ADAM AUSTIN CAROLL DUKE_BOYS KITT LAUREN MIKE NEIL NICOLE PEYTON PRODUCER RICK RUTLEDGE STEVE PEYTON This week on History's "Greatest of All Time". It's all about running yellow lights and breaking radar guns. That's right, we're talking sports cars. STEVE Sports cars come in many forms and many shapes. NICOLE That's the allure for everybody with a sports car, it's a thrill thing. PEYTON And we're ranking the top 10 greatest. RICK If it can't go, then it doesn't deserve to be on the list. PEYTON From the sleek and stylish. LAUREN Anyone that saw it, even if you knew nothing about cars, was like, "Wow, what is that?" PEYTON To the super fast and ultra rare. RUTLEDGE The Dodge Viper, that's an insane sports car. AUSTIN I s it one of the best race cars of all time? Absolutely. PEYTON And as you'll see, not everyone agrees. RICK Corvette is truly one of the greatest cars ever. RUTLEDGE Garbage, hot garbage. Shouldn't be on the list at all. PEYTON A panel of 100 experts ranked our rides using three criteria: stats, innovation, and legacy. Which one do you think will take the checkered flag? Fasten your seat belts and step on the gas, we've got some road to burn. PEYTON I grew up in one of the golden ages of sports cars, the Lamborghini Countach, the Ferrari Testarossa, the Porsche 911. And no matter how hard I pedaled, my Huffy just couldn't keep up. Now it's time to get this show on the road. Starting us off at number 10, a car that made teenagers across America go crazy for a screaming chicken, it's the Pontiac Firebird Trans Am. RICK I think Trans Am belongs on the GOAT list. It's got the styling, it's got racing legacy, it's got performance, and then it's got that popularity. That pop culture that every GOAT needs to have. NICOLE I think it was just one of those cars, when you stepped out it was like, "I'm kinda gangsterish." Just had that vibe. ADAM If you wanted to pick a car that was sort of quintessential mid-late '70s, that would be your poster child. PEYTON So how does Firebird first hit the road? Well, Pontiac, a part of GM, creates it as an answer to the insanely popular Ford Mustang. And fun fact, it's launched by the same guy who built Marty McFly's car in "Back to the Future". LAUREN General Motors realized that Ford was really killing it with the Mustang. They said, "We have to come up with a performance vehicle to offset that, to take away the business. To bring our customers back to us." STEVE Pontiac Trans Ams from 1970 through the late '70s all came with something called the shaker hood. The engine actually had a reverse facing scoop that was poking through the hood, so when you lift the throttle the motor would twitch and so would the shaker hood. And that's one of the beauties of driving a Trans Am, you're actually part of the muscle experience. RICK You looked at it, it looked fast, it looked cool. It was everything you wanted a fast car to be. STEVE It wasn't really a traditional sports car, but the Trans Am can handle like a sports car. PEYTON But what Trans Am can't do is sell. MIKE The reality of the Trans Am is it was an emissions choked pig of a car. It's just such a (beep) car. Everything conspired against that car until 1977 when a movie was made called "Smokey and the Bandit". RICK People loved it, they loved the movie, it was one of the highest grossing movies of 1977. Even though you didn't have great performance, what you had was great looks. You knew that if you drove around in a Trans Am people would go, "Cool car." MIKE America has a history of taking cars that don't necessarily deserve to be considered great sports cars, and turning them into heroes because they're driven heroically. The Trans Am is that. The movie sucked too, you know? STEVE By the late 1970s, Trans Ams had about 180-220 horsepower, and that was net horsepower, but it was about 30 percent less than the peak years of the early '70s, late '60s. But with that said, they still had plenty of power, plenty of image. RUTLEDGE I always said if I got a tattoo it was gonna be the Trans Am hood, that bird, that phoenix shoulder blade to shoulder blade, it'd probably say "Trans Am" on my rib cage. Boy, it would crush at the pool, that's for sure. STEVE The Pontiac Trans Am Screaming Chicken has become sort of a cliche, but it's also a very strong way to sell cars, major marketing move. ADAM You know if you're looking for a guy, when you're a teenager, to buy you beer on a Friday night in a liquor store, I'd say look for the Trans Am. PEYTON But all the haters can't keep the Trans Am down. In 1977, sales jumped to 70,000, then Trans Am gets even bigger, and it's all thanks to a talking car named KITT. KITT K-I-T-T, for easy reference. RUTLEDGE If you had a Firebird in the early to mid '80s, you probably thought you were Michael Knight. A man with no identity who is devilishly handsome, kind of tiptoed on "Does he have a perm?" "Does he not?" I mean, don't hassle the Hoff. PEYTON As the saying goes, all good things come to an end. After 30 years of production, Pontiac drops Trans Am altogether. RICK In December