Many of our readers have some interesting first-car-ride memories, but most of us had no personal choice in the matter. At some point after your very earliest hazy memory of being in a moving steel room on wheels, however, you remember the first car that made you do a double-take and say the little-kid equivalent of “Damn! Look at that thing!” In my case, this car was a thing, and I mean that literally; the Volkswagen Thing first appeared on California streets when I was six years old, and I was utterly hypnotized by the weird boxy car that looked something like an Apollo Lunar Rover.
Yes, the Thing looked like a car designed by a six-year-old, and that probably explains its appeal to me at the time. Sort of an embarrassing choice of First Intolerably Cool Car (though at the time I thought my parents’ Fiat 128s were the coolest-sounding cars ever), and I sort of wish for a time machine that would let me go back and point my six-year-old self in the direction of the Mazda Cosmo Sport 110. Can’t change the past, though, and I still think the Thing looks cool (though I’d sooner drive a ’79 Olds Starfire Firenza than spend every weekend adjusting the valves on a rust-happy Malaise rättleträp based on a 75-year-old military-vehicle design). So, what’s the car that first made your jaw drop?
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My much older 1/2 brothers ’68 Cougar. He let me “help” him when I was six work on it in my parents driveway. He died in a motorcycle accident when he was hit by a drunk driver and dragged a 1/4 mile less than a year later.
I can still remember his face…and the car, and how he called me, “little buddy.”
I’m sorry about your brother. Several years ago I decided to try out riding motorcycles. A guy that I knew won a Harley 883 sportster in a drawing. He was into crotch rockets and didn’t want it, and sold it to me for a song. I figured a smaller bike would be great to learn on. It was fun except for the fact that people constantly either pulled out in front of me or made left hand turns in front of me. I wish I had a dollar for all of the close calls that I had. A guy that appeard to be in his 70’s driving a cutlass ciera made a left turn in front of me on a rural highway, luckily there wasn’t a car in the other lane so I was able to swerve and miss him, barely. That did it for me. People just don’t watch for motorcycles. It’s a shame because they are so much fun to ride.
Motorcycles are so much fun as you say but street riding has always given me the willies – one is just so vulnerable to other peoples’ mistakes. No matter how observant or careful a rider is, there is always the possibility of the unexpected. Just like in a car, except there is no such thing as a trivial fenderbender on a bike – any contact is potentially deadly. I’ve known too many people who have died or been seriously injured (even paralyzed) on bikes through no fault of their own, and I’ve had ER doctors tell me that the most messed-up cases they get are bike accident victims.
I’ve done a fair amount of dirt riding, but that’s a situation where if you get screwed up, it’s usually you’re own damn fault.
I’m sorry, I lost a good friend like that too.
When I was about six, I heard a tire squealing next door and we were all excited to see a little miniature ’52 Ford peeling out. We ran to the site and found a long, deep trench cut into the asphalt. Amazing! I found out later it was an underrated super car called the Hudson Jet, but we thought at the time it was a special car made for teenagers and children.
I used to see a Thing regularly at the Rona near Park & Tilford (North Vancouver, BC). I think it belonged to someone who worked there.
The coolest car I can remember from my youth is the Triumph TR7. They looked so cool. But I was a bit put off when I saw one inexplicably catch fire while stopped at a red light. Fortunately someone nearby had a fire extinguisher and put the fire out before the fire department showed up. After the fire truck left, the guy got back in his car and drove away. British engineering at it’s finest.
Related to the Thing, but different was my obsession for dune buggies and jeeps, probably because they were so rare. Next was the Opel GT – the few I saw were in pretty rafty conditon.
68 cougar xr7 red with white vinyl interior
Since I could talk, I was OBSESSED with semi trucks. I would have to say the Peterbilt 362 COE was my fav (Optimus Prime).
But if we’re talking favorite car, it would have to be the Bandit T/A. For obvious reasons.
Beat me to it!
One of my cousins had a ’77 Bandit T/A that looked identical to the movie car. I probably would have thought it cool if it weren’t for the fact that my cousin was such an arrogant d-bag about it. He finally got rid of it in the early 80s.
