Influx Top Ten German Cars of All Time

You are forgiven for forgetting the VW Corrado VR6, with full leather. Top quality — made by Karmann!

The second photo down shows the W126 , which is the successor to the W116 series to which the ‘6.9′ belonged ; the 560SEL variant , whilst not as ‘macho’ as the 6.9 is arguably a better car , although actually Daimler Benz stated the 500 was the replacement for the 6.9 with simialr performance .

The 6.9 did not take its engine from the W100 type 600 which ‘only’ had the 6.3 litre variant of the M100 motor , although without the dry sump lubric­ation used in the later car . The 600 , in turn , spawned the famous 300SEL 6.3 which DID inherit its engine , thanks to some in-​​house exper­i­ment­ation by engineer Erich Waxenberger , and owners who have both cars reckon the 6.3 the more exciting car to drive .

Ommissions ? What about the iconic 300SL ‘Gullwing Coupe’ of the mid 1950’s , the roadster deriv­ative , which between them gave rise to the whole series of SL roadsters which continue to this day ?

Why no mention of the BMW 3.0litre CSL of 1973 and the Famous Batmobile!!
Entertaining in European Touring Car Racing of the time, with Hans Stuck lifting off all four wheels on the famous crest, round the Nurbergring, Timeless!

No E30 M3?!?

10 other cars with a case for inclusion on this list, in no particular order.

VW Type 2 — truly iconic, and more popular than ever today.
BMW E30 M3 — the distilled essence of the BMW brand.
Trabant — in terms of iconic, this represents everything good and bad about the eastern bloc.
Porsche 356 — A union of sheer beauty and engin­eering excel­lence that set the tone for every Porsche to come.
Bitter CD — Erich Bitters tuned Opels show that it’s not just AMG & RUF who can turn out brilliant specials.
VW Phaeton — The most over-​​engineered car ever — VW boss Piech famously had a list of 10 require­ments from his S-​​Class beater, including such daft stuff as “capable of being driven all day at 300 kilometres per hour with an exterior temper­ature of 50 °C whilst maintaining the interior temper­ature at 22 °C.”
Mercedes 300SL Gullwing Coupe — Surely every car lover lusts after this car, and the car technically brilliant too, pioneering fuel injected engines.
Karmann Ghia — the slowest sports car in the world, and that was what VW said.
Opel Manta GT/​E — GM’s Capri beater — so good they sold it here without even bothering to stick a Vauxhall badge on it.
Audi A8 D2 — A great technical leap, notable for being the first all-​​aluminium car.

The VW Phaeton is one that will never make it on any Top 10 German car list, but for me that’s part of it innocuous appeal. It’s probably also too new to be considered iconic, but it’s no less a testament to engineering.