of 2009 the last batch of Pontiacs roll across the assembly line. No more Trans Ams, no more Pontiacs. PEYTON Question is, who drove it better, The Bandit, Burt, or Hoff and Kitt? Now, our number nine spot goes to the best selling two seat convertible sports car in history, at least according to the Guinness Book of Records. Let's hear it for the Mazda Miata. AUSTIN It's the greatest car of all time, the Mazda Miata. What do I need? I need something for a little weekend runabout, Miata. I'm just learning how to drive on the track, Miata. I want something fun that's cheap for a gift for my girlfriend, Miata. What about something that never breaks down? Miata. MIKE I don't think that there's anything that gives you all the sensations of a sports car and in a way that you can actually own. They're the car that you can turn into a race car without enraging your spouse, and usually without killing yourself. STEVE Well I gotta say, at 6'2", I've never been in a Miata. The trouble is if I got in, I probably couldn't get out. But I have friends who have driven them, and they say they are really good cars. But my friends aren't six feet tall. RICK When you look at the list of the greatest sport cars of all time, you can think of Ferraris and Lamborghinis and Mercedes, but the Mazda Miata is the single greatest selling sports car of all time. PEYTON But just how does this Miata craze get started? MIKE There was a journalist, this guy Bob Hall, who was having a casual conversation with a top executive at Mazda and said, "You guys should really be doing a two seater. Everything out there is garbage, it's expensive." Mazda brought him to Japan, and what they built was based upon a design philosophy called Jinba Ittai, the melding of horse and rider. ADAM There were many examples of little two seater sports cars, but they didn't have the performance that you wanted in a sports car. And I think Mazda was smart, they said, "Let's take a two seater convertible, small architecture and really make it work." MIKE It's not a car that you're gonna take off the line and say, "I'm doing zero to 60 in four and a half seconds." You're not measuring performance so much as measuring pleasure, it's a really, really fun, pleasing car to drive. STEVE The beauty of the Miata, with its price tag which was maybe $10,000, not much, they were nowhere near as expensive as a Porsche or a Lamborghini or a Ferrari. PEYTON 35,000 Miatas are sold in 1990 alone. Compare that to Testarossa's sales, which equal less than 10,000. RICK Initially, when they first came out with the Miata, there was actually a waiting list at dealers. People were paying more than the sticker price to buy one of those, because it was such a cool car even from day one. PEYTON In 2016, Mazda rolled it's one millionth Miata off the line, and they're still going strong. Not bad for a cute little convertible coupe. RICK Not many cars can span the spectrum of old people, young people, middle age people. The only thing these people have in common is they wanna have fun. NICOLE For me, personally, aesthetically, and my cup of tea, it's not my swag really. AUSTIN Do I want all these other cars on the list? Absolutely, they're cool, they're fun, they're awesome. But, Miatas start every time, it's the perfect sports car. That's it, end of story. PEYTON Wow, so many people love Miatas, it makes you wonder why it's not even higher on our GOAT list. (upbeat music) Stay tuned to find out what car is next on our list. Could it be the Ferrari Testarossa? RUTLEDGE That's not a car for the masses. PEYTON Maybe the Porsche 911. NICOLE One of the sickest cars you will ever see. PEYTON Find out on History's Greatest of All Time. PEYTON Welcome back, we're counting down the top 10 greatest sports cars of all time, based on innovation, stats, and legacy. And no, we didn't ask some dude in a parking lot, okay? We consulted real car experts. Here's what our team of experts came up with for number eight, a car built like a linebacker that runs like a wide receiver. RUTLEDGE The Dodge Charger was a cool car, legitimately. And a car like that has this really special sound. It's not loud, but it's a deep tone. (engine revving) This makes me miss mine. RICK The attraction for the Charger is simple, you press your foot on that gas, you are getting thrown back in your seat by this beast of a car that could blow everybody away. NICOLE Big. Bulky. But cool. I think it's a great car, it's just not one of my favorites. STEVE It was kind of a muscle car, a personal luxury car, but it could certainly run with a sports car, especially with a street Hemi under the hood. RUTLEDGE The Hemi engine is where on the top part of the engine, where when the piston moves up, it's a hemisphere. It made more power, it was a little more efficient, but really it became a marketing thing. People go, "Has that thing got a Hemi?" NICOLE There is nothing that you can take away from anything Hemi, that was like royalty. PEYTON I'm gonna have to side with Nicole on this one, the Hemi is more than a marketing ploy. When it came