50 for 50: The Best Car From Each of the Past 50 Years

This is the car that started James Bond's onscreen association with Aston Martin. It's deserving of its silver screen fame as well, with a 282hp inline 6 and some of the best design the world has ever seen.

No American car is more iconic than the Ford Mustang. Since its inception it has never ceased to be relevant, and has grown into a world beating sports car, even in its most basic trim.

1965 gave birth to the greatest legend in American racing history: The Ford GT40. It was conceived out of Henry Ford's ironically Italian vendetta against Enzo Ferrari, and designed to beat the Italian at his own game: The 24 Hours of Le Man. It did... four times.

Ferruccio Lamborghini didn't really have this kind of insane, hard-core sports car in mind when he started his company. However, this one was magical. Every Lamborghini since has drawn its personality from the Miura. A classic in every sense of the word.

This Italian supercar appears to be made entirely of sexual curves, aluminum, and lunacy. It's one of the most beautiful cars ever made, and it was the fastest thing on four wheels when it was unveiled.

It may have been unveiled in 1968, featuring styling from 1938, but the Morgan Plus 8 remained in production until 2004. The car is credited with saving Morgan from becoming a footnote in automotive history, and for giving a ton of people a great big, shamelessly retro, smile.

The Range Rover has kept fairly close to its original formula: Giant SUV that kicks a metric crap-ton of ass. The original wasn't as luxurious as today's, but the Range Rover was the first Land Rover to be both genuinely useful in everyday life, and on the trail.

The R107 SL-Class is certainly a classic in the SL line, but the car that we really love is the related C207 SLC-Class. It was lightweight, nimble, luxurious, and available with a number of powerful engines. What more could a buyer ask for?

The Lancia Stratos is one of the greatest, and most wildly wedge-shaped, rally legends of all time. So what if most of them have rusted away at this point, the remaining cars are still brilliant and we'll always have the memories.

It might not have been fast or glamorous, and it certainly hasn't become fast or glamorous, but it can't be denied that the Honda Civic has left a Godzilla sized footprint on the automotive industry and the world.

Today, Lamborghinis are known as much for their angular and aggressive appearances as much as for performance, and this all started with the Countach. This car changed supercar design more than any other.

This holds the distinction of being one of the only mid-engined 2+2s ever made.

Not only did the Esprit handle damn near perfectly, but James Bond had one that also functioned as a submarine... how cool is that?

Porsche's big grand tourer was originally intended to replace the 911. While we're very happy the 911 is still around, the 928 was a fantastic car, and a damn near perfect grand tourer.

The M1 was the first M badged BMW to ever go on sale, and by far the most dramatic to have even been made. While all M cars since have been tuned versions of more pedestrian BMWs, we hope that a purpose built sports car isn't far away.

The Geländewagen was developed for military use at the request of the Shah of Iran, who held a large stake in Daimler at the time. In 1979, however, it became the true German alternative to a Land Rover, and has changed very little in the years since.

Not only did the Audi Quattro serve as the genesis of Audi's focus on AWD, but it is quite possibly the greatest rally car ever made.

The Jalpa was the Lambo for people who couldn't afford a Countach—not that it was cheap by and stretch of the imagination—but it was nonetheless incredible.

The Excel has perfect, 50:50 weight distribution, a peppy engine, and a number of nice performance parts from Toyota, as Lotus was also working on the Supra at the time the Excel was made.

Since 1983, old people, policemen, and taxi drivers have all been madly in love with a certain rear-wheel drive piece of Americana. While the Crown Vic was finally retired last year, you'll no doubt still see hundreds of them on the road for years to come.

Sadly, the world never got to see the 388 GTO race, even though it bore the "Gran Turismo Omologato" designation—meaning that it was homologated for racing. The series it was designed for vanished before development was done, so all we ever got was one of the world's greatest road cars.

The first BMW M3 was the begining of a legend of racing sedans and coupes that continues on to this day. We just want to see more M3s on race tracks and less in the hands of inexplicably moneyed douchebags.

We have a big hard-on for Group B rally cars, and Porsche's spectacular 959 is no exception.

The Ferrari F40 is, despite advances in performance and technology, still the favorite of many enthusiasts, such as three time Indy 500 winner Dario Franchitti.

