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?
1984 Cadillac Seville! “bustle-back” and all! A friends dad bought one new, and I thought that thing was the coolest, most luxurious thing I’d ever seen.
I have to be uncreative here because I graduated high school in 1993 and I currently daily drive a 1993 Miata. It is the answer.
It always is the answer
Well, if we’re playing it THAT way, then the coolest car in 1994 was a Rosso Corsa 1983 Ferrari Mondial Quattrovalvole Cabriolet. I just didn’t know it until I got one later. So there.
Probably the Porsche 930, although the Ferrari 308 could contest. In American steel (or plastic) the L82 Corvette stands out, but that’s not hard in a world of Cutlasses, Córdoba’s, and Monzas. The Jag XJS debuted but was not admired much then, also the TR 7. The 260Z was just getting older and fatter. Still, from an attainability standpoint, it was likely a sales leader alongside various Firebirds and Camaros, though none were particularly cool. My personal choice is the AMC Pacer.
2002, last year of the FD RX-7
Of cars I’d actually seen in the flesh (as it were), Porsche 911.
So, 1990.
There was a lot of talk among my friends about whether the new Lamborghini Diablo was really an improvement on the Countach (I liked it, my friend Scott was a die-hard Countach guy). The Corvette ZR1 caused quite a stir, too, but the Callaway Sledgehammer was still cooler to those of us in the know. Our BMOC received a maroon Mustang GT as a graduation gift that we all thought was pretty cool, especially since it was a stick. I remember some Chevy-guy friends being upset that the IROC series had switched from Camaros to Dodge Daytonas, but I thought it was great. (We were primarily a Mopar and VW/Audi family when I was growing up.)
Most of the new cars coming out around that time that I thought were cool I kept to myself: the VW Corrado (I was driving a Scirocco at the time, so the Corrado was a big deal), the Lotus M100 Elan, the Mitsubishi Eclipse, and of course the Mazda Miata. Admitting to wanting any of them was cause for ostracization from my group of Firebird-worshipping friends, so I just admired them in secret.
With giving specific generation 🙂
I would say Lamborghini Countach
The OG LP400 was released the year I graduated. Not a snowballs chance in hell I’d fit in that thing. IMO the best of the Countach line.
Models introduced in 2008: The Toyota Venza! Just kidding. It’s got to be the Lotus Evora but I will give an honorable mention to the stunning Lamborghini Estoque concept
Car for sale in 2008? It’s got to be the Aston Martin DBS from Casino Royale
For 2004, I’m gonna say the Lotus Esprit V8. The final model year of the Esprit. I still remember seeing one on the road as a kid and being amazed at how wide the rear tires were. Always loved the way they look.
And an honorable mention to the VW Phaeton being on sale then. I’d never want to take on the ownership cost of one, but a boring looking sedan with a W12 engine is just hilariously insane and cool.
1991: Taurus SHO? Mustang LX 5.0? Dodge Stealth?
Kind of a dead year for us, huh. Prelude Si with the 4 wheel steering maybe? I was into Japanese coupes then. MR2 Turbo, Eagle Talon TSI AWD and its Eclipse/Laser sisters.
’91 saw the first of the Audi’s S cars, the S2 AND THE Ur-S4! Bugatti unveiled the EB 110, the first ‘not a rebadged Rolls’ Bentley Continental R saw the light of day, Volvo slimmed down the 700-series with the 850, VW Golf Mk3 was a hit; the return of the 500, as Fiat Cinquecento, the Opel Astra replaced the Kadett, M-B had the super lux W140 S-klasse, and the 500 E! In the US the GMC Syclone! so ’91 wasn’t all bad… 🙂
But, other than the Syclone, none of those were really appealing to this 18 year old in rural Missouri!
I’m of that same weak year as you all. I’d never seen one at that time but a Lancia Delta or Acura NSX are great cars. For cars I had actually seen (growing up in a small town), an E30 would be my pick.
Final year CRX Si.
In terms of actually obtainable, 1989 Mitsubishi Starion for sure. Classmate had one, and wow was I jealous. It definitely presaged the coming of the various cross-brand badged engineered wonders of the 90s.
Wikipedia says the Lexus LFA went out of production in 2012, but surely they had a few leftovers on the lot in 2013…
Other than that, 2013 was a bleak year for cars I find interesting
Early 90s so you had the FD Rx-7, NSX, 300ZX, Supra, Foxstangs, and the Eclipse/Talon/Laser back before it became a gosh forsaken SUV.
McLaren F1?
Jag XJ220?
