What happened to the legendary car?

"Bryce H(Wants an M coupe)" (brycehimelrick)
12/09/2015 at 14:08 • Filed to: None

I was sitting around my house looking at Hemmings instead of working. There were some gorgeous cars on there. Like ac cobras, e types, 911s and lots of legendary cars. This left me thinking (instead of working),thinking about that there hasnt been a “legendary” car in a while. Automakers are producing legendary cars in terms of engineering and remaking legendary cars of many years ago. But nothing new nothing like the Corvette when it came out or the 911,. I will say that automakers have perfected on the legends but no new ones have been made. We live in the golden age of cars, great cars such as the bmw m4, porsche 911 have been made and cooked to perfection. When these cars came out, they were being ogled by everybody there. It was new, it was amazing. But nothing has surprised me and got me as excited as a 911 would have, or a Corvette when they came out. The legendary cars have just been made better, and reincarnated.

DISCUSSION (14)

HammerheadFistpunch > Bryce H(Wants an M coupe)
12/09/2015 at 14:16

JR1 > Bryce H(Wants an M coupe)
12/09/2015 at 14:17

Legendary cars come up now and again. I think the R8 and Miata are two good examples

66671 - 200 [METRIC] my dash > Bryce H(Wants an M coupe)
12/09/2015 at 14:18

I think the electric era will help bring new developments and begin the cycle of advancement all over again, especially when they begin to get cheaper and more accessible.

Also, I think legends take time to emerge, think of the gt1 cars in the late 90s, maybe when we look back at Le Mans now (and the past few years) we’ll look at the Audis as the Schumacher era Ferraris and Porsche as the combo breaker. Nissan could possibly end up in a weird situation with their FWD lmp1 car, like a less successful Tyrell 6 wheeler. Give it some time, and think of cars now like you do for cars in the past I guess.

SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie > Bryce H(Wants an M coupe)
12/09/2015 at 14:20

The Corvette when it came out? You mean with the straight six and two speed auto?

The Ghost of Oppo > Bryce H(Wants an M coupe)
12/09/2015 at 14:25

I think cars like the P1, 918, and i8 will definitely be legends.

GhostZ > Bryce H(Wants an M coupe)
12/09/2015 at 14:31

Tesla Model S

2006 Ford GT

2007 GT-R

Hummer H1

Lotus Elise

Koenigsegg CCX / CXXR / Agera

Rally Fighter

Arial Atom / BAC Mono

Carerra GT

BMW i8

Dodge Viper

And as much as I hate to admit, the Veyron.

The Mid-2000s will be remembered for the GT-R, R8, and the Veyron, the first time people proved that AWD turbo coupes had such strong potential when combined with torque vectoring and electronic assists, letting anyone drive. We forget that the GT-R was $70,000 when it came out and faster than any sub-$1m car around a track.

The 2010s will be remembered for making insanely good drivers cars accessible to the public again, without having bad emissions or fuel economy or insanely high prices. The i8, Model S, Fiesta ST, new Miata,Fiat 500 Abarth and 124 Spyder, Mustang Ecoboost, and more are all part of that. Of all of them, the Fiesta ST, Model S, and i8 stand out the most.

Goggles Pizzano > Bryce H(Wants an M coupe)
12/09/2015 at 14:32

These stand a good chance.

Kinja'd!!!

Time will tell.

Goggles Pizzano > Bryce H(Wants an M coupe)
12/09/2015 at 14:33

Lack of a need for homologation is largely to blame.

Aaron M - MasoFiST > Bryce H(Wants an M coupe)
12/09/2015 at 14:39

Rose-tinted glasses, for one thing. The Corvette was a dog when they first came out. Until the V8 was an option in 1955, but more realistically when the C1 had a refresh in 1956, they sold very slowly. The first really desirable Corvettes were the fuellies in 57, some four years after the car debuted. Similarly, while the first Porsche 911s were better than the 356s they replaced, I don’t think anyone in 1964 would have considered them legendary...maybe a little more likely to kill you than the Alfas and Fiats they competed with. Porsche really got the kinks out and started winning races with the cars some four or five years after they debuted, and the most desirable 911s are the Carrera RS models, from some ten years after the car’s debut.

Any car can be legendary...but probably not for at least a decade after they stop making it. Look at when the prices for 993s and E30 M3s started spiking. Speaking of legendary cars, why not those? Or the Toyota Supra or FD RX-7?

GhostZ > Bryce H(Wants an M coupe)
12/09/2015 at 14:39

There’s also the fact that most of what we consider “legendary” cars were considered piles of junk 10-15 years after their release, including the 911, E-Type, and C1 (Even C2) Corvette. It wasn’t until they persisted and put the work in to continue releasing them for 20+ years that they really persisted.

A lot of the reasons why they have appreciated so high is because of the classic car collecting market, which emerged mostly in the 90s.

GhostZ > Aaron M - MasoFiST
12/09/2015 at 14:41

I really don’t think that the 911 even became desirable until the 80s when the turbo came out and it gained a reputation of being a high priced executive killer.

Aaron M - MasoFiST > GhostZ
12/09/2015 at 14:43

I’d agree, but in all fairness it did win races in the 60s, even if by sales the MGs, Triumphs and Fiats of the world were killing it. I think I’m afraid of a Porsche-phile coming out of the internet woodwork and biting my head off, honestly.

AUDACIA > Bryce H(Wants an M coupe)
12/09/2015 at 16:30

You can’t leave the time that went past out of that discussion. Especially the XKE or the 911 are also legendary because the respective manufacturer warms up those cars’ myth every now and then. But I personally think, that you really could the Nissan GT-R legandary, a model of more or less recent times. And the BMW 1 M Coupe’s also got the potential to develop a massive cult following and a legendary status, at least among BMW diehards.

Alex Zapata > Bryce H(Wants an M coupe)
12/09/2015 at 16:48

Kinja'd!!!

I think there may be a couple in the last few years that I think qualify for this...

Also the Super Sport Vitesse, I personally adore the Rembrandt

Kinja'd!!!