The ten most representative sports cars in the world
Jaguar, Porsche, MG, Austin-Healey (100), Mercedes-Benz 300 SL, Triumph TR2, Aston Martin DB 2-4, Lancia and Alfa Romeo were declared the most representative sports cars in the 10/1956 issue of "Popular Mechanics". That was almost 70 years ago. The German edition of "Popular Mechanics" was, so to speak, the licensed edition translated into German of the very popular magazine "Popular Mechanics" in the USA, founded by Henry Haven Windsor in 1902. The magazine still exists today, at least online. But back to the sports car.
It wasn't the editors who compiled the list of ten cars, no, it was based on a vote with "ballot papers" filled in by several thousand sports car owners.
A sports car was defined by one voter as follows: "A sports car is a comfortable, hard-sprung, precisely built vehicle with good acceleration and safe cornering, which you always have complete control over."
Some voters were even more specific: "A car that can drive a closed race and still be suitable for road traffic. It must be able to accelerate from 0 to 160 km/h within 60 seconds and stop again."
More emotional were definitions such as: "A car that you drive, not one that drives you" or "Pleasure to drive, the car becomes an extension of your arms and legs".
Incidentally, the article was illustrated with pictures by the painter Paul Hamlin, who painted the sports cars in their natural environment, i.e. racetracks. The fact that he chose a Ferrari 750 Monza and not a more "roadworthy" model from Maranello was probably more of a coincidence.
Incidentally, the list of cars that did not make it into the top ten is also interesting: Cunningham, Bugatti, Allard, Morgan, Thunderbird, Siata, AC Ace, Frazer Nash, Corvette and Pegaso.
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