The 80s toy has styling cues of both the Pete 362 and the Freightliner FLB. Both can be found in ok shape as a single drive axle for $4-8k on truckpaper.
Born in 1976, for me it was the Datsun 280z. This would have been around 1980 or so…
And at around the same age, I seemed to have an aversion to anything with square and, particularly, stacked headlights. EG Ford LTD II.
When I was a kid we passed by a local suburban Mercury dealer whenever my parents were running errands, and in the summer of 1967 that dealer had a display Cougar outside in front of its lot, the body completely covered in dayglo orange fun fur. I always loved the Cougars of that era, they seemed especially futuristic with those concealed headlamps and the amazing sequential tri-lamp tail light turnsignals!
It’s a toss up for me between the car my Dad owned when I was born and I mentioned in an earlier thread… (to quote myself):
“First car I remember? Dads Cutlass Supreme coupe (I’m fairly certain it was a 1973 model) originally blue later repainted metallic silver. I can remember that car in 1978-79 (I was born in 1977) sitting in the garage freshly washed and polished within an inch of its life, late afternoon sun shining on it through the cracked open garage door – other worldly glow about it. In my memory it will forever be “the ghost car.” I can remember myself staring at it for what seemed like hours, hot Midwest summer, naked save my diaper.”
Although the Cutlass was gone before I could remember riding in it, the car I have the clearest memories of thinking was the coolest thing ever is my Dad’s 1967 Ford Mustang Convertible. He’s owned it since 1978 and still owns it. I remember as a kid running to the screen door just to hear him fire it up and back out of the driveway, the bark and the growl ringing in my ears. That sound was car porn to me.
http://www.curbsideclassic.com/my-curbside-classic/my-dads-curbside-classic-the-one-dollar-1967-mustang-convertible/
Of course I’ve already written much on that subject.
It was 1961 and I was in middle school. A guy who lived near the middle school had a flawless black MG-TF which looked to me like the coolest car ever built. Fortunately I grew up and the closest I got was an MGB, proving to me that I did not want a TF. Fun car to drive, not much fun to own…
Amen to the VW Thing. I’ve almost bought one several times, but just couldn’t commit to another rebuild project. For the ones in good shape, the owners wanted too much.
The first car I remember thinking “I’ve got to get one of these” was an AMC Javelin. When I came back to the states a cousin had one. A 70 or 71 in Big Bad Blue. Compared to our VW camper that thing moved like a bat out of hell. Though that was likely due more to the fact it was being driven by a 17 year old.
Grade eight,…{and yes I did get that far}. Anyway there was a young female teacher, she wore short skirts. That sure caught the eye of the thirteen year old boys.
She drove a red 66 Impala SS convertible. Up to that point in my life, the girl, and the car, took “coolness” to a higher level
I really wanted a MG B GT as my first car. That or a late second generation Camaro. I got a 1980 Dodge Maxivan instead which was fun in its own way.
I believe it was 1986, which would make me 6 at the time, when I saw for the first time a Toyota MR2…in turquoise, which was an awesome color for a six year old. To my eyes, it was the coolest thing on the road, and launched a lifelong love of cars.
Interesting… mine was a 1986 Fiero, which was a direct competitor to the MR2.
Fiero here too. It was just different, in a cool way, at the right time in my adolescence.
I thought MR2s were girlie until I drove one when I was 18. I bought one a few years later (in ’88) and it was stolen shortly after. Then I drove a 5.0 Mustang and that’s what I got next. That one got rear ended and it was done. Then I drove an SVO Mustang and absolutely had to have one.
OK, I worked at a couple new car dealers and I’d assault anything interesting that landed the used car lot. SVOs were my first love actually, but I was 16 when they hit showrooms. I didn’t mind the turbo lag because you could plan for it and revving the hell out of it and side-stepping the clutch was a good time. It’s the all-at-once power surge that slammed you in the seat that did it for me. I still own it.
I thought I was the only one who had The Thing on his “first-coolest-car-ever” list!
I was really into designing cars from a very young age, and my parents found a few great “History Of” posters. While my friends had their requisite Countach on the wall, I obsessed over the Islero. Testarossa? Meh, how about that 275!
