Pick your favorite iconic car from any decade....

[Malak the Mad]

I'm not much of a "car guy", so my picks are a bit scattered.

For the 1960's, the gold standard decade of the Muscle Car, I have to throw in with others and choose the Shelby Cobra GT500…specifically, in it's dark blue (was it "Velocity Blue" back then?) with the two, oversized racing stripes.

For the 1970's, I have a great fondness for the Datsun 280Z, but for incredibly nerdy reasons.

In addition to my "nerdy reasons", I had a teacher in high school who drove one in the late '80s. I even got a ride home in it one night after club practice. Holy crap, they are not roomy, especially for my 6'1" frame!

Here's where things get wonky. For the 1980's, my favorite is a bit less sporty. I have a great deal of fondness for my first-ever Volkswagen, and the only one of these cars I actually owned…a 1982 VW Quantum Coupe!

That car was incredibly reliable when the chips were down! Not only did I go unscathed through the ferocious "blizzard every week" winter from '93 to '94, but I made it all the way from central NJ to the middle of Long Island during a particularly nasty snowstorm! I don't know if it was a combination of the manual transmission and it's long-and-narrow wheel base, but it kept well under control, despite the adverse road conditions.

 

[turf3]

You can't drive a slow car fast, by definition.

Fair enough;

maybe it'd be more accurate, but not nearly as punchy an epigram, to say:

It's more fun to drive a slow car at 80% of what it can do, than to drive a fast car at 20%.

 

[Barticus]

Fair enough;

maybe it'd be more accurate, but not nearly as punchy an epigram, to say:

It's more fun to drive a slow car at 80% of what it can do, than to drive a fast car at 20%.

I can confirm that BOTH can be fun. My winter beater is an 07' AWD Subaru Impreza wagon and I have fun driving and throwing it into corners as well. For me, it's probably more about agility than speed necessarily… but both can be fun.

Not nearly as exhilarating as 500hp twin turbos under my foot, but fun just the same.

 

[Mike N]

I can confirm that BOTH can be fun. My winter beater is an 07' AWD Subaru Impreza wagon and I have fun driving and throwing it into corners as well. For me, it's probably more about agility than speed necessarily… but both can be fun.

Not nearly as exhilarating as 500hp twin turbos under my foot, but fun just the same.

My favorite winter cars were the old rear wheel drive GM and Mopar sleds of the 70's and early 80's..... the cars you could drive Dukes of Hazzard or Jim Rockford style. AWD and wrong wheel drive spoiled that fun for me.

500 ponies with twin hairdryers sounds fun. Only turbo thing we screwed with in the past was a 2000 S-10 with a single turbo 406 and that thing went mid 7's in the 1/4 mile. Hardly street legal, but still fun.

One of my many street/strip toys is an 81 Camaro that runs low 10's in street legal trim. All throttle, no bottle...... brute force and ignorance in a single package.

 

[Barticus]

My favorite winter cars were the old rear wheel drive GM and Mopar sleds of the 70's and early 80's..... the cars you could drive Dukes of Hazzard or Jim Rockford style. AWD and wrong wheel drive spoiled that fun for me.

Yep, remember those days but those are a little rare these days all of my cars were rear wheel drive when I was a kid, and fun to play in the snow but also kinda sucked in the snow

One of my many street/strip toys is an 81 Camaro that runs low 10's in street legal trim. All throttle, no bottle...... brute force and ignorance in a single package.

Note that sounds like some fun!

 

[Stewie26]

Such a cool little beast he has built there.

I remember seeing these as a kid and always thought they looked like a mini Corvette Stingray.

Actually, the GM designers of the Corvette Sting Ray models were the same design group that designed the Opel GT. I have owned two different GT's over past two decades.

 

[Stempelloos]

Noticed this Bentley 2 Axle Rigid Body sedan parked near the river last night.

Import from the U.K. or Ireland, looking at the side of the steering wheel.
Heat beaming from the radiator when I took this picture, so it had just arrived.

