Why can’t every car be pretty?
It’s easy to blame bad taste on the part of car companies and consumers alike, but the real culprit is progress. Because every new car must serve many masters—from government safety regulations to fuel efficiency requirements and durability metrics---beauty doesn't always take top priority. The 21st-century chief designer is in most cases a manager, tasked with making sure the product remains on a certain path. There are exceptions, but the end result almost always is birthed from countless meetings and a give-and-take between engineers and artists. Which makes any great looking car the result of economics, corporate climate, and sheer luck.
It wasn't always like this.
Take the Jaguar E-Type, the massively influential 1960s sports car designed by Englishman Malcolm Sayer. British motorsport legend Denis Jenkinson called that rolling tumescence "the greatest crumpet-catcher known to man." Sayer was a genius, but his real advantage was a lack of restrictions: He had little to do besides make room for Jaguar's vibrant straight six engine and ensure the whole package was relatively aerodynamic. His talent hit sheet metal largely unimpeded. You couldn't build a mass-produced E-Type today even if you wanted to, and this is probably a good thing: Safety and emissions regs keep people alive and the air breathable.
But some famed models from those early days have kept their magic over the decades. The new Ferrari 488 GTB is a long evolution of the 308 GTB and shares that car's silhouette without being anything like the original. Ditto for the current Porsche 911 with its predecessors. Both of those cars succeed visually because they maintain classic proportions but don't overdo the details or general sense of homage. Similarly, cars that fail the visual acid test---machines like the current Mini Cooper or 2007–2010 Jeep Compass---often do so because their designers couldn't reconcile old ideas and detailing with modern requirements. (The Mini's bluff new nose is partly due to European pedestrian crash regulations; the Jeep was basically a mishmash of old-Jeep themes slathered onto a flabby, un-Jeeplike profile.)
The thing to remember is that every new work must stand on its own. Good design doesn't play favorites, influence can't wholly dictate a new form, and mix-and-match assembly is no replacement for considered art. With that in mind, it's fascinating to look at how professional creatives deal with compromise. And to consider how the past is incorporated into the present, because no designer operates in a vacuum.
So we've pulled together five examples of cars from the 1950s and 1960s whose descendants have carried the same themes through multiple decades but stand on their own merits. From the past Jags that gave us today's F-Type to the latest Corvette that feels both modern and historic, these are the some cars that pay tribute to what came before while still being totally original and wonderful.
