[Closed] The Cars of Youth

I had a programmable Datsun 280zx as a kid...it was about a foot long and had controls at the back a bit like BigTrak

Lotus Esprit although specifically this one...
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For me it was a battered, classic mk1 Mini

At the age of 12 I had a spin in one down some farm tracks, remember the dust cloud it made and the noise from the gearbox was simply amazing, still remember sliding it round the corners, for a kid who was only used to push bikes and tractors it was the best thing in the world at the time.

First car I admired was the General Lee.

In terms of " real " cars I always wanted as a kid was a Xr3i

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& the now unaceptably racist General

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Burts Trams am also

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Sorry but Kitt sucked

Mk3 escort rs1600i. I had one when i was in my late teens/early 20s. Was amazing but rusted like crazy and was stolen. Would have been worth £££££ now.

If we are really talking at 10 years old...

The Bandit's TransAm
The Snowman's truck
The Fall Guy's truck
And courtesy of the Cannonball Run, the Lamborghini Countach
Big Foot

Starting to drive want cars...

205 1.9 GTi
Golf GTi MK2 16v big bumper
Citroen AX GT

Countach for me too, it was the stuff of legend in our school. Rumour had it they were banned in Britain for being too wide and they were the fastest car in the world. Neither was true.

When we were about 12 another rumour started that someone had one near us - we rode there on our BMXs to find it every day for about a week in the summer holidays, finally we found it peaking from someone's garage. We sat at the end of this poor Geezers drive for ages staring at it. He was cool and let us have a look, but admitted straight away it was a kit car with a rover V8 he'd be building, it was still cool.

As for more real world cars, Escourt Cosworth was the best car ever made, ever.

By the time I was old enough to drive I was a total VW nut, my first car was a Golf GTi 16v mk2, early one but had 'big bumpers', second was a VR6 Mk3.

Had a poster of a white countach on my wall probably about the early to mid 80s and for some reason my mum kept it and that same poster is now on my 11 year old sons wall.
Still have a thing for the Audi Quattro though

When I was a boy the rac rally used to pass by our village in nottinghamshire. There was an unofficial service stop between stages at the white post on the a614. Our heros would hoon over the hill at considerable speed, bang on the anchors and stop for some new bodywork, engine etc. all whilst us spotty oiks gawped on. Our favorites - 911s and lancia stratos though the British drivers we supported were mainly in escorts and tr7s.

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And the stratos

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In no particular order...

Lamborghini Countach
Lancia Delta Integrale
Peugeot 205 GTi
Renault 5 GT Turbo
Jaguar XJS
The Bandit's Trans Am

Dave Starsky's two-door Ford Gran Torino. Man, that crashed in to so many cardboard boxes in alley ways!

The 1989 Ford Sierra XR4x4.

Dad drove company cars and when he brought home the Ford sales brochure that year I pored over the detail of every Sierra, before rightly concluding he must order the XR.

I believe we ended up with a more modest GLS. Nonetheless, an interest for the technical detail and all round love of the hot versions of mundane cars was born.

Basically what Vongassit said but with a little bit of...

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😀

Was, and still is, any form of Land Rover.

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Want!

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My first and still favourite car. Wish I still had it!

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Had no idea what these were when I watched the movie, but just wanted one.

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I always loved the Frogeye Sprite.

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And +1 on the Toyota FJ40 for something more action-man.

[url= https://www.fj.co/ ]US company who refurb them. Spendy though.[/url]

The cars my father sold which I would love to own for petrol head / sentimental reasons are Celica ST165, Vauxhall Senator (3.0l, 24v) or Rover 827 Vitesse.
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Pretty sad that a lot of the cars that are being mentioned weren't in my youth. I had a police special Vauxhall Senator in gold as my company car, company being Army. Great car so long as someone else was paying for the petrol. Spent most days being ragged around fully loaded and only time it failed was the battery. I seem to remember it as better looking though.
Also had the Rover 827 which was a pig in comparison the handling was that sloppy. Even had some armoured Rovers 827 which despite all the upgrades were even worse. Thank God the Ford Granada's that replaced them where much better and designed for the job but went through brakes and clutches at a rapid rate not helped with the Cosworth engines fitted to them.

When I was in junior school I had a crush on Debbie Armstrong, she had an older brother who had one of these....

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I thought it was so cool, even though it hardly ever ran.

The RAC rally stories above got me thinking. It was always the Quattros. We used to rally round the house with each room being its own stage. This one always won
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P-Jay - Member

Countach for me too, it was the stuff of legend in our school. Rumour had it they were banned in Britain for being too wide and they were the fastest car in the world. Neither was true.

It would have been the fastest production car from 1974 to 1984 and the "too wide" rumour probably stems from the fact it had the widest rear tyres of any production car at that point.

I remember trying to persuade my Dad to buy a Vauxhall Brabham Viva. I got him the brochure and everything.

