the last one]].

** Although it's not technically a car, {{spoiler|the train}} from the end of the third movie probably counts.

* The Ecto-1 from ''[[Ghostbusters]]'' and its [[The Real Ghostbusters|related]] [[Extreme Ghostbusters|material]]. It may be a bit of a subversion, as the model of car used was shown to be old and junky (and generally used as a hearse, i.e., to transport dead bodies for burial), yet it is still considered a cool car due to its visually striking appearance.

* "The Last of the V-8 Interceptors" in the first two ''[[Mad Max]]'' films.

** That car is a 1973 Ford XB Falcon, just for anybody wondering.

* ''[[Bullitt]]'''s incredibly badass 1968 Ford Mustang 390 CID Fastback, although it sports no gadgets or gimmicks, is one of the oldest ones in the book.

** Steve McQueen could only out-cool the Mustang by using a real racing car - hence the ''Le Mans'' movie in 1970. His timing was fortunate since the Porsche 917 and Ferrari 512, two of the coolest cars ever and frankly the main reason for watching the film at all, were outlawed by new rules in 1972 and Le Mans cars were much less cool for many years.

* Eleanor from ''[[Gone in Sixty Seconds]]'' (and most of the other cars being stolen are pretty darned cool, too).

* The ''[[Looney Tunes: Back in Action]]'' movie had a double subversion of this trope. The first car Brendan Fraser and Daffy find in Timothy Dalton's garage is a beat-up old Gremlin which barely makes it out of the driveway. About a minute after they leave, however, the floor of the garage flips over and a stereotypical spy car is revealed, complete with [[James Bond|Bond]]-esque musical sting.

* Michael Korben's Lotus Esprit in ''[[If Looks Could Kill]]''.

{{quote|'''Cameron:''' Less than a hundred were made. My father spent three years restoring this car. It is his ''love''. It is his ''passion''...

'''Ferris:''' It is his ''fault'' he didn't lock the garage.

'''Cameron:''' No. No! Apparently, you don't understand!

'''Ferris:''' [ignoring Cameron] Wow.

* The pedal cars from ''[[Bugsy Malone]]''. What kid wouldn't want one of those?

* The green Gran Torino from well... ''[[Gran Torino]]'' is an awesome car that kicks off the plot for being too damn cool (aka Theft Bait)

* ''[[Charlie's Angels]]: Full Throttle'' had lots of cool cars, and a special featurette on the DVD to showcase them all.

* A [[Cool Ship]] on wheels picks up the main character from the airport in ''[[Waking Life]]''. The painted visual effects make it appear to cruise just as smooth as if it were on water (even without chemical assistance for the viewer).

{{quote|'''Tango:''' What is ''that?''

'''Cash:''' That is an RV from Hell. Care to join me? }}

* ''[[Undercover Brother]]''. The title character's Cadillac Coupe de Ville, with built-in tape launcher and slick sprayer.

* [[Elvira, Mistress of the Dark|Elvira]]'s Macabremobile.

* The Deathmobile in ''National Lampoon's [[Animal House]]''.

* Every car in ''[[American Graffiti]]''.

* Every car in ''[[Drive Angry]]''.

* Played with in ''Revenge of [[The Pink Panther]]'' with the Silver Hornet. For 5 seconds, it's an incredibly cool-looking car ... then [[The Alleged Car|it falls completely apart]].

 

* Illuminati assassins in ''[[Duumvirate]]'' have the shapeshifting, fusion-powered Deathmobile. There's a crematorium under the hood for body disposal.

* Crowley's Bentley in ''[[Good Omens]]''. His infernal powers literally protect it from damage, {{spoiler|at least until he drives it through a wall of fire formed by a highway shaped like a diabolical sigil. He continues to drive it all the way to his destination, holding it together through sheer force of will, until it no longer resembles a classic Bentley, or a car for that matter.}}

* [[Tom Swift]], Jr.'s Triphibian Atomicar was a convertible that could transverse land, sea and air.

