Congratulations, you have won Powerball. Your total return on the one-dollar ticket after giving half back to your state is, oh, let’s say $50,000,000. Obviously, there are some purchases to be made. No more Malt-O-Meal Crisp Berry Crunch for you, it’s gen-yoo-wine Cap’N Crunch’s Crunch Berries from here on out. Twenty bucks to watch a still-in-theaters movie on Amazon Prime all by yourself? Screw it, you’ll still have $49,999,994 to burn through.
After the thrill of watching The Accountant 2 with a big bowl of Crunch Berries on your TV tray wears off, you’ll no doubt begin shopping for a larger home and a much larger garage. But what to park in there? Now that you can afford pretty much anything, the decision-making process has new facets to consider – which brings us to today’s Autopian Asks.
Even though fifty mil in the bank means I could fill an oil drum with c-notes and light it ablaze without feeling it, boy would I feel it. That’s money. And so, when it comes to cars, I’m not sure I could enjoy really romping on a car that’s a very-low-number collectible, or a unicorn such as a McLaren F1. I might like owning such a machine as an investment and occasionally driving it gingerly, but when it comes to a car I can take on an impromptu road trip that begins with a lurid slide out of the gated community I moved into five minutes ago, I would not be able to relax unless I was in something much more off-the-shelf.
Honestly, a Corvette Z06 would be more than enough car for me, overstuffed bank account or not. I doubt I could ever appreciate something that performs at an even higher level, and if I wad the thing, big whoop. It’s only $130,000 or so. It’s not a museum piece. No one will care. More importantly, I won’t care. I’ll just get another one.
I’d be a lot more upset if someone rear-ended my mint Dodge Omni GLH-S.
Your turn: What’s The Most Expensive Car That You Can See Yourself Actually Enjoying/Hooning?
I enjoy a good Sunday drive, but I’ve aged beyond “hooning” my cars. I have a wife and kids and want to make sure I come home to them.
My “money is no object” dream car is a Delorean, and those are fairly attainable for me. That said, prices are climbing, so I’m shopping soon.
I’ve never been interested in “exotic” cars, and even if I had the means to buy a Koenigsegg Jesko or Rimac, I don’t think I would as there’s so many other things I’d like to do with $3M+ over buying a car. Flight my family first class for the rest of our lives would be up there over buying a car.
Much like Jay Leno, I gravitate toward cars that have particularly interesting stories or engineering, vs. outright cost, rarity, or performance. As a mechanical engineer, I find things like the Citroen DS, the Amphicar, and the Steyr-Puch Pinzgauer far more appealing than any Ferrari.
Thankfully, I could have a Delorean, DS, Amphicar, and Pinzgauer all for under $200k, and of those, I wouldn’t worry about denting the Pinz offroad. I’d probably baby the Delorean the most.
I know I would never hoon a mint Dodge Omni GLH-S (in 2025.) I really wanted one when they were new but it just didn’t work out. I’m sure I would have hooned one in 1987 or 88 (when they were new.)
Most of my cars have been cheap RWD cars I could hoon with no fear of the financial implications. Just avoid doing anything illegal or dangerous.
Then I fluked in to a deal that got me an S1 Elise. Fragile bodywork and expensive repair costs meant I was incredibly careful all the time. Then, you know, I got over it, and drove it however the hell I liked. 6” of snow? I’ll take the Elise, it’s fun.
Part of my job is to drive prototype cars, and they represent a lot of investment, sometimes £200,000 in parts, sometimes way more. Do enough miles in them and you forget the cost. And that’s now, when I’m relatively poor.
I wouldn’t really want anything super expensive though. Give me a tatty OG NSX to daily and I’ll be super happy. Or an FD RX7. Or an Alfa SZ. I’d rather have a barn full of 90’s niche stuff than a shiny new Ferrari or whatever.
the 90’s. When cars were just cars, and our presidents were just horndogs.
First of all, you don’t buy a huge house. Big homes are a royal pain in the ass. You rent one for a week when you feel like treating extended family to a reunion.
You want a lot of cars? Lease/buy a warehouse.
That being said, I’d only want 3 cars total. An armored Escalade with “executive seats” for road trips (’cause I ain’t driving), A red Blackwing for the daily, and something with gull wings for the inevitable times when one just feels like being “it” (which admittedly is only to be done is very small doses so it remains fun to do. Kinda like going to Cedar Pointe).
Warehouse is the right call. I started renting one this year and I enjoy the cars so much more now that there is no worry on where they are stored, how easy is to switch one for another etc. it does not matter if the cars are cheap or massively expensive, once you have 3+ cars anything you can do to make “fleet management” easy or so worth it. In the same vein, if your state allows the use of electronic plates that auto-renew registration and insurance, also totally worth it.
