Classic Cars With Bob Gelber

What are or where are the best cars in the world? The eyes of this beholder see it this way. Disparate criteria exist for what may constitute the title, "The Best Car in the World." There are so many variables, ranging from landmark engineering to aesthetic appeal, to name just a few.

In 1907, the obvious choice for the title has to go to the Rolls Royce Silver Ghost. Granted, there wasn't too much competition for that title early on, but the Roller was head and shoulders above the competition. It was called Silver Ghost because the original London Car Show vehicle was painted silver, and compared to the other colorless, chitty-chitty-bang-bang horseless carriages around, the Roller had, by comparison, a wraith-like, silent running engine.

Just a year later, in 1908, another car was introduced in America whose build quality was far below that of the Rolls. The Model "T" Ford shook and vibrated at idle like an out of balance washing machine. It was as basic a machine as one could buy, but that was its claim to fame. Simple meant strong, with good design elements that were also easy to repair. It cost a fraction of what the Rolls cost, and became the best selling car of all time. It was the people's car of the era. It was not the best car in the world, just the best car for the world during the early days of motoring.

During the early days of the motorcar there were many vehicles that overshadowed other cars in various categories. Hispano-Suiza, Stutz, Bentley, Lancia, Bugatti, Duesenberg, Alfa-Romeo, Packard, Lincoln and, of course, Mercedes-Benz. Some of these marques were vastly superior to other cars of their era in the areas of performance. Certain models are legendary. The 1926 Bugatti Type 35, the 1930 Alfa Romeo 6C, The 1927 Mercedes Benz SSK, and the 1929 Duesenberg Model J and 1920 Cadillac V-16 had such staggeringly high performance that they compare favorably with many cars built today. Mind you, these are almost eighty-year-old machines. Of course they were hard to handle, steer, and stop, but they certainly weren't hard to look at or listen to. Why is it that all high performance cars over the decades have always been lookers with all the right sounds?

Speaking of lookers, there are certain early cars that, if an award for the best car in the world were given based mainly on aesthetic, these babies should have won the title. What car ever had the magnificently unique looks of a 1935 Auburn Speedster or a 1935 Cord "Coffin Nose" 810 or a 1938 Talbot-Lago T150 coupe? There were definite design geniuses, both here and in Europe, in the prewar years during the 1930s.

The post war era was an interesting time for the reemergence of new automotive ideas. Design wise, cars like the little Fiat based 1948 Italian coupe, the Cisitalia 202 and 1948 Ferrari 166 coupe led the charge and direction of streamlined design. Diametrically opposed to this streamline concept, and concentrating more on practical and inexpensive transportation, were the following cars: the French Citroen 2CV, the 1938 designed Volkswagen Beetle, as well as the little MG-TC and two rather boxy and iconic off road vehicles, the Willy's Jeep and the 1948 Land Rover Series One, a Jeep look alike.

The late forties post war years were just a preliminary to the fifties, an era when car builders really got serious about their products. A young German car company introduced a strangely streamlined little coupe to the world in 1950. The name was hard to pronounce, and sounded surprisingly like a popular Eastern European soup. But Porsche was here to stay, and is one of the great automobile design houses in the world. Jaguar wowed the world with its XK-120 sports car. In 1954 Mercedes Benz produced what is considered one of the greatest cars of all time, the model 300SL. The futuristic 1955 French Citroen DS 19 had features and looks that were so advanced, that very few of them have been duplicated to this day. It may or may not have been the best car in the world, but it was certainly the most creative car ever built.

Of course we Americans were not asleep at the wheel. Virtually every three years, Chrysler, Ford and General Motors were all busy introducing new cars that blew people's minds. You want sex appeal take the 1953 Studebaker or the 1955 to 1957 Chevrolet. There is no car that represents American automotive thinking better during this era then a '57 Chevrolet. Its pure, sleek, freedom of the road looks, with the promise of high performance by a newly introduced spectacular V-8 engine, was so good that it lives on in many General Motors high performance cars today. Out of space for this week's column. More modern cars on the hot list next week.

Bob Gelber, an automotive journalist living in the Hamptons, appears regularly on television as an automotive expert. You can email him at bobgelber@aol.com.

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