It’s safe to say that many of us were bitten by the car bug when we were knee-tall. Maybe it was a poster, maybe it was a book, maybe it was a television program, a car show, or a magazine. Maybe it was even just a stranger driving by in a machine that captivated your imagination and became your world. Childhood dream cars, before we even got our hands on our learner’s permits. But are they still our childhood dream cars today?
Admittedly, my childhood dream car hierarchy tended to trend a little bit older. However, beyond the Viper on the auto show stand and the poster of the 930 Flachbau on my wall, one car stood tall above everything else in the earliest days: The Lamborghini Diablo SE30. Violently purple and violently violent, this pop-up-lamped wedge with billionaire doors was an outrageous monument to speed. With a 518-horsepower 5.7-liter V12 and no all-wheel-drive to save you, this lightened, steroidal supercar was Lamborghini before the Audi influence. Pure daydream material, and far more attainable than a McLaren F1
However, a funny thing’s happened alongside growing up: I still love the Diablo SE30, but if I could only own one fun car, this probably wouldn’t be it. I’ve been lucky enough to have friends and acquaintances with Diablos, and these cars all have one thing in common: They’re a bit much. They’re needy, they attract massive crowds, they’re compromised and demanding. A fantastic fourth or fifth car for a bit of pantomime, but they aren’t what I’m seeking from a dream car.
I’ve known that driving can be ridiculously good fun from the moment I first squeezed the throttle in a kart. It put an ear-to-ear grin across my prepubescent face that hasn’t really changed. The problem is, it’s hard to drive a Diablo everywhere in the real world, especially when you live in a place with frost heaves and speed bumps and diabolical traffic and RAV4 drivers who merge without looking despite the amber lamps of their blind spot monitoring systems shining bright. Even when traffic clears, there are better cars from an ergonomic standpoint, and better cars from a cheekiness standpoint, with gears you can actually use without having to get in the back of a police car afterward.
My ultimate childhood dream car might no longer be my ultimate dream car, but that doesn’t make my list any more boring. I still dream of the TVR Sagaris, a whole raft of special Porsches, the Renault 5 Turbo, the Noble M600, and probably against my better judgement, the Jaguar XJ220, among other things. So, has age and perhaps wisdom changed your dream car, or is it still the same as it ever was? I’d love to hear your answer in the comments below.
Top graphic image: Lamborghini
I would still like to have a Pantera…although they are reportedly not very good cars. I’m an old skool Ford guy. Remember seeing one in the Lincoln/Mercury (?) dealer brochure back in the 70s as a kid. Seems like it was $14k at time.
I’d settle for an old skool fox Ford SVO Mustang or even a fox Mercury Capri.
I had a poster of a dark blue Countach for many of years.
Both yes and no. Coincidentally, that Lambo in the headline is my late childhood dream car, with the Countach Anniversary Edition in white being the dream car for my early childhood (well, that and KITT, of course).
And they’re kinda still a dream car, but I can think of a lot of cars that are easier to live with while turning in similar performance numbers.
The LC500 will easily run with that Diablo and will curb-stomp the Countach all while being refined enough to use as a daily driver. Now that I’m several decades past being a kid, I think I’d take the Lexus.
Red Ferrari Testarossa and a Black 911 SC Targa with the whale-tail? Yes, I’d say so.
Young adult dream car: 1969 Camaro
Presently in my garage: 1969 Camaro
QED
Different car, same result.
Childhood dream car: Ford GT40
Adult dream car: Ford GT
Does that count?
When the generally accepted “a blown tire caused the vehicle to separate into two and immediately explode into a massive fireball” excuse was used for Paul Walker and Rodger Rodas’s deaths, the CGT immediately fell out of flavor to me.
I knew even then that something felt wrong about a tire blow out causing all that, and the recall they did for the suspension proved that while yes, the tire was dry rotted, it looked like the car broke itself and caused that accident.
It may look, sound, and perform nice, but after that situation, it lost its beauty.
I’ve never had an easy time defining a “dream car”, much less keeping with one for more than a couple years. I think my first/earliest dream car as the 68 Mustang (not long after a while of pining for a 71 Maverick but realizing they’re all but extinct).
I would talk all day about restoring one as my first car, all the side effects of not understanding money and watching too much Overhaulin’ on Discovery. I still have a big coffee-table book on 65-69 Mustang restoration, a big, illustrated guide with somewhat idyllic narration of the restoration process.
Then my family got a big cable TV package, I went from Chip Foose to Jeremy Clarkson, fell in love with the Sagaris, and that was my dream car through my teens and the start of my 20s, until I got to own a couple of fairly-powerful cars and largely fell out of love with the idea of 400+bhp on the street (or $70,000+ on the track)
My dream car now is an A110 1600S, though I’ll count myself lucky if I ever get to touch the pedals of a 1300.
