9 muscle cars we'd miss

Before its current incarnation, the Chrysler 300 was an improbably successful race car in the 1950s, a family sedan with a high-powered hemi engine that took so many checkered flags that NASCAR decided the owner had to be cheating.

From 1955 to 1962, the 300 was a company showpiece, refined with nearly half an alphabet's worth of annual upgrades and reinventions courtesy of designer Virgil Exner, who outdid himself annually with new chrome bumpers and rakish tail fins. The Chrysler 300 returned to much acclaim in 2005 as a powerful luxury car, with a Bentley-style grille and rear-wheel drive.

NEXT: Chevrolet Corvette