Automotive Geneology: 10 Classic Cars and Their Modern Day Equivalents

Some manufacturers choose to avoid being compared to their past successes and failures as much as possible by giving each car an individual name—there is never going to be another Ferrari called F12 Berlinetta—but many capitalize on a name's legacy, and turn a mere car into an icon. The Corvette and Mustang are both prime examples of this.

Sometimes these legacy cars seem to just keep getting better and better, and other times they lose their way entirely. That's why we decided to take a look back into some automotive geneology with these 10 Classic Cars and Their Modern Day Equivalents.

RELATED: The 25 Sexiest Cars of All Time
RELATED: The 50 Best Supercars of All Time

What the hell happened? What was once a glorious, rear-wheel-drive convertible, sedan, and woodie wagon is now a bland minivan. The T&C had innovative brakes, gobs of luxury, and a serious presence on the road, whereas today's version just says "my two kids are too fat to fit in a large sedan" or "I'm too boring and predictable to have bought a Ford Flex."

Oh, how the mighty hath fallen.

The Nissan Skyline is like that scrawny kid you knew in high school that shows up to the reunion in a Bentley looking like Thor and accompanied by Kate Upton. Once upon a time, the Skyline was a small luxury car that we probably would have completely forgotten about by now if it weren't for the fact that it later became the Skyline GT-R, and the simply the GT-R.

That's right, Japan's supercar killer, "Godzilla" itself, is descended from a forgettable early Japanese luxury car. Replacing that 60hp 1.48L I4 is now a 545hp twin-turbo 3.8L V6 that is hooked up to one of the most technologically advanced cars ever made. Extreme Makeover indeed.

Chrysler seems to have a penchant for haphazardly gluing old names on entirely different automobiles. The 1966 Dodge Charger was a roaring fastback that exemplified American badassery. The new Charger is a family sedan that the designers were opposed to calling "Charger." That said, both cars are all about big engines, rear-wheel drive, and styling that takes no prisoners; they share some noteworthy similarities in ethos.

The 16-year-olds who stunted at school in Chargers back in the day are now probably now driving their kids to college in Chargers.

Here's an unusual one. The SL-Class started as the beautiful, powerful, and fast 300SL, which is also the progenitor of the gullwing door, and slowly evolved into a heavy luxury roadster with a much more muscular feel. The Sport Leicht (Sport Lightweight) moniker doesn't suit the car anymore.

While the SL-Class draws its lineage directly to the 300SL, the SLS AMG supercar was designed to look like the classic Benz, and with a more similar goal. They were both Supercars, but while the 300SL was designed as a road going version of a race car, the SLS AMG has more of a GT feel about it. The 300SL was the fastest in the world at the time, the modern day equivalent is notably slower than the competition from Ferrari, McLaren, Lamborghini, and the like.

Of course, the new hardcore SLS AMG Black Series might be the closest thing Mercedes-Benz offers at the moment, but it certainly doesn't have half the class of the 300SL.

Once upon a time, Ford's half-ton pickup was called the F-1, and it was big, but not huge. It wasn't that powerful, but it could tow half a ton.

Today, the F-150, Ford's "half-ton" pickup is a hulking monstrosity due to the fact that market research shows that mos Americans judge a truck primarily on size. It is, however, now rated to tow as much as 11,300 lbs, when equipped with the EcoBoost V6 and a 145-inch wheelbase. For the vast majority of truck owners, it's overkill, but we still love the impressive machine, and so does America, making it the No. 1 overall selling vehicle.

The VW Beetle was commissioned (by Hitler, but we'll not dwell on that) to be a cheap car that even a poor man could afford, own, operate, maintain, and repair by himself with limited knowledge. It brought mobility to the masses in an stylish package.

Today, the Beetle is the polar opposite. The old one was rear-engined and rear-driven, whereas the new one is front-engined and front-driven. The old one was dirt cheap whereas the new one is billed as a flagship model and is $2,000 more than the Golf that it is mechanically identical to. Honestly, we think the up! is more of a successor to the Beetle than the current Beetle will ever be.

The Corvette started as a take on Europe's small, lightweight sportscars that many American soldiers experienced while serving in WWII, and honestly, it didn't live up to the competition from across the pond. Being American, what GM did was start putting truly massive V8s in the engine bay, rather than the original's weedy I6, and a legend, both on the street and on the track, was born.

The brand new C7 Corvette draws a little from every previous generation, but has set out in a new direction to make spending $120,000 on a German or Italian car seem a little daft.

In 1992, the great Carroll Shelby and Dodge worked together to create the Viper, which was Dodge's new supercar and Shelby's spiritual successor to the Daytona Coupe. The original Viper was powerful, and spent much of its time hurting its drivers. It was either roasting them due to sub-par insulation, burning their calves with its side exhausts, or being far more car than the vast majority of drivers could handle and flinging them into a tree/off a cliff/to a different grisly doom.

Today's Viper has not only dropped the Dodge name in favor of SRT (Street & Racing Technology), but it has also grown into a supercar that retains the wild character of its predecessors but doesn't try to murder people anymore. The interior has also grown up. It's still no luxury car, but it doesn't look like an afterthought any more. It's hardcore, but it now feels like a six-figure car. Honestly, the new SRT Viper is the best one yet, and that's speaking from personal experience driving one.