My favorite, though, was the Volkswagen story. The Ghia 1600, the 1st-gen Scirocco and Brazil-only SP-2, the class of the Hebmuller Cabriolet… but the one that really grabbed me was the Acapulco Thing. A blue and white striped surrey top placed on top of a Schwimmwagen once-removed was, to me at age 8, the absolute coolest thing ever. Still is to some extent…
Opel GT. It was the first memory I have of being in love with the look of a car.
Was it from the brief stint when Maxwell Smart drove one? I bought one in the mid-90’s because I wanted something cool like he drove. Only later did I learn that the model [i]was[/i] used in the show.
No, actually it was from an ad in either Life or Look magazine. My parents subscribed to both. I remember seeing one in the flesh for the first time and remarking how small it was, which made it even more exotic and alluring. I didn’t even know that Maxwell drove one, even though my family religiously watched the show.
Quintessential dumpster-diving Baby Boomer proclaims that any van capable of being used as a portable living/family/party room or as an abode has always appealed to my basic survival instincts.
Late 70s, early 80s. I lived in Miami. I was almost 10. I remember 3 car calling my attention, Ford Bronco, Dodge Vans and Pontiac TransAm. So, equal opportunity guy!
I used to no think my Dad’s cars were coo at all. Mom had Nova and Dad got a new company car. Some huge GM station wagon I don’t even remember the name of.
I’m a fair bit younger but the first car I remember oogling was…the same Thing. Okay it was surely a different Thing but still. My grandparents had a vacation house and the neighbors parked their Thing underneath it. This would have been around 1986 and I was around the same age as Mrs. Martin. I never rode in it or even saw it move but it made a serious impression on me.
Later around 1995 when approaching the “first car” age I spotted one for sale parked off the highway while riding with my mother. She was strangely intrigued as well so we pulled over and looked at it. It was battered and the floors were rusted out. I have no idea how much the asking price was but I’m sure it would be shockingly cheap now-a-days. We didn’t come close to buying it but I always wished we did.
Fast forward about 10 more years and I bought a 1974 Beetle for a daily driver. It was a lasting impression.
Born in 1989 in the mid 90’s my neighbor had a Navy 1992 Saab 900S 3-Door. One afternoon he while he was wrenching on his car (looking back it was pretty common to see him out in the driveway working on his Saab)I stopped my bike and talked to him about his Saab and discovered the key between the seats!! I thought that that was the coolest thing ever next to the headlight wipers and backwards opening hood.
My younge mind then assumed that my belief that the porsche 911 and the Saab hatchback were related!
Eight or so years later my first car was a 87′ 900 Turbo Convertble and I still drive a 9-3 today.
Early 70’s Lotus Europa. British Racing Green w/ yellow stripes. Age 12. Hooked for life.
The General Lee, Bunny Burkett’s Corvette funny car, and building a hot rod entirely from parts procured at swap meets.
The Uhlenhaut Coupe — 1955 300slr Coupe
I was 9, and on the beach in SoCal with some friends, splashing around, and having a great time. Suddenly, 2 young couples pulled up in a Citroen 2CV. We all broke out in wide grins as we watched the car
pull in and park. After looking over the car(?), we decided that this was a vehicle that even WE could drive. The following weeks were spent begging my parents for one, with no success.
A 1963 Corvair Spyder Convertible. I was ten. When I was sixteen I bought one…
Other ones that made an impact on my pre-teen self:
SW20 MR2 Turbo T-bar: gaaah. Still want one.
VW Corrado SLC: tried to get one as my first car.
Aston Martin DB7: dunno, they don’t do anything for me now.
Jaguar XJ-S.
My next door neighbors` 1964 jet-black Pontiac Grand Prix and a 1970 Mustang Boss 302 Hot Wheels car – then I saw it in real life and it was even cooler.
The car that got that kind of reaction from me when I was about eight or so was 1971-1973 Buick Riviera with the boat tail rear end. I can’t remember the name of the firm that produced 1/72 scale snap-together plastic car models; but they had one of that I wanted so bad; and never got one.
