Best and Worst Looking Cup Cars

ToyYoda

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Of all the different Cup car body styles over the years, what do you think were the best and worst looking?

My $0.02:

Best:
'69 Daytona Charger/'70 Superbird - I'm too young to have seen these cars race in person, but has there ever been a cooler looking racecar?

'89-'97 Ford Thunderbird - Don't know why, but I always loved the 90's T-Birds.

'86-'89 Chevy Monte Carlo SS Aeroback - These look boxy by today's standards, but they sure were cool back in the day.

Worst:
'98-'99 Ford Taurus - IMO, the late 90's Tauruses were some of the ugliest street cars ever produced, and their racecar counterparts were no better. A rolling mishmash of ovals, these were hard to look at.

'05-'10 Dodge Charger - I loved the street version of these cars, but they didn't translate well to a Cup car. The early versions looked like an aardvark up front, with a grille that looked nothing like the street version.

Any winged COT car - These things were not NASCAR's finest hour. An embarassing attempt to appeal to the "Fast and the Furious" crowd, these cars just looked absolutely ridiculous.
 
I'm going to go by my favorite/worst paint schemes.

Favorite

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Worst

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I don't think there is a good looking race car (except the Ford GT40). All street cars are better looking than their racing equivalent. Race cars are function over form; I can appreciate the trade offs for speed.
 
It has to be the Tide car. By far my favorite, wish they would come back to Cup series. Love watching that truck during the truck races.
 
The bodies from about '03-'07 were ugly, regardless of manufacturer. The noses of the cars made them look like Late Models a little bit:
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Best/Worst Bodies:
Best: G6 Chevy, G6 Ford (tie)
Worst: G4 Dodge

Best/Worst Paint Schemes:
Best: '13 Almirola Gwatley Red (too bad this will never run)
Worst: '08 MWR 44
 
my favorite cars are the 80's car's DW's buick from 81 and 82 and earnhardts notchback monte carlos. the worst is those bubble taurus cars and there were a year or 2 when those luminas looked bad in the 90's
 
Of all the different Cup car body styles over the years, what do you think were the best and worst looking?

My $0.02:

Worst:
'98-'99 Ford Taurus - IMO, the late 90's Tauruses were some of the ugliest street cars ever produced, and their racecar counterparts were no better. A rolling mishmash of ovals, these were hard to look at.

my favorite cars are the 80's car's DW's buick from 81 and 82 and earnhardts notchback monte carlos. the worst is those bubble taurus cars and there were a year or 2 when those luminas looked bad in the 90's

That's funny, my wife drives a '99 Taurus and I drive a '99 Lumina. I'm glad you guys would approve :p

I've been a form over function guy since my '77 Cutlass went down the road from my house. I apparently got old pretty quickly. I've mostly bought what I could get the best deal on as long as it was dependable.
 
The old Richard Petty era Mopars were pretty sharp back in the day. I haven't paid much attention to makes since they all started to look alike a few years back.

Now paint schemes are another matter.

I really disliked just about everything about Jeff Gordon's cars for the longest time. The only thing I liked about them was the driver and how easy they were to spot on the track. I like the look of his newest one though. That deep red is pretty sharp.

Kurt Busch's current car is kinda tight in a minimalist sort of way. It reminds me of some of the cars I used to drive on one of my son's NASCAR video games.

Of course, Dale Sr's cars were some of the sharpest out there for years.

I liked the Cat #22 that Ward Burton drove for a while too. Of course, I really liked him too, so.
 
I always like well prepared cars with simple schemes.

Ingram was the standard.
The Ellis example a nice red with a black hood is exotic enough anything more looks silly.
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That's funny, my wife drives a '99 Taurus and I drive a '99 Lumina. I'm glad you guys would approve :p

I've been a form over function guy since my '77 Cutlass went down the road from my house. I apparently got old pretty quickly. I've mostly bought what I could get the best deal on as long as it was dependable.
I meant to say funtion over form, but hopefully you got my meaning anyway. Dependability and creature comforts mean a lot more to me than curb appeal. Although that doesn't mean I will drive something truly ugly like the newer squares like the Honda Element or the Kia Ray or anything of the sort.
 
If Jody Ridley actually drove this car, it's one of the best looking cars he drove (since it is not the usual Ford).

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