2026 marks 150 years since Alexander Graham Bell made the first telephone call. It is also 140 years since Carl Benz patented the first motor car, the Benz Patent-Motorwagen. Neither of them knew that today we would be able to ask our cars to make a telephone call for us, though as great inventors and visionaries, they probably imagined it happening one day.
Benz’s creation could only manage about 14km/h, but 2026 is a year in which cars that could go considerably faster celebrate some big anniversaries.
It’s been 60 years since the debut of arguably one of the most stunning cars of all time, the Lamborghini Miura. Designed by the great Marcello Gandini, the Miura stunned everyone when it was revealed at the Geneva Motor Show. Beautiful on the outside, it featured a mid-mounted V12 that Lamborghini claimed could propel it to 300km/h, a remarkable speed at the time, though no one managed to get it to exceed 278km/h.
It is not only one of the most iconic cars in motoring history, but it also achieved movie stardom when one was wrecked in the opening sequence of the original version of The Italian Job.
Equally as famous to fans of performance cars is the BMW M3, which debuted in 1986 in the E30 generation of the 3 Series and which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. Initially BMW produced it as a homologation model so it could compete in the German Touring Cars championship, but 40 years on, the M3 has been a halo version of every generation of the 3 Series.
Along the way there have been convertibles, station waggons and even bakkie versions, though the pick-ups were just a bit of fun and never made it to production. BMW has just announced its first battery-electric M model, but for now at least, the future of the M3 looks set to continue to make some noise.
Another German mark popping the champagne this year is Volkswagen, because as respected as the M3 is, few models have the following of the Golf GTi.
It’s a great motoring story too, because the GTi Mk 1 was developed in secret as a skunkworks project by staff at VW in Wolfsburg. Spurred on by VW’s chief press officer and the company’s board member for technology, what was initially called the Sport Golf was a complete surprise to the chairman of the board when it was presented, and he was so impressed he gave it the go-ahead.
The rest, as they say, is history, with the Golf GTi becoming one of the world’s favourite hot hatches through every generation. VW has used the badge on other models too, including the Polo and Up, but the Golf GTi is the real deal.
While many of these models live on in current generations, one that made a surprising and disappointing disappearance was the Ford Fiesta. One of Ford’s most successful cars, the company bizarrely dropped it from the line-up in 2023, just three years shy of its 50th anniversary this year.
There is some hope for fans of the Blue Oval’s most popular small car, though, with Ford announcing its partnership with Renault will create a new small car in 2028. It will be electric, of course, but it seems likely that it will wear the Fiesta badge, resurrecting the supermini to live on in a new era.
The Fiesta was a success for Ford of Britain, of course, but another British car that has a strong following is the Jensen Interceptor. A GT car that combined performance with touring comfort, Jensen used the Interceptor name on a car in the 1950s, but it was the one revealed in 1966 with its Chrysler V8 engine and Italian styling that gets the most attention among enthusiasts. There is even a plan to create a new Jensen Interceptor in 2026.
The Interceptor could easily be regarded as a British muscle car, but to find true icons of the genre, you have to cross the Atlantic. 2026 is 60 years since the famous victory of the Ford GT40 at Le Mans, but fans of American muscle cars have plenty to shout about this year.
1966 saw the introduction of two nameplates that still exist today, the Chevrolet Camaro and Dodge Charger. The Camaro was Chevrolet’s answer to the Ford Mustang, a beautifully sculpted design that housed the raw power and emotion of straight-six and V8 performance.
The Camaro hasn’t been in continuous production for 60 years, but the debut of the fifth generation in 2010 and its appearance in the Transformers movie franchise as Bumblebee saw the Camaro return to modern performance car culture.
Mention the Dodge Charger today, and it’s unlikely many will know of the first generation with its Mustang-like fastback design. Instead, it’s the famous 1970s version that gets all the attention, and while Dodge still makes a Charger, it doesn’t quite have the kudos of early models.
Not quite in the league of some of these iconic models, there are a few others celebrating milestones in 2026. Audi moved into the compact car arena with its A3 in 1996, while 20 years before that, in 1976, Honda introduced a model that continues to showcase the Japanese marque’s passion for comfort and reliability, the Accord.
Whether it’s Japanese reliability, American muscle or the joy of a country road in a German hot hatch, 2026 is a year when there are lots of reasons to celebrate some true icons of motoring history.
Wanted