Years later, I had the same reaction when I saw an Audi 5000s in aero form for the first time. It was in a Taco Bell parking lot in my home town; and compared to the crease-and-tuck styled cars in line with it; it looked like a spaceship that had landed and taken it’s place in line. I still perfer the 5000s, Ford Taurus, and the other early aero cars of the late 1980s-early 1990s to the squint eye lookalike cars we have now.
I was about to add the same thing. My mom had one, and even as a kid, I could tell it was *different* from any other car.
The Thing (type 181/182) really predated the Malaise Era by a few years. Still, apart from the coolness factor there isn’t a lot to recommend it.
The VW Iltis (type 183) is far more capable both on and off road than the Thing. And now that Canadian military has upgraded theirs to Mercedes G-Wagens, the surplus versions are plentiful even in North America. Just search on http://www.kijiji.ca and you can find very nice condition ones …
The Thing first showed up in the US in 1972. I consider 1973 to be the start of the Malaise Era.
Fair enough! Delayed imports malaised the Thing. European production started in 1969, though.
Yes – even tho’ planned and designed much earlier, the debut of the 1973 models. Think: Colonnades. Accelerated death of pillarless hardtops. The younger ones on here cannot fathom how much impact that had on a car guy at the time, compared to what a Baby-Boomer grew up with.
I still say that the 1972 model year was the true start of Malaise:
* Horsepower ratings were changed from gross to SAE net.
* Compression ratios were lowered and ignition timings were retarded for the required ability to run on unleaded gas. There was a real power loss in cars for 1972.
* New emission controls were beginning to cause drivability problems with issues like dieseling, stalling, and surging.
* High-performance options like the Chrysler Hemi or Ford CJs were drastically cut back or eliminated altogether.
* Big-block engines were no longer available in the Mustang, Cougar, Barracuda, or Challenger.
One of my dad’s colleagues had an early 60’s Series I Jaguar XKE when I was in my early teens. Smitten ever since.
My uncle had a red 67 convertible. That was it…
Ya beat me too it. When I was 13, I saw my first Series 1 jag….gave me a hard-on.
Of course, when I was 13, a LOTTA things gave me a hard-on.
But a Series 1 Jag still does….. :)
AC Cobra. My grandfather always had plans to build a kit car (never got around to it), and kept a mahoosive stack of kit car magazines. Whenever we popped around for a visit, I spent hours staring at the Cobra replicas. Then one day he took me to a kit car owners gathering in the nearby seaside town, and my 7 year old brain nearly capsized when it was pointed out to me that the kit Cobra I was gawping at was actually a real Cobra that the owner had brought along for the hell of it. Whilst a genuine Cobra will no doubt remain out of my reach financially, a kit Cobra is on my bucket list.
My Family and I moved here from The Netherlands in 1984 when I was an impressionable eleven years old. The very first car I laid eyes on upon exiting the airport in Montreal was a Bandit Trans Am. I was instantly hooked and promised myself that I would own one when I could. 6 Trans Ams and Camaros later, I’d say that was a promise well kept. Gorgeous car.
1970 Plymouth Roadrunner Superbird. I was 14 when I first saw one of these, and my first thought was that someone had finally caused a Hot Wheels car to be built in real life.
I can distinctly remember the first car that I considered to be cool: the El Camino. As a little kid I was obsessed with trucks, but at the same time I was too little to look inside them or crawl into the bed (usually to play pirates) but then I saw an El Camino and 4 year old me was suddenly like “A TRUCK MY SIZE!? THAT IS SO COOL!”
A ’67 Jag XKE convertible. The way the wheels relate to the body made it seem that it didn’t really belong on the ground with the rest of us. Still feels that way.
http://assets.speedtv.com/images/easy_gallery/1033713/1967_jaguar_xke_convertible_m.jpg
I was born in 1969…and until 1975 at least I had a near-pathological fixation on the VW Beetle. My parents stoked the fire with a Bug pedal car that I basically lived in when I was 3 and 4.
1961 Cadillac Fleetwood limousine. I was 6 years old and my parents took me to the first Detroit auto show to be held at Cobo Hall. I thought the fold up jump seats for extra passengers were just too cool.
