Let’s face it: some things that you wanted as a kid you were no longer interested in once adulthood took over. Sure, maybe you dreamed of being a firefighter or an astronaut, but as your twenties closed in, you realized that running into a burning building or riding a rocket to a place with no oxygen much less Uber service or a decent gyro joint was not what you first imagined it to be.
Cars are the same way. The dream machines of your grade-school or even high-school years might not have survived your more refined tastes of later years or simply the resignation that they wouldn’t fit with Real Life and Other Stuff. For me, it’s mainly the latter. In the early eighties, before I got my license, there were cars I flat-out loved and swore that I would purchase once I had the means. Once said means became available, the prospect of owning one seemed less appealing than just looking at a picture or watching a video.
If you subscribed to a car magazine back then, you couldn’t avoid the black-and-white ads in back by places such as Bayless Racing that sold kits to turn a dull Fiat 131 (or later Brava) into a replica of an Abarth rally car. These were the ones you saw in video snippets of the pre-all-wheel-drive days where they were never going in a straight line, tail hung out and spitting dust.
I thought this would be the coolest car ever to own, but as years went on, I realized I didn’t have the self-confidence to drive a loud fake race car and fully lacked the patience for seventies Italian cars (I know some people have had luck with theirs, but I can assure you that if I bought one it would catch fire within hours). What an awesome ride, though.
Some other car websites have declared that the Mercedes CLS was a highly influential and pioneering “four-door coupe”. Yeah, right. The 1976 Rover SD1 3500 would like a word with you.
Rover designer David Bache essentially took the shape of a Ferrari 365GTB/4 “Daytona” below and turned it into a hatchback sedan with a huge cargo area.
When British Leyland decided to finally import it to the US in 1980, I figured that one day I’d have to own one. Of course, fewer than around 1000 people agreed with me, and they stopped bringing it in after only a year.
Obviously, I can see why now. All of the issues you’d expect from a death-throes, labour-strike-plagued English auto industry were on display here. I wouldn’t touch one today with a thirty-foot pole. Also, as you can readily see, the American market headlights were terrible. If they’d added flip-up covers over the NHTSA-approved sealed beams like Ferrari did (and I just did below) I might feel different.
The Citroën SM is a masterpiece. I imagined one day buying one of the nonfunctional ones I saw sitting at a garage near my house, but over time the fear of breaking timing chains or hydraulic suspensions in a car that really wasn’t that fast put it further down my list. I could imagine that I’d spend tens of thousands on service and end up ultimately doing the same as Burt Reynolds did below:
How about you? If you really wanted a teal-colored Isuzu Amigo with a CHMSL wing years back but now don’t, that’s fine. I think you should change your mind, though.
Top graphic image: Bring A Trailer
I still keep looking at Lotus Europa ads.
Occasionally, I find a great one that I could afford then I remember that I have size 12 1/2 feet and I’m 6 foot tall. The height problem I’ve figured out how to fix on other cars, but unless Capezio starts making driving shoes, I don’t think it’s going to happen.
Unless I marry somebody that already has one I don’t think I’ll be getting a Lamborghini Espada anytime soon.
I guess I’d still like a DUKW. or a Unimog.
I’m 6’2” and wear size 13s. I inherited a Europa a couple years ago and had to remove my right shoe to drive it.
Pretty much everything. Although, I still search the blogs for a low mile 77-79 Ford Thunderbird in white with chamois trim.
My first car was a Rover SD1, a later fuel injected one. It was in the shop for a week in each of the eight months I had it, and it was still terrible so it became sold and I got an E30 323i.
I would really like to have another one, but this time in manual and I’d like to fix it up properly and put a larger, later V8 in it.
They were good looking cars. The Chevy Citation 5 door version was a cheaply made American rip off.
I loved cars from a very early age, and my parents always point out how I could identify the various late 80s and early 90s cars from my car seat.One of my earliest memories is my uncle showing me a Volkswagen brochure when I was about three years old, and there was a Corrado SLC in it. It was basically an exotic to my eyes. Seeing that car in real was my white whale throughout childhood and my teenage years, but I don’t remember seeing one on the road until my teenage years. I still love the way they look, but I don’t know if I could deal with that amount of NLA parts.
Also, in fourth grade, we read some short story about a school bus being converted to a camper, and I thought that was so cool at the time. A skoolie is still cool to admire from a distance, but I wouldn’t actually want one (sorry, Mercedes).
1968 Pontiac Bonneville. To this day, I cannot recall why I liked this monstrosity beyond that I liked the grille, which may have been enough rationale for an 11 year-old.
There are a few exotics, like the Ferrari 512BB and Vector that I wouldn’t want to own now (wouldn’t mind driving, but..). I had a thing for your super duty type pickups for a hot minute but I’ve never owned one. And now I wouldn’t.
Maybe I set a low bar but my dream cars were always affordable. My first was any Jeep, just because they looked like big toys. I saw my first Corvette in 1963, split window, solid black. After that every other car looked stupid. I was ten when the Mustang was introduced. I’ve owned a few since then. When the 2024s came out I rented one for a few days to test the waters. Sadly, I found it buzzy and unrefined. I reached the age where unrefined is no longer cute.
The Rover SD1 is a pretty good shout.
P38 Range Rover is probably top of that list.