Loading page
Preview data: all rankings, scores, votes, refresh labels, methodology, testing and editorial-process statements in Top 49 are illustrative demo content, not live measurements or documented reviews.
Rank 15—No change
#15 in Greatest Cars Ever Made
of 20 ranked entries
Audi Quattro
Audi · 1980–1991
Audi engineer Jörg Bensinger noticed a military Volkswagen Iltis outperforming conventional cars in snow and pushed to adapt its all-wheel-drive system for a road car, then took it rallying — the Quattro’s dominance through the early 1980s forced the entire World Rally Championship field to switch to all-wheel drive within a few seasons. Recorded specifics: year 1980, country Germany, power 200 hp. Panel highlighted proved all-wheel drive’s rally advantage decisively enough to reshape the entire World Rally Championship field, turbocharged five-cylinder engine note remains one of the most distinctive sounds in motorsport history and directly launched Audi’s "Quattro" all-wheel-drive branding still used across its lineup today. The reservation on record is turbo lag on the original five-cylinder engine was significant by modern standards, complicating precise power delivery.
Rally-bred AWDSports car
Score breakdown
How Audi Quattro earned 78.1
Each criterion is scored independently, then combined using the weights published on Greatest Cars Ever Made.
- Engineering innovationweight 30%
- 77.5
- Cultural & historical impactweight 30%
- 78.9
- Driving experienceweight 20%
- 80.4
- Enduring desirabilityweight 20%
- 75.4
On the record
Recorded detail
| Year | 1980 |
|---|---|
| Country | Germany |
| Power | 200 hp |
| Rating | 8.7 |
Panel verdict
Strengths and reservations
What it gets right
- Proved all-wheel drive’s rally advantage decisively enough to reshape the entire World Rally Championship field
- Turbocharged five-cylinder engine note remains one of the most distinctive sounds in motorsport history
- Directly launched Audi’s "Quattro" all-wheel-drive branding still used across its lineup today
Where it gives ground
- Turbo lag on the original five-cylinder engine was significant by modern standards, complicating precise power delivery
1 appearance
Where this entry ranks
From the same list
Ranked alongside it
Rank 01Editor’s pickFord Model T
Ford · 1908–1927
Henry Ford didn’t invent the automobile, but the moving assembly line he introduced for it in 1913 cut production time from roughly 12 hours to about 90 minutes, and the price fell from $850 to under $300 as a direct result. It put car ownership within reach of ordinary wage earners for the first time.
97.5/100 Top 49 score1Up 1
Rank 02Editor’s pickPorsche 911
Porsche · introduced 1963
The rear-engine layout should not work as well as it does — engineers have spent six decades arguing the 911’s weight distribution is theoretically wrong — and yet it has remained in continuous production longer than any other sports car nameplate, evolving through eight generations while staying instantly recognisable.
97.4/100 Top 49 score1Down 1
Rank 03Editor’s pickVolkswagen Beetle
Volkswagen · 1938–2003
Originally commissioned under Nazi Germany as a "people’s car," the Beetle’s post-war production under British Army oversight became one of the more improbable redemption stories in industrial history, eventually selling over 21.5 million units, a single-design production record that stood for decades.
95.2/100 Top 49 score1Up 1
Rank 04Citroën DS
Citroën · 1955–1975
Unveiled at the 1955 Paris Motor Show, the DS took 12,000 orders in the first fifteen minutes and looked like nothing else on the road — its hydropneumatic self-levelling suspension let it glide over rough surfaces so smoothly that Citroën demonstrated it driving on three wheels after a blowout without losing control.
93.9/100 Top 49 score3Down 3
Rank 05Ferrari 250 GTO
Ferrari · 1962–1964
Only 36 were built, ostensibly to satisfy FIA homologation rules for GT racing, and Enzo Ferrari personally vetted buyers to keep the cars out of the hands of speculators. Original examples now regularly sell at auction for over $50 million, among the highest prices ever paid for a car.
92.8/100 Top 49 score1Down 1
Rank 06Jaguar E-Type
Jaguar · 1961–1975
Enzo Ferrari reportedly called it the most beautiful car ever made when it debuted at the 1961 Geneva Motor Show, and at roughly a third of the price of comparable Italian sports cars, it briefly made genuine exotic-car performance affordable to a much wider buyer.
90.9/100 Top 49 score1Up 1
Rank 07Editor’s pickMini
British Motor Corporation · 1959–2000
Alec Issigonis packed the engine transversely and mounted it over the front wheels to leave 80% of the car’s footprint for passengers and luggage, a packaging solution so effective that nearly every front-wheel-drive economy car built since has copied the basic layout.
88.9/100 Top 49 score1Up 1
Rank 08Chevrolet Corvette
Chevrolet · introduced 1953
Built to answer European sports cars after American GIs came home from the war having driven MGs and Jaguars overseas, the first Corvettes sold slowly with a straight-six engine until a 1955 V8 option turned it into the car it was always supposed to be.
88.5/100 Top 49 score4Down 4
Explore more of Top 49
Top 49 rankings are editorial. Scores are produced from the published criteria on each list and are refreshed on the cadence stated there. Figures shown across this section are curated demonstration data.