* [[The Saint]] had a Hirondel, which probably doesn't qualify; once, on a trip to Italy, he found himself using a classic Bugatti, which '''does'''. In spades. When he finds a bomb strapped to the bottom by the Mafia, his initial reaction is something along the lines of 'a bomb would be bad enough under my normal car, but this is a ''Bugatti''.'

* The villain of ''[[Matthew Reilly|Scarecrow]]'' owns a Ferrari Modena, a Porsche GT-2, an Aston Martin Vanquish, a Lamborghini Diablo and several Subaru rally cars. They ''all'' get stolen and most are destroyed in what is probably the biggest car chase of any medium. The author himself drives a Delorean.

* Subverted in [[Charles Stross]]'s ''[[The Laundry Series|The Jennifer Morgue]]'': Bob's company Smart Car is suited for city cruising. It is emphatically ''un''suited for driving on the Autobahn, where every passing Mercedes and Porsche sets it rocking in the turbulence. It is ''further'' unsuited for the offroad driving that he has to do, where the suspension manages to make him nauseous. {{spoiler|That is, until Pinky and Brains manage to make a couple of [[James Bond|Q-style]] upgrades to it, which boosts the coolness rating waaay up. And then it's finally subverted ''again'' at the end when the engine locks up and demands to be returned to the factory for maintenance.}}

* ''[[The Three Investigators]]'' rode around in a gold Rolls-Royce, complete with a cool chauffeur, Worthington.

 

* KITT and KARR in ''[[Knight Rider]]''.

** Danté, Domino, Attack Beast, Kat and Plato from ''[[Team Knight Rider]]''.

** In the [[Memetic Mutation]] [[Spiritual Successor]] "[[Mr. T]] vs." it could reach any destination in just five minutes.

** Face's white Corvette with a thick red stripe counts, too.

* ''[[Miami Vice]]'' had many cool cars. Sonny Crockett first drove a black Daytona Spyder, then a white Testarossa, then a red F430 in [[The Movie]].

* In another Don Johnson reference, the title character in ''[[Nash Bridges]]'' drove a 1971 'Cuda Hemi ragtop. There were only 7 of them made, one in each color offered on the Barracuda, of which 6 survive to this day. It's worth a couple million dollars at auction, pushing this into [[Improbably Cool Car]] territory.

* The 1967 Chevy Impala, [[Fan Nickname|known by fans as the "Metallicar"]], driven by the Winchesters on ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'', which, some have argued, has achieved co-protagonist status, along with Sam and Dean.

** Some fans believe it to be sentient, as seen in [http://community.livejournal.com/the_dean_show/18319.html this webcomic], which is quite popular in the fandom.

** Why Wonderbug would ever switch back to that old wreck was beyond me, even as a child of the '70s/'80s. There was an episode I vaguely remember, where Schlepcar got stuck on railroad tracks because ''he didn't have the power to drive over them''. Um, how about hitting the magic horn, Barry?

* In ''[[Doctor Who]]'' the Third Doctor spent much of his time on Earth driving around in 'Bessie', an antiquated canary-yellow roadster which on first glance would look the furthest thing from 'cool' you could think of. It's quickly revealed, however, that the Doctor's constant tinkering and playing around have made it a super-powered car that anyone would kill to drive.

** He later traded up for a weirdly incongruous [[The Jetsons]]-style [[Flying Car|flight-capable]] bubble car, which rapidly acquired the [[Fan Nickname]] of 'The Whomobile'.

* The Land Rover Defender in ''[[Survivors (TV series)|Survivors]]''.

* The Coyote in ''[[Hardcastle and McCormick]]''.

* Hurley's Volkswagen Bus, which he found in the jungle during the third season of ''[[Lost]]''.

* [[The Equalizer]] drove a black 1984 Jaguar XJ6 Series III, much to the dismay of potential clients who naturally assumed his services were highly expensive.