I bought a house with a barn. Everything you said is correct.
But now my fleet management is odd. Do I need to keep my ’86 4Runner? Might as well keep the Vibe running as it is good for …. ferrying dogs to the kennel when we travel? Easier than selling. I am going to adopt a one-in one-out policy for a while until I only have cars I want. Right now I am just accumulating.
I personally think modern supercars are as generic as your average crossover.
I’m having a hard time thinking of a new-ish fun vehicle that has a manual transmission, so I guess I’d just get a Mustang GT350* and spend the rest of the money enjoying what’s left of my life.
*and maybe a Delta Integrale
Emira. Manual, stunning, fun to drive.
I’ll consider it. 🙂
This right here. I’m biased, obviously, but driving to and from work, to the airport, to the grocery store…it’s all become much more fun in the last year and change.
I can’t think of a modern car I’d want to hoon. I used to say that if I won the lottery, I would buy a Mustang GT, quit my job and lay a patch on the way out of there. That became a Hellcat later on, but even then, I am not a hooner.
Ultimately, I think a Miata would be perfect if not for the fact I would have to double fist Ozempic and get my rib cage reduced to fit in one.
If not that, a good Boxster S would do the job.
I don’t think there’s an upper end to value specifically, if I was put in the driver’s seat of a 300SL I’d go for a spirited drive after getting used to the handling, as long as I had the funds to fix it after. But I do put a limit on actual performance. I just don’t particularly want to drive a 600hp car, I’ve had 400 and it was too much to have fun with, I was always either holding back or in license-losing territory. If we’re being realistic with me actually buying the car post-powerball, I’d top out at Lancia Stratos, because I’d have a few dozen cars in my shopping list
Honestly, probably a Wrangler Rubicon 392. I like exotic cars, but have no desire to own any of them.
I have long outgrown hooning. I channel the ancient MG slogan “safety fast”. The C8 might be easily replaceable, but I am not, and the more hp underfoot, the more likely you will be going REALLY fast when you ball it up and I don’t heal like I once did.
I find supercars to be completely pointless, so even if I had tens of millions to blow I wouldn’t buy a modern one. I would drive the absolute HELL out of a few hundred grand of vintage Italian though. Ferrari 330GTC – sign me up. Lamborghini Espada – you betcha buddy! Or just a really beautifully restored MGB-GT or Triumph TR6. If I had that kind of disposable income reality is I would have a garage like an aircraft hanger, but most of the contents would barely break $50K. Just one or two of those classic Italian beauties as the headliners, and a sea of fun but far more modest toys to choose from.
You got me thinking. I was never much of a hoonigan, I just had a heavy foot. But my foot’s gotten lighter now that I’m in my late 30s.
There are simply too many people on the roads to hoon safely. And the closest track for legal hooning is 3 hours away in Atlanta.
Money no object, I’d buy or build me an Eleanor Mustang and cruise in it everywhere. I suppose it’s supposed to be driven like it’s stolen, but that’s not a good idea on public roads. Oh, and I’d daily a classic Mini. Fun at any speed, just like your MG/Triumph.
I LOVE classic Minis, but I am about 3 sizes too large to ever contemplate daily driving one. My daily would be the nicest w124 Mercedes 300TE I can get my hands on. Preferably a really nicely-spec’d 5spd stick Euro model. Or the same in a W123 280TE – but the w124 really is a far better car. Simply the most perfectly rational car ever made by the hand of man.
Heck, with that sort of money why choose? I’d buy them both!
If I had FU money, I would probably get into playing on race tracks. But I have had the experience of having gotten to do so in an actual open-wheel racing car, due to a friend with a barn full of old Formula Vs and Formula Fords. Once you have done that, even fast modern cars seem very pointless on a track. I prefer feeling like I am going a million miles an hour to actually going a million miles an hour, it hurts less if you fuck up.
This has a few answers.
1) Ford GT. I’d love to say a GT40, but I can’t drive a stick due to a bad left knee and I’d feel awful converting it to a DCT or something with paddles. I’d want to drive it as a stick. A modern GT doesn’t need a manual for me.
2) A four-rotor RX-7 like Dahm has, though it doesn’t need to make 2000 HP, just needs to make those lovely rotary sounds.
3) The mid-engine rotary Alto I intend to build, dressed up to look like a mini Pikes Peak Escudo.
And I’d drive all of them at least once a week, probably daily the GT because I love the car. I don’t want to own a car I don’t want to drive.
The answer is always Miata…
I feel like self-preservation is the bigger hurdle than some dollar barrier – I’m less replaceable than money, and if I came into a sudden windfall, it gets kind of okay to accept that losing it is just the universe restoring balance.
