Popular Cars You Wouldn't Recognize 50 Years Ago

When I first set out to write this clause , I thought , " Pfft . Piece of cake . Cars have changed so much , any brand that was around half a century ago is going to count unrecognizable today . " Case in compass point , these six cars have changed wildly over the geezerhood .

At the same meter , though , cars and brand have their own identity element , a DNA that ’s all their own . Compare these cars with their forward-looking version , and at first , they might wait about as bear on asArnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito . But look closer at the DNA clues in the line , and they ’ll begin to look a bit more like Kirk and Michael Douglas .

1. Volvo

Look at the first car at the very top of this clause . That ruby-red one . endeavor to identify it , and you might say it ’s just an unsung – albeit beautiful – little sports coupe , or , well , anything but a Volvo . You ’d be faulty . That ’s theVolvo P1800 , and it ’s an absolute legend . In its twenty-four hour period , Volvo ’s coupe served as a pre - Bond Roger Moore ’s car inThe Saint . As a sport car , it stand out in Volvo ’s history of valuing practicality above all else .

Now look at the car ’s Estate variant ( " estate " is European for " wagon " ) demonstrate above . The P1800 ES came around in 1971 , and you ’ll notice it ’s a bit moreVolvo - esque– so much so , in fact , that it was the direct breathing in for atwo - room access wagon construct cara few age back . In bout , thatconcept laid the basis for the current province of Volvo pattern . Case in point , front closely atthe front grille of the fresh V90 wagon . attend familiar ? Yep , that ’s a suggestion of P1800 in there hear to glance out .

2. Chevrolet Suburban

The Suburban has been incontinuous production since the mid-1930s , and in that time it ’s made the huge philosophical transition from a purely utilitarian fomite built for America ’s rural backroads , to a hulking , sybaritic SUV more at home in the carpool occupation .

Look at the line on this ' 65 Suburban , though , and compare them tothe modern reading . Sure , with all that change , the Suburban produce an extra pair of door , but also seem at the forward slant of the upright structures both behind the room access , and at the rearward corner ( the C and five hundred column for the cognoscenti).Looks more than a little conversant , does n’t it ? What about that pitting start the length of the body just below the window ?

3. Chevrolet Corvette

I know what you ’re going to say . Of courseyou can accredit a 1965 Corvette . But if that ’s true , it ’s because every propagation of Corvette hammers its way of life into the mainstream of American culture and memory –notbecause it reckon anything like it does today . Really , if you had never seen an old Corvette before , could you honestly say you ’d know its name based only onyour knowledge of the new one ?

Look at the sharply angled elevation modification as the hood meets the cowcatcher – on both the old car and its descendant – and at how those transmission line fade out , then back in where they converge up with the trunk . Look at the gill on the side behind the front rack . Cough . Gills – like you ’d see on the underside ofa sealed aquatic creaturewith which the Stingray shares its name . The cues are there , but you have to know where to look .

4. BMW

In the mid-’60s the BMW 1600 was at the epicenter of a bowel movement that finally became the sport sedan chair . Within a decade , it had evolve into seriously racy interpretation like the 2002 turbo picture here , but you could still recognize tons of BMW DNA.The solar flare over the rack arches , there to equip across-the-board rubber , have been present on everyM3except the 2d one , and now , theM4andM2share the trait . The slight upturn of the bodywork right at the back of the rearward - side window is known as a Hofmeister kink . No , there ’s no relation to Germany ’s favoriteBaywatchstar – itoutdates wearisome - motion beach runningand isstill a basic . And of course , BMW ’s iconic kidney grill have been presentalmost since solar day one .

5. Porsche

Actually … um … never mind .

6. Bentley Continental

Take just the quick of looks andthe chrome - laden Bentleys of oldmight seem prime forDownton Abbey : The Next Generation . Look past the vaporous mass of metal , however , and you ’ll see thecurrentContinental jumping out at you with all the subtlety of a frying cooking pan to the head . Most obvious are the quad headlights framing the grill , but look just a morsel deeper . From the very front , with the vertical line broom sharply back and remaining perfectly level , to the rear , where that same demarcation almost repeats itself in front of and over the rear wheels , the current Continentalwears its inheritance so boldly you ’d credibly lack it if you did n’t know to look at it .

Want more of the world ’s best Cars delivered straight to your inbox?Click here to sign up for our daily e-mail .

Aaron Milleris theCarseditor for Thrillist , and can befound on Twitter . He saw BMW DNA in a Honda yesterday . It was … weird .

Volvo’s heritage is evident, if you look for it