10 Best Looking Sports Cars

Let the argument over the 10 best-looking sports cars begin right now. Sure, one person’s dream machine is someone else’s nightmare, but it’s remarkable how some automotive designs are almost universally popular (who doesn't love the E-Type Jaguar?) while others are generally reviled (ah, the poor Pontiac Aztek).

As well as being fast and agile, a sports car has to appear striking. It needs to look like it comes from another world, one where shopping carts and baby strollers don’t exist. The litmus test is whether you turn your head as it goes past. Simple, but instinctual. No intellectual justification is necessary. Here are 10 of our favorites.

Anyone who has lusted after an Alfa Romeo during the marque's 107-year existence would say that styling has a lot to do with it. It’s part of the aura. The famed designer Giorgetto Giugiaro has created plenty of beautiful cars, many of them wearing an Alfa Romeo badge. He isn’t responsible for the 4C — that’s the fiendishly talented Lorenzo Ramaciotti — but he did come up with the original visual vocabulary we all tend to associate with Alfa Romeo, such as the tight triangular grille. Ramaciotti took that vocabulary and applied it to this fabulously raucous mid-engined two-seater. It comes as either a coupe or the convertible Spider version. Neither has power steering, thank goodness.

In a list of 10 best-looking sports cars, it would be perfectly acceptable to just put the DB11 in every slot. This machine sends a stirring from the retinas right down to the kidneys. It’s a car you want to chase despite knowing you could never catch up — unless you also had 600 hp. It’s impressive from every angle, displaying plenty of classic Aston Martin design cues (the shape of the grille, the rear “haunches”), yet it also looks fresh and totally modern. It could even perhaps pass for an Aston Martin from a sci-fi movie set 20 years in the future. And it’s a sports car. Admittedly, it can be a grand tourer too, but select Sport Plus mode and hang on.

The second-generation R8 debuts for the 2017 model year, featuring Audi’s sparse design philosophy applied to a supercar. Don’t be under the mistaken impression that the styling was easy to come up with just because it's not busy. Sometimes the true art is taking things away, distilling an idea down to its essence. What to subtract? And by how much? The R8’s effortless styling is a result of much effort in the early stages. The task was made especially harder by having to succeed its beloved first generation — to exhibit a recognizable identity as an Audi R8 — but still move the concept along. Its desirability is enhanced by its 610-hp V10 engine and a user-friendly chassis.

Credit BMW for doing something new. The i8 was designed from a blank computer screen to be a lightweight plug-in hybrid two-seater. Most sports cars have big engines, yet the i8 has a 1.5-liter three-cylinder unit. But the powertrain also includes two electric motors and a turbocharger, yielding 357 hp. In a car this light, that means fun. Some of the body’s shapes look like they couldn’t be achievable with metal, but that’s another joy of the carbon fiber shell: It allowed the designers to be more imaginative. And it’s good to know those scissor doors don’t weigh a ton. The upshot is a sports car that’s simultaneously interesting to look at and aerodynamically efficient.

Most of us only see the rear end of a Corvette as it accelerates away from us. So we’re grateful to the car’s designers for putting a battery of four shiny exhaust tips right in the center of the lower fascia. It’s pretty and reminds us that the car means business. When the styling of an iconic car is done right, it tells a story of how the car became an icon and how it still deserves its spot in the pantheon. The current Corvette does exactly that. Although it’s been a dream car throughout its history, it hasn’t always lived up to its reputation. But the C7 ’Vette is the finest version to wear that “crossed flags” emblem — in every way.

This list came close to excluding every Ferrari. To some eyes, the automaker's current offerings all look a bit too much. And isn’t the California T a bit too heavy around the nether regions? The GTC4Lusso, however, makes a pleasing detour from a well-worn route. For starters, this coupe comes with seating for four and it has all-wheel drive. Its credentials as a sports car include 680 hp from a 6.3-liter V12 engine. And it’s a Ferrari, for Pete’s sake. We say coupe, but the GTC4Lusso pays homage to another body style that designers sometimes dabble with — the shooting brake. It adds a touch of practicality to what is often a plaything, which this car does so elegantly.

This is the super-sporty version of Ford’s archetypal pony car. If anyone wasn’t sure, the go-faster stripes provide clarification. Along with 526 hp from a 5.2-liter V8, the GT350 provides a six-speed manual transmission, rear-wheel drive and a suspension from the legendary Carroll Shelby operation. Stripes are a bit retro, but so is the current Mustang’s styling, bridging the gulf between the famed early models and today. But it demonstrates that good-looking sports cars aren’t always ground-hugging, exotic and European. No one is exactly sure who first coined the term “fastback” but the Mustang sure took the idea and ran with it. It’s now a pillar of the car’s identity. That and the cool sequential rear turn signals.

Its creation took some time, but the F-Type is a true sports car wearing the famous cat badges. Since Jaguar was freed from the shackles of Ford's ownership, it has created some great cars. And given the marque’s history of motorsport success, the F-Type makes all the right moves, a serious contender against established favorites like the Porsche 911. It also looks the part, in either coupe or convertible form, offering echoes of past Jaguar sports cars while still asserting its own identity. The range is topped by the SVR version, a 575-hp missile capable of 200 mph. That speed is crazy, of course — the car would go by so fast that no one could appreciate its handsome looks.

Understated is overrated. Thank goodness there are still companies making cars like this: cars with outrageous looks, glorious power and not an ounce of timidity. The Huracán is still kind of new, taking over from the successful Gallardo. Like that model, it has a mid-mounted V10 engine. If we ever run a “best-sounding sports cars” piece, the Huracán will be there too. The styling is equally impactful as a coupe or convertible, looking as if it can not merely conquer the road, but leave the pavement in tatters in its wake. If you’re driving in Italy, though, there is one Huracán you don’t want to see in your rearview mirror — the police version. It sure beats a Crown Victoria.

No, it’s not the sleekest or sexiest sports car. It doesn’t have bulges or creases just for effect. But that’s its beauty — it doesn’t have anything just for effect. Everything is there because it needs to be. The current design is an evolution of the original 911 from 1963. The car's distinctive profile still has the power to inspire desire and devotion, despite (or perhaps because of) its simplicity. It’s now a classic shape — the longish nose, small cabin and sloped roof that drops directly to the rear bumper, complemented by short overhangs at both ends. We’re talking about the coupe here, because as lovable as any 911 can be, the convertible and Targa models aren’t quite in the same aesthetic league.