Clearly a subjective issue like this could never hope to deliver a definitive answer - yet it is a debate in which F1 fans love to immerse themselves, time and time again.
Here at BBC Sport we are no different, and over on our Spanish GP practice live page we have been having a vote - from a shortlist based on readers' nominations on social media - to see which livery stands out from the crowd.
Here are the results:
The shortlist
The riot of colour that was the 1989 Benetton B189, seen here spewing sparks with Johnny Herbert in the cockpit, took 6.1 percent of the vote
The 1979 Ferrari 312T3, piloted here by Canadian Gilles Villeneuve, polled 13.1 percent in our vote
The 1997 Jordan 197 was a funky beast, complete with an aggressive snake motif on the front nose - 14.5 percent of you voted for this one
The 2008 McLaren MP4-23 that took Lewis Hamilton to the title in just his second season earned 17.3 percent of the vote
The 1990 McLaren MP4-5B was made all the more memorable by Ayrton Senna's famous yellow helmet, and it takes second place in our vote with 22.7 percent
And the winner is...
The 1986 Lotus 98T was the last of the famous JPS black-and-gold liveried Lotus cars, which first appeared in 1972. Britain's Johnny Dumfries is seen here at the wheel in Jacarepagua, Brazil. 26.4 percent of you voted for this beauty
The ones that got away
The Adrian Newey-designed 1990 Leyton House CG901. Incredibly, that man masquerading as a geography teacher is actually F1 driver Ivan Capelli
The 1979 Arrows A2 looked sleek but was actually a major failure. Its gold paint job was far and away its best feature
The glorious 2015 Williams FW37 received a lot of love on social media using #bestliveries
The 1991 Jordan 191 is always in the mix when best liveries are discussed - but it did not make our shortlist
And finally...
End with a mad flourish they say, and we think a flaming lion swallowing the number 17 on Jan Lammers' 1979 Shadow DN9 does that rather nicely