** There actually is a shop like Build-A-Bear, only with model cars. It's called Ridebuilderz.

* In several third and fourth season episodes of ''[[The Man from U.N.C.L.E.]]'', Solo and Kuryakin got to drive an "U.N.C.L.E. car", which was a concept car developed from the Bertone Pirana.

* Alex Tully's Dodge Challenger from ''[[Drive]]''.

* ''[[Inspector Morse]]'' drove a Type 2 Jaguar, but for a while every policeman in a British show seemed to drive a classic car.

* ''[[Get Smart]]'': the Opel GT was nice and the Shelby Mustang very impressive, but Max's Sunbeam Tiger was the trademark car with lots of style.

* Say what you will about ''[[The Monkees]]'', that wild custom GTO was pretty cool.

* And say what you will about [[The Munsters]], the Munster Koach and the Dragula racer were also pretty cool.

* George from ''[[Dead Like Me]]'' drives a Mustang that was owned by one of her reaps.

** Yeah, it's too bad he had to {{spoiler|blow it up.}}

** It came back in early season 5 with Fiona behind the wheel, serving as Michael's getaway vehicle. Seeing the charger run again really meleted this troper's heart and the fact that Michael refers to it as his friend.

* Pretty much every car seen in ''[[Mad Men]]''. After Betty {{spoiler|inherits her late father's 1961 Lincoln Continental}} it's noted in-series that that ''is'' a Cool Car for a thirtysomething housewife and mother even in its day, it's not just the [[Gorgeous Period Dress|Gorgeous Period Chrome]].

* The Batmobile in the campy 1960s ''[[Batman (TV series)|Batman]]'' series was the coolest thing on the show.

* ''[[Kamen Rider Black RX]]'' (and its notorious adaptation, ''[[Masked Rider]]'') had a car for the titular protagonist.

** ''[[Kamen Rider Double]]'' has a car-like vehicle (it doesn't actually have controls, instead being remote-operated by his cellphone), but it holds the parts for his [[Cool Bike]] and is indeed pretty cool.

* On the show [[Third Watch]], [[Big Applesauce|NYPD Officer]] [[Noble Bigot with a Badge|Maurice Louis "Bosco" Boscorelli]]'s off-duty ride, a blue 1973 Ford Mustang Mach 1, is significantly cooler (not to mention massively more valuable) than his on-duty patrol vehicle.

 

* [[Rush]]'s [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_NsiQVQiPs "Red Barchetta"], itself inspired by Richard S. Foster's short story [http://www.fiatbarchetta.com/links/nice.html "A Nice Morning Drive"].

** Ironically, a car built as solidly as the one described in the short story would be a greater, not a lesser, hazard to its driver since a vehicle with a fully stiffened body will collapse around the largest void space - that being the passenger cabin. Oops. Crumple zones exist for a reason.

* Prominent in [[Hip Hop]]. According to [[Xzibit]], his first album introduced him on the scene, his second album established his place, and his third album paid for his car.

* [[ZZ Top]]'s Eliminator hot rod.

* [[John Lennon]]'s Rolls Royce, famous for its psychedelic paint scheme.

* [[The Beach Boys]]' song "409" praised a muscle car with a [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|409 cubic inch]] engine.

* [[Dick Dale]] sang about street races and cool hotrods rather frequently.

* The Dangercar, as described by [[My Chemical Romance]]. That is one [[Badass]] Trans-Am.

 

* The Bone Wagon from ''[[Grim Fandango]]''. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXcS0S6KnLo#t=5m02s Take this for example].

** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxKLz1VKNbs&feature=related#t=0m15s And this].

* ''[[Fallout]] 2'' lets the player acquire a car if they manage to find the fuel cell controller needed to power it.

* S.O.P.H.I.A. from the ''[[Blaster Master]]'' series. It's practically the only way Jason (and later his son Roddy, in ''Blaster Master: Blasting Again'') is able to survive underground against a horde of mutants. Comes equipped with a mounted cannon, homing and dumbfire missiles, and it can be upgraded to [[Flying Car|hover]], among other things.

