Some of the suggestions put forward in the comments on the Telegraph's piece about the most beautiful car ever make sense. There are plenty of votes for the original Jaguar E-type (above) and more than one for the rare road version of Alfa Romeo's Tipo 33 race car (below). It's easy to make a case for the Citroen DS or Alfa Duetto, as other Telegraph readers do. But some of the other suggestions are hard to swallow.
Would you, for instance, list the Morris Minor among the most eye-catching designs of all time? In its time it was a fine car, and there are remarkable bits of engineering within in (and would have been more, had Alec Issigonis had his way) but it's hardly the most beautiful of automotive shapes. Nor is it easy to make a case for the Reliant Regal or Peugeot 504 as great motoring beauties.
Even the Land Rover Defender gets a vote. Coventry University's automotive journalism students recently rated it at the top end of their own private version of Top Gear's 'cool wall', but I doubt even they would claim it was one of the most beautiful cars ever designed.
Mind you, they are claims which are easier to stomach than some of those made by the Telegraph's caption writer. Alongside a picture of the E-type, we're told that it was the 'successor to the D-type' - which it never was, in anything except initial letter. Aston Martins are dismissed as James Bond transport 'in the movies, at least' despite the fact that Ian Fleming had 007 selecting an Aston in the original Goldfinger story.
Beauty is subjective but facts are - should be - easy enough to check.