FUTURE ICONS: THE DEAD CERTS AND THE MAYBES

Some cars are simply destined for icon status from the second they hit the showroom floor. Richard Porter names ten whose fate is sealed

It’s a given that Alpine’s A110 and Audi’s V8 R8 will soon have icon status bestowed upon them, but will we one day look more kindly upon Alfa’s 4C?

IT’S NOT EASY TO DEFINE AN ICON FROM CLOSE quarters. Some cars might seem less than stellar once the hubris of newness has died down. Others might benefit from hindsight to remind us they were important, or just better than we remember. It’s an inexact science, but we’re here now, so let’s have a stab at picking some cars not mentioned in the previous pages but which we think are likely to achieve evo icon status, starting with the Alpine A110.

Of course it’s still very shiny and novel, but the important thing about the A110 is that it’s also very good. And it stands out, which is a good thing for icon status. Plus, its biggest point of difference is lightness and it deserves elevation to future icon status for reminding us how important that can be. Listen carefully, you can hear a chorus of Lotus engineers going, ‘Oh, now HANG ON…’

Well, since you mention it, there’s no doubt the Elise is an icon, but it’s also been around since before most Formula 1 drivers had teeth, and in a multi-decade icons list you’d probably insert a bright yellow S1. However, under the ‘cars from the last five years or so’ rule we’ve imposed for this feature you could have a Sprint 220 from today, which is almost certainly a better car than the original and lighter than Elises have been for years. In icon terms, the existing Elise could be one of those cars we won’t fully appreciate until it’s gone, and it’s still a fine thing, even in its twilight.

Speaking of long-serving allies, we can’t overlook the Nissan GT-R, which is old enough to feel like part of the furniture but still does what it’s always done, which is to bring distant places closer at a heady rate, even if they’re round a series of corners. When the next one finally arrives it’s almost certain to be some kind of hybrid and we’ll realise what an icon the old warhorse always was.

Likewise, when every supercar has a petro-electric drivetrain we’ll try to define the perfect end-of-days celebration for the pure, raw rush of internal combustion alone, and we’ll alight on the Mclaren Senna. If there’s a sub-award for iconic fugliness, it’ll win that too. It’s a hard one to call for certain, of course, because so many supercars can seem iconic, but the Senna is something special, and so too, at a less extreme level, was the original Audi R8 V8. Don’t write in saying it was a sports car, not a supercar: it was a mid-engined car with a V8 and an open-gate gearshift – what do you want exactly? It was also, and this is important, extremely good indeed, to the extent that the road testers of this very magazine could hardly believe its 911-conquering talents, as Henry Catchpole explained in evo 262. For that alone, it’s a low-slung icon. We’ll not see its like again.

Such a sentiment could apply to many of the cars assured of icon status, largely because we’ve entered a new era of

powertrain technology where almost everything has a turbo today and will have an additional electric motor tomorrow. With that in mind, the peak of the naturally aspirated midengined Porsches is a shoo-in here – the Cayman GT4. Say that one quietly though or prices will go silly-side-up again.

We need some trad hot hatchbacks on this list, so let’s start with the last-generation Fiesta ST as a high-water mark of old-fashioned fun and a dead-cert icon for the future. You can tell as much because the current model, with a downsized engine and a fraction more polish, is already a touch less of a good-time Charlie. Also on a hot hatch tip is the surprisingly extreme Volkswagen Golf GTI Clubsport S, which contains many icon indicators, including rarity, brilliance and an intense sense of purpose. It also has the satisfying feeling of being a well-kept secret. If you know, you know. If you don’t, it’s just a Golf with some funny bits on the bumpers. You could apply the same thought to another certain icon of the future, the Alfa Giulia Quadrifoglio, which might seem like an ordinary four-door saloon to the uninitiated but is actually a cut-price exotic in a low-key body. Plus, it’s the first decent Alfa in ages and it’s intensely good fun to drive. Rack up those icon points and come back to us when you’ve thought of a contemporary fast saloon more deserving. No, not an F80 M3; that’s the wrong answer.

One final thought on icons: sometimes they’re cars that invented a new sector or a new style that no one else had thought of before. That’s why this list can’t wrap up without the Rover Streetwise. OK, not really. The Matra Rancho came up with that one years earlier. But on the matter of things with cranked ride height and an unspoken mission to drive fast down gravel tracks, take a look at the recent Lamborghini Huracán Sterrato and tell us the inspiration wasn’t partly from the final car on our certain icons list, the Ariel Nomad. One day in the future, when Porsche is wheeling out a new-generation safari 911 and Audi is trying to leverage some Ur-quattro cool into a jacked R8, just remember the absolute brilliance and daftness of the Nomad, which reinvented the concept first. It’s an oddball alright, but also a dead-cert icon.

‘Mclaren’s Senna is the perfect celebration for the pure, raw rush of internal combustion alone’