15 Cars We Want Retroed From the '70s

The Stratos is a vehicle that was built purely for homologation. Inside this little guy is a mid-mounted, 2.4-liter Dino Ferrari V6, tuned to create a beast of a rally car (it weighed less than 2,000 pounds). It was built between '72-'74, and only 492 rolled off the line. Who wouldn't want to own a car that had 17 world championship wins and more than 50 European championship titles to its name?

Introduced at the 1978 Paris Motor Show, the M1 was the first publicly sold M performance car that BMW produced. Four hundred and fifty-six of these bad boys were built from '78-'81 with 3.5L inline 6-cylinder engines. It was basically a race car draped in pedestrian clothes, as it was only built for homoligation. Rumors from BMW sugguest that a successor to this car called the M8 (not to be confused with the i8 hybrid supercar) will be introduced next year.

Many consider this to be Britain's first supercar. It had the same V8 engine as the Lagonda, however, this version had revised camshafts, an air-box, larger inlet valves and carburettors, new inlet manifolds and different plugs. That meant shooting from 0-60 mph in 5.2 seconds with a top speed of 170 mph.

Designed by American Tom Tjaarda, the Pantera was introduced in '71. Under the hood was a powerful 351cu-in, 5.8L V8. Fun fact: Pantera translates to "Panther."

Raymond Loewy of Yamaha was responsible for this Japanese beauty. Introduced at the Tokyo Motor Show in 1965, it's largely considered the first Japanese sports car ever. Funny enough, it was originally inteded for Nissan, but they turned it down and Toyota accepted. You'd think Nissan would be upset these days, but they later had the 240z with Datsun, so the damage didn't hurt too bad. The car was only produced from '67-'70 and only 337 were built.

Chevy had the Camaro. Ford had the Mustang. In 1970, Dodge introduced the Challenger, a car that shared the E-Body platform with the Plymouth Barracuda. The Hemi version of this car had a eight-cylinder 426cid Hemi that put out 425hp. The appearance is so loved today that it was used as inspiration for the current Challenger, which made a come back in 2008 after dipping out of production in 1983. According to Hagerty.com, the convertible version of this car is valued at more than $400,000.

This car at the forefront of the V12 Lambo and mid-engined supercar curves. Fun fact: "SV" stands for "Spinto Veloce," which is roughly translated to "pushed fast."

The ZR-1, a car many consider the best small-block 'Vette ever made, was introduced in 1970 and only ran through 1972. In those three years, only 53 cars were made; 25 were produced in 1970, 8 in 1971, and 20 in 1972. It was basically a street-legal race car. These cars had an LT-1 engine with all the racing equipment from the L-88 Corvettes of 1967, '68, and '69, including the M-22 transmission.

The Superbird had one of the most distinct and unique looks of any muscle car. One of the first cars that was built using a windtunnel for research, the Superbird was a modified version of the Road Runner. 1,920 were built for homologation, but on the track, the performance vehicle won many Piston Cups and seven NASCAR titles. The most powerful version was a 426 HEMI that pushed 425hp and scooted the car to 60 in only 4.8 seconds.

he GSX, though not nearly as maniacal as the Grand National, is another Buick that can get lost in the sea of muscle cars from Dodge, Chevy, Plymouth, Oldsmobile, and Pontiac. The "X" version of the Grand Sport was a high-performance package that came with either the big-block 455 or Stage 1 engine. It was marketed as "A Brand New Brand Of Buick." 1970 was the first year these cars were produced, and only 678 were built in year one.

The Mazda Cosmo is not a car that's talked about very often, however, it's a car that you should definitely catalog in your encyclopedia of car knowledge. This was the first Japanese car with a rotary engine, and it's actually got two rotors. One of the first Japanese sports cars, it weighed about 2,000 lbs and had a 5-speed transmission.

As we mentioned earlier, the Barracuda shared the E-Body platform with the Dodge Challenger. The 'Cuda was the sport variant of the Barracuda and the '71 model year had a different grille than the '70 and was the only year with fender gills. Give us one with a 440ci 6-barrel Super Commando Six Pak or a 426cu-in Hemi, and we'll be good to go.

The styling of the 240Z completely changed the perception of Japanese sports cars. It was an attractively designed, well-built, speedster that would pave a path for a new market. Its 2.4L overhead-cam straight-six and independent rear suspension gave it 0-60 in 7.8 seconds and a 125 mph top speed, which was better than the Jaguar E-Type and the Porsche 911T of the same years.

With the '74 model year Countach, Lamborghini created a car that nobody would have ever even thought of. The Countach was slicing, blocky, sleek, and bold all at the same time. It was first introduced with a 4.0-liter 375-horsepower V12. To this day, it's considered one of the greatest supercars ever built.

We've heard a few rumors that the Chevelle nameplate is working its way back through the pipeline, but we can gaurantee it's not going to be anything like this classic. The 454 came out in '70 with the slightly redesigned body. The Chevelle was one of the most popular mid-sized cars at the time and still remains one of the iconic images of the American muscle car.