** Don't forget the sequel [[Mafia II]]

* The Deuce or "Druid Plow" from ''[[Brutal Legend]]''. Cool at the start, and can become even cooler with all the upgrades you can get it.

* Many of the vehicles from the ''[[Mario Kart]]'' series games, especially from ''Double Dash'' onwards.

 

 

** They look like something Hitler would drive, and that's no coincidence.

* ''[[Misfile]]'' is chock full of cool cars, virtually every single character has one. The fact that almost every character is a street racer probably has something to do with it. However, it's also realistic in that many of these cars ''weren't'' inherently cool: they're the sort of cars High School kids could actually afford made cool through [[Wrench Wench|modification]] for their "Run what you brung" street races.

* ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' has the [http://sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/20091027 Displacement Drive Vehicle], which [http://sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/20091127 teleports any object it runs into out of its way], leaving you and your car undamaged while causing untold havoc on the world around you. [http://sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/20091229 And it's a Mole Chick magnet!]

* Parodied in [[Yehuda Moon and The Kickstand Cyclery]] with Thistle's bakfiets (cargo bicycle.) It's the envy of kids because it's not the usual soccer mom transport.

* ''[[The Trenches]]'': Isaac's car.

 

 

* C.A.R. from ''[[The Replacements]]'' is sentient, can fly, and is a lot smarter than [[Too Dumb to Live|his alleged driver, Dick Daring]].

* The ''[[Heathcliff and The Catillac Cats|Catillac Cats]]'' have the "Catillac", a 1950's era Cadillac that on the surface would appear to be [[The Alleged Car]], but is possibly the fastest vehicle on the planet. And most of the time it doesn't even have wheels! It can also transform into an airboat and a camping trailer. It also has a trophy for a hood ornament.

** In one episode, they even add a submarine transformation.

* Cruella de Vil's car in ''[[101 Dalmatians|One Hundred and One Dalmatians]]''. It steers like a brick and the chassis flies off like it's paper near the end, but it still pulls off the oh-so-sinister [[Rich Bitch]] look.

** Her car also made a cameo appearance at the very beginning of ''[[The Rescuers (Disney film)|The Rescuers]]'', where it is now driven by Madame Medusa.

* The Patty Wagon in ''[[The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie]]'' is pretty cool. It can drive even though it's just a stack of unattached pieces, some of which probably aren't even mechanical, and every part of it is fast food-themed. It runs on frying oil, its wheels are pickle slices, it has actual sesame seeds, etc.

* ''[[Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends]]'': Madame Foster owns a black Firebird. Even with the [[Thick Line Animation|stylized artwork]] it can still be [[Shown Their Work|clearly identified]] as either a 1977 or 1978 model.

* The Question's car in ''[[Justice League]]'' looks to be a 60's Pontiac GTO. Extra points for using it to drive [[Car Fu|over some bad guys]].

* The Phooeymobile from [[Hong Kong Phooey]]. With the strike of a gong, it can change into anything.

* The Flintstone Car from ''[[The Flintstones]]'', which for some reason is actually powered by the driver's feet.

* [[Megamind]]'s invisible car.

* ''[[Speed Racer: The Next Generation]]'': The powerful Mach 5 itself is found by Speed Racer Jr. and restored for two final races. After it ends up totaled, its successor the Mach 6 is built. Speed's brother X's car, the Shooting Star, is also cool. The Mach 6 eventually gets an ''air-powered engine''.

* In ''[[Oliver and Company]]'', the evil [[Loan Shark]] Sykes actually drives a giant black car whose hood ornament is shaped like a leaping Doberman Pinscher (guess which animals he owns as pets!), and in the climax, it can actually shred apart its own tires so that he can drive on rails!

 

* Jaguar's E-Type. To the point that [[Top Gear|Jeremy Clarkson]] called it the beating heart and soul of England.

** The XJR-15 proves that [[Need for Speed|beauty doesn't need to be traded for performance]]

* Almost any Italian Car easily falls into this trope, though it's not surprising to see them also fall into [[The Alleged Car]] territory.

