The 12 Most Famous Cars of All Time

Sure, celebrities can make or break a movie, but what about a car? Automobiles may not be "emotional" or "alive" per se, but they certainly have been the engine behind quite a few star vehicles (zing!). In honor of the Wonderwall-sponsored upcoming Rally for Kids With Cancer celebrity charity race event, we bring you the most famous cars Hollywood has ever seen.

12. KITT from "Knight Rider": Combine superstar crime-fighter (David Hasselhoff, circa 1982) with KITT, an artificially intelligent car, and what do you get? Eighty-four episodes of butt-kicking, Nielsen ratings gold. It was all champagne wishes and caviar dreams until, of course, the unfortunate YouTube video came out showing KITT, high on Super Unleaded and well past his prime, licking oil out of an alleyway.

11. Herbie from "The Love Bug" and "Herbie Fully Loaded": Some cars age with grace, but the years weren't so kind to Herbie, the adorable VW that charmed its way into our hearts in 1968's "The Love Bug," only to be shamefully paraded about the big screen by Lindsay Lohan more than 30 years later, far past its prime and only a shell of its once-magnificent self. Just another true Hollywood car story.

10. Mach 5 in "Speed Racer": In an American adaptation of the Japanese anime comic book "Mach GoGoGo," Emile Hirsch plays Speed, a young man who was "born to race" and uses his dad's specially-designed Mach 5 racing car to win the ultimate competition. However, seeing as how this was one of the biggest studio flops of 2008, someone had to be the scapegoat. And while Emile Hirsch's career is still going strong, you can check out Mach 5 at car shows or in a $1.99 car-porn mag near you.

9. Batmobile Tumbler from "Batman Begins": The world-famous Batmobile has gone through many transformations over the years (though its reps deny any cosmetic surgery). The most recent version of the superhero's car is less sleek and more tanklike, but still possesses all the usual perks: bat-deflector, bat-ray projector, bat-radar, bat-tering ram … basically think of some super-cool weapon, put a "bat" in front of it, and it's got it. Our own car has bat-safety belts and bat-auto-steering … also pretty sweet.

8. Aston Martin "Bondmobile" from various James Bond movies: The original 007 ride is just about as sleek, sexy, and smooth as James Bond himself. While Bond has been replaced quite a few times, the Aston Martin wasn't recast for decades. Must have had an iron-clad contract.

7. '66 Ford Thunderbird from "Thelma & Louise": Oh, the metaphor of Louise's Thunderbird. Two best friends saying goodbye to all their housewife woes and taking control of their own destinies with a muscle car and miles of open road. The Thunderbird stands for freedom, opportunity, adventure … until, of course, the whole scumbag murder thing happens. Then it's more like fear, escape, cops, cliff. But anyway, it's still a pretty sweet ride.

6. Greased Lighnting from "Grease": The ultimate makeover in this movie was not that of Sandy (from innocent, poodle-skirt-wearing Australian to spandex-clad, perma-permed dominatrix), but that of Greased Lightning … a once run-down old jalopy that turns into a slick racing machine. Not only do the T-Birds beat their rival finger-snapping, hair-combing gang with Greased Lightning, but the car flies off into the clouds at the end when Sandy and Danny kiss and make up. Sure it requires a suspension of disbelief, but as long as they're singing and dancing, we don't really care.

5. The Mirth Mobile from "Wayne's World": When you're living in your parents' basement, you had better have pretty a sweet ride to pick up some ladies. Maybe Garth wasn't terribly successful with that (only in his music video fantasies), but he did have some epic flames burning up the sides of his infamous AMC Pacer. And when you can blast Bohemian Rhapsody with your besties, lie on the hood to watch planes land, and install a licorice dispenser, really, what could a girl give you that the Mirth Mobile couldn't? Party on.

4. Cameron's Dad's Ferrari 250 GT Spyder from "Ferris Bueller's Day Off": The famed ride that Ferris and his crew drove through Chicago stole the attention away from even '80s tween dream Matthew Broderick. The Ferrari served an integral role in getting the trio to and fro for all of their school-day shenanigans, only to be finally kicked out of a window to its tragic demise. The director offered a stunt car to replace it, but Spyder declined. All for the sake of the film. Now that's a artistic integrity. RIP Spyder.

3. The Ectomobile from the "Ghostbusters" movies: For $4800, Ray (Dan Aykroyd) got himself a limo-style ambulance combo car. All it needed, according to him, was "suspension work and shocks, brakes, brake pads, lining, steering box, transmission, rear-end, new rings, mufflers, a little wiring." Of course it also needed to be able to safely transport ghost remains, too. But it seemed to work out for them in the end.

1. The DeLorean from "Back to the Future": So most movie cars serve for racing, crimefighting, and getaways, but in "Back to the Future," the DeLorean showed up every star car ever imagined by also being a straight-up sporty-looking time machine. It's basically the equivalent of Angelina Jolie being like, "Oh hey, I'm the hottest movie star AND I can act AND I'm a philanthropist." We imagine Herbie (the cute-but-lonely Jen Aniston equivalent) is praying to find the DeLorean in a wreck yard someday …

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