To that note, a Singer seems to hit a sweet spot of expensive, modern enough to be relatively safe, but also not a modern hypercar where hooning it is an antisocial death wish.
Fairly new Caterham of some configuration or another. I drove one a few years ago, and it was an absolute blast. It is a raw enough experience that driving it on the street at reasonable speeds is still a hoot and would be an absolute monster on the track. There is zero reason to have anything with more performance unless you are a pro-level driver.
This is the way. I never even ride motorcycles any more.
Powerball is a $2 ticket these days.
You’d need to win about $176 Million to get $79.365MM (45%) in cash value and pay the 37% top rate in federal taxes to get to $50,000,000 after taxes (assuming you reside in a state which has no tax on national lottery winnings, as all but 11 do.)
Hooning: I’m not into it.
Drifting: That’s badass when it’s on Mount Haruna or the Ebisu Circuit (where I’ve been and watched it) but I don’t know that I’m a good enough driver for that anymore.
I’d be more into making an attempt at a Cannonball EV record in a Lucid Air Grand Touring.
Because the Portofino is a lovely hotel.
Just keep the Champagne chilled.
Oh. Well, then, hardly worth the bother.
Really I can’t put a money figure on it. What I can specify is that is has to be built like a brick shithouse.
If I ever build an automobile it’ll almost certainly have long travel suspension, that way if anyone want to ride my ass I can hit a speedbump and or hop a curb at speed safely, meanwhile they get launched into the air, and come down on their suspension so hard the oil pan hits the asphalt. It’s a non-confrontational way of getting them to stop riding my ass.
My guess it said vehicle will be very expensive because I’d build it with a BEV drivetrain.
I’ve always had beater cars, but just bought my wife a new Odyssey. That’s an expensive car to me and I actually enjoy driving it.
Odysseys are awesome. If anyone gives you a hard time, I encourage you to remind them that they have 0-60 and 1/4 mile times that rival or beat most of the muscle cars from the 1960s.
McMurtry Speirling
Well, if i’m wealthy, anything! If someone just gives me a car and says “Don’t worry, insurance will cover it” also just about anything. In my current situation? I dunno, anything that isn’t irreplaceable for under $500k?
New ZR1? sure!
L88 C2? not so sure about that…
C5 Z06 for the hooning.
I’m buying an F40LM and driving the F out of it on tracks all over the world.
BTW, Paul Allen had a Carrera GT he would drive around here.
The world’s most invisible man, who actually has this much money, claims the correct answer is a Civic Type R and I am inclined to believe him.
I would probably just buy a pair of Abarth 124 Spiders so I can drive one while the other one is broken.
It’s a pretty great choice, but it is also very easy to get into straight to jail speeds regardless of the road.
As long as I can afford the car and the insurance policy, the sky is the limit.
I don’t understand the idea of something being too nice to enjoy. I don’t *collect* cars, I *own* cars, and I think the distinction is meaningful.
The greatest purpose you can give a machine is a well used life.
This. Cars are for driving, not looking at and rubbing with cloth diapers. Not to say I want to daily drive a Lamborghini Espada for all sorts of very valid practical reasons, but I wouldn’t park one in my living room as an objet d’art either. There is a happy medium in everything.
Indeed. For me it’s the track… not sure it counts as “hooning” but my one rule of car ownership is “I must take it to the track”. For a range of cars that are in many people’s lists that is their designed purpose (911 GT3s, CS-badged bmws, type-r things, “corsa” Ferraris, etc). I am always a bit sad when I meet somebody who owns one of those and has not or will not take it to the track. Same as people who wear Rolex submariners and have never gone diving with it. It’s depriving the thing of its purpose
For me to truly be able to Hoon a car properly it has to be something sub-1,000$. Used to be 500$ but inflation you know… Thats just the cheap Yankee in me. Hence my participation in the Gambler 500. I do treat my 6000 klr 650 like a rented mule but that’s what it’s made for.
I would be a much happier person if mid-Aughts Ford GTs were unobtainable because every single one of them had been crashed into a tree, because it means they were being used as intended. They deserve to be driven, not kept in the climate controlled basement of an ultra-wealthy hoarder with only 2 digits on the odometer. I hope one day I will be fortunate enough to have a Ford GT of my own to crash.
I’d also have a GT, though hopefully not crash it. I’d like to think I’ll have paid someone to teach me to drive it at the limit on a track and gotten all the “crashes” out of the way in sand traps on the side of the track before I hooned it.
I would buy a Carrera GT, I would take out the best life insurance policy known to man, and I’d hoon the shit out of it.
Spend some money on proper tires. You’ll be able to enjoy it much longer and when you do inevitably wrap it around a tree, it will have been all skill (or lack thereof).
You’re a better driver than Roger Rodas?
Definitely not, but that’s what the life insurance policy is for.