My car awakening was one of the best experiences of my life… My (much older) sister took me to my first monster truck rally around age 4 or 5, Hara Arena in Dayton Ohio around 1981-1982. In the lobby they had The General Lee(!). A local tv station had an advertisement on the car to watch Dukes of Hazzard on their channel (which I immediately started doing). I’m proud to have a picture of me next to that car framed, the biggest smile on my face I’ve probably ever mustered.
Inside, I don’t remember the truck racing/crushing cars much, but I do remember the smell of exhaust fumes. They made my eyes water a little bit, and I swear I think I could taste gasoline in my throat. I remember the dust from the floor getting into my nose. I remember my sister letting me drink half her beer, and the smell of alcohol and cigarettes in the air. Many people were laughing and having a great time.
My experience didn’t get me hooked on a specific car like The General Lee, it made me hooked to the car experience/culture in general!
A 1975 Volkswagen Scirocco. It came out about the time that I got my first driver’s license. The angular wedge shape was not like anything else at the time. One of Giugiaro’s best and underappreciated, though currency exchange rates made it pricey for what you got.
1982 Jeep Scrambler. Baby blue, soft top, back seat out of a junkyard CJ. That thing was the coolest vehicle known to man when I was a kid. Hell, it still is.
The Unlimited before its time. I’d slightly prefer a LJ Wrangler Rubicon with a 4.6 Stroker.
The Adam West era Batmobile.
Probably was the same for me. That or the Monkeemobile.
Honestly, it was the CHP 5.0 Mustangs, both awesome and fearsome, I remember my dad being especially afraid of those! I reason why I dig cop cars to this day.
Growing up my neighbor, a dentist of reasonable means, owned an ’89, and later a 92 Taurus SHO. Looking back I think I must have been too young to truly appreciate the screaming Yamaha lump under the hood, but something captivated me about these sleepers. I was probably one of the youngest SHO fanboys ever: imagine a 6-year-old telling you his dream car is a Ford Taurus.
When I was 17 I started flipping used cars to make extra money, and since my dad wouldn’t let me replace the lethargic $300 1985 powder blue Ranger he bought me, I started to look for an SHO as an “investment.” I found a white 1993 model with body-colored wheels and, of course, the manual transmission. I joy-rided the hell out of that thing for 3 weeks until it sold. I think I only made $200 bucks on it.
I’d like to find an ’89 model in good shape and park it in my garage for about 30 years. Future collectable: you better believe it.
1973 Triumph TR6 in Mallard Green. I loved it.
Probably the boxy Corvette (C4 generation I believe.) I had one as a hot-wheels car and loved daydreaming about the real one when I played with it. Of course I had plenty of other hot wheels, but I liked those cars the best.
Of course by the time I got a chance to test drive a real Corvette, it really wasn’t my kind of car so I didn’t care for it.
Didn’t have one, not when I was a kid anyway. I didn’t care about cars as more than transportation until I had a steady job and enough disposable income to care.
When I was about 7 years old, my grandparents took me along with their mid-teenage children on a car trip to Baja for spring break. We went in a VW bus. My other car experience had been the back seat of a VW bug. The VW bus suffered a breakdown, and in order not to have the trip interrupted the grandparents rented a car in the nearest town: an Impala. It was a bit of a revelation. Cars didn’t have to be tinny, noisy, small, and generally uncomfortable? I hated to get the bus back.
E-type jaguar. I was about five, in the showroom of the local British car dealership with my parents. (My father owned a Big Healey at the time.) I was drawn to that car, a midnight-blue Mark 1 convertible, as though by magnetism. Even at that age, I could sense that it completely outclassed everything else in the room.
I was allowed to sit in it, and I still remember the row of toggle switches, the smell of leather, and the angry cat snarling silently at me from the hub of the steering wheel.
Easy.
Mid 70s 911. Guy used to tear around our corner house with the inside front wheel off the ground. Took me 30 years to get one of my own. Should’ve got one years ago.
Some putz in high school had a VW thing. Truly a miserable car in the loosest sense of the word.
