The Autopian is nominally a website about cars. I mean, “Auto” is right there in its name. But we love all kinds of vehicles that make the world move, from semi-tractors and cargo ships to planes, trains, motorcycles, and bicycles. What vehicles do you love that aren’t cars?
My primary love has always been cars. I still trace the beginning of my enthusiasm to when my uncle gave me a Pontiac Firebird Matchbox car back when I was a toddler. If you’ve read my work, you know that I can find good in any car, from the Chrysler Pacifica crossover to even the Chevrolet Aveo. With exceptions, I’m one of those people who believe that there’s no such thing as a truly terrible car.
Yet, while my life has largely revolved around cars, they’re hardly the only form of transportation that I’ve been obsessed with. Ever since I was a kid, I have loved planes, ships, and trains. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve watched James Cameron’s Titanic. When I was a kid, my favorite scenes were before the ship hit the iceberg, and the camera sometimes panned around the majestic vessel. It’s also why I adored the opening scene of the 2006 version of Poseidon.
Big ships still capture my imagination today, and one of my bucket list items is to take a ride aboard a cargo ship. Admittedly, my love of big ships is why I bought one of the lamps that was aboard the SS United States.
My love of heavy machinery is why I also frequently visit the Illinois Railway Museum, even though I’ve now been there about a million times. As a kid, I loved watching Metra trains thunder out of the Fox Lake, Illinois station. When I started going to the Chicago Auto Show as a teenager, I always took a Metra train to Chicago just for the fun of it. I still do, actually.
When I was a teenager with infinite time, I also used to go to a park next what was a Wisconsin Central line that snaked through northern Illinois, and I just watched trains roll by. Today, that line is run by Canadian National, and once I spotted a freight train that had an incredible line of eight locomotives leading an absolute monster down the rails.
If I had to assign a vehicular love that’s second to cars, it would certainly be aviation. I was a kid when I learned that the Boeing 747 existed, and that changed everything for me. In my eyes, the 747 was like an ocean liner, but one that had glistening paint and flew through the sky at 600 mph.
Then, I discovered that all sorts of aircraft are wonderful, from the slick and sporty-looking Canadair Regional Jet line to the hot rod Boeing 757 and all points in between. As a teenager, I remember watching the film 2012 and absolutely adoring the movie’s “Antonov 500.” I was blown away that the real-life Antonov An-225 was somehow even cooler than the fake movie version. I had made it a dream to get a ride in the Mriya, somehow. Sadly, that one might be on hold for quite a while.
Now, as you’re soon about to read, I’m once again working to satisfy my childhood dream of becoming a pilot. How about you? What vehicles do you love that aren’t cars?
Top graphic image: ERCO
In the real world, I gotta go with trains. Specifically, the TGV and the Japanese and Chinese high-speed trains. Those things are so effing cool.
In make-believe? USS Defiant, all the way. “Tough little ship”, says both Rikers.
Boats. Not big yachts, but ski boats, fishing boats, & family boats. Trailerable boats. I got my first jon boat when I was 12, and until last week I’ve had a boat pretty much ever since. (I sold my MasterCraft last week. Sad day.) Given a choice, I’d rather be on a boat.
Agreed, I’m always in for a boat ride. I love looking and learning about all types of boats. Currently own a Tritoon for the family but I’m currently obsessed with looking at RIBs and enclosed cabin aluminum hulls.
Cars were my first love–I’m descended from a long line of car people. (My great-grandpa at one point sold Locomobiles, of all things, and bought rights to a Tucker dealership. My grandpa worked for American Motors and later ran a Buick dealership for a quarter century. My dad was never a dealer but somehow has a wholesaler license and has owned–conservative estimate–over 100 cars in his life.)
But I do love airplanes. My favorite is the Douglas DC-3–to be fair, it’s a lot of peoples’ favorite, too. I also have a child-like love of airships; riding on one is a bucket list item.
Mercedes, I see you’ve teased us with a picture of an Ercoupe–that’s another plane I love. I put to you that the Ercoupe is the Corvair of the air: designed to be different, not as loved or understood as it should be, and still quietly cool.