out, it produced a whopping 425 horsepower, that's pretty remarkable for the time. MIKE The Charger came along, and it had this raw power that kind of blew everybody's minds. PEYTON Power and speed are everything to the Charger, but so is jumping ravines. In 1979, the debut of "Dukes of Hazzard" brought new popularity to the car. "Dukes of Hazzard" style, of course. DUKE BOYS Yeehaw! PEYTON Well, looks like the Duke boys are at it again. RUTLEDGE I mean I had one because I grew up watching the "Dukes of Hazzard". And if you watched the "Dukes of Hazzard", you believed that the greatest car ever made was the Dodge Charger. STEVE They painted the Charger orange, put the stars and bars on the roof, that really brought new love and attention to the second generation Dodge Charger. ADAM As a kid I watched it and I marveled, because it was the only car that spent more time in the air than it did on the ground. PEYTON But this fine muscle head of a car, might have some people questioning its place on the list. RICK Not a sports car at all, it is a performance car, and it's really a classic muscle car. ADAM You look back on it and it's kind of a joke now. RICK I mean reality, is it deserving a spot on the greatest of all time sports cars? ADAM The Charger doesn't make it anywhere near my list. PEYTON Here's one thing you can't dispute, the Charger's staying power. It's even been around longer than Tom Brady. The next car on our list couldn't be more different. Coming in at a solid number seven, is the Gullwing dream from Germany. You guessed it, the Mercedes 300SL. RICK The number one sports car of all time, to me, has to be the Mercedes 300SL Gullwing. (dramatic music) It is the perfect combination of performance, looks, styling. LAUREN It was sexy. There was so much passion in that vehicle, and anyone that saw it, even if you knew nothing about cars, was like, "Wow, what is that?" RUTLEDGE It has this incredible art deco vibe. If you could launch a car from a bow, what would that arrow look like? To me, it looks like the 300SL. RICK Every one of those cars is built by hand, there's no assembly line. STEVE Between 1954 and 1957, 1,400 of those Gullwing Mercedes SLs were made. And they had a steel shell, steel doors, so they weren't super light, but they were sports light. And that's what "SL" stands for when you're talking 300SL. PEYTON Gorgeous, yes. But my buddy Austin Rogers says, it's no Mazda Miata. AUSTIN Miata is always the answer. The Mercedes 300SL is absolutely remarkable, but as something that you wanna take out on the weekends or maybe go on a weekend trip, it is absolutely irrelevant. (car engine revving) The windows don't roll down, there is no space in the trunk, it's designed to drive 150 miles an hour for as long as possible at 6,000 RPM. Anything else and it's not in its sweet spot. RUTLEDGE It was stunning, and that was a real GT, it was a grand touring car. It's the kind of car that you'd go somewhere for the weekend, hopefully through the mountains, so you can really carve and get to just enjoy yourself. A lot of them had plaid interior, which I think is so fancy. PEYTON When people think Mercedes, they think of luxury, but Mercedes' roots go back to racing. And they wanted to win. So much so, they changed the design of their car just to get into the 24 hours of Le Mans. RICK Every race car at Le Mans has to have two doors operating on either side of the car. Instead of making traditional styling doors, they can actually put a couple of hinges at the top and create these Gullwing doors that flip up. And by the way it worked, 'cause they won. STEVE Why do they call it the Gullwing? Because the doors open like seagull doors. RUTLEDGE Hold on, let me open my Gullwing doors. Okay, this thing was so hot. PEYTON Okay, okay, so what's the catch, guys? Seriously. MIKE The way this was built required the steering wheel to flip up. That's a really difficult car to get into and out of. RUTLEDGE Like that's not a car for the masses. Would've had to have been either a celebrity, maybe a doctor, maybe a fancy lawyer, that's kind of it. STEVE You can expect to see anywhere from 800,000 to 1.5 million dollars for a nicely preserved, or a well restored 300SL. AUSTIN Can you afford it? No, no one can. ADAM This was the space shuttle compared to other street going cars from the '50s. That car is 70 years old, still looks fantastic. AUSTIN Is it one of the best race cars of all time? Absolutely. Is it one of the best sports cars of all time? Absolutely. Would you ever want to live with it? Absolutely not. PEYTON The Mercedes 300SL is one car that I would love to take for a spin, I mean hosting this show means that I get to drive all these cars, right? Need to talk to the producers. (dramatic music) When we return, we'll take a ride in one of the most iconic cars of the 1980s. NICOLE One of the best looking European cars ever made. PEYTON A big favorite of celebs and sports stars of the day. ADAM This was a car that was really just made to whoop ass. PEYTON Any idea what it is? PEYTON Welcome back as we