Car of the Century

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The Car of the Century (COTC) was an international award given to the world's most influential car of the Twentieth Century. The election process was overseen by the Global Automotive Elections Foundation.

The winner, the Ford Model T, was announced at an awards gala on December 18, 1999 in Las Vegas.

Contents 1 The selection process 2 The final results 3 See also 4 References

[edit] The selection process

An elaborate and formal process for deciding the Car of the Century was devised. It started in October, 1996 when a list of 700 cars was offered by the COTC organising committee as candidates for the award, which their experts had selected from recommendations made from within the car industry and from car clubs.

In February 1997 a list of 200 eligible cars was announced at the Amsterdam motor show, these had been selected from the 700 by an honorary committee of experts who were all independent and highly respected and experienced automotive experts.

The next step was for a jury of 132 professional automotive journalists, from 33 different countries, under the presidency of Lord Montagu of Beaulieu, to reduce the list to 100, which they did, and the result was announced at the Frankfurt motor show in September 1997.

The elimination process proceeded with an internet vote, open to the public, to select 10 cars, and for 25 cars to be selected by the jury of professional journalists. In fact, 9 out of the 10 cars selected by the public were also amongst the 25 selected by the journalists (the AC Cobra being the extra car selected by the public), so 26 cars were announced at the Geneva motor show in March, 1999 as the nominees for the next round.

The 26 nominees

Make	Type	Year	Country
AC	Cobra	1965-1967	UK/U.S.A.
Alfa Romeo	Giulietta Sprint Coupé	1954-1968	Italy
Audi	Quattro	1980-1991	Germany
Austin	Seven	1922-1939	UK
BMW	BMW 328	1936-1940	Germany
Bugatti	T35	1926-1930	France
Chevrolet	Corvette Stingray	1963-1967	U.S.A.
Citroën	Traction Avant	1934-1957	France
Citroën	2CV	1948-1990	France
Citroën	Citroën DS19	1955-1975	France
Ferrari	250 GT SWB Berlinetta	1959-1962	Italy
Fiat	500 Topolino	1936-1948	Italy
Ford	Model T	1908-1927	U.S.A.
Ford	Mustang	1964-1968	U.S.A.
Jaguar	XK120	1948-1954	UK
Jaguar	E-Type	1961-1975	UK
Mercedes-Benz	S/SS/SSK	1927-1932	Germany
Mercedes-Benz	300 SL Coupé	1954-1957	Germany
Mini	all types	1959-present	UK
NSU	RO 80	1967-1976	Germany
Porsche	Porsche 911	1963-present	Germany
Renault	Espace	1984-present	France
Rolls-Royce	Silver Ghost	1907-1925	UK
Rover	Range Rover	1970-1996	UK
Volkswagen	Beetle	1946-present	Germany
Volkswagen	Golf	1974-1984	Germany
Willys	Jeep	1941-1945	U.S.A.

From the 26, the jury of professional journalists were asked to nominate just 5 finalists which would go through to the last round of voting, this was done using a points system. The 5 final nominees were announced at the Frankfurt motor show in September, 1999.

[edit] The final results

The jury of professional journalists each ranked the 5 cars in their preferred order, and the results were combined with a points system. The final results are shown in the table below.

Position	Car model	Points
1	Ford Model T	742
2	Mini	617
3	Citroën DS	567
4	Volkswagen Beetle	521
5	Porsche 911	303

[edit] See also

• Car Designer of the Century
• Car Engineer of the Century
• Car Entrepreneur of the Century
• Car Executive of the Century

[edit] References

• "CAR OF THE CENTURY", Auto123, 1999-12-22. Retrieved on 2006-04-29.
• "Car of the Century? Ford's Model T, of course", Joyrides, 1999-12-20. Retrieved on 2006-04-29.
• Car of the Century. Retrieved on 2001-06-09.