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?
1977 ugh… Even the Corvette was the worst ever Corvette.
1980. The near end of the malaise era. Father of one of my classmates drove a 1978 Porsche 928. That car still looks like it came from the future!
2013 was the first year of one of the coolest but also possibly the stupidest Ford Mustangs ever made. The 2013 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500. The one that made 662 HP but still had a 6 speed manual and solid rear axle and could (under perfect conditions) go 200 mph. I think that’s the coolest that pops into my head.
It was also the second to last year you could get a WRX/STI hatchback.
I also went with a GT500 or Boss 302 for 2012
1994, Audi RS2 Avant, Ferrari 355 (my brother had one for a year) Ferrari F512M, E38 7 Series and the NA Mazda MX5 (Miata) Pretty good year I guess.
2002, The Bug-Eyed WRX. We *FINALLY* got the WRX.
The sad thing is I never see them anymore. SOMEBODY locally has a crispy factory stock one. Everytime that blaze yellow sedan drive by I go. “That was the car. That was it.”
Are we thinking of cars launched the year we graduated? Or any that were in production? Either way, my choice goes to the same brand. I graduated in 2000; the coolest car released that year was the UAZ Simbir; the coolest car in production at that time would be the UAZ Bukhanka (to be fair, the Bukhanka would be my choice if I’d graduated in any year between 1993 and today).
I’m going to handicap myself a bit and limit to just cars introduced the year I graduated, 1996.
It would either be the Audi S8 (the movie Ronin had an effect here) or the Ferrari 550. Maybe a TVR Cerbera, but that wasn’t in the US.
The only car poster I’ve ever had on my bedroom wall: Plymouth Prowler.
Class of 81. Mazda RX-7. But then the 944 was introduced in late 81 for the 82 model year.
It was 1983.. There were no cool cars..
I suppose the GTI.. we were still going through some things.
918, P1, Laferrari
In reality: E90 M3, ZL1, GT500, ISF
FD RX-7 will always be a dream car for me, especially since the value spike means I’ll never afford one, haha. But the coolest car from my graduation year is…tough. 2008 wasn’t a great year for a lot of reasons. I’d probably have to go with the car I was most excited about and then most saddened by at the time, the Pontiac G8 GXP.
They are slowly coming down. I have been window shopping them and in the last 6 months seen a ~10k reduction in auction sale prices
I know they were largely nothing but trouble, but I can’t think of much cooler looking, anything I wanted more, than a TR6 in CE 1976.
But what I could afford was the 12 year old Chevy wagon a lady down the street let me have for three hundred bucks. 10mpg didn’t seem to hurt much, although the Internet tells me it was just about as expensive then as it is today.
(Or, as it WAS, before a certain loonie toonie decided to start a war with Eye-ran.)
Mclaren F1
Class of ’72 here, I don’t know if they were fraternal twins or not, but a son and daughter of a well to do contractor got matching Dodge Challengers.
Also class of 1972 here.
wow, I thought I was old…
Why, the Gurgel BR-800, of course!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gurgel_BR-800
1993 Pontiac Trans Am.
For me that was ’98, so I’m going to go with the final year ZJ with the 5.9 V8. Extra cool with it’s 8 SLOTS instead of 7!
2005 – Ford GT. Still my ultimate dream car…
In 1988… Gosh.. It was the end of the Malaise Era. The Buick Regal GNX was no more. The SHO was in the future, as was the ZR-1. I never liked the Camaro or Firebird. I wasn’t into Japanese iron yet. The 5.0 Mustang was certainly a major contender for coolness at the time, but I think I’d go with the 1988 Monte Carlo SS at the time. Today, looking at the 1988 choices… I think I’d go with a Toyota Supra.
1994 Ford Escort RS Cosworth
2018 was not a bad year for performance cars. Dodge Demon comes to mind because of how insane it was. I remember seeing the crate it comes with at an auto show. High water mark for Dodge’s ridiculous Hellcat era.
My all-time favorite Ferrari was launched in 1996: The 550 Maranello. This car has really come into it’s own in the last 30 years, and as a front-engine V12 backed by a true 6-speed, it’s a true return-to-form in the post-Enzo era. Prices now reflect how wonderful and collectible a car this truly is.
If a leprechaun fell from the sky and granted me three wishes, one of them would be a for a 575 SuperAmerica. I’ll have Verde Silverstone over Cuoio, please. If you could include a gated conversion kit in the trunk, I wouldn’t complain, either.
1983 VW Rabbit GTI.
That was all I could come up with too.. Was that around the time that ad came out with the German language surf tune? The one with the GTI catching air?
“Little GTI” or “Kleiner GTI” (Pardon the German spelling if incorrect). Great ad!
little gti VW GTI commercial
listed as 1984, close enough!
It was the late 90s. Was at the Nissan dealer with my dad and the choice was between the S14 240SX MT or a Maxima, both 2-3 years used with low miles. I believe both were offered around 12-15k OTD. I chose the Maxima (teenage me said it’s got a V6! better than a 4cyl!) and knowing what we all know now probably was the worst car decision I ever made. The Maxima was great, but the 240SX would have been better.