count down a list of amazing, game changing sports cars, on the way to our MVP. Up next on our list, an Italian stallion whose name means "red head" in English. That's right, coming in at number six is one of the most beautiful sports cars of the crazy '80s, the Ferrari Testarossa. RUTLEDGE There were a ton of Ferraris before the Testarossa. But the Testarossa really cemented Ferrari in everyone's mind. It was like an adventure in vanity, that was the real sign that you've not only made it, you're like superstar status. NICOLE I think it's one of the best looking European cars ever made. RICK You have to have a Ferrari on the greatest of all time list, because it just epitomizes the excess of the 1980s. PEYTON Now that's for sure. Anyone who's anyone in the '80s wanted a Ferrari Testarossa. NICOLE Elton John had one, Mike Tyson had one, Michael Jordan had one. RUTLEDGE There was only 10,000 Testarossas sold, like that's bonkers that that many people had $85,000 to spend on this car that you could do almost nothing with. PEYTON Now if you think that's impressive, check out these stats. The Testarossa becomes a hit like no other European car before it, even catching the attention of a young director who needs a ride for a couple of undercover cops by the name of Crockett and Tubbs. MIKE It was Michael Mann, he was a real car guy and he really wanted the Testarossa. So those first two seasons of Miami Vice are actually Corvettes dressed up as fake Ferraris. Enzo found out about it, and Michael Mann said, "Rather than suing us, why don't you just give me a couple of Testarossas?" And Enzo said, "All right we'll do that if you give me those Corvettes to destroy." PEYTON Okay, but forget the speed or the stars or even Don Johnson for a minute, what really defines the Testarossa? ADAM The cheese grater is what people lovingly refer to the intake on the side. RUTLEDGE These individual fins, which in theory would move air in these little, like, vortices towards the side. I don't know if they actually did that, but they made you feel really cool. STEVE Didn't have V12, they had a flat 12 also known as a boxer, and the point there was to get the engine as low as possible so the center of gravity of the car was lower than it would be with a taller V12, which gave that car tremendous handling. AUSTIN What was the Testarossa? Boat, who cares? Garbage. Cool, looks cool, it's not a sports car. Sports car is something you gotta get that you can use also. Can you use and enjoy a Testarossa? Yes, once every four to five months. ADAM It was a very '80s style and it doesn't stand the test of time. RUTLEDGE I think of you look at the culture of the '80s, the Testarossa just fit in there perfectly. I mean you got big hair bands, Wall Street, everything that was kind of going on, the Testarossa was like the cherry on top. PEYTON The Testarossa ended production in 1996, and only 9,939 were ever made. Not many late '80s cars are more iconic than the cheese grater. And next up, another icon of its day. Coming in at number five, the Porsche 550 Spyder. Wait a minute, is it "Porsche-a" or "Porsche"? LAUREN There's one thing that drives me crazy is when people say "Porsche", it is "Porsche-a". ADAM There was a guy named "Porsche-a" it's not up for debate. So people go, "Oh, I say Porsche." Okay, you're just mispronouncing the person's last name. NICOLE The Spyder seems like it really has its name right. Nothing touches this car. (car engine revving) Whoa, this German engineering is ridiculous. RICK Does it deserve to be on the greatest of all time list? I think you can argue it does. It is a car that helped really fully establish Porsche has a racing manufacturer. STEVE The Porsche 550 Spyder didn't really have a big engine, it was a flat four with 115 horsepower. RICK 550 took that four cylinder engine that was hanging off the back, turned it around, and made it a mid engine car. And by putting it in the middle, it creates a lower center of gravity, and in reality enabled Porsche to go out and start winning immediately on a world stage. PEYTON Just like the Mercedes Gullwing, the Spyder's built for speed. And it earns its street cred. In the 1953 Le Mans race, Spyders take first and second place in their 1500 CC class. ADAM The Spyder was, in essence, what Porsche was about. Kicked a lot of ass on the track because it was very lightweight and it handled. PEYTON The stats speak for themselves, the Spyder also has an aura of total cool. Thanks to '50s superstar, James Dean. RUTLEDGE James Dean made that car look so cool. I think the 550 Spyder is rad, but without James Dean I don't feel like we talk about that car. MIKE James Dean was driving to a race when he was killed in it, which I think is one of the fascinating things about how it's captured our imagination. It was a dangerous car to drive, which is one of the things that I also love about it. RUTLEDGE The 550 Spyder was a cool car, especially for that era, what it represented. It just was bare bones but stylish, still exclusive, and still expensive. But boy, I think I