** As [[Word of God|Enzo Ferrari himself allegedly said]], before all Ferraris, Lamborghinis or Lancias [[Trope Maker|THE]] Italian Car Itself can only be an Alfa Romeo. (Enzo Ferrari [[Chuck Norris Facts|had begun his racing career at]] Alfa Romeo.)

* Ford GT, the [[Spiritual Successor]] to the legendary GT-40, the greatest car that Ford has ever made.

** Slides close to [[The Alleged Car]] territory, if [[Top Gear|Jeremy Clarkson]] is to be believed. His GT spent more time in the shop, almost always due to electrical faults, than on the road, but he once said that when it was working, it was quite good.

* The [[wikipedia:Tornado Intercept Vehicle|Tornado Intercept Vehicle]], built by IMAX filmmaker Sean Casey so that he could drive '''''into''''' a tornado, film it, and survive while doing so.

* Reed Timmer's SRV Dominator. To the average outsider (and to Sean Casey, apparently) it comes off as a cheap knock-off of the TIV. But your average engineer can spot the differences. Timmer studied the TIV to determine the main areas in need of improvement and concluded that the TIV's main disadvantage was mobility - it is extremely heavy and travels in a huge convoy. Reed built a lighter, more maneuverable vehicle and travels in a much smaller convoy, resulting in his higher rate of success in intercepting tornados. His planned improvements (air cannons for parachute probes, side scanning radar) follow down this design path to the point where he has nearly condensed an entire storm-chasing convoy into one vehicle.

* [[Stephen Fry]] drives around in a London black cab (don't ask how he doesn't get people hailing him all the time). Perhaps realizing just how cool the idea of Stephen Fry as a cabbie is he even took one on his recent American travelogue.

** Don't forget, Aston Martins have a special fridge reserved just for them located [[Up to Eleven|beyond the Sub-Zero end of the cool wall]].

** They also featured at least two whole episodes where they tried to destroy a red Toyota Hilux pickup truck, but in the end the car kept going every time they restarted the engine. Eventually, they decided with an unanimous decision that the car needed more than a cool wall for its legacy, so they set it on a plinth where it's still on display today.

*** Clarkson and Hammond revealed in series 14 that they think the car company that has made the most great/cool cars is... Lancia. Considering they made the Stratos, Delta Integrale, Monte Carlo, Gamma, Fulvia, etc. and went rallying with most of them, you can see where they're coming from.

*** But, as the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqFfPQ8_Kns episode] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HamS-zWfz4&feature=related shows], every ''very'' cool feature Lancia cars had - turbo-supercharged engines, extreme rallying performance, and that sleek, sleek look - were neatly balanced out by some ''seriously'' WTF design features. I mean, fixing a braking problem by removing the brake servos entirely? Check for the Montecarlo. [[Interface Screw|Passenger having the pedals and the driver having the wheel?]] [[Awesome but Impractical|Check-check, Stratos HF.]] Awesome cars, utterly strange design department.

* Not only is President Obama's official car really tough, but his Secret Service escort vehicle is even more badass with ''popout gatling gun turret!'' [http://jalopnik.com/5134488/presidential-gatling-gun+ equipped-suburban-badder-than-new-cadillac-limo Just check this baby out!]

* [http://www.spainvia.com/Merlincar.htm This custom car] was built around a Rolls-Royce Merlin engine. That's right, it's a car ''powered by the same engine as a Spitfire''. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxMxFE37Sxw&feature=channel_page Here it is] on Classic Top Gear.

* As was this '55 Chevy, with the ol' Merlin running 3 ''thousand'' Horsepower! Here's a [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIj2GVfua84 video] of it.

* A particular model of Porsche uses an air-cooled engine which, by pure fluke, is the exact right size and shape, with exactly the right mountings, that it can be used as a replacement engine in the original Volkswagen Beetle if the rear shock were strengthened slightly, resulting in a Beetle that can out-accelerate many sports cars.

