Aston Martin are now one of the most desirable marques in the world but it took a great deal of trial and angst before they achieved real success. Competition was always their Achille’s heel and in the 1930s they raced cars more than they built them, suffering any number of financial collapses and buy-outs as a result. Yet all through these troubled years they produced cars that are a delight to the eye, machines that one could hunger for even today. Let me show you what I mean.

Take the MG TF of the thirties, for instance, a car that anyone into automotive history will know and love. It’s a pretty little thing, there’s no denying it:

But, if you think that is the height of British sports car building, then you’ve never seen the Aston Martin Le Mans of the same period. Admittedly, it was intended for racing and was bound to be a bit more extreme than the MG, but many were kept for road use. Look at this beautiful example, for instance:

Notice how the bicycle mudguards give the car a serious air, proclaiming its competition ancestry. And the body of the car is so well put together, giving a look of strength and durability that the MG lacks. One can imagine the MG as a car for fun, ideal for a quick blast down some country back roads, but the Aston is for serious motoring, a car that, in its day, could take on any sports car on the road.

They are both cars from a long time before my day but I can appreciate them as dream machines of the pre-war years. And, if I were given the choice between them, there are no prizes for guessing which I’d take!

One of the most gorgeous cars ever built was produced by a short-lived and little known French company called Facel (or Facel Vega – Vega was the name of the company’s first model, produced in 1954, but it came to be tacked on to the actual name more often than not). 1961 was the debut of the Facel II, a car so timeless and clean in its design that even today it looks what it was: expensive! A Facel II would have set you back by the same amount as a Rolls Royce of the time.

Under that beautiful bodywork, the Facel II was less than extraordinary, being powered by a 383ci (6,286cc) or 413ci (6,765cc) Chrysler V8, but it was still capable of 145 mph. The specifications did not matter, however; the whole point was that, if you owned a Facel, you were immediately marked as someone with money and taste.

The front of the car is somewhat reminiscent of the Mercedes Benz approach but, from the side, it can only be a Facel. That huge wrap-around windshield, the high waist and slab sides, these are the elements that make the car so distinctive.

It is not until you reach the rear that you would guess that it was made in France. At this point those French designers could not contain themselves any longer and they stamped it with the peculiar quirkiness that only that nation can add to the looks of a car.

To me, it’s not perfect and could do with a little squaring up to really make the grade. But, because the rest of the car is so incredibly good, I forgive it.

Facel stopped producing cars in 1964; the hard facts of life for luxury car manufacturers caught up with them and they folded. In its short ten years of life the company designed and built some of the prettiest cars on the road, however, and it is a great shame that it did not survive. The Facel II remains as its greatest achievement.

If I were asked which car I particularly fancy from today’s line-up, I would have to pick the Audi S3. Not exactly today’s version, as I think they have spoiled its looks with the new grille, but one from three or four years ago.

It may seem a strangely conservative choice but my time of hungering after supercars is long gone; these days I think about cost and practicality as well as performance.

The thing about the Audi, apart from the reliability and solid build we have come to expect from the marque, is that it is so perfectly proportioned. To me, most modern designs look misshapen and more concerned with clever detail than overall impression, but the S3 is all of a piece, unfussy, thoroughly Germanic and well balanced.

It is no slouch in the performance stakes as well and everything adds up to a perfectly designed and sensible car. What more could one ask for?

And there is one more salient fact about the S3 that needs to be stated clearly and unashamedly: it looks absolutely fantastic in yellow!

I have said that I like little cars that outperform much bigger and cruder opposition but, on occasion, the big ones can be just so outrageously gorgeous that they cannot be ignored. Cord’s 812 of 1937 was just such a beast.

It was exceptional in so many ways: not only did it look powerful and beautiful, it was decades ahead of its time in technical specification. Powered by a Lycoming V8 of 289 cubic inches (4.7 liters), supercharged to produce 170 bhp, the car was capable of 110 mph, a very high top speed for the time. Almost unheard of in American cars until quite recently, the engine drove the front wheels through a four-speed gearbox.

Cord was one of the companies orbiting the Duesenberg and Auburn makes and produced fewer models than any of them. But, to my eye, the 812 was easily the best looker of the lot. That huge expanse of hood in front of the driver, that aggressive extended radiator grille, the attention to slipstreaming, all speak of power and grace. The convertible was just as good looking, as this photograph shows:

Of course, it was all too good to last for long. In company with its sister marques, Cord made and sold far too few cars to remain solvent and they disappeared forever before the war put a stop to all such fanciful automotive dreaming. But the 812 is a magnificent reminder of a time we will never see again and it has one more little-known claim to fame: it was the car Tom Mix, star of so many early western movies, was driving (too fast) when he died in a wreck in Arizona in 1940.