In late 1967, my father gave up trying to teach my mother how to drive our VW Squareback, and went back to his life long love affair with Fords. Well, Mercurys actually.
I went with my dad to Kroehle Lincoln Mercury in Youngstown, Ohio about October of that year, about the time I turned five. I don’t know what drew me to the car, but once I saw the Mercury Cougar I was in love. I have a feeling it would be the same circumstances with an early Cougar.
Apparently, I begged, cajoled and finally threw a fit in order to get my dad to buy a Cougar. He was not so moved. We ended up taking home a Mercury Montego instead; with a very cross little George in the back seat. What did I know about family cars, my father still had two other sons to haul around for a while. I came to find out later on, my mother was actually hounding him for Buick! The poor guy couldn’t make anyone happy.
In the intervening 45 years, I’ve had several opportunities to buy an early Cougar, but I never have. I still admire them, but from a distance. As with a few other things I’ve longed for, anticipation turned out to be better than possession.
Parked alongside our downtown church, St. Marks, in the North End of Portsmouth, UK, was this, exactly this color:
http://librapix.com.s3.amazonaws.com/classic-and-vintage-cars.com/1250.jpg
A brand new Bristol 405. Ten years after WWII, Porstmouth was not yet rebuilt from the bombing. Most cars were mainly prewar Austins, Ford Populars, Standard 8s and 10s and various Morrises. Things were drab, and food rationing had only just ended. Austin Somersets were exported to the US, Ford had mini clones of the 1950 full-size available, there were some big Jags. To come round the corner and see this in maroon, inspired many later drawings in my school notebooks. I became an Aston Martin man after that.
That Bristol made me happy that there was more to life than dull,dull grey and that the futire would be better.
When I was about 7 our next-door neighbor had a Karmann-Ghia. That was about 1957. 4 on the floor and swoopy design. I guess I didn’t realize until later how odd it was that under that elegant hood was no engine.
Maybe a couple of years later my music teacher drove a VW bug. Instead of turn signal lights it had the flags that flipped out from the pillars. I thought that was way cool.
Also the VW print ads (“Think Small”) were funny and cool.
I think those cars taught me that “foreign” cars were cooler than USA. So when I was finally old enough to buy cars (late 60’s) I was oriented from an early age to shop foreign. Obviously I wasn’t the only one, that’s when the market shifted.
I’m amazed we went this far into the thread with no one mentioning the Lamborghini Countach. It was THE dream car of every boy who came of age in the 80s.
All of my friends has posters of a Countach or Ferrari.
Agree, at first for me it was the Countach. I still think it’s an amazing looking car. It was joined by the Detomaso Pantera and Toyota Supra 2nd gen. I think I have a thing for factory fender flares…
I managed to buy one of these car, the cheapest. :D
When I was about 12…like 1994…the coolest guy on my street was driving a Cavalier Z24 to our local highscool. It was white and grey and had those checkerboard wheels and I thought it was the coolest thing in the world! He gave me a ride to my house from the bus stop one day and just being in it made me feel cool beyond all measure! What a wonderfully affordable existance I would lead if that car could still drive me nuts.
The first car I ever saw that truly blew my mind was a 3000GT that a guy who worked with my dad used to own. It was black and never had a speck of dirt on it. Looking over the car, I remember being completely transfixed by the fluid hood contours and fender geometry.
’71 Trans Am. I saw it new in the dealer showroom in Perrysburg, Oh. With the giant fire chicken on the hood.
Our neighbor had a Superbird sitting in front of his house one day, but my only impression of it was the wing and the bright blue color.
1970 Hemi ‘Cuda. There was this cute girl in 1st grade who liked spotting Mustangs from the window at the end of the 3rd floor hall. I had another friend who liked the Camaro’s. For me it was a no brainer. The ‘Cuda was just so much cooler. Whenever anyone ended up beside a Hemi at a stoplight, they either looked down and waited, pretended they bought a muscle car for no particular reason, or got smoked. I’d be the 6 year old standing at the intersection egging them all on.
I’m going to date myself with this one. Everyone after this should be able to guess my age within 2 years.