** The Porsche family (Dr. Ferdinand Porsche and his son Dr. Ferry Porsche) founded both companies and are responsible for Beetle and the 911. In addition, they both use air-cooled flat engines and have shared technology for years, and will soon merge. It would be surprising only if the VW couldn't fit a Porsche engine.

* [[wikipedia:McLaren F1|The Mclaren F1]], it may not hold the title of fastest production car anymore, but who cares? its still one of the prettiest, and coolest cars ever to exist (plus the driver seat is in the middle, with a passenger seat on either side, that's one more person you can carry in it when compared to other sports/super cars)

** Actually, it still holds the title of fastest naturally aspirated car, as the Bugatti Veyron, Konigsegg CCR and SCC Ultimate Aero TT exploit forced induction (turbochargers and superchargers) to reach their top speeds.

* [[wikipedia:Further (bus)|Further]], the mother of all hippie buses.

* Racing cars in general, such as [[Formula One]] and [[Le Mans]] cars.

** [[wikipedia:Mazda 787B|The 1990 Mazda 787B]], listed because it's the only japanese car to have won Le Mans, as well as without a piston engine, which produced it's ''limited'' max power at ''9000 RPM'' (in an endurance racer!), the true maximum power beeing 930&nbsp;hp at '''10500'' RPM(!). [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_kEeRaS3UM&feature=related The noisiest le mans racer ever ?]. But the best is that by the end of the le mans win, mazda engineers (after telling the driver to ignore the limiter in some parts) dismounted the engine and found that it could still do ''another'' 24 race. The rotary engine was banned afterwards.

** In any list of cool race cars, there are always 2 cars that are bound to compete for the top slots. The Ferrari 250 GTO and its rival, the Ford GT40. The former is so iconic and nowadays, so rare that when it appeared on Top Gear, it could not be driven simply because the BBC could not afford to pay the insurance for it.

*** [http://www.teslamotors.com/ Tesla Roadster] (BTW, [[Car Talk|Tom and Ray]] love it too!)

*** [http://www.aptera.com Aptera]

** Speaking of old electric cars, [[Nikola Tesla]] once modified a 1931 Pierce-Arrow with an all electric engine, which drew power from ''the air'', letting his Pierce-Arrow hit speeds up near 90 miles per hour. ''[[Crowning Moment of Awesome|In the 1930's!]]''

* Many official cars used by heads of state fit into this category. The limousine currently used by the President of the United States (often called "Cadillac One" or "The Beast") is a monster, fitted with 5-inch thick armor plating that could take anything short of a direct hit by an anti-tank round, yet can accelerate and move faster than most commercially-available vehicles. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yo5zH0Il8B0 Has difficulty with driveways, though.]

* The [[Boring but Practical|agricultural-looking]] humble Land Rover Defender. It literally started its life as an [[Torches and Pitchforks|agricultural implement which could also burn banana oil]] in 1948, far from the glamorous military career of the American Jeep. Extreme construction simplicity combined with aluminium-alloy bodywork immune to corrosion made it able to outlive modern Jeeps, SUVs and other 4x4 animals [[Badass Grandpa|by decades]], and has remianed unchanged in that time (excluding a few engine upgrades). It has become the hallmark of African safaris, the all-enduring donkey able to carry what it breaks the camel's back and a bit more. And the British military still clings to it above all the Humvees in the world.

*** It should be noted, however, that both the LRPV and standard 4x4 110s used by the Australian Army do away with the [[The Alleged Car|notoriously unreliable]] stock engine and install an Isuzu Diesel.