The VW Corrado succeeded the Scirocco, and did much to prove that compact hatchbacks can be both quick and sexy. It was also one of the first cars to house VW's innovative VR6 engine.

The Taurus SHO is one of the greatest contemporary q-cars (or sleeper car, hiding high performance in an unassuming exterior). Seriously, who expects a boring old Ford to haul ass like that?

F1 Legend Ayrton Senna helped tune the Acura NSX, which guaranteed that it would be at the peak of performance, but it did more than just wow us with speed: The NSX showed us that a supercar could be reliable as well. This car forced the Italians' collective hand and made them work quickly to improve quality.

Immediately after WW2, Bentley began sharing bodies and most components with Rolls-Royce, bringing the storied marque down to the level of a glorified trim package. The Continental R was the first Bentley since then to have its own platform.

The McLaren F1 is our favorite supercar of all time ... of course it's our favorite car of 1992.

SVT knows how to work magic, and the '93 Mustang got very fully massaged by Ford in-house tuner. The result was a car that is still lusted after today.

When we see the performance specs for this practical wagon, we always start to consider hunting one down. Who expects an old station wagon to beat a Mustang at the lights?

If one takes a Continental R, and adds a big turbo, and digital ignition from a F1 car, one gets the Turbo S, Bentley's shockingly fast luxury cruiser. This is what brought us to where we are today.

Since 1996, there has been but one bug-eyed gold standard of nimble handling, and it is the Lotus Elise.

It's nothing short of amazing how well the Jaguar XK8 has aged. It's still fast, it's still sexy, and it's 15 years old.

When it comes to cars that made a big splash in the fields of design and fashion, the Audi TT is certainly a stand-out. At the time, this was one of the most talked about cars in the world, and it had the performance and fun-factor to back up those good looks.

The 360 was the first Ferrari to really be useful not just as a hard core sports car, but in day to day life as well. It could be driven to work, it could be relied upon, but it still knew how to have fun.

While the Henrik Fisker-designed Z8 might not have been the first of the BMW Z-series, it is certainly the greatest. You can also see the genesis of the Fisker Karma's weird mustache on it.

Ian Callum's design for the V12 Vanquish was nothing short of perfect. It was a car so beautiful that it would have sold well even without the incredible performance and the James Bond appearance.

The Enzo was brilliant, and is still, just over a decade later, one of the most sought after cars in the world. Ferrari knew that if it was going to put the legendary founder's name on a car, that car would have to live up to it, so no expense was spared.

With the Continental GT, Bentley managed to create a car that had a little of something for everyone in it. It was stylish, fast, elegant, luxurious all at once. Athletes, rappers, celebrities, enthusiasts, race car drivers, and more flocked to showrooms.

Despite the oxymoronic insistence that the CLS is a "four door coupe," it is one of the most important designs of recent years. This roofline added sex appeal to an otherwise practical package, and has since proliferated throughout the entire industry.

While Maybach as a brand might have struggled for its entire life, at least we have this one incredible concept car to remember it by. If the Excelero had been a production model Maybach might still be around today.

There have been very few mid-engined German supercars, for some reason. We're very happy that the Gallardo's German cousin is with us, though. This is the supercar that can do anything from track duty to commuting to snow trails.

Maserati's coupe offering has been disappointing at best for a long time. But in 2007 the company released the Castriota-penned GranTurismo and had an instant classic. We think it's easily one of the most beautiful cars ever made.

Jaguar's new XF is extremely capable, exceedingly comfortable, and dead sexy. Especially when compared to the octogenarian-approved looks of its predecessor.

We proclaimed the One-77 to be the greatest Aston ever, and we caught some heat for it on social media. We stand by our assertion though, because the One-77 is everything that makes an Aston an Aston taken to its maximum. We like that.

The 458 features an engine that hold a world record for best naturally aspirated specific output. That alone is enough to earn it a place here.

The McLaren MP4-12C was designed to be just a bit better than the Ferrari 458 Italia in every way. It is 100 percent purpose-built and was essentially made with the intention of creating a street-legal track car.

Cadillac has been on an up-swing for a few years now, but the ATS proves that the company once considered the greatest in the world still has what it takes to be the best. The ATS didn't just bring the fight to the juggernaut that is the BMW 3-Series, it looks like it might win the battle.