Not my favorite car, but certainly a rarity. I wouldn't mind having a drive in it.
Preferably in Ireland or the U.K..


After some research it turned out to be a 1953 Bentley R-Type Abbott fixed-head coupé.

 

[Cactus Bob]

This will work . . .

 

[MJ5150]

This will work . . .

Where do those metal rods holding up the hood go while you are driving?
That looks like a multi person operation to disassemble.

-Mike

 

[Barticus]

Where do those metal rods holding up the hood go while you are driving?
That looks like a multi person operation to disassemble.

-Mike

Trunk rattlers

 

[Mike N]

That looks like a multi person operation to disassemble.

-Mike

If it's a steel hood, yes you'll need multiple people.

If it's fiberglass, they weigh next to nothing and can be handled easily by one person.

 

[FilterFunk]

Actually, the GM designers of the Corvette Sting Ray models were the same design group that designed the Opel GT. I have owned two different GT's over past two decades.
View attachment 7343885
View attachment 7343887

I always thought of the Opel GT as the Stingray's little brother.

 

[turf3]

If it's a steel hood, yes you'll need multiple people.

If it's fiberglass, they weigh next to nothing and can be handled easily by one person.

Yeah, but still you'd want two people to lift the hood up (not for weight, for alignment) and then put the support bars under there.

 

[turf3]

I always thought of the Opel GT as the Stingray's little brother.

Yes, but in some ways I think - now that decades have passed - that the Opel is actually a cleaner design. Much smaller car.

Of course, you and I and many others are proper "muricans" so horsepower uber alles rules - but you gotta admit that Opel is a mighty fine li'l GT.

 

[Cactus Bob]

Where do those metal rods holding up the hood go while you are driving?
That looks like a multi person operation to disassemble.

-Mike

It takes two people to remove & reinstall most likely . . . not sure if they were originally steel but they probably were, the rods would fit in the massive trunk with no problem. I would put up with the hassle of removing it etc.

They were only available in 1969 and there were 1,487 A12 Super Bee 440 Six Pack hardtops constructed, 826 4 speeds and 661 Torqueflight autos.

 

[MJ5150]

It takes two people to remove & reinstall most likely . . . not sure if they were originally steel but they probably were, the rods would fit in the massive trunk with no problem. I would put up with the hassle of removing it etc.

They were only available in 1969 and there were 1,487 A12 Super Bee 440 Six Pack hardtops constructed, 826 4 speeds and 661 Torqueflight autos.

Yes, a minor inconvenience for a cool factor of infinity.
Thanks buddy for the explanation and details.

-Mike

 

[Dabndug]

Been thinking about our 7 years in Japan, and the plethora of iconic cars that populated Tokyo in the '90s: Subaru WRX STIs, Mitsubishi Evos, the last iteration of the Mazda RX7, and this:

The R34 GTR Nismo Z-Tune. It's ancestor, the R32, was so dominant in Group A Touring Cars that the nascent global competition folded, being replaced by national silhouette classes that excluded the big Japanese bully. The R34 does everything better than the R32, and looks far more brutal. The Nismo Z-Tune is the ultimate street-legal iteration with 500hp on tap (built from donor V-spec R34s) . If only I could track down one of the 19 built.... and had the cash.

 

[Paul New]

My favorite car was a bike. 2002 Yamaha FZ1. I've had a lot of bikes and have one now, but this was the best all around motorcycle ever built as far as I know. I was in Highlands, NC taking a break from the twisties here.

 

[mikewalker]

...

One of my many street/strip toys is an 81 Camaro that runs low 10's in street legal trim. All throttle, no bottle...... brute force and ignorance in a single package.

Ah, flashback to my black '81 Trans Am, fondly remembered as a car that "really sticks to the highway"...

 

[FilterFunk]

I just saw one of these beauties on the show "Iron Resurrection" - a 1967 Pontiac Catalina.

I fully understand the safety, fuel efficiency and environmental reasons why cars had to change, but they sure sucked the cool right out of them.