* The American counterpart of the Ferrari... errr... [[wikipedia:Studebaker Avanti|the Studebaker Avanti]] was a car so cool that it [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|outlived by decades the company who designed it]], simply because it was too cool to drop. Although designed by the early 1960s, it was far beyond what the [[Boring but Practical|traditional American car]] was supposed to be: aerodynamic fiberglass body, modern disc brakes, modern suspension, powerful V8 engines, a design straight from [[Buck Rogers]] strips. Just after the Studebaker closure of 1964, all it took were a few enthusiastic people and leftover parts to keep production running up to [[The Eighties]], when another company took over, [[It Got Worse|got bankrupt itself]], let another one to take over... even when the last owner [[Corrupt Corporate Executive|got imprisoned for fraud]] the brand still [[Made of Iron|didn't give up]]. As of 2005, they were still in production.

** The 1995 version of the Lamborghini Diablo SE30, it has most of the accesories removed in exchange for more horsepower and a high enough top speed to rival NASCAR, only 150 were ever made and Jamiroqaui frontman Jay Kay owned one of them, he wanted it shipped overseas so it could appear in the video for ''Cosmic Girl'', too bad for him the car's handler couldn't resist taking the Diablo on a joyride and smashing it up beyond repair.

** On the subject of Lambo's, the Countach would count since it was the first Lamborghini to use their infamous swing up doors. (Fact: They were used because normal doors just would not work with the design, a classic case of [[Awesome Yet Practical]].)

** The Murcielago, named after the bull that ''[[Badass|survived 28 sword strokes]]''. "Be assured. It is a fighter" Indeed.

* The 2010 Onyx Ranger Rover, only 300 were ever made and GI Motors gave one of them as a free gift to none other then [[Lindsay Lohan]].

* The Overfinch Holland & Holland Range Rover. A collaboration between Land Rover tuner Overfinch and custom gun make Holland & Holland. In addition to all the usual luxury refinements, the car has the best optional extra ever fitted to any car in the whole of human history - a [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krqxEm1BlhM#t=6m56s self replenishing drinks cabinet filled with Vokda, Whisky and Champagne that Overfinch will top up free off charge for the first year you own the car].

* [[wikipedia:Buick GNX#Grand National.2C T-Type and GNX|Buick GNX and it's siblings]]. Not only because it could out-accelerate the magnificent Ferrari 288GTO to 60&nbsp;mph, but because [[A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing|it was a wolf in sheep's skin]], so ugly and dated that few people would believe what sort of punch could it pack back then.

** The supercharged "SJ" introduced in 1932 could do 0-60 in 8.5 seconds, hit 104 MPH in second gear, and top out at between 135-140. If that somehow does not impress you, keep in mind that a Duesenberg Model J typically weighed around 5,000 pounds and had the drag coefficient of a barn door—and that in 1932, most production cars couldn't do 60 MPH, period. As the saying went, the only car that could pass a Duesenberg was another Duesenberg—and only with the lead driver's consent!

* Any car that has the title of a famous racer or driver such as the Lamborghini Gallardo 550-2 Valvetino Balboni or the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren Stirling Moss.

* The Pontiac Banshee concept car. It was a two-seat sports car that rivaled even the Corvette in coolness in the early-mid sixties. Too bad it was shot down before production.

* The [[Market-Based Title|Daewoo]] [[I Have Many Names|Lacetti]]. Average-looking, but now [[Vindicated by History|popular again, despite criticism at the time]]. Its [[Spiritual Successor]], the Chevrolet Cruze hasn't quite got this response, though.

* The [http://www.netcarshow.com/holden/1969-hurricane_concept/ Holden Hurricane.] so cool that when they found it again in 2006, it was returned to holden who promptly undertook a massive restoration process (right down to duplicating the original paint) that took 3 years to complete, and was only just revealed recently in october 2011.

* Most American Muscle cars could fall under this category, the Ford Mustang comes to mind when this troper thinks about it.

* The SCC Ultimate Aero comes to mind, it beat the original Bugatti Veyron as world's fastest car and was American, which is impressive depending on your opinion of American cars (which for at least some is not very high).

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Luxury Tropes]]

[[Category:Motor Vehicle Tropes]]

[[Category:Rule of Cool]]

[[Category:Steampunk Index]]

[[Category:Travel Cool]]

[[Category:The Utterly and Completely Definitive Guide to Cool]]