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From my formative years, I'd love a Peugeot 205 GTi 1.9. Drove one but never owend one. My mum owned an Escort RS Turbo towards the end of the stolen/ram raid period and it was okay, loads of torque steer but never quite as engaging as the 205.
Some nice suggestions above for more expensive options, but I'd also throw in a Porsche 356 or one of many 911 variants.
None. Even the ones that served me well at the time:
I did the Mini thing to death starting with a 63 850 which aquired s brakes, Spax, a 1340 11 stud engine, rod change box with low final drive, perspex windows, aluminium and fibreglass panels. Never again, death trap.
The Fiat 131 supermirafiori was ace, I road rallied it. An escort with radius arms, a panhard and an overhead cam engine as standard. But the first rust hole in the roof appeared within three years. Never again.
The little Group N samba is the only one I've checked second-hand prices, because on Michelin TB 15s or Pirelli forest tyres it was a delightful little thing. There was one idendical to the one I used on the home internationals for sale in Italy for about 30 000e. No way, it wasn't that good.
Having driven 14 of the suggestions above I'm not sure I'd accept most of them if they were free but with a clause I couldn't sell them, I just don't want them. The Corvette deserves a special mention for being just awful, I think it was a 67 with about 400bhp but no limited slip diff and at leat 3" of steering wheel movement either way before it did anything..
Seeing as a few on here are either loaded or just dreaming my classic would be a Honda NSX from years back 20,000 miles max on the clock
Old Ford's are like readers wives whereas the fancier more expensive Italian stuff eg the Stratos or any Ferrari is like an ex model, I know what I'd rather have
VW Beetle - I have always wanted one.
My current wheels, BMW K1100 engine 🙂
Mini cooper s
It may not be a classic quite yet but I would love a Lotus Elise S1. I got one in 2000 but I couldn't really afford to keep it after about 3 years. Well I couldn't really afford it in the first place. What an amazing car to drive and to look at. Yes the later versions are quicker but the looks have gone for me.
90's Rally Exotica, these go for £100k now!
The Toyota 2000GT goes for much, much more
Sticking with what I've got 🤣
Just enough power to snap a halfshaft at the end of last summer. Reliable enough otherwise that I regularly used it for work. Like most classic cars they're as reliable as you make them.
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50319932967_da1b68b527_o.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50319932967_da1b68b527_o.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2jEANXa ]2020-09-08_01-54-23[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/7614571@N05/ ]thisisnotaspoon[/url], on Flickr
this is quite lovely 1962 fiat 500 rhd
mk1 RS2000.
Or, realistically, a tidy mk1 MX5, because it would actually work.
Money no object it would be an F40. One of the girl's parents in my school had one and it was just as epic in the flesh as you imagined it to be. Even got to drive it in 2004, just before it was sold. Only for a few minutes but it was not a let-down.
But being sensible it would be one of 2 choices. The first would be my dad's old BMW Fraser Nash 'Special'. He bought and raced it in the 70's before meeting my mum and it was parked shortly after I was born. It had to be sold in 2003, plus his 1920's Donnet he was saving to restore in his retirement, after a business deal went sour for him and as I had no real interest in it it went to someone who got it back on the road for a while but it's now stored and unused as it's being fought over in a nasty divorce from what I can gather. This is the only picture I can find of it online:
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The Donnet after the new owner restored it:
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Either of those back in the family would be special.
Second choice would be my first car that I stupidly sold shortly after my dad's car was sold, my 1984 Mini. It had been a few hard years where it had been left sitting in the garage after the engine block cracked, I had no impetus to get it running again and it was starting to deteriorate so sold it to an old school friend thinking I could get another one if I wanted to as back then they were just a cheap old car. The urge to own one again started to come back a few years ago and I've been kicking myself ever since as I had no need to sell it and it was rust-free with only 38k on the clock. I still have the original engine block at my parent's house and plan to make it into a table or something at some point. I wrote this about it on Pistonheads a while back and it still holds true now:
This has probably been done plenty of time before, but a search suggests not recently and as this is a fluid forum, I'm going to ask again.
1) What was your first car?
2) When did you buy it / sell it?
3) What was its unique specification (options, colour, modifications, damage!)
4) What did it teach your about driving that your instructor seemingly forgot to cover?
5) What story or memory do you have attached to this car?1) A maroon 1982 Mini City 1000, B132 BNY.
2) In 1997 my aunt gave it to me in her will after I had found it buried in the bushes in her garden during her 90th birthday party (passed away at 92), she had completely forgotten she had it!! It had been in the same place for over 5 years before I got it. All it needed to pass an MOT was 4 new tyres (worn out), a new battery, fresh fuel and a set of wiper blades.