Flying boats, the bigger the better. I am fascinated by the Pan AM clippers. Esp the B314. I’m sad that none of the 12 built survive
Good lord I love flying boats. Maybe it’s because my grandfather flew Catalinas in WWII, or because Disney successfully captured my attention with Talespin as a kid, but there’s just something cool as hell about flying boats.
I really like planes and helicopters, but not enough to spend the money to pilot one. I love trains as a concept, but not enough to recognize different train engines.
I also have taken an interest in e-bikes, but I’m not at the point of building them like Toecutter or anything. I really like the concept, but I don’t have the space, knowledge, and tools to do it right.
Hovercrafts. They aren’t as prevalent today as they used to be, but I still clearly remember riding a hovercraft ferry to the Isle of Wight as a kid. It left such an impression, I built a one-person hovercraft for my senior project in high school and flew it around the football field and around a lake.
Ooh, I didn’t think about hovercrafts as a class of vehicle. I remember really wanting to buy one of those crappy kits advertised in the backs of magazines (even though everything they included was probably already available to me for cheaper). That is a cool senior project.
Mine was from Universal Hovercraft, and it was mostly just a hardware kit for the plans, propeller, engine, stuff like that. We sourced the marine plywood, foam core, and fiberglass locally. It took nearly the whole school year, but my dad and I did finish it on time, and it really did fly.
You can still find used UH hovercraft around, but I don’t think the company exists anymore.
Mine was full of eels 🙁
Oh man, seconding this. I was obsessed when I was a kid, and would draw them or make them out of LEGO. Never been on one, but seeing them sparked true inspiration.
I remember the ferry mostly feeling like an airplane ride, but actually flying my own was kind of like trying to steer a hockey puck. You had to use a lot of weight shifting to get it to turn very well. You also have no real brakes, so the more open space around you, the better.
The sensation of lifting up off the ground still makes my spine tingle thinking about it.
Great choice – they’re so 70s-but-also-not-too-distant-future. And so British. Hugely rare here in the States which is what made them so intoxicating to childhood Jack.
I guess the current term for the vehicles I like is “autocycles”. Not the toys like the Polaris Slingshot or Can-Am Spyder, but an enclosed, daily driveable 3-wheeled car. I really wanted Elio to succeed. It would have been a perfect daily for a single guy like me and a fine second car for folks in a family situation. But I guess nobody ese thought that.
Three-wheeled vehicles, but only if they’re at least a few decades old, embody many highly questionable design and construction choices, yet somehow are street-legal.
Submarines! So much so that I joined the Navy with the express desire to serve on a sub. Thought they were awesome as a kid, loved my submarine gobot, watched all the movies (Down Periscope turned out to be more realistic than expected).
Wait, did you actually end up serving on subs? If so, have you considered writing something for the Autopian? I’d read the hell outta that….
I did, 6 years in the Navy, 4 patrols on the USS Henry M Jackson, never thought about writing about it to be honest.
I’m going to say public transit vehicles. No, not in the way you swoon over busses and trains etc., but because they are there for me to take advantage of and generally are great examples of purpose built mobility.
Following that, bicycles and sailboats.
My first love was planes, WWI and WWII planes. I was constantly reading books about Spitfires, Mustangs, and the adventures of James Bigglesworth!
Then i saw the Italian Job remake, then the original film and i thought cars could be cool, specifically Minis. The first Fast and Furious movie cemented that obsession and here we are.
Motorcycles, especially my 2000 Honda VFR 800Fi and Ducati Multistrada 1200. Civil Aircraft: The DC-3 and all the Mooney aircraft, Concorde, and the 747 top the list.
Military Aircraft: F-16 Viper, F-15 Eagle, B-47 Hustler, British Electric Lightning, A-37 Dragonfly “Supertweet”, P-51 Mustang, SR-71, and a whole lot more.
Ships: Tall ships; I don’t care at all about the latest floating hotel/office block cruise ship, give me the silence of waves under clouds of white canvas any day.
I mean, all sorts of vehicles, but most of all, bicycles. They’re my daily transportation, one of my forms of fun, and all-around happiness machines.
Motorcycles, Canoes, As a kid I liked making models of military aircraft but have not done that in over 40 years. Star Wars B-Wings are my favorite non real vehicle of choice.
BIKES.
