Lotus 49b with Graham Hill at the wheel.

The whole 908 and 917 families from Porsche were beautiful machines. In fact, all the cars in Steve McQueen's Le Mans movie are beautiful machines. But that was before my time... as a child of the 80s, the cars that captured my imagination were the GTP and Group C cars... Porsches, Lolas, Nissans, Toyotas, Intrepids and so on. I remember walking through the paddocks at Watkins Glen and Lime Rock with my parents and seeing these beasts close up. It was the first time I really started to think about the fact that all the cars in a given race series weren't alike, and that the variety of designs and approaches to solving technical challenges was such a big part of what made racing exciting as a fan (if only I knew the era of spec racing that lay ahead!). The technology was amazing, the speed was blistering, and being at the track was always a ton of fun. I've been happy to see somewhat of a revival in these aspects of sports car racing in recent ALMS seasons.

Art Malone's Mad Dog IV.
Any Swamp Rat.
D Jaguar.
Scarab.
Leader Card Roadster.
Challenger I.

Thanks for reading the column, and especially thanks for all of the great comments. Several threads here: so many choices, so many series, and many of us chose great beauties from our early experiences with racing...

That depends on the venue.
NASCAR: Plymouth Superbird and Dodge Charger Daytona.
Sports Cars: Porsche 917K
Can-Am: Chapparal 2C, 2E and 2J
F5000: Lola T-332
Indy Cars: STP Turbine # 40, 1967

Sure, I'll play.

Gotta agree with you on the Tyrrell P34 for Formula 1 rides, though the red & gold 69 Lotus 49B "biplane" with the big front and rear wings were nearly as rad.

The Ferrari 330P4, in my mind, is the most beautiful sports racer made. It was almost a shame to put numbers on 'em, because the big white meatballs spoiled the lines. Though the later Lola T70 and Ferrari 512 closed cars were beautiful too -- especially in dark blue Penske/Sunoco livery.

It may reflect on the geezer in me, but for NASCAR rides I've gotta go with the '70/'71 Junior Johnson/Bobby Allison Monte Carlos in red 'n' gold Coca-Cola colors, followed by the '74 to '76 AMC Matadors in company red white & blue livery. It still amazes me how that Matador could be such an ugly street ride but such a hot lookin' stock car racer.

For Indy cars, the McLaren M16 was my favorite. It didn't really matter how you colored it, it was a sharp ride. But my favorite was with Carling Black Label markings. Black with red pinstripes looked way sharp, even with the other decals detracting from the overall look.