would've put a Porsche 911 on the list before that. That's just me, what do I know? PEYTON We have four great sports cars to unveil, as we head towards our panel's pick for GOAT. When we come back, the competition's heating up. Is it the Lambo, the Vette, or what about the McLaren? RUTLEDGE Just makes my heart go pitter-patter. You look like you are from the future driving one. PEYTON Stay tuned. PEYTON Welcome back, we're riding down the highway of the top 10 greatest sports cars of all time. Based on the opinion of nearly 100 panelists, made up of top historians, broadcasters, and journalists, who ranked them based on innovation, stats, and legacy. Coming in at number four, the Shelby Cobra. One of the most iconic sports cars of all time, created by another icon, the legendary Carroll Shelby. With a little help from Ford. NICOLE Shelby Cobra is one of the most vicious convertibles ever produced. MIKE It's tremendously fast and unruly and in some ways terrifying to drive. And it also looks like nothing else on the planet. LAUREN We named our daughter Shelby and a lot of people go, "Oh, after the Mustang." She goes, "No, after the man." MIKE Carroll Shelby was a wonderful dude and a tough bastard back then. He was a racer at heart, and ironically couldn't race because he had a bad heart. And so he became a guy who built race cars. CAROLL My name's Carroll Shelby, and performance is my business. PEYTON Shelby started his colab with Ford Motor Company's racing division in 1962, and the legend began. RICK I mean here you got Carroll Shelby, who convinced Ford to give him engines, AC to give him cars, but when he put it all together into one car, it worked perfectly. ADAM This was a Frankenstein of a car that was really just made to whoop ass. PEYTON In 1965 at Le Mans, Shelby American defeated Ferrari, way to go team America. RUTLEDGE It was such a big thing to go to Le Mans and beat them. But it was also one of the first times that any of the Italians gave any auto manufacturer in the US any amount of respect. STEVE One recently sold for $13.75 million at auction, which is a world record for any Shelby vehicle. Shelby Cobras are worth their weight in gold. Make that platinum. AUSTIN It just did its one thing, which was big engine, go fast. But it doesn't do anything else. Is it cold? Can't take a Cobra out. Are you terrified that someone will touch it? Definitely can't take a Cobra out. STEVE The 427 Cobra is perhaps the pinnacle sports car of the greatest of all time, right on the top of the list, as far as I'm concerned. PEYTON Now our number three car doesn't even need an introduction, the Lamborghini Countach. But people, how can this not be number one? RICK This car was so bold, so striking, that it took everything to the new level. You could make an argument that the Lamborghini Countach was really the first super car. NICOLE A Lamborghini Countach is basically one of the sickest cars you will ever see. I mean just a sleek design, it just has that look of speed. It looks so aerodynamic, like it's a bullet, a rocket. LAUREN When the Lamborghini Countach first came out, everyone was talking about it. A Lamborghini is a whole nother animal. RUTLEDGE Lamborghini got its start because Lamborghini made tractors. The guy who started the company made enough money that he was able to buy himself a Ferrari. So he gets it, and he loves it, except the clutch keeps going out. He goes to Enzo Ferrari's house, knocks on the door and is like, "Hey, this clutch stinks. I don't like your garbage, I'm gonna go make a better car than you." MIKE Ferruccio Lamborghini hated Enzo Ferrari. Mr. Lamborghini just wanted Enzo to feel pain. RUTLEDGE And that's how he got it. I mean pride started this whole other manufacturer, which turns out has given us some incredible cars. And it gave them an overnight rivalry. RICK I remember when the Countach first came out and thinking, "How do you pronounce the name? Is it koon-tac, koon-tache? Well it's "koon-taash". MIKE The Countach is Piedmontese dialect for "Holy shh." It's just so striking to look at that they went with it. (car engine revving) (dramatic music) It was aerodynamic masterpiece in a lot of ways. The way the air flowed over that wedge. But, it didn't turn very well, it was never really a great race car. It was about appeal to the eye and appeal to the senses. RUTLEDGE Just makes my heart go pitter-patter. You look like you are from the future driving one. RICK Part of the styling thing that was so cool about the Lamborghini Countach was the doors. LAUREN It was designed for Italians. Short legs, long torso, if you're built differently you may not find yourself fitting very comfortable in these cars. RUTLEDGE The Countach came out in 1985, it was $120,000 which is roughly $330,000 today. PEYTON Wow, Rut, that's a lot of scratch. The question is, can you even use and enjoy a Countach? AUSTIN Yes, if you're Jay Leno in the '80s, that was his daily driver. But that's a crazy town person. What's the point of having a sports car if you can't use it all the time and enjoy