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See [[Improbably Cool Car]] for cars that are just ''too'' cool for the setting or the characters.
{{examples|suf=s}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==▼
▲== Anime and Manga ==
* 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''.
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* [[Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt]]: Panty and Stocking's Hummer H1 named See-Through and Scanty and Kneesocks's G-Wagen limo named G-string are both capable of some [[Car Fu|very awesome action.]]
* [[Kosuke Fujishima]] put [[w:Lotus Seven|Super 7s]] into not one, but two titles: ''[[You're Under Arrest]]'' and ''[[éX-Driver]]''. The latter story had two 7s.
* Dorothy's car in ''[[Princess Principal]]'', which looks much like one might expect a [[steampunk]] 1910s/20s-vintage hot rod/race car might, with all manner of piping and extra bits (including what might be a primitive supercharger) sitting on its hood. It's huge, almost the size of a truck, can hold pretty much the entire five-woman team at once, and appears to be spectacularly souped-up.
** The Princess has her own car, which is kept parked next to Dorothy's under the school. Although somewhat smaller and more "feminine" looking, it seems to be no less powerful.
== [[Comic Books]] ==
* 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.}}
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** In ''[[Batman Beyond]]'', it's a [[Flying Car|''flying'' car]].
** And in ''[[Batman: The Brave And The Bold]]'', it can transform into a ''[[Humongous Mecha]]''.
** His [[Arch Enemy]] [[The Joker]] used to have his own Cool Car, [https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Jokermobile the Jokermobile.]
* 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''.
* Best of the lot: Vic Sage's red Volkswagen Beetle in Denny O'Neill's run on ''[[The Question]]''. It was a bog-standard old-school Beetle, but modified so that, under the bonnet, there was a honking great V-8 engine.
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* Since ''[[Green Arrow]]'' originally followed in the footsteps of Batman, it's no surprise that he drove around in the ''Arrowcar.''
== [[Film]] ==
* The Ford LTD from ''[[Men in Black (film)|Men in Black]]'' only ''appears'' to be uncool at first.
** J even notes that the MIB have "unlimited technology from around the galaxy, and [they] have to drive around in a Ford POS". He eats his words when it comes time to push the little red button on the stick shift.
** J's Mercedes in the sequel is a nice [[Flying Car|upgrade]].
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* ''[[Team America: World Police]]'': The Team America Hummer, in all its star-spangled glory. It even has hidden weaponry for when that terrorist just needs to get taken care of.
* 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]].
* One segment of ''Drive: the Documentary'' (made by [[Canadian Broadcasting Corporation|the CBC]]) offers five entries for the Real Life cool car list: the [https://www.cbc.ca/documentarychannel/content/legacy/01_citroen.jpg 1972 Citroën Série Maserati], with a suspension so smooth that Rolls-Royce licensed it; the [https://www.cbc.ca/documentarychannel/content/legacy/02_vw_dual_cab.jpg 1962 Volkswagen Dual Cab Transporter] that combines the best features for a VW Microbus and a cargo-hauler then adds a surfboard rack; the [https://www.cbc.ca/documentarychannel/content/legacy/03_gullwing.jpg 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL ‘Gullwing’] (because gullwing cars are intrinsically cool); the [https://www.cbc.ca/documentarychannel/content/legacy/04_jaguar.jpg 1973 Jaguar E-type Series 3 V12], the car that Enzo Ferrari called the most beautifully designed vehicle of all time, and the car that was used in the ''[[Austin Powers]]'' movies; and of course [[James Bond]]'s personal ride in ''[[Goldfinger]]'', the [https://www.cbc.ca/documentarychannel/content/legacy/05_DB5.jpg 1965 Aston Martin DB5 Saloon]. More on all of these cars [https://www.cbc.ca/documentarychannel/features/5-of-the-most-swoon-worthy-cars-from-007s-hallowed-hardtop-to-a-moonshot-se here].
== [[Literature]] ==
* 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.}}
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* ''[[The Three Investigators]]'' rode around in a gold Rolls-Royce, complete with a cool chauffeur, Worthington.
