Jeremiah 29:11

Some of these are not my favorites but they do have a following. Of course, the Challenger is listed and that is why this is posted.

Enjoy!

Coolest Cult Cars

Dan Lienert, 11.06.06, 12:01 AM ET



They weren't mainstream then, and they're rarely seen now--but they'll still wow you.
Lamborghini's Countach is literally the poster child for cult cars.
For its entire life--model years 1973 to 1990--the Countach appeared on the bedroom walls of kids around the world. People have worshipped few cars as they did this Italian supercar.

But the Countach practically defines the phrase "not to everybody's taste." It was severe and showy--bordering on tasteless. Lamborghini itself admits that Ferrari owners, who themselves are not exactly subtle, think Lambos are props for nouveau riche attention hounds.
And even among fans, the Countach gradually wore out its welcome. Late-model Countachs with such additions as enormous rear wing spoilers "look downright silly--an absolute cartoon of what they started out to be," says Sports Car Market magazine. The Countach is fading from sight, in part because tastes have changed but also because the high maintenance costs of unreliable, old-model Lambos keep them off the road.

When you hear the phrase "cult cars," you might think of Ford Motor's (nyse: F - news - people ) Mustang or General Motors' (nyse: GM - news - people ) Chevrolet Corvette, which have legions of devotees but are very common and still in production. Similarly, the Jeep Wrangler, Porsche 911, Mini Cooper and Volkswagen Beetle and New Beetle are so high profile and commonplace that their followings are merely large. The Beetle is possibly the world's all time best-selling car. Quirky though the car may be, saying it has a cult following is like saying Titanic is a cult film.

Even if the Countach started out garish, became a parody of itself and is now on the decline as a collectible, it's a great example of a cult car. It wasn't mainstream to begin with, and you don't see it much these days. Yet it still has a loyal following. People who grew up in the 1970s and '80s remember playground discussions about the car and recall how exciting it looked in those old posters. For these people--this writer included--the Countach will never cease to get the blood going.

The vehicles on our list of the coolest cult cars of all time were niche cars when they were new--supercars, race cars, exotic European autos and other low- to mid-volume vehicle types. Probably the two most mainstream were Cadillac's Eldorado and Lincoln's Continental, but both were luxury cars, not volume players. Dodge's affordable Challenger competed against such popular, mass-market cars as the Mustang but came late to the party and was off the market after five years.

When we considered which cult cars are cool, we passed up the "cutesy" (e.g. Citroën 2CV, Fiat Jolly) and "quirky" ( BMW Isetta, Saab Sonett) in favor of more upscale stuff. And although taste is subjective, lists like this will always spark debate, so here are explanations for certain vehicles we left out:
DeLorean DMC: A cool shape, but its build quality, as one industry analyst puts it, was "diabolically bad," Monotony limits the car's collectability. DeLoreans look the same: gray, stainless-steel exterior, black or gray interior. Zzzzzz.

Lamborghini Miura and Mercedes-Benz 300SL ("the Gullwing"): More like museum pieces than cars with underground followings. The Miura and Gullwing have appeared on the covers of too many books and magazines and are held up as the be-all and end-all of automotive design. You could say Ferrari's Enzo Ferrari, a recent supercar that made our list, was also on the cover of plenty of car magazines. But the Enzo is not to everybody's taste. Angular and deliberately shocking--abrasive, even--it's too new to fit into the pantheon next to the Gullwing and Miura.

Big A