I find it funny that my first cool car is what it is because I grew up in 2 Corvettes 1965 and 1969 and also a Mustang fastback (even had the optional louvers on the back window)
But to me the first COOL car was the Trans AM from Smokey and the Bandit. Nothing else came close.
Around 2002 (I was 15 at the time), I went on a vacation with my family to Japan. While there, we toured the Mazda headquarters and museum near Hiroshima. The main attraction there at the time was the RX-8 concept that had been revealed a year prior, along with some near production models. The Renown 787b was also there and I remember drooling over it for a pretty long time, but the car that had the most effect on me there was the 1967 Cosmo Sport. I studied the hell out of the thing, and found an english-speaking guide to answer my 900 questions about it. I have appreciated and been fascinated by cars ever since I could talk, but that little Cosmo is the first car that I truly fell in love with. My Wife and I are planning on going there sometime in the next year or two and I will not leave that country until I see it again
Pretty much any Corvair. In the late 60’s and early 70’s they were still around but not ubiquitous. They seemed to have two kinds of owners: the folks who always kept cars forever, and the earliest generation of Corvair enthusiasts. One I remember really well was a 1965 or ’66 sedan owned by a very old lady, she looked around eighty, and she hardly drove anywhere except to church and the store (which was between church and her house). The car was always garaged and I don’t think I ever saw it dirty. It was a base model 500 sedan in a beautiful shade of maroon and somehow without much trim it looked really sharp. I am sure she passed many years ago and I never found out what happened to the Corvair.
I first fell in love at an auto show in 1953 — with the Studebaker Loewy coupe. Of course lesser designers tarted it up over the next decade and it lost its stunning grace.
Dad took Mom and us four boys to the Plymouth dealer. We all piled in to a fastback Barracuda. I got to ride in the way back, on my back, lengthwise, looking up through that fastback glass, glimpsing buildings and trees and signs. Dad got something more practical.
A Citroen CX Pallas… It defines what comfortable car should be as i recall my dad said it runs very reliably.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citro%C3%ABn_CX
First earlies: Citroen CX & SM, FAB 1 glass bubble top and missile behind the rad and my Dinky of the Jensen Interceptor – pant.
Noise? Not car – whistling sound of Thunderbird 2 engines.
I thought the ’92 (thru ’96) Camry wagon was the coolest thing ever, with its dual wipers on the backlight and its beltline flowing smoothly into the D-pillar.
OK, B&B…some of us are taking this station wagon love just a LITTLE bit too far….. :)
Agreed. The ONLY station wagon that evokes any “cool” status is an Olds Vista-Cruiser from the 60’s. Also a tri-five Chevy Nomad.
I turned five in 1992, so I didn’t know any better. =)
Born in 1961 and grew up at the beach in Southern California. In the late 60’s I remember one street over a classmate’s family had an Amphicar. Red with white top and white interior and big whitewalls. VERY COOL!
When I was a little kid, I had w108 chassis Matchbox car. At the time, that seemed to be what a car was supposed to look like and even at the young age of 6 or 7 years old it seemed to exude refinement and luxury.
I wish I had one in my garage now.
1985 Merkur xR4Ti. I still love that shape.
A Citroen DS- I grew up in a very remote mining town in the Australian bush and in the nearest town ( about 120 kilometers away) a older woman who ran the local motel had a lovely green one. We were stuck there for a few days while the roads were cut by floods and I got to see a lot of this wonderful car!
I always called the VW Thing the “square Volkswagen” with the Bug being the round one. I didn’t even know it was called a “Thing” until the late 80s. I always thought people were messing with me when they told me it was a “Thing.”
In 1985, I was in 3rd grade and beginning to notice the current body style Mercedes. The one that I drooled over was the 500 SEC. One of the moms volunteered at the school and always drove her brand-new blue 500 SEC and parked close to the playground. I would walk around that car often. So often that the other kids made fun of me. They couldn’t understand my love for that very sexy car. I still want one. In blue. “Bundt cake” wheels.
I also loved the General Lee and the DeLorean Time Machine, but no other car drew me in more than the SEC from the 80s.