it? PEYTON The Countach isn't the best car for running the kids to practice, not a lot of room for gear in there. But, for style and speed, the 'Tach had it all. So, what could possible beat it out for greatest sports call of all time? LAUREN And even thinking of James Bond, any Aston Martin that he drove goes up in value. MIKE Lee Iacocca and John DeLorean was involved in building a car that should show up Enzo Ferrari. PEYTON Stay tuned to find out. PEYTON So far we've counted down eight remarkable sports cars as we race to number one and the GOAT of them all. We've talked about engineering wonders and design superstars, many made around the world. But it's back to the US for our panel's choice for the number two spot. One of the most iconic four wheel machines that America's ever made. RICK The Corvette is truly, not just one of the greatest American cars of all time, but it's really one of the greatest cars ever across the world. There's people all over the world that lust for a Corvette. NICOLE I would say the greatest sports car of all time is probably the Corvette. It's only you and your boo basically in the car because it's only a two seater, which is great. I have kids, so I love the Corvette for those purposes. RUTLEDGE A little high on the list, but it deserves a spot in the top 10. STEVE The Corvette has always been General Motors' pinnacle engineering and performance piece and it's absolutely a greatest of all time contender for sports car supremacy. ADAM Chevy Corvette for me is like an NFL franchise, had its good years, had its lean years, had its tough years, had its Super Bowl wins. STEVE Historically, sports cars are a British phenomenon, immediately before World War II and right after World War II a lot of American GIs in Europe for the first time saw things like Triumphs MG's and cars like that. Here in America, we didn't really have a sports car 'till 1953 when the Chevy Corvette came out. PEYTON Chevy named the Corvette after a naval strike ship from World War Two to appeal to American men who had served in the war. RUTLEDGE The idea was to try to make a sports car that was like an American Ferrari. RICK It was all about building a car that got everybody's attention. Building a car that would make people think Chevrolet was cool. RUTLEDGE Harley Earl was this legendary designer for GM. The Corvette looked way different from anything else that was around at that time. More aerodynamic, more sleek, more sporty. And it gave you this feeling of passion while it was sitting still. LAUREN The first Corvette came out and it blew people away. (fun upbeat music) They were all white and it had an engine called the blue flame, which is a very small engine and not enough power. RUTLEDGE It was sort of this space age technology to make a body in fiberglass, which is a woven material that was supposed to be lighter. STEVE And the beauty of fiberglass is that it doesn't require the expensive 50 ton stamping machines that steel bodies and steel panels require, and they can change it year from year for minimal investment. RICK People loved the Corvette right from the beginning. What they didn't do was buy the Corvette. They weren't selling big numbers at all, in fact when the 1955 Thunderbird came out it massively out sold the Corvette. RUTLEDGE Chevy threw a V8 in the Corvette, and suddenly it was a total game changer. Because it gave the car more power, more sound, but it still had the sort of classy vibe. It wasn't necessarily seen as the sports car just yet, that took a few more years. Most notably the 1963 Corvette Stingray. PEYTON When the Stingray came out in the '60s, Chevy had a clever idea to generate buzz, give them to astronauts. RICK Back in the mid to late '60s, nothing was cooler than being an astronaut. So Chevrolet wanted astronauts to drive Corvettes, I mean it was the perfect combination. NEIL If you're gonna gift people who went into space a car, that car better look like it belongs in space. Seems to me that would be the Chevy Corvette. RICK Nasa was like, "No, the astronauts can't be accepting gifts from Chevrolet." So Jim Rathmann, who had his Chevrolet dealership down in Florida, came up with this brilliant plan, "We're not gonna give the astronauts cars, we're going to lease them a car." For one dollar a year. RUTLEDGE One of the greatest automotive marketing moves I've ever seen, Corvette is so cool, people that left this planet and went to the moon and came back love this car, you'll love it too. PEYTON Wow, astronauts drive Corvettes? Now I'm sold. But what about staying power? �Vettes sure have been around a long time. ADAM They've been around for 70 years now. To say you like Corvettes, I would have to say, which one? RUTLEDGE Mid '80s, cars were super plasticy looking. The C5, we're getting a little better. Then they unveiled the C7 and people were like, "Well this is amazing, how can you make it any better?" RICK They come out with the C8 Corvette. (car engine revving) A mid engine Corvette, and I gotta tell you, it has rocked the sports car world. ADAM It's