My Car of the Year 1960-2019 (Part 1- The 60's)

Over the next six weeks, I'm going to take a look at my favourite car of each year from the last 60 years. I'll do a decade a day. Let's get started!

1960: Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato

The Zagato DB4 is a style icon, and one of the coolest cars in history. There weren't too many new cars in 1960 but the Aston is unquestionably the most brilliant. It's so good, they've even made the planned ones that were not made. Such a good car.

1961: Jaguar E-Type

Philippe Oursel (Unsplash)

Honorable mentions go to the Citroen AMI, Ford Thunderbird, Renault 4 and Alpine A110, but the Jaguar E-Type is even more legendary than the Zagato. After a late night drive to the Geneva Motor Show that became a legend of the car industry, the E-Type sold, and sold, and sold. Over 70000 were eventually sold, and while it did become slightly awkwarder to look at as it aged and had mid life updates, it's still not just an achingly beautiful car but a very very solid one mechanically.

1962: Ford Cortina

Pedro Pereira (Unsplash)

Faster cars were introduced in 1962 (my Honorable Mentions this year, the Ferrari 250 GTO, the MGB and the Chevy Corvette C2) but in my opinion the Cortina was more important. Introduced by Ford Britain as a rival for the Vauxhall Victor and Morris Oxford, it became several things over its life; Britain's highest selling car of the 70's, a top class racing car in the form of the Lotus Cortina, and a status symbol for those who could (or whose job could) afford the top of the line models

1963: Aston Martin DB5

Aleks Marinkovic (Unsplash)

A honorable mention goes to the Mercedes-Benz SL which is massively cool, but the DB5 has to win. Taking Aston's second award in four years, the DB5 maybe wasn't the world's best car mechanically, but it is potentially the world's coolest car ever built. It's the first car that anyone thinks of when James Bond is mentioned, which does help.

1964: Ford Mustang AND Porsche 911

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Well, it wasn't going to be anything else was it? Both the Mustang and the 911 are iconic cars that deserve a place on this list, I had to share it. The Mustang is the people's muscle car; around a million have been sold, and they can do anything from drag racing to circuit racing to crowd terrorising. The 911 is the sports car. With that said, it has a few tricks too: no car has won more Nurburgring 24 Hours titles, nor has any other rival sold over 1 million as well. The only real honourable mention that can be made is the Pontiac GTO.

1965: Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow

Vlad Kutepov (Unsplash)

The definitive Roller is a very lovely old car. Honorable mentions go to the Alfa Giulia GTA and Ford Bronco. The Roller isn't a very good driver's car, but then again the point of a Roller is that it is a passenger's car. It was not just the best luxury car of the 60s, it was also of the 70s as well.

1966: Lamborghini Miura

Kid Tarantino (Unsplash)

This was a hotly contested year. There were many contenders: Alfa Spider, Jensen Interceptor, Ferrari 365, Fiat 124 and... um, Toyota Corolla. However, I have to give this to the car that really put Lamborghini on the map. Sure it had faults, particularily with a notorious Lamborghini issue still to this day: rear visibility. However, the Miura was a truly special car to drive and that's why it gets my vote for 1966. Second place would go to the Spider.

1967: Chevy Camaro

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There were really only three contenders for the 1967 COTY award: the winning Camaro, the Chevy Corvette C3, and the Ford Escort. The Camaro is my pick, as it has become such an iconic car in the years following. It took Chevy three years to get a relevant competitor for the Mustang but since then, barring a six year spell with no Camaro, they have mirrored each other.

1968: Ferrari Daytona

It was between the Ferrari and the Toyota Hilux. I'd have gone with the Toyota, which is a very solid offroad truck, but that first generation was none of those. As for the Daytona, it's one of the most stylish Ferraris ever, and had the chops to match too. In a good year for the Italians, the other standouts were two Lamborghinis- Espada and Islero.

1969: Nissan 240Z

Andrei Ianovskii (Unsplash)

There were a few really good cars this year- Ford Capri, Nissan Skyline GTR, Porsche 914 and Chevrolet Blazer. However, I need to give it to another style icon that started a dynasty, just like so many cars on this list- the Nissan 240Z. The Nissan hasn't had brilliant reliability, being plagued in particular by rust, but apart from that it's one of the best handling (and looking) sports cars of its generation. It spawned so many other Z cars throughout the line, from the high-tech, 90s 300ZX to the upcoming 400Z. It's also responsible for a significant amount of Japanese tuner culture.

So that's my Cars of the Year for the 1960's. One notable omission, and a car that screams 60s, was the Mini Cooper. However, it was revealed and first sold in 1959, meaning it misses out on this list. Is there anything else you disagree about? Let me know below!