I'd had it in daily use for all of the '97/'98 winter before it continuously broke down, always from overheating. Parked it for 2 years before a mate gave me his dying Metro to scrap and I did an engine swap. Sadly the gearbox lunched itself as I was testing it down the lane I lived on so it got parked up again and forgotten about until 2003. I only revisited it as my dad was cleaning out the garage attached to the house and we unearthed it underneath a pile of old carpets. I'd had an awful few months with a failed relationship, quitting a job I loved and starting one I hated (all interlinked) so had no impetus to do anything with it so sold it to an old school friend for £50. Regretted it a week later when I met a new partner who loved Mini's and had a similar City 100 but in blue.
3) Nothing whatsoever, it was a proper time capsule. Had done 26,150 miles since she bought it new. The last 4 MOT certificate mileages read 26,140, 26,146 and 26,148. Garage she used was a mile away.
4) How to handle various degrees of oversteer, understeer and drifting about in snow.
5) See point 2. Why the hell I sold it I don't know, I had a scrap book with all the plans I had for it and was genuinely in love with it. I always had the plan to rebuild it properly when I had the funds to do so but my friend caught me at a very low point in life where I needed every penny I could find. I've always maintained that it was for the best as cars are meant to be used not stored but I was worried as it disappeared off the MOT check a few years ago, right when a scrappage scheme (not the big one, it was safely tucked away in my garage during that one) was running, even trawled the pictures of the scrappage graveyards in case it had ended up there. I was absolutely over the moon when it popped back up as taxed and tested about 2 years ago, showing it being used as a summer fun car with clean inspection sheets and doing about 1000 miles a year. That makes me happy but also sad as I'll never own my original Mini again, another will not be the same (but still awesome). I do have the original engine block still though, stripped it down a year ago to find out what had been the problem causing all the overheating back when I was using it as a daily. Turned out the block had a hairline fracture that meant the middle cylinders were pressurising the cooling system, guess all the cold running my aunt did in it caused that. Strangely it never showed any signs of doing it, always ran fine but would be unable to keep the water temperature down on a long run. The little hose between the head and the block was always the failure point.Whoever has it now, look after it and enjoy it. I'd have been massively upset if I'd released it from my care just to have it ragged and scrapped.
I still have that scrap book and there is a car-shaped object in my parent's garage where the BMW used to sit so watch this space.
That old Husky looks great just needs a wash and Minilites
90’s Rally Exotica, these go for £100k now!
Wasn't that many years ago I was thinking of buying one when they weren't ridiculous money 🙁
This, definitely this.
But black or red?
A car I was so sure must be a Citroen when it was launched that I have just decided to buy one to make sure it is still a Renault
Plus of course this
And I would need one in 'long nose' configuration too
I love my life 🙂
Wasn’t that many years ago I was thinking of buying one when they weren’t ridiculous money
there was this low mileage 22b
Any excuse to post a picture of my old rs turbo (credit for the restoration does not go to me, I just owned it for a while)
ss100's are gorgeous
Air cooled for me:
VW Beetle
VW Karmann Ghia coupe
VM Karmann Ghia Cabrio
even a Citroen 2CV
but currently a GP Spyder. Although it's actually a kit car the chassis is over 50 years old and the body about 35. I think that should count.
I think Ford lost the plot in the '80s with the xri,rs turbot etc. Got it back a few years ago when they stuck the Volvo 5 cylinder in the Focus
could play at Bond, James Bond....
certainly a head turner.... you've gotta like being stared at! 😉
true, at one point though you could pick up an 80s one for £10-15k. The price (or possibly, just what people are asking - no idea what you could haggle it down to if you were actually serious about buying) of pretty much all the cool old cars has gone crazy though, don’t think there’s even anything I’d really want now that I could realistically afford!Hmm, seems the Lotus Esprit might be too expensive to qualify for this game.
Sensible (ish) money? Lotus / Caterham 7. If it wasn't for lack of garage space then I'd probably already be scouring the internet for a Westfield or other good "copy". Thankfully I dont have a double garage!
I remember thinking that the 70's / 80s Merc SLs were amazing looking cars so that would probably be one I'd look at - just a bit different.
Money no object?
Porsche 911. Pretty much any model as I thought they looked amazing (and still do).
Aston Martin DB5 - obvs.
Audit quattro - loved watching them rallying (on TV only sadly). Lancia Delta Integrale for the same reason.
Austin Healey 3000 mentioned earlier is another great shout. Stunning.
In reality I do expect none of them would live up to my expectations. But it's nice to dream a little...
My Uncle had an X19 (1.3) many years ago. He was/is an Engineer so loved working on cars and had lots of classic ones over the years. Not in the Porsche/Aston class but RS Turbo 1600 and the like.
He had to take the driveshaft off the X19 and we werent posh enough to have a drive so work was done on axle stands/jacks in the street.
When he was taking the shaft out (mid engine'd) a circlip sprung off. He wasn't sure if it had disappeared up the street or into the small hole leading into the gearbox. Catastrophic if the latter.... We searched for hours on our hands and knees in the gutter etc and after around 3 hours found it.
How we laughed....
