Car enthusiasts are emotional creatures. Sure, we love to talk spec sheets non-stop, but at the end of the day, we still buy cars largely based on emotion. I am one of the worst at this. I have something like 23 vehicles in total, and let’s be honest here, I don’t even need 22 of them. I could get by with a single Smart as my only transportation, just as I did only 9 years ago. All of the extras are owned purely because of how they make me feel. So, cars can have a lot of emotional power. Which car left the greatest impact on you emotionally?
Now, I could take the easy way out here and start talking about my fleet of six Smart Fortwos. The Fortwo was my teenage dream car, alongside the Volkswagen Touareg V10 TDI, first-generation Audi TT, and first-generation Audi R8 V10. Sure, my first Smart was only $16,200, but that was a huge deal for me. I was a “glass half-empty” type who couldn’t even see a year into the future. That car was proof that I can make dreams come true.
But I’ve now told that Smart story maybe a dozen times. This time, I want to talk about a car that hit me particularly hard recently. That car was the Lotus Emira.
Yes, I know, being in love with a high-dollar sports car isn’t particularly original. But for me, it’s different than that. If you’re a longtime reader, you know I am a champion of tiny cars, big cars, weird cars, old cars, pickup trucks, commercial vehicles, and basically any vehicle with an engine that’s not necessarily a car. Sports cars and supercars are typically far outside of my purview.
Then, last October, Matt Hardigree tossed me the key to a Lotus Emira while I was in Los Angeles for the wicked Galpin car show. I wasn’t even supposed to drive this car, as it was a loaner originally destined for Thomas, but he was sick and wasn’t present. My ride was the company’s self-accelerating Pontiac Aztek. I think I had the Emira for barely over 24 hours, and it was the ride of a lifetime.
This car was an emotional rush. Here I was, the big truck, tiny car, and train chick commanding a car with greater handling prowess than anything I had ever driven before. There are journalists out there who do drive McLarens, Lamborghinis, and Aston Martins with surprising regularity. I’m not that person, and I’m not sure I’d even want to be. But this Emira was a taste of that dream I had when my biggest goal in life was just getting a driver’s license.
That Emira wasn’t just a brilliant driving machine, but it was a mood booster and one of the high points of my life as an enthusiast thus far. I felt like a million bucks and I further understood why some guys will buy a new Chevrolet Corvette or Porsche 911 and treat it as gently as they would a newborn. This wasn’t so much showing off for other people, but like when you play a classic video game at home and hit a new “personal best” score. So, yeah, if I ever run into $100,000 of free money, I’d probably head to my Lotus dealership.
How about you? What car hit you the hardest emotionally?
Top graphic image: Mercedes Streeter
There’s a couple cars I’ve been pretty torn up when I sold, especially my abuelo’s truck and my BRZ.
The car I’ve kept since 2004 though is my baby and home to all of my best driving memories.
I had been getting into drifting around 2002, and went through a few different cars as I migrated to rear wheel drive for obvious reasons.
I bought a base model 350z because I knew I’d change everything on it and I did.
I spent almost every weekend at the track, mostly drift events, from 04 to 08. I’ve maintained it and used it a few times since, but I’m so eager to really start using it again.
I still remember the first time I connected a whole course, and especially the first time I drifted the whole bank at Irwindale. Paint it Black by The Rolling Stones was playing on the radio.
The car that’s in my profile picture, BMW Z3. I learned to drive manual on it. Sold my high school car to help my dad buy it back. In 2015, right before moving to Michigan for work, I remember a clear sunset cruising back home after rock climbing around Tom’s Thumb in Scottsdale. It was February, so warm enough to drive top down as long as I had a jacket. The song Waves playing on the radio. Flinging the car through the round abouts then cruising on the 101, I was at peace.
That car is why I love small, manual, slow-car-fast type cars. And why I love convertibles too.
Image of the car circa 2017: https://www.trey-photo.com/portfolio-1/automotive?pgid=kygk01tz-78ed77_2dbae35482124523b09fe0e10e688318mv2.jpg
I may have to say my 84 Jetta…since I drove it across the country 3 times and had a lot of good memories in it. That thing was a blast to drive (stick, of course) I still miss that car
’64 VW Beetle that my dad bought in ’66 and I got in ’81. It was my best friend. I went so many places in that car.
1971 Porsche 911T
Back in high school, one of my friends’ fathers had several sports cars and gave his son access to the above car. This was the early 80s so the car was about 10 years old at the time. Not long before graduation I got to drive it for about 20 minutes.
The smell.
The pedals coming up from the floor.
The ignition on the left side of the steering wheel.
A zillion gauges with a big tach front and center.
The dogleg shifter.
The indecipherable HVAC controls.
The engine sound coming from behind you.
My friend yelled at me when I short-shifted, saying that the engine needed to be wound out(!). Fortunately I didn’t get into a lift-off oversteer situation, wouldn’t have had a clue.
