Admit it. When you were four, your favorite car builder was Hanna-Barbera. Indeed, some of the best cars of our kid-age dreams weren’t cars at all, but drawings of cars. Saturday morning fantasies burned into our psyches through insidiously cute anthropomorphization, constant reruns, and blatant commercial toy tie-ins. Virtually all of us born in the age of television grew up loving animated cars long before the real ones gripped our souls, so here they are: the 10 greatest animated rides ever.*10) The Jack Rabbit Special, Hot Wheels (1969)*
Mattel’s line of Hot Wheels toy cars was launched in 1968 with one of the most massive marketing pushes ever aimed at children. For those of us who were subjected to it, the appeal of the fast, metalflake-painted cars with redline tires was overwhelming, as was the chance to own the era’s grown-up muscle cars and hot rods. Then Mattel pushed its advantage by creating—or at least signing off on—a Saturday morning cartoon show based on the toys called, naturally, Hot Wheels, which debuted on ABC in the fall of 1969.
The lead character of the show was Jack “Rabbit” Wheeler, and the car he drove was a rear-engine, wedge-shaped sports buggy called the Jack Rabbit Special. Of course there was a toy version available in the 1970 Hot Wheels line.
What makes the Hot Wheels show and the Jack Rabbit Special, well, special, is that they brought the Federal Communication Commission’s (FCC) attention to Saturday morning TV. The allegation was that the Hot Wheels show was at its core a 30-minute commercial for the toys. By 1971, the FCC was issuing a “Notice of Proposed Rule Making” that would shut down such obvious tie-ins. In order to avoid such a regulatory environment, broadcasters agreed to police themselves on the issue. (And they did—for the next decade or so.) Hot Wheels was cancelled and Mattel focused its marketing efforts on things like the sponsorship of Don “The Snake” Prudhomme and Tom “The Mongoose” McEwen in NHRA Funny Car drag racing.
Of course, by the time of the deregulated 1980s came around, all this would be thrown to the wind and direct tie-ins between toys and cartoons would flourish. But for a moment in the 1970s, Hot Wheels was the most important cartoon series booted from network TV.
*9) The Homer, The Simpsons (1991)*
It’s the car that destroys Homer’s half-brother Herb Powell and Powell Motors way back in the glory days that were the second season of now-eternal The Simpsons. Designed by Homer, it has two domes, three horns that play “La Cucaracha,” giant cup holders, thick carpeting, a massive chrome grille, and costs $82,000. Take away the domes and horns, and that also happens to describe a well-equipped 2015 Cadillac Escalade ESV.
Although the Escalade looks more like the Canyonero.
*8) Flintstone Mobile, The Flintstones (1960)*
It’s an open, doorless, log-framed phaeton that lacks any suspension and runs massive stone steamroller wheels that couldn’t possibly be steered. But worst of all, its power comes “courtesy of Fred’s two feet.” So prehistoric modernity had its drawbacks and challenges. That said, this is all that a family car should be, isn’t it? Frustratingly, after 54 years, there’s never been a second-generation Flintstone Mobile.
*7) 1985 Toyota Sprinter Trueno (AE86), Initial D (1998)*
It’s the series that brought both Japanese anime and drifting to the United States. It’s the story of a boy, his Toyota Corolla AE86, and adventures in the underground world of Japanese street racing. Derived from a series of manga comics, Initial D is the TV series companion to the entire sport-compact culture of the 1990s and 2000s.
And if it weren’t for Initial D, there never would have been a The Fast and the Furious franchise.
*6) Lightning McQueen, Cars (2006)*
From a story standpoint, Cars is one of the weaker Pixar Studios films. And it’s nowhere near their biggest hit either. But from a merchandising standpoint, Lightning McQueen, the notional stock car, is a phenomenon. He’s on pajamas and bed sheets and wall stickers. He’s been miniaturized in metal, inflated as a balloon, and processed into dozens of different stuffed plush toys. He is the he-stud of all car-based marketing to children.
And all this is not bad, because there likely isn’t a single character doing more to ensure another generation of car freaks than Lightning McQueen. And the second sequel to Cars—that would be Cars 3—is under development now.
*5) Speed Buggy, Speed Buggy (1973)*
It’s a Meyers Manx given the eager personality of Scooby-Doo and the voice of—and we’re going way back here—Jack Benny’s old Maxwell. In fact, Speed Buggy’s voice was supplied by the great Mel Blanc, who was also behind Benny’s radio comedy classic Maxwell.
Speed Buggy, produced by the same Hanna-Barbera studio that also made Scooby-Doo, only lasted one year and 16 episodes. But those episodes were constantly being mixed in with other cartoons to produce shows for decades. And its Speed Buggy is still the car for people who really want a dog.
*4) Bumblebee, The Transformers (1984)*
It was the first Transformers TV show that completely obliterated the self-restraint regarding marketing that broadcasters had maintained since the Hot Wheels series. Transformers was blatantly based on the Hasbro toys, and always tied to what was flying off the Toys”R”Us shelves.
And of course, the most heroic of the Transformers was Bumblebee who, before Michael Bay made him a Camaro, was a humble VW Beetle with a modest temperament and puppy dog’s loyalty to humanity.
*3) The Jetsons’ Flying Car, The Jetsons (1962)*
In 2010, C/D explored the intricacies of exactly how George Jetson’s car—which can achieve speeds of at least 2500 mph, but folds up into an attaché case that George can easily lift—works. That groundbreaking research holds up well four years later, but we don’t seem much closer to the dream of a flying car. (Although Toyota says it’s working on it. Sort of.)
The Jetsons’ car has permeated the culture so thoroughly that it practically erased visions of any other future cars and prototypes. This is the bubbletop we all still want, a 21st-century dream machine that makes the 21st century worth living in. Damn it, where’s our flying car?!
*2) The Mystery Machine, Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! (1969)*
Fred, Velma, Daphne, Shaggy, and Scooby never went anywhere if it wasn’t in the Mystery Machine. For a full 45 years, the Mystery Machine—it’s a van of some sort—has been exactly what kids imagine a great adventure-seeking truck should be.
The Mystery Machine isn’t fancy, can’t talk, doesn’t have a personality, and is painted in the same colors as the bathrooms of 1960s tract homes. But for sheer longevity, there’s never been another cartoon vehicle that can touch it.
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· Rolling Valor: The 16 Greatest Hero Cars of All Time
· Top 10 Villain Cars of All Time: Putting Evil on Wheels
· Toyota Corolla Research: Full Pricing, Specs, Reviews, and More
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*1) **The Mach 5, Speed Racer (1966)*
Legend has it that Speed Racer’s Mach 5 was created as a mash up of the Elva that Elvis Presley’s character drives in Viva Las Vegas and the gadget laden Aston Martin DB5 seen in Goldfinger. Both of those wildly popular films were released in 1964, so there’s a certain symmetry that adds plausibility to that fable. But there’s a wackiness to Speed Racer that’s also distinctively Japanese.
The animation of Speed Racer is awful, the action makes even less sense in English than it presumably does in Japanese, and what the Mach 5 is best at is defying both physics and credulity. But this is the exotic car that led generations of boys and girls to crave gadgets and cars. It’s the car that has fueled our lust for exotics and racing for 48 years. It wins. Reported by Car and Driver 37 minutes ago.