America's 11 Most Significant Antique Cars

1903 Curved Dash Oldsmobile: The first mass-produced, affordable automobile paved the way for cars to compete with horses as a reliable form of transportation

Ford Model T: This one needs no explanation. Henry Ford's "Tin Lizzie" literally put the world on wheels for the first time.

1912 Cadillac Touring: Before Charles Kettering and team invented the electric starter, getting your car running was a dangerous business; doctors called a certain kind of broken wrist the "Ford fracture" due to the Model T's crank. The 1912 Cadillac featured the first electric start, a feature that became standard quickly.

1922 Essex: Before the Essex, only high-end luxury cars had their passenger compartments closed to the elements; the affordable Essex launched in 1919 made riding comfortable in weather beyond perfect.

1924 LaSalle: The first car "styled" in a way to attract retail consumers, the LaSalle gave General Motors an early edge in luxury cars, and led to the design departments at every automaker today.

Ford Model A: The long-delayed follow-up to the Model T never matched it sales, but set the shape of the industry for decades to come — and remains the hot-rodder's canvas of choice.

1929 Chevrolet: With a six-cylinder engine designed to outpace Ford's Model A, the '29 Chevrolet began the back-and-forth between Detroit makes that continues, unabated, to this day.

1931 Cord: The first American car with front-wheel-drive, the Cord was an engineering marvel in many other ways, but its drive system would eventually become the standard for cars around the world.

1949 Cadillac: Cadillac's '49 redesign with its overhead-valve V-8 made it the dominant American luxury brand for the next three decades.

1955 Chevrolet: The first true revolution in post-World War II styling also brought forth the first Chevrolet small-block V-8, an engine that offered more power per pound than any competitor, and whose engineering DNA can still be found in millions of cars built today.

Volkswagen Beetle: No, it's not an American car, unlike every other vehicle on AACA's list. But the Beetle transformed the U.S. auto industry by expanding its horizons, showing millions of Americans wanted smaller cars that still had a sense of style.