Got it back a few years ago when they stuck the Volvo 5 cylinder in the Focus
One of my works colleages has a Mountune ST. I really like that, although one of the sleeper Volvo's with the same engine would be pretty excellent too.
Apparently that engine would drop straight into the front of my Transit Connect. It'd be like an up to date version of GeForceJunky's Hillman up there ^.
Hmmm, I'd definitely like to have a drive of my 1984 Mini and my early 1990s Sciroccos again, but I wouldn't want to give up the practicality of my van, so maybe...
I remember reading about the Buick GNX when I was a teenager. Kinda like the American Sierra Cosworth - crude and ugly, but brutishly fast for the time. I imagine the survivors are a bit pricey now, but would be fun to let one loose on a dragstrip.
https://www.caranddriver.com/features/a23739443/buick-regal-grand-national-gnx-history/
If I managed the interneting, this is my current classic, had it 11 years. Paid £1500 for what was a giant Lego kit.
Rebuilt it with a 3 litre, it could really do with a bigger turbo to match the engine, a respray (looks great from a distance) and some welding on one of the boot catches/rear quarter.
I've always fancied an old Jag, but without a garage it'd dissolve, plus I'm quite attached to the 951.
I'd like some of my old cars back - like my Pug 205 GTi 1.6, most fun car to drive ever!
Also my old TVR S3c:
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~If it was a money no object then either one of these:
or one of these:
Or
oh and for some reason I always wanted one of these as a kid:
I'd love to have one of the 1980s 5 series BMWs again
Unfortunately the price of these has shot up, but I did run one in the early 2000s as a sort of bangernomics effort. Lovely comfortable place to be
This is also on my wishlist but realistically I'd settle for a JDM Type-R. I was hunting for one last year but they've rocketed beyond all reasonable value. Even regular classics that were £1500 a few years ago are very hard to find in good condition.
If you spent your childhood traveling to Cornwall from Birmingham with enough stuff for two weeks camping with both parents and a dog in a 1L BL mini you'd not have to ask
richardkennerley
Full Member
Any excuse to post a picture of my old rs turbo (credit for the restoration does not go to me, I just owned it for a while)
/blockquote>
The Instagram link thing doesn't work any more then?
Triumph GT6
Vauxhall Sportshatch
Lotus Sunbeam
Bristol 411
The Instagram link thing doesn’t work any more then?
No, it's the one thing that worked so they removed it.
Edit: doh! 🙄
Easy, if I had access to a secure garage then I'd have one of these in 16 valve form: 
I'd go with slightly firmer dampers and better front brakes, but otherwise it would be standard. I used to have one back in the day and when not suffering from a myriad of reliability issues it was a stunningly good drive.
If I had the secure storage and enough cash to splurge on fuel, I'd have one of these: 
Again, not terribly reliable (my brother had two, the second was a warranty replacement that still went wrong often) but the V6 sounded nice and handling was lovely. It's not as good a track car as a MK2 Golf, nor is it as nice to look at, but the Passat derived rear axle allowed for some passive rear steer making it very throttle adjustable. Even a complete idiot like me could corner it nicely.
If I had sufficient means to ensure access to secure storage, a stash of spare parts AND a friendly garage on a retainer, I'd have one of these 
IIRC, Alfa Romeo South Africa wanted to go head to head with the domestically built BMW 535i, so it imported CKD GTVs and installed a 3 litre V6 complete with SIX Dellorto carburettors. Mental, financially ruinous to own, probably uninsurable, rust prone, unreliable but oh my..
From my childhood it would a Mk2 Ford Escort. My parents drove around New Zealand in a red one when I was little, with photos of them negotiating landslips in it. Then when I went to boarding school in the UK they had a yellow one, with everyone else's parents turning up in Range Rovers and Volvos. I'd still love a fast one.
good point! If we’re talking money-no-object, but you can only have one...but I wouldn’t want to give up the practicality of my van, so maybe…
A-Team van, modernised, electric conversion, kitted out as minimal camper with bike garage/load space. (I am not even joking, that is what I would get 🤣)
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Sunbeam Tiger
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I know a man who has both an Alfa SZ100 and a Delta Integrale - both absolutely mint (Aussie imports) and he's going to let me have a play in both in the summer - if he hasn't already sold the Lancia by them.
Most insane car I went in during my youth (Not me driving though) was a Chevette HSR driven quite spiritedly ! Engine was a 6 cylinder 2.3 I think from a Bedford CF van. Banana Yellow with a roll cage. I think it died hugging a lamppost 🙁 Guy who built it was a Vauxhall mechanic who had two speeds - Flat out and crashed.
I don't think I'll get any closer than this to owning one:
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Realistically a Mazda RX7 third gen, I still think they look fantastic but don't know if I'd ever be happy with a rotary engine.
Unrealistically a Ford GT40, before my time but I remember seeing some on track at Silverstone for the 50th anniversary of F1 when I was younger. They look beautiful but the noise they make and their wide and low stance also makes them quite menacing.