Many of the cars on this list provided styling cues for the 240Z...the Jag E-Type, the Aston Martin DB5, and the Ferrari 250. All have "sugar scoop" headlights, long sculpted hoods, and similar rooflines. I can see more of the Ferrari in theZ than any of the others. Comments?

http://autos.yahoo.com/news/the-10-most-beautiful-cars-of-all-time.html

Edited August 24, 201212 yr by 24 Ounces

I think every car on that list is stunning with the exception of the mopar. Some cars make me stop and stare for very long periods of time. Most of the cars on that list do just that. The comments section has many gripes about now deusenbergs or Bugattis. I just do not find those earlier cars captivating. Incredibly well built yet, but they do not capture my imagination as much as an E-type jag does.

Jay Leno said it best "some cars make you want to pour a glass a wine, pull up a chair, and stare" Some cars I just love looking at but there are others that I would love to look at it for about 30mins and then drive it for hours. The Miura, 260 GTO, 275GTB, original GT40, Jag E-type roadster, '63 Vette, Countach, and F-40 are just a few. The Z did get a lot of cues from other cars and I think that is what makes it so appealing to so many people of all ages and preferences for cars. A lot of cars are either Love it or Hate it but I don't think anyone out there hates or dislikes the Z's. Its obvious the E-type and several '60s Ferrari's influenced the Z. Pop on a set of head light covers to a Z and it looks track ready and a little more exotic IMO.

As a side note, all the cars on that list are well outside the budget of most car guys which is the way it goes for things that are considered beautiful. I don't think the Mopar is all that beautiful, its a muscle car brute plain and simple. It looks good and mean but its not beautiful. I think a '57 Bel-Air or '59 Caddy is beautiful and should have beaten out the Mopar.

One factor worth noting is that the headlight treatments on the majority of the cars shown are a significant design consideration - not just added on because cars have to have headlights. The Corvette, the XKE, the Miura,and a few others incorporated the lights into the form of the car which was visually interesting and relatively unique at the time of manufacture. The Z with headlights under "glass" in some cases perpetuated that theme.

I've talked to Porsche designers and engineers who point out that they try to make the front of their cars menacing and intimidating so that when they're seen LARGE in the rearview mirror, cars pull over to let them pass. That's fairly standard for most performance cars.

Dennis

I like and appreciate most of the cars on that list but I'm not exactly drawn to them (even the mopar-though I wouldn't consider it beautiful). If I were able to add one car, it'd be the Auburn Speedster. That's one I could admire at all day...

There are a few newer cars I'd nominate as well, but as this list seems to be more reflective of the vintage side of design, I'll not.

All these cars have classic lines, even the Mopar. I happen to really like the lines of the Mopar. They were unique for the time and still is attractive today. The Z falls into a similar category for it's time and price point relative to the competition.

For me, the Muria tops the list. I might dis-agree with a couple of the others though as being in the "top ten". To my eye, the 246 Dino is far prettier than the 275.

Regarding "aggressive" looks, pick-ups have followed suit on this theme in the past decade. It's marketing to testosterone, pure and simple.

Just my 2 cents...

Obviously the creators of this list were not considering the beauty of the cars to be skin deep. While I like all of the cars on the list, most of them don't belong in a beauty contest. I think the 240Z is more beautiful than any of them. Look at Julio's car in the post above, every body line blends smoothly with the next. The Porsch, while I love these cars for their performance, I can't call it beautiful. The Challenger was my least favorit of the Mopar muscle, the Vette, not in my top 10 by a damn site.

If you are looking at strictly the exterrrior lines of the car, the Z, and the TR6 would have to be on the list.