I was fortunate enough to have an aunt who enjoyed having fun and raising hell, and the day she launched her ’67 Corvette down the sleepy dead-end street we lived on was the day my 5 year old self fell in love with that particular automotive icon and cars in general.
Coolest car that impacted me? My aunt’s white with blue interior early 1960’s Dodge hardtop coupe – the model with the square steering wheel.
Awesome car compared our aging 1950 gray Plymouth. My aunt’s car was a spaceship by comparison, right out of the Jetsons! When I used to spend a couple of days at their house ‘way out (at the time) in Kirkwood, MO – they had a huge ranch house surrounded by woods – a perfect playground for a young boy – my aunt used to run her errands and riding with her was quite an experience. Loads of fun. That car was simply AWESOME! I felt like a king…
God, I’ve never seen one of those before and I hate it.
I think my earliest memory of a design that really made me notice was the Jaguar XJS
There’s a VW Thing on ABC Family’s “Switched at Birth”.. though i do question the show writers who provided the parents judgement at providing their 16 year old daughter a car that’s twice as old as her with no safety features to speak of.. but at least she’s learning stick.
To my 9 year old self the coolest car on the planet was my next door neighbour’s 1967 Fiat 850 Spyder, which she used to drive in the winter with the top down. Which was also cool.
The Studebaker Avanti-I had just turned 16 when these vehicles appeared and I was totally smitten. Stylistically there had never been anything like it before. I still thing it’s the greatest looking automobile ever.
For me, it was the 1948 Tucker.
A 1974 Thing shares a garage with the Ghia. Its incredibly crude, and fun.
My first car of lust was the 1963 Corvette Stingray. I was ten at the time. I even built a model and customized it plus giving it green over gold candy apple paint.
There were too many cars when I was a kid in the 70s. Plum Crazy Hemi ‘Cuda, Challenger T/A, Lancia Stratos, Triumph Spitfire, E-Type roadster, Auburn 851. It wasn’t until later in life I started liking the 289 and 427 Cobras (purchased a replica in ’94)as I was heavily biased against Ford in my early years.
It’s embarrassing to admit, but when I was a kid, the Renault Fuego and Encore were the coolest, neatest cars in the world. Within a year of this belief at the age of five, Renault left the U.S. market by ditching AMC when Chrysler took over.
I’m with the others that mention the General Lee. I can remember seeing that the Dukes of Hazzard was about to come on and scrambling to go and find my toy General Lee so I could drive it around while I watched.
Later on it was a 78 Trans Am. My dad did mechanic and autobody work. He was always buying wrecks and piecing them back together to sell. About 1984 he bought the Trans Am after it had swiped a guardrail and that pretty well did in the nose and sheetmetal for the front clip as well as the driver side door. He got a good deal on parts from a 79 so it didn’t have the right nose on it. He was also too cheap to spring for a new hood decal so it was just painted. I didn’t care though. To 7-year-old me it was coolest car in existance.
He gave it to my oldest sister when she moved away from home. Years later she sold it back to Dad when she wanted a new car. It mostly sat after that. Some of my other sisters drove it occasionally as they needed a vehicle. One of them put it under a barbed-wire fence and gave it some zigzag “racing stripes.”
Finally over 10 years later it was my turn. The old Trans Am was rusty, dash and windshield cracked, paint scratched and clear coat failing, air conditioner long dead and heater on life support, and it was still freakin’ awesome!
Porsche 911. I don’t know how or why – Latin America in the mid 70s was not exactly a population center for 911s – but I do remember that I had a 1/24 die-cast model of a ‘cucumber sandwich’ German police 911 when I was two, and that I wanted to ‘save my pennies and buy a Porsche’ by my fourth birthday.
The earliest car that made an impression on me was my Dad’s 1973 Cadillac Eldorado coupe, gunmetal grey with white and black houndstooth patterned upholstery. That car was AWESOME. I still think of it whenever I see anything with a houndstooth pattern! Of course I had a couple of Countach posters in my room, as someone else mentioned that was the epitome of exotic cardom at the time. Other cars I remember liking were the Jaguar XJ-S, and my Dad and I both admired the Mercedes SEC.