Without reading all the other comments, I will say the ’86 Accord and ’01 Jetta most impacted me. They convinced me to buy one of each brand new. They were stylish. The Honda turned out to be more reliable (shocked!).
And a used ’71 Peugeot 504 convinced me that I could not live without a sun/moon-roof ever again.
biggest short term emotional impact was a 1-2 punch. My 2010 VW Sportwagen TDI.
i genuinely felt SO BETRAYED.
followed up by test driving a Prius because I really believed I needed to consume less. Driving that soulless POS brought DESPAIR.
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Long term? Miatas. I’m on my third, an NB.
When I was a kid, riding in our farm truck on a foggy night, sitting at a red light devoid of other traffic. All the sudden I heard a V8 growling beside us, and looked out the window right as the light turned green and saw an E-body ‘Cuda taking off. The ground shook as it launched and I could read a big “440” on the billboard. That was the night I “got” muscle cars.
Probably my 1995 Thunderbird Supercoupe.
It was already pretty hot from the factory, but I did a few minor upgrades on it, such as an overdrive on the supercharger, new exhaust (which sounded awesome on the 3.6L), as well as a swap from a manual to a built AOD automatic (heresy!), which would cause that car to bark the tires on a shift into second and sometimes even third gear on WOT.
The emotional impact? It made me realize I don’t really care about going fast. I took that car to the track, I raced on the (closed) street, I goosed it around corners, etc, etc. But ultimately, I realized I didn’t actually care about that. I just wanted a car that was reliable and got decent gas mileage. So I eventually sold it and bought a 1994 Honda Civic EX Sedan Manual.
It wasn’t fast, but it was small, had four doors, got great gas mileage, reliable and was the perfect vehicle to take to see my wife (then girlfriend) in the big city.
I realized, I’m still a car guy, even if I don’t care about great handling or speed and that I just enjoy the mechanical simplicity and ability to fix a thing and keep it running for a long period of time.
Eventually, I spun out in the snow and crashed that car, totaling it. But I’ve owned 2 other Honda’s since then, my current Fit for 13 years now. It’s not fast, but it’s fun enough to drive and won’t ever quit on me; it fits my family of 4 in it no problem and can transport damn near anything in it once the seats are folded. It’s easy to work on, parts are cheap and I think it’s pretty damned good looking to boot.
My first Toyota Tercel 4wd Wagon was a revelation after a problematic Holden Kingswood three on the tree wagon with bench seats and VW Golf Mk1 that both needed constant engine replacements (Holden had a 202, 161 and a 186ci in rotation over 300,000kms) and rebuilds the build quality and reliability of the 17 year old Tercel was a revelation plus it would go almost anywhere which was great for the surf and snow obsessed me and allowed me drive both on the beach and up through the Alps by just flicking the little 2wd>4wd switch and drive with sand or snow to the underside of the floorboards without an issue.
My ’96 Trans Am WS6. It was everything I wanted – silver, T-tops, six speed. Fast as hell (for the time) and loads of fun to drive.
And it was horrible to me. Constantly in the shop, it burned money on repairs faster than I could earn it and eventually took literally every penny I had to get it fixed to sell it.
Rivian R1T with quad motors. Scariest acceleration I’ve ever experienced.
A Maroon colored 1967 Chevelle Super Sport with the 396 Big Block.
My dad worked for Chrysler most of his life. My parents were divorced and I lived with my mom. I didn’t know a whole lot about cars in my early teens, but I knew I probably did not want a Chrysler product. One day that Chevelle drove my by house with that big-block lopey idle and that car immediately became my favorite car. Then I started noticing other cool Chevys like Camaros and Novas.
While my first car was a free hand-me-down non-running Chrysler product with a slant-6, I’ve owned mostly GM products in my life. And it all started when that Chevelle Super Sport drove past my house that day.
2021 Land rover discovery, discovered that the car was terrible. I was very excited to be upgraded to one for a rental, I got it, after 10 minutes of driving it i had to return it was so bad, I got a chevy trax instead, surprising the trax was great! The discovery made me lose hope in land rover
Ahhh Lotus. I had an S3 Elise still under warranty (thankfully) that treated me mean but I have never had a more enjoyable car when it worked. Long since gone out of my life but every time I think of buying a new car my lovely wife says “just buy a Lotus, it was the only car that made you happy” and she is right. Some dodgy man maths and a bit of fleet consolidation later I’m picking up a new Emira on Friday. Pray for me.
Congratulations!
VW Scirocco Mk2 like this one
I started driving in the late 90s and just drove regular cars for a while. Toyota, Nissan, Vauxhall, Citroen
Then I bought a bargain Scirocco which is basically a MK1 Golf GTi in a different body.
It was a revelation. Light (850kg), responsive, energetic, a joy to drive.
I now get why the Mk1 Golf GTi was such a revelation, and why it changed things so much. In Europe, at least