I grew up on a healthy diet of Saturday morning cartoons. I spent hours curled up on the sofa in my Spiderman pjs munching on sugary cereal staring at the screen as I kicked butt with anthropomorphic sea life; solved crime with men in lycra wearing their underpants on the outside; and foiled the nefarious schemes of Old Man Jenkins the janitor right from the comfort of my improvised pillow fort.

src: tumblr.com

But for me the most memorable kids shows always had really cool set of wheels because really, the cars saved the day. They could do anything, be anything they needed to be with gadgets galore to get our heroes out of the worst scrapes the animators could throw at them. Forget Ferrari, I want a Hana-Barbera model! That's why I'm paying homage this week to 8 of the best classic cartoon cars...

Canyonero (1998)

src: 20th C. Fox - reddit.com

The theme song will be in your head all day - you're welcome. That's right folks: 12 yards long, 2 lanes wide. You could argues that this 65 tons of American pride is a little late to the party to be considered a classic but this masterpiece of satirical motoring commentary just had to make the list simply for the catchy theme tune.

Canyonerooooo! Canyonero!

The Mean Machine (1968)

src: Hana-Barbera - stagevu.com

Drat! And double drat! It's the Mean Machine next up piloted by that dastardly duo, Dick Dastardly and his sidekick, Muttley. The Mean Machine was kitted out with all sorts of traps to trip up the other unsuspecting Wacky Racers. It was one of the few times you wanted the bad guys to win and, let's face it, they tried much harder than the other racers anyway!

The Flintstone's Car (1960)

src: Hana-Barbera - imgur.com

The ultimate eco-car, the Flintstones were way ahead of their time when it comes to greening their vehicle and didn't everyone want one of these as kids?

src: design-site.net

The Ecto-1 (1986)

src: Columbia Pictures Television - vr-zone.com

So what's cooler than a high speed police chase through the city streets? A high speed police chase involving four nerdy guys pursuing ghosts and ectoplasmic slime who've hijacked a bin lorry and are tearing up the streets of Manhattan. Sometimes straight forward is just dead boring!

The Gadget Mobile (1983)

src: DIC entertainment - wikia.com

Whilst we're on the subject of cop cars, how could I not give the Gadget Mobile a mention? The swiss-army knife of cartoon vehicles, this car could do literally anything. Well.. perhaps not everything, but there certainly seemed to be a 'Go, Go, Gadget' for everything that Dr Claw threw at the Inspector. Unfortunately, modern technology has yet to catch up - 'Go, Go, Gadget Accurate Sat-Nav' never seems to work for me.

The Pink Sedan (1989)

src: 20th C. Fox - autotrader.ca

It may not be as kitted out as other cars in this list, but when it comes to reliability the Simpson's Pink Sedan is right up there. It's been through a lot with them and should have been written off more times than I care to count, but it always seems to come back as good as new... well apart from the characteristic scratches but who's counting? Out of all the cars on this list, now that I'm an adult and appreciate the importance of a reliable motor, I think I'd have to pick this one for sheer indestructibility.

The Mystery Machine (1969)

src: Hana-Barbera - giphy.com

Alright, it's technically not a car but how could we make this list without the Mystery Machine? With it's groovy paint job and multi-functional space, this was the car that made everyone want one of these:

src: conceptcarz.com

The Batmobile (1973)

src: Hana-Barbera - wikia.com

Na-na na-na na-na na-na na-na, Na-na na-na na-na na-na na-na. BATMAN!!!! That is all.

So there we have it folks, the 8 cars of my childhood dreams. What would make your list?

Article first published Saturday 2nd Jul 2016 09:00:00