(1992)
1992 here, too. I’m particular to the MB 500 E – the bulletproof W 124 with a monstrous (for the time) V8.
https://newsroom.porsche.com/en/2021/history/porsche-commissioned-project-mercedes-benz-500-e-30th-anniversary-24575.html
Good one!
Another 1992 grad as well. For me, back then I would have thought a Lamborghini Diablo or a BMW 850 CSi were the ultimate expressions of the unobtainable cool super car.
1992 as well…..GMC Typhoon!
If I go foreign or import (like Motor Trend and C/D used to delineate back in the day), I’d go with an NSX or the McLaren F1.
This QOTD is tough because I never graduated from high school. I took the local community HSED + a 2-year college path due to… Well, not drugs or alcohol, but rather a lack of giveashits. So anyway, I was originally supposed to graduate in 1988, then 1989, then 1990. I finally got my HSED in 1991 before heading off to two years of college, where I did not even earn a degree.
Everything worked out in the end, as I’m now happily retired, but now that you posed this question I have to pick a car from one of those four years.
I choose this one:
A 1991 Chevrolet Camaro Z28 1LE.
I almost feel Matt should have specified “…aside from the then-current model Camaro”, as if there’s one car that almost completely personifies most high schoolers’ idea of cool (good or bad, see Wheatus’ “Teenage Dirtbag”), it’s that car.
I admired the Z28 so much that when I bought a ’79 El Camino in 2000, I swapped in the TPI motor and the 700R4 from an IROC-Z.
I could say Yugo but I will not,
I remember these as cool:
Buick Grand National
Merkur XR4Ti
Toyota MR2
Nissan Pulsar with interchangeable tops
Audi Quattro
As a class of 2000 grad, one that stood out to me at the time was the 7th gen Celica that was brand new at the time. Not much of a performer, even compared to previous Celicas, but looked sharp for the time, and they still look cool today (and most of them still run too).
2004, huh? Might be a Viper. The GT was a year out still. The JDM heroes all fell to emissions in 2002. The F-body also fell in 2002 to…GM. C5 had the Z06 but….ehhhhh. There was also the Terminator Cobra, final year of that. Dunno about Euro cars off the top of my head.
’04 was a weird in-between year for cars.
So 2010, I’d say the CTS-V Wagon
The coolest car in general, or the coolest car in the lot?
Because if it was the coolest car in the lot, it was definitely the senior English teacher’s all-original 1967 Corvette Stingray. With the not-quite-top-of-the-charts 427 aboard, when she stuck her foot in it everybody and I mean everybody knew that Miss Mask had had enough and was gone for the day. And you weren’t going to catch her to bring her back, either.
If the question is just what was the coolest car on the market, meh. That’s kind of uninteresting but if forced to give an answer, in 1986 I might say the Porsche 959.
https://www.canepa.com/1972-ferrari-365-gtb4-daytona/
1995 Dodge Viper R/T 10, the last of the completely unhinged version. On the other end of the spectrum the SuzukiX-90.
1989 Honda CRX. Man, what a fun car.
What is the European equivalent of high school? Just before university or earlier?
Just before.
Ok, so 2004.
I am going to pick up a car from a disappearing category, a hot hatch. Also the “last Alpine” before the A110 was (re) ontroduced in 2017: the Renault Clio V6 Phase II.
(Technically introduced in 2003, but still in production the following year)
I gaduated in 1987. The Ferrari F 40 takes the win there, but I also had a poster of a Porsche 944 Turbo on the wall in my bedroom.
oh I forgot the F40 in my list above for that year.
I graduated in 1989. While the F40 was undoubtedly top dog Ferrari, the Testarossa was the cooler car, to me.
I mean, Sonny Crockett drove one in Miami Vice.
It’s funny how as mindblowing as the black 365 Daytona was, the white Testarossa became nearly as iconic. Having been an avid fan back in the day, I’m rewatching it now on Tubi, and damn it’s still the coolest show ever.
It helped that the Testarossa was a genuine Ferrari while the Daytona was a Corvette in costume. I did like how the arms dealer Sonny was trying to catch blew up the Fauxrari. I believe Enzo was quite happy with that scene, too.
It’s hard to fake a mid engine car, though Hardcastle and McCormick gave it a pretty game try.
I enjoy how Ferrari did eventually realize the cultural juggernaut the show had become and, ala Enzo in Michael Mann’s Ferrari, knew a good PR opportunity when it saw it.
I was thinking “first year” model so ’88 disqualified the F40, but since since its a carry over I’ll take that.