Do You Recognize the Fastest Cars From the 1960s?

The Pontac Tempest was made from 1960 until 1970 and was actually the forerunner to the famous Pontiac GTO muscle car. In 1966, the LeMans Sprint version of the Tempest could reach 113 mph and hit 60 mph in about 10 seconds.

In 1966, you could get a Chevy II Nova with a 327 V8 Turbo-Fire engine. It had a top speed of 139 mph and a 5.5-second acceleration speed to 60 mph. Despite advertising it as a Chevy Nova, Chevy chose not to use the word "Nova" anywhere on the car and instead just branded it as a Chevy II SS.

The Dodge Coronet had two production runs, one from 1949 to 1959 and the other from 1965 to 1976. The Hardtop R/T produced in 1968 was able to hit a top speed of 131 mph and a blazing fast acceleration of 0 to 60 in just 4.8 seconds.

Jaguar's E-type was in production from 1961 until 1975. Sports Cr International magazine named it the number one sports car of the 1960s and for good reason. The E-type had a top speed of 150 mph.

The AC Cobra was sold in the United States as the Shelby Cobra. The 1966 Shelby Cobra 427 had a top speed of 165 mph and could blaze from 0 to 60 mph in only 4.2 seconds. It was very likely the fastest car produced in the entire decade.

The Buick GS 455 was a variant of the GS released in 1969. Tha year it had a top speed of 145 mph and could accelerate to 60 in just 5.5 seconds. The 1968 cars came with a hood scoop that was actually fake unless you went out of your way to order the kit to make it work.

The Aston Martin DB5 is the iconic James Bond car first seen in the movie "Goldfinger." The company still makes them for the movies even though in real life they're already up to the DB11. The DB5, for its part, had a top speed of 142 mph back in 1963.

Capable of going from 0 to 60 in just 5.5 seconds, the AMC AMX was one of the fastest cars of the entire decade but was only made for three years. It was repeatedly compared to the Corvette in terms of both looks and performance but was a more affordable option.

In 1966, the Chevy Corvette Stingray came with a 427 cu. in. V8 engine. It was capable of hitting a top speed of 141 mph, which was no doubt impressive but more impressive was its nearly unparallel acceleration at the time. It could hit 60 in only 4.8 seconds, faster than nearly every other car produced in the decade.

The Pontiac GTO is considered by many to be the first muscle car of the major automakers, though there were less popular V8-powered cars before 1964 that could have qualified for the title. A 1967 Pontiac GTO 6.6 Liter V* HO could get you from 0 to 60 in 6.4 seconds with a top speed of 120 miles per hour.

The Pontiac Trans Am Firebird was the car of choice for the Bandit in the "Smokey and the Bandit" movies but before the Trans Am model showed up, the 1967 model was outfitted with a 400 cu. in. V8 engine that gave it an impressive top speed of 120 mph.

In 1968, Oldsmobile made two versions of the 4-4-2. One was just the standard and one was called the Hurst/Olds made in partnership with Hurst Performance. The Hurst was actually the slower of the two, as the standard 4-4-2 could hit 115 mph and accelerate to 60 in 6.0 seconds.

The Malibu would eventually become its own model, but originally it was a trim package on the Chevelle. In 1968, the Chevelle Malibu came as a Super Sport 396 Sport Coupe which could hit 113 mph and had an acceleration from 0 to 60 of 6.0 seconds.

Chevy introduced the Camaro to compete with the Ford Mustang. In 1967, the Chevy Camaro SS 396 Coupe could manage 0 to 60 in 5.6 seconds with a top speed of 136 miles per hour. It took 14 seconds to go from 0 to 100 miles per hour.

The Ford XL was originally just a trim option of the Ford Galaxie until it became its own model. The Ford XL Fastback from 1968 could hit a top speed of 137 mph and accelerate to 60 in just 6.0 seconds.

The Ferrari 275 GTB had a top speed of 153 mph. Six seconds was all it took to get from 0 to 60 mph. The long-nose and short-nose versions were styled with either long hoods or shorter hoods. About 30 more short-nose than long-nose were made.

The Mercury Cyclone was made from 1964 to 1971. It didn't become its own distinct nameplate until 1968 and was, alongside the more popular Cougar, one of Mercury's more powerful cars. The 1968 Cyclone with 6.4 V8 engine could reach a top speed of 115 mph and go 0 to 60 in 6.1 seconds.

Henry Ford II commissioned the GT40 after Ferrari had won the 24 Hours of Le Mans race several years in a row, seeking to prove they could make a better, faster car. They did what they sought to do with the GT40 which had a top speed of 164 mph and could hit 60 in 5.3 seconds.

