Mclaren F1 Or Toyota Prius: What Are The 20th Century's Most Influential Cars?

Deciding what was the most influential car of the 20th century isn't the work of a mere 700-word column such as this. Fortunately, my friends at our sibling title Classic & Sports Car have done a thorough job so I don't have to.

For their June 2026 issue, they took a shortlist of 10 cars from each decade of the 1900s and asked a five-strong judging panel of experts - all of whom I like and admire immensely and which included our own Steve Cropley - to vote for one car from each decade, then to pick an overall podium for the century.

It's a good premise. The history of pre-20th-century cars is, for me, too hazy to pick a 'most influential' model from it. The Benz Patent-Motorwagen has the strongest claim, but in some part it's the 1886 patent that makes it that way. I would be loathe to rule out the Cugnot Steam Tractor of 1769 or even Hans Hautch's clockwork carriage of 1649 (both rather too early for our 'Lost in the archive' page, but I'll write more about them at some point).

Meanwhile, the 21st century is still too fresh to have a most influential car defined from it just yet, but contenders so far could be the Porsche Cayenne, Nissan Qashqai, Nissan Leaf or Tesla Model S, but this might change as time goes on. This decade's could well be the Jaecoo 7.

Given that the 20th century is when the car really propagated, there's a good argument that the feature was in effect defining the most influential car of all time. It was a period when making a groundbreaking design really could change things. Will any 4x4 ever influence as many other models as the Willys Jeep? Could any new small car influence a legion of designs as the Mini did?

The 20th century was the car's adolescence, its truly formative century. Hence one of the judges said the voting was a "difficult job", adding: "I honestly think 80% of the 100 deserve to be in the top 30". Having read the long list, I believe it.

Ruthlessness in these cases is difficult, then, but essential. When, in 1995, Autocar published a supplement called Our Greatest Sports Cars as part of the magazine's 100th anniversary celebrations, several contributors were asked to come up with a list of cars that absolutely must be included. The list was several dozens long - but there was only space for 10 of them.

One can temper one's anguish about this by the fact that absolutely none of it matters. Like all awards - except those that squarely advise people how to spend their own money - it's really just navel-gazing nonsense or back-slapping, albeit also very enjoyable. (I've never won an award, by the way. Can you tell?) Would it have mattered if, in 1995, our staff had picked a Volkswagen Golf GTI over a Peugeot 205 GTi? Not at all - although I think they made the right call.

Anyway, all these exceptions and caveats made, so to the 20th century's most influential cars: first place, the Ford Model T, and few arguments here; third place the Mini and ditto.

Splitting them in second place, however, is the McLaren F1. I think here we've got to be euphemistic about our definition of 'influential'. Did the F1 influence the latest round of unobtanium from Gordon Murray Automotive? For sure. Is it extraordinary? Yes: I've driven two of them, one until its rear numberplate melted, and the drives will remain in my mind forever.

But it was not a car of traditional influence. Which of these 1990s cars had the most impact over the motor industry today: the F1 or the Toyota Prius, Lexus LS 400, Toyota RAV4, Ford Focus or General Motors EV1? (Strong decade for Toyota, by the way.)

Even if the McLaren F1 graduates from its 1990s class, was it really more influential than the Willys Jeep or Volkswagen Beetle? Not a chance of it, IMVHO.

To pick the F1, then, we have to be a little ambiguous about what 'influence' means. If we are talking about swaying car enthusiasts towards naming the F1 as the greatest driver's car ever, then it's an influential car. But too little of its lightweight purity extended into the car market, even the sports car market, and that is one of the reasons GMA felt obliged to reinvent it for today. The F1 arrived, dazzled and offered a new sports car way. Then the industry largely overlooked everything it did.