substantially cheaper than anything out of Italy and will hang with or beat most of those cars, so the Corvette of today is alive and well. STEVE The Corvette is America's sports car. It's not European, doesn't have a four cylinder, not a six, always a V8. Great car for an American hero. RUTLEDGE What do you need to own, to have a Corvette? It's pretty simple. Some jean shorts, a gold chain, and a tank top, that's all you need. LAUREN They've always been a part of history and they always will be. And as long as they don't make an SUV out of it. They're seriously talking about making the Corvette an SUV, supposedly it's in the works. Don't wreck a brand. PEYTON After Super Bowl 46, my brother Eli was gifted a Corvette after being named MVP. I was really proud of him, also a little jealous of that car, but mostly proud of him. Coming up, we've come to the end of the race and there's one MVP left to award. MIKE I argued for 911 to be one of the greatest cars of all time, just because it is the greatest car of all time. RUTLEDGE Garbage, hot garbage, shouldn't be on the list at all. PEYTON Find out who gets the victory lap when we come back. PEYTON Welcome back, we've seen some wild rides in our bottom nine. Including Hollywood icons, the sexy European variety, and the every man's sports car. And while many of you at home might disagree with where your favorite car was ranked, isn't that what complaining on the internet is for? And number one, it's the GOAT of them all, the Ford Mustang. What else? MIKE Mustang blew everybody's mind. It was really the first peoples' sports car. ADAM The Mustang is like an affordable car that everyone could have. You know, it was kind of a Mr. Potato Head, you could add go fast parts to it, get performance out of it. There's so many different iterations of it. LAUREN These vehicles are really just a piece of history, everybody has a Mustang story. STEVE Well a Ford Mustang, to some purists, is not a sports car, I beg to differ. RUTLEDGE Here's the deal, the Ford Mustang is a great car, but it's also a car that they make an economy version. Have you ever seen a Ferrari Testarossa that someone commutes in? No, because it's a true sports car. STEVE The Mustang was one of America's first cars tailored towards baby boomers. By 1962-3, millions of people under the age of 18-19 were starting to drive for the first time, they all needed cars. So, Detroit started building cars specifically toward the baby boomers. LAUREN April 17th 1964, Ford brought out the Mustang, they brought it to the World's Fair. (upbeat rock music) They knew it would be popular, they called it "The Secretary's Car". But they didn't realize it was gonna turn into a whole historic significant car. RICK One of the great things about the Mustang was the way it was able to evolve. You had the people who were driving the low horsepower car, they thought they were cool because they had the great looks. But then people were also willing to have the high performance and say, "Yeah it may look like that secretary's car but my car is cool underneath." LAUREN To give you an idea how successful it was, in a one year period they sold 650,000 cars. That's a lot of cars. MIKE It was kind of shocking to everybody, and I think it shocked Chevy, it shocked Dodge, it changed the whole landscape. LAUREN But they sold so many that it inspired GM to say, "Whoa we didn't think this was gonna be this big." So they came up with the Camaro as quick as they can. And you can see people scrambling to produce competitive cars, 'cause the Mustang was selling out just as a six cylinder, but also sold as a V8. People were finding what they wanted. PEYTON And then a year later, Mustang shows what it can do on the streets of San Francisco with a guy named Steve McQueen behind the wheel. LAUREN Steve McQueen showed that vehicle could go through those San Francisco streets pretty much it felt like on two wheels. But you could really see it's capabilities. RICK But it really cements the Mustang as an icon. It kind of makes everybody think, "If I had one of those, I'm gonna be cool as well." PEYTON To this day, the Mustang is the longest produced car in Ford history. Between 2015 and 2020, they sell over 500,000 of those ponies, I think it's safe to say people love this car. NICOLE The new Mustangs, I love those bodies. It's a go to, obviously engineered very well. A lot of horsepower, done right. RUTLEDGE Garbage, hot garbage, shouldn't be on the list at all. Don't hate, you know it shouldn't be on there. RICK I think on anybody's list of GOAT cars, the Mustang has to be, if not at the top, near the top. It tapped the American vibe for exactly what consumers wanted at the right time. I mean at one point, Camaro disappeared, Firebird's gone, but the Mustang has stayed the course all the way through. PEYTON There you go, our numero uno GOAT, the great Ford Mustang. Songs have been written about it, hearts have been broken inside it, and epic road trips have been taken with it down Route 66. It's about time for this ride to come to an end, but before we