== [[Live-Action TV]] ==
* The General Lee from the ''[[The Dukes of Hazzard]]'' - arguably the series' protagonist, with the Duke family being supporting characters.
* KITT and KARR in ''[[Knight Rider]]''.
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** 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.
* FAB-1, Lady Penelope's six-wheeled Rolls-Royce from ''[[Thunderbirds]]''. While the original was only a model, it was [https://web.archive.org/web/20130927091650/http://www.seriouswheels.com/cars/top-Ford-FAB-Film-Thunderbirds.htm actually built] for the 2004 [[Live Action Adaptation]] (though in an [[Egregious]] example of [[Product Placement]], it was no longer a Rolls Royce but a custom Ford Thunderbird).
* ''[[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.
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* 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.
== [[Music]] ==
* [[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.
*** Doesn't help the case any when this troper's seen full-body steel cars
* 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.
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* [[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 title character of "The Little Old Lady from Pasadena" by [[Jan and Dean]]; "parked in her rickety old garage is a brand new shiny red Super Stock Dodge." And she [[Drives Like Crazy]].
== [[Video Games]] ==
* 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].
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* Many of the vehicles from the ''[[Mario Kart]]'' series games, especially from ''Double Dash'' onwards.
== [[Web
* In the ''[[Homestar Runner]]'' Halloween Episode "Homestarloween Party", everybody (except Coach Z, The Cheat and the Poopsmith) takes turns telling a story about a goblin. According to [[Honest John's Dealership|Bubs]], the goblin has a Gremlin car that's so tricked out, it has a ''[[Back to The Future|flux capacitor]]''. According to Pom Pom, the Gremlin was so cool, the goblin attracted several bikini girls... {{spoiler|and then [[Jerkass|Strong Bad]] and [[The Eeyore|Strong Sad]] [[Downer Ending|ruin the story by having a robot kill everyone (and then die itself in tragic circumstances).]]}}▼
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20170525063927/http://centralcitytower.blogspot.com/2010/03/machine-introduction-buggy.html The buggy] in Project 0 is essentially this for Aatu.
* ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'' - [https://web.archive.org/web/20130630114309/http://www.warseer.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=85676&d=1269794315 Imperial cars.] Look like [https://web.archive.org/web/20130630115818/http://www.warseer.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=85675&d=1269794315 fucking tanks].
** 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.
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* ''[[The Trenches]]'': Isaac's car.
== [[Web
* Katie in ''[[Oktober]]'' is a very interesting case. Not only do none of the characters see Katie the same way, but it appears {{spoiler|her trunk is some sort of bizarre interdimensional portal.}}▼
▲* In the ''[[Homestar Runner]]'' Halloween Episode "Homestarloween Party", everybody (except Coach Z, The Cheat and the Poopsmith) takes turns telling a story about a goblin. According to [[Honest John's Dealership|Bubs]], the goblin has a Gremlin car that's so tricked out, it has a ''[[Back to The Future|flux capacitor]]''. According to Pom Pom, the Gremlin was so cool, the goblin attracted several bikini girls... {{spoiler|and then [[Jerkass|Strong Bad]] and [[The Eeyore|Strong Sad]] [[Downer Ending|ruin the story by having a robot kill everyone (and then die itself in tragic circumstances).]]}}
▲== Web Original ==
▲* Katie in [[Oktober]] is a very interesting case. Not only do none of the characters see Katie the same way, but it appears {{spoiler|her trunk is some sort of bizarre interdimensional portal.}}
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* 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.
* The protagonist's Gadgetmobile from ''[[Inspector Gadget]]'' a van that can turn into a police car. On the bad guys' side, Dr. Claw has a limousine that can turn into a small airplane or submarine.
* 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.
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* ''[[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!
* In ''[[The Powerpuff Girls]]'' episode "Boogie Frights", the Boogie Man has a flying limousine.
* An ''[[Animaniacs]]'' short casts Slappy as "The Little Old Lady from Pasadena", but in this case, her car is far more modern than the Superstar Dodge in the song, most likely a Dodge Viper, and it has supercharger. [[Drives Like Crazy| And she drives just as crazy.]]
== [[Real Life]] ==
* 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]]
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* 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.)
