I know there is no one answer. Just getting others ideas. You hear people say all the time this car or that car is famous or was famous. Personally i could care less i just want to drive and race mine as much as possible.
I also own a car with an infamous reputation. Somewhat famous? Maybe. All I know is guys I've never met before know the car when they see it and haven't laid eyes on it in 30 years.
Interesting question. Famous to me means it is recognized by the general public. There are a lot of cars that are well known to us, but we are only a small segment of the general public. Off the top of my head I can't think of a car that is currently famous, although I'm sure there must be some. Some cars that were famous at one time but are probably not all that well known any more: Batmobile Kookie Car ZZ Top Coupe Munster Koach Of course, all this is just my opinion and is based on my interpretation of "famous".
You could add a few to that list.... the 'Goldfinger' Aston Martin, the Corvair, the Edsel, all 'famous' for one reason or another. But the context of the OP seems to be 'famous' inside the car culture, which is a different deal. You've got 'builders cachet', but even that can be hit-or-miss. I'd say Roth probably has the best percentage here, as his creations were all pretty recognizable. Barris, Winfield, etc, all built 'famous' cars but also built many that were forgetten. Some of these are 'famous' because of distinctive design (whether good or bad). Then you have the 'craftsmanship' factor; cars that are exceptionally well-built and that is recognized. But in the end, you can rarely point at any individual vehicle and say 'that car is famous because of one thing', it's almost always a combination of factors.
Thanks for sending me your vin # Japar I ran a carfax and found out that your car was totaled in late 1964 upon futher investigation I also uncovered that you lost control while racing a 65 Hemi Belvedere and at the time you lost control the Hemi had you by 2 car lenths. It shows that you put in an insurance claim and you stated you ran off the road on a rainey night. The insurance paid the claim off in full and you purchased the car back for $1. You never fixed the car it was never ever registered again and you parted it out laughing all the way to the bank. Well that Thunderbolt you parted out in 64/65 if you had held on to it and rebodied it would be worth 400K- 500K today "DUMBASS" By the way do you know the penalty for insurance fraud ! And could you explain how your car that was purchased then registered on Oct 5 than TOTALED on Nov 22 and the plates turned into the Registry on Dec 2 became so "Infamous" in suchs a short time span. lets face it you got beat by the "INFAMOUS HEMI"
" It had rained earlier in the day and I hit a wet spot in the road thats why I lost control, he jumped the start and had me by 2 cars but when I lost control I was only behind a fender. I was catching him and would have won by aleast a car lenth"
Then: It depends on how many magazine covers it gets. Now: It depends on how many people argue about it on the internet.