The ten most beautiful ugly cars

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Some cars are so ugly, they come back around and grow on you. Others are so purposeful in their design that form follows function they look brutally good. Here are the ten ugly/sexy cars you can't help but love.

Welcome back to Answers of the Day — our Jalopnik summer feature where we take the best ten responses from the previous day's Question of the Day and shine it up to show off. It's by you and for you, the Jalopnik readers. Enjoy!

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Photo Credit: Carplatform


10.) Ariel Atom

Suggested By: jbh1126

Why It's Pretty Ugly: There's nothing nice-looking about a collection of plumbing supplies bolted to an engine with a big wing duct taped on somewhere unless your philosophically aroused by a collection of plumbing supplies bolted to an engine with a big wing duct taped on somewhere. We are.

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9.) Pagani Zonda

Suggested By: E34

Why It's Pretty Ugly: The Zonda could have been a viable candidate for last week's Answers of the Day. Its collection of bizarre shapes and angles make it fairly awkward to look at, but purposeful in its design. If you're looking to make a splash in a non-traditionally-pretty-but-still-blindingly-quick supercar, the Zonda may be for you.

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8.) Bugatti Veyron

Suggested By: frogberg

Why It's Pretty Ugly: Yeah, yeah. I know. You can't put the Veyron on here! It's too fast/powerful/important/technologically advanced/etc. Nope. Wrong. The thing looks like a beetle (not the car, I'm talking insects here). The Veyron is too squat and fat-looking to call itself a sportscar and it's certainly not helped my some of the more questionable color combinations that have been produced as well.

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7.) Fiat Coupe

Suggested By: Jeb_Hoge

Why It's Pretty Ugly: The Fiat Coupe's collection of random slashes, squared-off rear end and fish-like front grill won't be winning any beauty contests any time soon. Somehow though, all of its ugly design elements come together to look pretty bearable (except from behind). Hmm... a randomly designed car that almost works but for the butt. Who could have designed that? Why, it's the Banglemeister himself.

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Photo credit: CarGurus


6.) Ford RS200

Suggested By: zacarious

Why It's Pretty Ugly: Another car with an awkward collection of scoops and wings, not to mention its Bugeye Sprite-like headlights, the RS2000 isn't what you'd call a "classically pretty car." But when you know what's under the trunklid, and a little bit about its history, it becomes a savage beauty.

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5.) Cadillac CTS-V Coupe

Suggested By: sr20

Why It's Pretty Ugly: Have you seen the butt on this car? It's got presence, that's for sure. The rest of it is fine, but that rear end looks like it should have its own gravitational field. Or zip code. Did you know it can only be photographed from space?

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4.) Studebaker Avanti

Suggested By: MarionCobretti

Why It's Pretty Ugly: Where's the front grille? Who dropped those ridiculous round headlights in the front bumper? So many questions, and yet it's still a fairly good-looking hunk of fiberglass.

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Photo credit: DragTimes


3.) Maserati Birdcage

Suggested By: sr20

Why It's Pretty Ugly: As late-50's sports racing cars go, the Birdcage is not the prettiest. Unlike the Jaguar D-Type or Ferrari 250 Testarossa however, the Maserati's beauty is more than skin deep. Once the bodywork is peeled away, the car's true beauty peeks out.

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Photo credit: Image Search


2.) Ferrari F50

Suggested By: Xander Crews

Why It's Pretty Ugly: With a nose only a mother could love, the F50 is one of those cars that you so desperately want to like but can't get past one or two major flaws. The nose, the splitter that resembles Jay Leno's chin, the curve-less rear 3/4 of the car, these all combine to make the Ferrari F50 intolerable but for classically Ferrari proportions.

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1.) TVR Sagaris

Suggested By: Bonhomme7h2

Why It's Pretty Ugly: The good news: if you found yourself with the sudden need to grate cheese on the side of the road, the hood from the Sagaris would fit the bill perfectly. The bad news is that the car is ugly. It's lumpy in all the wrong places, the rear spoiler looks too flimsy to be any good, and I don't know who thought those sideways exhaust pipes would be a good idea, but it just looks like a piercing went horribly wrong. And yet, once you see it in action, once you hear it, you can't help but lust after it.