The greatest form of personal transportation ever created, god damn BICYCLES
Long before I was a car enthusiast, I was a motorcycle nut. At four years old, I started on a 1979 Suzuki RM50 – a kids bike complete with a 5-speed transmission and a clutch – and I’ve been on two wheels for the last 46 years. I raced motocross in my teens, raced hare scrambles in my twenties, and now I’m putting 30k+ miles a year on my VFR800. I’ve been a professional motorcycle mechanic and was the service manager at a Honda dealership.
Dirt, street, dual sport, touring, sport bikes, 2-strokes and 4-strokes, motorcycles have been my lifelong passion. Someday I’ll be a gray-beard on a Goldwing. I can’t get enough of it.
I love motorcycling so far. Even my slow lil’ Suzuki TU250X is an absolute blast.
I’m so glad we have lots of motorcycle folks here, especially Mercedes and her articles.
Aircraft for me, with my all-time favorite being the SR-71 Blackbird. Just after their first retirement we were living near DC and the Air & Space Museum had a special screening of a documentary on the SR-71 in the Imax theater downtown, followed by a talk by one of the former pilots. My dad, also an aircraft enthusiast, got us tickets and I remember my excitement for and enjoyment of the whole evening. Probably one of the events that solidified my ongoing fascination with aircraft, transportation and technology in general.
If you’re the kind of sicko like me who enjoys chemistry war stories, you might look for a copy or PDF of The Green Flame by Andrew Dequasie, about making the triborane used for starts and relights on the SR-71.
If you haven’t read Skunk Works by Ben Rich, you really should.
I have a pretty broad love of all things mechanical. Growing up on a farm, tractors were pretty important. Since then, I’ve seen everything from some of the great aviation museums like the Udvar-Hazy, National Museum of the US Air Force, Evergreen Museum, and lots of smaller ones, but also the Cord/Auburn/Duesenberg Museum, and Indianapolis 500 Museum, plus several times to the Henry Ford, and tons of other auto museums. I’ve visited all 4 Iowa-class Battleships, plus several submarines, and Aircraft carriers. Basically, if it moves, I’ll go see it. If you find yourself in western PA, and want to see some unbelievably cool stationary engines, check out the Cool Spring Power Museum. They even have an engine actually worked on by Rudolph Diesel that was used to power an elevator.
If it’s motorized, I tend to love it. But for a more specific example: I loooooooove cab over trucks with a 2 stroke detroit in them. Oh my lawd the soundtrack from those things.
One of my favorite non car/truck related things are normally military vehicles. Never was in the military but I always found tanks and planes cool especially things from around WW2 one of my favorite planes is the B29 and the B2’s are cool as hell also. Also nuclear powered Aircraft carries are always interesting to learn things about.
I’ve gotten to the point where I jump on just about any story that shows up in my feed about any motorized two wheeled vehicle. I likely know more about the current offerings of motorcycles and such than I ever have before.
This is, probably, because I sold off my old Vespa a decade ago and I know I’ve already probably been through eight of my nine lives and thus will probably never get astride any motorcycle or motor scooter, even though I miss my old PX bigly.
(that ratbike wasn’t much of a looker, but it had a 210cc 2-stroke that would hit 65 without much effort, and was an absolute blast to ride around on local two-lane twisties.)
I’d cracked a collarbone ages ago in a single-vehicle-spill, but somehow never dumped the bike again. I’m sure it would’ve just been a matter of time.
Trains. Specifically passenger trains. (I like freight trains because they keep some trucks off the road but I find them rather boring.) Modern electric passenger trains specifically. I love travelling by train and much prefer it to flying.
I actually don’t love cars in general. I rather like my own car (it’s a yellow Opel Adam with a black roof and black wheels, we call it “Maya the bee”, if anyone can relate), but I pretty much hate driving. I have basically given up driving longer stretches than one, maybe two, hours. I find it becoming more stressful the older I get. (I am 59.) If I can, I’d rather use transit than drive.
I find cars interesting though, or I would not be a member.
Traction engines, I quite those a bit.
Mr. Frumble’s pickle.
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSjL1higmvCcz2_4zAhZKS2CH7-j5QEGTly4Q&s
Motorcycles.
But for my own, personal motorcycle, I don’t want to be part of the horsepower races. I want to be a luddite and have motorcycle with more character than power (though I don’t want to give up fuel injection).