With a massive spoiler and an extended, pointed front-end, the Dodge Charger Daytona was a specially modified Charger meant just for racing. With a 7.0 Hemi engine, it could hit 130 mph and accelerated to 60 in 5.6 seconds.

The Lamborghini Miura was an exceptionally fast car. The P400S model, first produced in 1968, had a top speed of 170 mph and could go from 0 to 60 in 6.7 seconds. Only 764 of them were ever built before the Countach took over.

The 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO is one of the most iconic cars of all time. It has become so popular that people have actually built fraudulent replicas on different Ferrari chassis. Back in 1962 the 250 GTO had a top speed of 158 mph.

The Dodge Super Bee was named by a member of the senior design team at Dodge back in 1968. Based on the Coronet, it had a top speed of 126 mph and could do a 0 to 60 acceleration in just 6.0 seconds.

John Wick's car is labeled a Boss 429 Mustang in the movie, though he's actually driving a 1969 Mustang Mach 1. He should have been driving a 1969 Boss 429, as it had a top speed of 115 mph but could go from 0 to 60 in only 5.1 seconds.

Alfa Romeo made a number of cars called the Giulia. One was a kind of compact executive car and one is a modern sedan that was manufactured in 2015. But the Giulia TZ from 1963 was built for speed and could get from 0 to 60 in 6.5 seconds with a top speed of 134 mph.

The Lamborghini Islero is a mostly forgotten Lamborghini model thanks to its short production run and the fact only 225 were ever made. In 1968 it could hit a top speed of 165 mph thanks to a 3.9L V12 engine.

The fourth generation of Dodge Darts were manufactured in 1967 with some serious power upgrades over previous generations. The GTS Hardtop 6.3L V8 had a top speed of only 108 mph, but it could accelerate like a monster up to 60 mph in just 6.8 seconds.

The De Tomaso Mangusta, which means "mongoose." was made from 1967 to 1971. The 4.7 V8 model from 1967 had a top speed of 155 mph and could accelerate to 60 in 5.5 seconds. Only 401 of them were ever produced before the Pantera took over.

The Bristol 411 was a very refined-looking British car made from 1969 to 1976. Though it may not have looked the part, it was able to hit a top speed of 143 mph and took 7 seconds to get up to 60 mph.

The Lotus Super Seven was a popular model specifically because of the design. Many buyers bought it because it looked the part of a race car and could be used for clubman racing. The top speed was between 100 and 124 mph depending on how it was outfitted with a decent acceleration to 60 mph in about 7 seconds.

One of the only Japanese cars made in the '60s with an eye toward performance and seek European design standards, the Toyota 2000GT had a top speed of 137 mph. It's highly collectible these days and the $1.3 million one was sold in 2013.

The De Tomaso Vallelunga was first made in 1964 and only 58 of them were ever produced. It had a top speed of 114 mph and could accelerate from 0 to 60 in just under 7 seconds flat.

The Plymouth Satellite could be outfitted with some serious muscle if a driver wanted it that way. The 1966 Satellite with a 426 Hemi could hit 60 mph in about 5.1 seconds and reach a top speed of 148 mph.

The Jensen Interceptor was made from 1966 to 1976. The 1969 Interceptor MK 2 had a top speed of 137 mph. That's not to be confused with the 1950 Jensen Interceptor which had a top speed of 95 mph.

In 1967 when the Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale was first introduced, it was the fastest car in the world with a top speed of 160 mph. The name "stradale" just means "road-going" to differentiate it from race cars.

The AC Frua, also known as the AC 428, was first made in 1965. The 1967 model with a 7.0L V8 engine could hit a top speed of 145 mph and accelerate to 60 in just 5.4 seconds. Unfortunately, AC was suffering from financial issues and couldn't produce more cars than the handful it made.

Monteverdi was a Swiss automaker in the 1960s and it made the High Speed from 1967 to 1976. With a top speed of 152 mph, it lived up to its name even though it is largely unknown today. Though the company went defunct in 1984, it did come back to produce a concept car in the early 1990s.

The Iso Grifo is one of the lesser-known sports coupes of the 1960s. In 1965, if you got a model outfitted with a 5.4L Chevy 327 OHV V8 engine you could get it up to 161 mph. Iso stopped making the Grifo in 1974 when the company went bankrupt.

The Iso Fidia was advertised as the "fastest four seats in the world" and that assessment wasn't really wrong. The top speed was 155 mph with a 5.6-second acceleration to 60 mph. When the company first unveiled the car it was in Athens, where the fuel was so low octane it caused severe engine knocking during the press test drive.

Plymouth had to license the Road Runner name from Warner Brothers and even developed a horn that beeped like the cartoon bird. While the Road Runner could only reach a top speed of 105 mph, it could accelerate to 60 mph in just 5.3 seconds.