** Speaking of Ferraris, most of them were cool because they ''had'' [[Cursed with Awesome|to be cool]]. [http://www.topspeed.com/cars/ferrari/1969-1974-ferrari-dino-246-gt-ar79301.html The] [[wikipedia:Dino (automobile)|Dino]] [https://web.archive.org/web/20140111093725/http://auto.howstuffworks.com/ferrari-dino-246-gt.htm 246GT] was [[Up to Eleven|freezing cool]].
* 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.
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* [[wikipedia:Further (bus)|Further]], the mother of all hippie buses.
* Racing cars in general, such as [[Formula One]] and [[Le Mans]] cars.
** Let's be more specific... How about the [
** The 1971 [https://web.archive.org/web/20140605222613/http://robson.m3rlin.org/cars/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/porsche-917-1971-test-kauhsen-siffert-5.jpg Porsche 917 LH, in Martini colours]. To quote from the Autosport.com message board; "I asked a teenage Lewis Hamilton fan when this car was from. He said, 'dunno, nineties?'"
** Special mention to the McLaren MP4/4 driven by Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost for the 1988 Formula 1 season. The car was one of the last of the "[[In-Series Nickname|turbo monsters]]" with a 1.5 litre 1200 hp twin-turbo Honda V6 engine. In the hands of Senna and Prost it became the most dominant Formula 1 car ever made winning 15 out of 16 races it competed in (10 of which were 1-2 finishes) as well as 15 pole positions and 10 fastest laps.
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* 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.]
* [[Lethal Joke Character|The Caterham Super Seven]], descendant of the old Lotus Seven. Yes, it looks like a cross between a go-kart and a 1930s racer, and yes, its 250-hp 2-liter engine may appear to be a joke by virtue of it being from a Ford Mondeo. Now that you're done laughing, take into account the fact that it is so friggin' light (506 kg, or 1,116 pounds) that it has a power-to-weight ratio greater than the Bugatti Veyron. Let's reinterate: its power-to-weight ratio is better than the ''Bugatti Veyron'', the fastest production car in existence ([http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tN6_xUL8j4 it actually got around the Top Gear test track a second quicker than the Veyron did]). It's also a fraction of tthe cost and is a hell of a lot more fun to drive.
** Super Sevens show up in at least two works by [[Kosuke Fujishima]]: ''[[You're Under Arrest]]'' and ''[[éX-Driver]]''.
** An original Lotus Seven appears in the opening credits of ''[[The Prisoner]]'', driven by Patrick McGoohan.
* Nobuhiro "Monster" Tajima's [http://rundeautochat.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/01-hill-climb-suzuki-sx4-sport.jpg Pikes' Peak Suzuki Escudo]{{Dead link}}. Holder of the record time up the mountain. [[Cool Old Guy]] + Cool Car = Win.
* 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.
** [http://www.lr-mad.co.uk/pics/lrpvx2.jpg the Land rover Perentie LRPV]{{Dead link}}, part of the 'Perentie' 6x6 series of land rovers developed by and for the australian army and SASR, its essentialy a defender put on steroids to cope with the australian conditions, features include 2 machine gun mounts (one on a cupola the other on the passgengers seat), 6x6 drive, a fuel capacity of 365 litres (giving it a range of about 1600 km between drinks), an integrated cab and body structure with stowing facilities for equipment and rations as well as a low profile over the crew area. and a mounting rack so it can ''carry its own motorcycle'' for scouting purposes. [https://web.archive.org/web/20121002125437/http://www.allisons.org/ll/4/LandRover/Perentie/LRPV01.jpg as demonstrated here]
*** 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.
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* 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).
* Anything that [[w:Carroll Shelby|Carroll Shelby]] designed, especially the [[w:AC Cobra|AC Cobra]] and the Mustang GT500.
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[[Category:Luxury Tropes]]
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[[Category:Pandering to the Base]]▼
[[Category:Rule of Cool]]
[[Category:Steampunk Index]]
[[Category:Travel Cool]]
▲[[Category:Pandering to the Base]]
[[Category:The Utterly and Completely Definitive Guide to Cool]]
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