Yup. I still want a yellow ZR5 Crew Cab S10 truck or a yellow ZR2 Blazer.
They still just do it for me
EDIT: Yep, the irony is not lost on me on the article two slots down
Yup
Dino 246 GT.jpg
My dream car used to be the Countach, now it’s the Diablo. Specifically I’d want the Diablo VT, the one with AWD, just for the better traction. I’d also upgrade the brakes and install a backup camera just to make it more livable. The Countach is achingly cool, but it’s just too compromised. The Diablo is still a compromise, but way less so. It’s got more room inside, even if just a little, slightly better visibility, electric windows that roll ALL the way down, fuel injection instead of carbs, and the VT model has power steering and the aforementioned AWD. Later Diablos got airbags and ABS too, but that was after they abandoned those sweet pop up headlights for Nissan 300ZX units. I want one with pop ups, so I’ll do without. I’ll put four-point racing harnesses in it for batter safety. If I had the money, I would still get a Diablo, and I’d make sure to drive it at least once a week, when weather permits.
It started as a Ford GT and it remains a Ford GT / modern iterations (including the GT90!)
Yep. Lancia Stratos. Friends had big posters of the Countach or Ferrari or Porsche on their bedroom wall, but I was more than happy with a small taped-together magazine shots of the Lancia.
It’s looks have not deteriorated over the time.
My childhood dream cars are still kind of on my list but I now appreciate how much of a PIA they would be to own. I still would not shove a Shelby Cobra, a Ford RS200, or a Jag XKE out of my garage.
I guess my true/actual “childhood” dream car would have been a C3 ‘Vette. I was a teenager when the C4 was introduced, and that took its place, along with the ’83 Recaro T/A. Ultimately wound up being a GT guy because we were a Ford family, but yeah…I think I would still like to own one of those – probably the C4 most of all.
Lamborghini Countach LP500S. I’d say it’s still the “dream car” but as an adult I know the maintenance would be horrible.
I also come from the Countach generation. If I could buy any single car and money was no object? Probably not the Countach. But if I’m picking up cars as a hobby, and one were to come along, absolutely grabbing it.
I do think a 1996 Viper GTS in blue and white is still something I would love to experience. Same with an R34 Skyline. To own? I dunno.
Many of the dream cars I wanted as a kid, I still want. But one car I loved as a kid hit me with a huge dose of reality when I finally saw one in person. I loved the old GT40’s and thought it would be cool to daily one, should I ever become an eccentric rich dude. I finally saw one in person and… Jesus. It is the least amount of car you can wrap around 2 people. It is microscopic. It’s intimidating enough with a 289, but whoever thought about putting a 427 in one was insane. I still love the car but if I owned one, it would strictly be a track car. If I somehow avoided putting one into a guardrail, I would still get ran over by an F-250. And they’d probably shrug it off and assume they just ran over a weird looking speed bump.
Yes. I still would be thrilled to own a classic Saab 900 Turbo.
It was the ’57 to ’62 Ferrari 250 GT Spyder California (LWB or SWB doesn’t matter) back in the days and it is still today.
My dream list of cars as a kid in the early 90’s was the typical “Porsche 911, Lamborghini Countach, Ferrari F40” type of things with maybe a Plymouth Fury tossed in from watching Christine with my dad. Later, it changed to a short list of winged hemi cars. I think my only real dream car now is like a clean late 90’s viper, but the other cars are pretty much out of my hands from an attainable or maintenance standpoint. I have more thoughts of dream builds now, but even those are just interesting versions of basic traffic.
My dream car in the 80s would’ve been a Porsche, probably a 959 or a 911 since you couldn’t actually get a 959 in the states. Is it still? Nope. Let’s be real. If it were an older one, I’d end up wrecking it in the classic rear-engine oversteer, and if it had enough electronics on board to keep me from doing that, it’d bankrupt me.
I always wanted one of those, but last I read up on them many common failure parts have become unobtanium. That’s if you can afford to purchase one in the first place.
My dream brand was Lotus.. the model has changed while I aged but not the brand
I was dream-car-aged in the 80s, and things have changed. A Countach is still eye-poppingly gorgeous, but would I lift a finger to improve my chances of ever owning one? No. Would I buy one if I one the lottery? Still no.
These days I lust after cars I could actually enjoy often. My commute is about 50 miles, and 40 of those are hilly countryside (the last bit is freeway). I imagine a little roadster could be crazy fun.
Yes,but that may as well be because of nostalgia. I still dream of F40’s,1992-3 Dodge Viper and the Diablo,these are the 3 cars I would go and buy straight away if I fell into a shit-load of money.
Not many cars made in the last 20 years make me feel the same.
I would have to say no. It used to be an old Defender 110, but it’s changed. I would still love one, but there’s better things to buy for the same money, I feel like. Not to mention some cars I care about more now for less.