I’m dating myself here, but I graduated from high school in the brief period of hope between surviving Y2K and before the towers fell. Having been raised on American car mags, German car toys, and Japanese car racing video games, my understanding of the greater world of cars was already strong. Fittingly, my tastes were on the eclectic end of the spectrum.
My girlfriend’s dad autocrossed a C5 Corvette Z06 in yellow with the FRC, which is now my all-time favorite Corvette. I wonder what that means? While America offered up a number of interesting performance cars, The Fast and the Furious was soon to ignite the slow gas-line leak of interesting cars from abroad making their way into my consciousness.
The answer to this question may not be exactly the answer I’d have given upon receipt of my diploma, but at no time in my life would I ever be unhappy with my current choice of an FD RX-7. In particular, the English market version. My online pal Joana Fidalgo from The Intercooler has one and I can’t help but gawk at it every time she posts about it on Instagram. It is one of the most perfect silhouettes to ever come out of Japan, and the high frequency staccato yelp of its rotary engine gives it a soundtrack rivaled by few.
What about you? What was the coolest car from the year you finally nabbed your sheepskin?
There’s a few. The 1986 Alfa Romeo Spider is the one I wanted but the Honda Prelude and Toyota MR2 were more like the ones I could afford.
I wish the comments had a search feature so that I could look up various years or cars.
1982: first year for the e30 BMW 3 series. Ubiquitous on my college campus. Bought a convertible a few years after college graduation.
Class of 1975. Right in the middle of the Malaise Era. I already had a 1968 Datsun 510 wagon, so I’ll just hang onto that until the next year when I could get (if I had the money, which I didn’t) the first-generation Accord hatchback.
Limiting myself to cars launched the year I graduated because if I did all available, I’d be up all night. Gonna go with the Honda Beat.
I graduated in 2012 so pickings are slim. Maybe the 2012 GT500 or Boss 302? I have been window shopping FDs recently though ever since selling my Mach 1…
2001 Spyker C8… and maybe a E39 M5 for my daily. Unfortunately the McLaren F1 had ended production by then and the Carrera GT was still a few years away.