[url= http://www.motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article/april-1967/46/brahams-hot-viva ]Motorsport has a review online.[/url]

The "Brabham" Brabham Viva stands out among other small cars without being ostentatious due to a new type of transfer sweeping white lines across the dark green bonnet, tapering down the sides with Brabham's name. Passers-by dropped their gaze to the 5-1/2J wheels, shod with SP41 tyres, and nodded wisely . . . Other extras included an oil cooler (£13 10s.), a woodrim steering wheel with Brabham motif (£8 10s.), a binnacle tachometer (£12 14s. 6d.) and Koni shock-absorbers costing £20 for the full set. Lowered suspension is still in the experimental stage, not quoted at the moment, and the engine was balanced (by Repco, of course). The wheels cost £18 10s. for four on exchange, and the specification is concluded with a pair of Cox safety seats with integral inertia reel harness lap-and-diagonal belts—with headrests, they cost £31 10s. each.

At first the car was, if anything, disappointing, as it did not seem to have a searing power curve, but the acceleration times proved that it was deceptively fast. A little choke was needed to keep the engine running when cold and apart from a noticeably throaty noise disguised by lightweight pancake air filters there was little to suggest to passengers that this was a modified car. A driver, especially one used to Vivas, would notice much better pick-up above 3,000 r.p.m., and even with the standard "90" cam the engine can be felt to fluff below 2,000 r.p.m. while giving a most distinct advantage between 4,000 and 6,500 revs. (7,000 can be used in emergency, but our speeds in gears are quoted at the lower limit.)

Just this please.

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When I'd just passed my test, the only object of desire was the Escort Cossie.

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But being 8 years old and my Uncle rocking a bright red XJS v12 TWR set me onto my path of being a Jaguar fan-boy.

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The car of my second youth will be an XK-150 roadster, but I doubt I'll ever be able to afford one.

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I still think the Lancia Stratos is about as beautiful as a car can get. Loved the Delta Integrale too.
I've just realised how much the Pink Panther car looks like a duck billed platypus.

My friends at school all wanted a Countach, or later a Diablo. I would much rather have had one of these
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Had endless arguements about who's dad had the fasted car - mine had, and indeed still has, a Triumph Stag which obviously won by being a V8. Also in the group were a Datsun 240Z, which with hindsight probably was the fastest although I would never have admitted it at the time, a Renault Feugo, a Capri, an XR3i and a 1 litre Mk1 Fiesta which nevre really got a look in. I feel sorry for children nowadays argueing over whether a Quashqi is faster than a Zafira

I used to get picked up from school in one these. Sierra Cosworth RS500, except it had had a fair few modifications and was closer to the track version as my dad was doing work with Ford Motorsport at the time and it was their test mule.
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argueing over whether a Quashqi is [s]faster[/s] [b]safer[/b] than a Zafira

Back to the Trans Am - my brother in law had one when living in the UK (so it was pretty much the biggest thing around).

He then moved to the States and got the first ever Lotus Elise in LA – once they had managed to get them past US emissions regulations. It was pretty much the smallest thing there and utterly terrifying to be in as a passenger going down the freeway. How he has never just been driven over by someone in an SUV who simply didn't see him I don't know.

I always wanted a Mini Cooper. Not super fancy but what a fantastic car. I never did buy one but as a fan of fun small cars, the EunosRoadster which my wife had was great. I recently bought a Mk 1 MX5 which I REALLY wanted as a schoolboy. Sadly, I cooked the engine but things looked up when I picked up a Brabus Roadster. It is a proper go kart. 😀 I drive like Miss Daisy but boy is it fun even at low speeds.

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Lamborghini Countach

Just saw one of these in edinburgh

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for me, it was Countach all the way

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For Outrun / Crotchet and Tubbs 🙂 more crochet
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I really really wanted one of these

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My grandad had a HC Viva, I would absolutely love one of those today. Learning there was an aussie version with a smallblock v8 in it got my attention.

And I had a matchbox volvo 480 which I loved, for some reason. Great shape

My old man had one of these:

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Lusted after:

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My freelance mechanic cousin took me for a test spin in a Renault 5 Gordini Turbo back in, ooo, I'm gonna say about 85 or 86 or so. Not quick by today's standards, looks like a mk 1 Renault 5 so not pretty - but if the lottery numbers come good, I'm having one as an eighties Q car. 🙂

Edit - dad had a couple of V8 P6s, so that'd be my seventies Q car. 🙂

Maserati Ghibli, not the new one, not the old one but the early nineties jobby.

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There was one in an I-spy book I had when I was 12 or so, I don't know why but it just stuck with me, even now. Basically any Biturbo appeals to my inner masochist.

Northwind - Member
My grandad had a HC Viva, I would absolutely love one of those today. Learning there was an aussie version with a smallblock v8 in it got my attention.

Great package. Skinny car and the V8 always got heavily tweaked so the tyres and suspension were rarely up to the job. But boy, could they shift.

Totally forgot about I Spy books. I was at a motorbike exhibition a while back and saw a Benelli Sei and a Silk something or other. Occurred to me they were the only two I'd needed to finish the book.

always lusted after either of these after getting a set of sports car top trumps from Germany during a holiday one year.

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I really miss that set of top trumps - I think by the end of the holiday I must've had all the cards stats memorised and spent countless hours playing that and a random tractor based set I also got that holiday.

I liked the Countach but this was my child hood dream car...

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Later in life it became the Lancia Stratos...

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And it regularly flips between the two! Maybe I'll just have both of 'em 8)

No sign of a Miura yet?

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