the question is a bit vague but in 30 years time when I am telling the grandkids about old dirty cars i will be talking about image, noise, reputation, achievement at the time etc… . Basically the glory of the internal combustion engine.
F40, macF1, early turbo F1 cars, all group B rally cars, bmw v12 with a 50p sat on top of the engine, Mazda rotaries, 1930 americana(from straight 8s to flathead hotrods), Veyron, all big bike engines.
Probably a bit of a warble about the rover v8 too. A bit provincial so you could talk about the hemi instead.
Have tried to avoid chassis design and styling as that would be a whole other evening