do, there are a handful of sports cars that didn't make the list, that our experts think you need to hear about. Who knows, maybe you'll agree with some of these, or not. RUTLEDGE Here's my beef, where is the Toyota Supra? The twin turbo six speed, touge cruiser, coming from Japan. How about the Nissan Skyline GTR? Two of the greatest sports cars of all time. LAUREN The '60s Charger is really the greatest of all time. ADAM Liar! RUTLEDGE How about the Dodge Viper didn't make the list? I mean, that's an insane sports car. ADAM The Charger and the Firebird. (Adam laughs) I don't know who put the list together, but nobody gives a crap about those crappy cars. AUSTIN Yeah those are the only two important ones, you left out the Porsche 911. PRODUCER We did have the Porsche. AUSTIN Yeah, that's wrong, it's the 911. Yeah, you're definitely wrong on that one. RUTLEDGE There's no BMW M3s on there. How about the BMW Z8? But a Mustang made it? Come on. I don't know who made this list, but I'm in the phone book, we could've talked. PEYTON Wow, those are some revved up gear heads. But I get it, here at History's Greatest of All Time, we love passionate discourse. Well keep the debate going, because you never know, maybe next time your GOAT will make it to the top. LAUREN At the time, the Gulling was made in 1952, it was one of the fastest vehicles with zero to 60 in seven seconds. You wouldn't even think about that when you look at such a car that's about design and style, but it had performance it back it up. Not just on the track, but also on the street. MIKE The 308 GTB was the car that saved that company from having to close its doors, from having to declare the Italian version of bankruptcy. The reason that happened is because Tom Selleck drove it on Magnum P.I., and that really introduced Ferrari to America. LAUREN When they came out, everybody wanted one. Everyone wanted to be like Tom Selleck. MIKE And Ferrari had to acknowledge that, and sort of go with it. And it really set the stage for the Testarossa. RUTLEDGE His ability to look at a product and think, "I could make this better, I could make this faster." Really changed automotive history forever. To get a vision like the Cobra, to see this snake in his mind and think, "That's what I'm gonna call this." ADAM This is, you know, a mad genius in his lab in Venice Beach, California taking the brain of a genius and putting it in you know, Gronkowski's body. RUTLEDGE Imagine you come home to your family in 1962 with this two seat sports car, with no top, no windows, it was $7,500, which is like 75 grand in today's money. Oh also it's so loud it's gonna rattle the windows on the house? That's a hard sale to come home to. I mean the fact they sold any at all is really impressive. RICK The Shelby Cobra has got to be close to the top of the list of the greatest of all time. I mean it's such a perfect combination, American motor, that British chassis, that American know how of how to weave it all together. ADAM They did what they were supposed to do, they were lightweight, handled, and then had a big V8 in them, which made 'em haul ass. RUTLEDGE When they brought to car here to the US, because of our safety laws, they had to add this bumper on the front and on the rear because we had a five mile per hour impact bumper law at the time. Well how do you do that? You just put a big ole cushion up front. So imagine this incredibly sleek car now has this just rectangular tube all the way across the front. In a lot of ways it looked terrible, but you know what? We still got the Countach, and everyone loved it. NICOLE They all look fast, and they've all got some great colors. I think I've seen some of the best colors, paint wise, on Lamborghini Countachs. I mean just they you got greens, metallics, just everyone really tries to have a vibrancy about it and whose color's better. RUTLEDGE I mean even the wheels, the wheels look like phone dials, like the old rotary phone. The car's so low, I mean you can't get a cup of coffee through the window, and yet- RICK Those cars are brutal to drive. I mean, they have a brutal performance, but you can't see out of 'em. I mean trying to look backwards, figure out where you're backing up, gotta remember this is before they had back up cameras, right? I often wonder how many Lamborghini Countach rear bumpers have had to get repaired because some poor guy, well some rich poor guy, was backing into something. LAUREN Cars started getting smaller, and because of that, those vehicles became Pintos that looked like Mustang IIs. Those are not considered sports cars in my heart. RICK If there's a dark era in the Mustang world, it's gotta be the Mustang 2. The Mustang world liked to pretend it never happened. But the 1980s was when the Mustang came back. Came out with something called the Fox Body Mustang, and it got back closer to its root. Now we're evolving into a new era, and most importantly, they come back with greater performance. 38 2 HISTORY�S GREATEST OF ALL TIME: FAST AND FURIOUS FACE-OFF Bulls Eye Media Services LLC 516 383 2586