The car whose design you like the most?

[TechRunner]

I've always loved the Guards Red Porsche 944. That's my annoyingly green Wrangler photobombing the shot. More currently, I'd love to own a 718 Cayman.

 

[prss14]

I loved driving this car. Mine looked almost exactly like this one. It was a real race car. Late 80's BMW's were and are some of my favorites.

 

[Antoniosmalakia]

The BMW Z3 (revision model with the booty humps). The chassis is an abomination, but the outer shell is a beautiful thing.

 

[TPadden]

Fiat Dino, 1966-73, w/Ferrari V6 ...

 

[skottichan]

Fiat Dino, 1966-73, w/Ferrari V6 ...

That is a super cute car.

 

[TPadden]

That is a super cute car.

More info:

Fiat Dino - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[TPadden]

The BMW Z3 (revision model with the booty humps). The chassis is an abomination, but the outer shell is a beautiful thing.

Nowhere near as beautiful as the Z8 ...

 

[TPadden]

My Z4...

 

[TPadden]

Last but not least, my Ford 5.0 Monster Miata (plated #1) and on the cover of Autoweek (1989):

 

[Huntn]

In terms of cars classics that I’ve lusted for, these mostly pop into my head, and some forgotten at the moment.

• 1955-58 Chevy Corvette
• 1955 Ford Thunderbird
• 1957 Chevy Bel Air
• 1963 Chevy Corvette
• 1968 Camaro Convertible.
• 1968 Ford Mustang
• 1968 Plymouth RoadRunner
• 1968 Pontiac GTO
• 1968 Mercury Cougar
• 1970 Chevy Chevelle
• 1975-82 Fiat Spider
• 1983 Porsche 911 Targa
• 2016 Mazda Miata

 

[jedimasterkyle]

As was mentioned here earlier, I've been a fan of the DMC-12 DeLorean since I was a wee lad. It was only later on in life I learned that it was woefully underpowered and had ZERO space for anything or anyone but the Gull Wing design will never get old.

However, for a brief moment in the late 90's, I was obsessed with the Mercedes M Class of SUV's. Specifically because of this...

To this day, I would kill to have my SUV look like one of those

 

[sunapple]

My favourite car has always been and will forever remain the Fiat 500. The one below used to be mine and was my first ever car. I later also owned the Giardiniera variant.

After getting another 500 and stealing saving a million euros I'd order an Eagle Low Drag GT:

I would have to get one of those houses where you can park the car in the living room. Or maybe just scale models.

 

[eyoungren]

I guess I can only "like" designs I'm most familiar with, and for me it was my first "nice" car (just made 1st Lieutenant and had my 25th birthday (after which the insurance rates deflated significantly)): the 1986 Saab 900 Turbo.

View attachment 2346126

I'd already put down a deposit on a Honda Prelude, the guy sitting next to me on a flight back from SF noticed I had a Car & Driver and we started chatting. He ran a dealership in Columbus OH that sold Mazdas, MB, Maseratis, and Saabs, and I said, "You must drive a Maserati!" "Nope, I drive a Saab. So does my wife, and my parents". We chatted all the way back to Dayton, and he made me promise to try out a Saab before my Prelude came in. I cancelled my deposit the next weekend.
Saab's approach to safety nearly equalled Volvo's, their cross-nation rival. Turbos were rare in those days, and that 2.0-litre turbo got 32 mpg on the highway and smoked just about every kid who challenged me (and I was able to hit 123 mph at a spot in western NM, shhhh...). Popping the hood, it slid forward and then tipped forward, so at night the headlights illuminated the engine compartment, neat! The fusebox, instead of being mounted behind the dash, barely reachable, a la Ford, was mounted on top of the front wheel well, just pop the hood, and spare fuses of all sizes were already clipped into the center for your use! The headlights had rearward-facing backup lights, so you could see your garage walls/tools as you backed up.
Heated seats, first of their kind, that automatically warmed up once the ambient temp got below a certain point (can't remember), and then shut off once warmed (Saab considered it a safety feature, so you're not all hunched-up while driving). My absolute favorite feature was a setting on the climate control where heat poured out of all the vents, except the top center, which drew cold air in directly from outside. This kept your body and the cabin warm, but flowed cold air to your face, keeping you awake and not drying out your eyes; so fantastic for long, late-night winter driving (my last two Saabs didn't have that feature anymore, a huge mistake). Best seats I've ever experienced, and I've driven a plethora of rental cars from most different brands; no seats could match the Saab's.
This was also one of the very first hatchbacks, with a perfectly level door opening that extended 7' in if you laid down both rear seats. I hauled a full-size refrigerator in it, and bought 8 railroad ties and hauled them too (after I loaded the sixth one, I noticed my suspension springs had bottomed out, so I unloaded two, then made two trips (slowly) to get the 8 ties home). How many here have hauled a refrigerator and railroad ties in their sport coupe?!? Damn I loved that car! Was destroyed by a red-light runner in Indiana; 230,000 miles.

I followed up, eventually, with a used '88 900 Turbo convertible, but it was badly cared for and cost me a lot of money (163,000 miles when sold). Then a '91 Saab 9-3 convertible, which I took to 210,000 before selling (was getting hard to find parts for anymore). Had to take a downgrade to an '18 Audi convertible, okay car but too many electronics screaming at me all the time, it's like I'm married or something, uggh.

But that first Saab, dayam what a great design!!

I'm kind of partial to the Saab Gripen…but, oh yeah. Never mind!



When I was in 10th grade my Spanish teacher was getting a Prelude. That would have been 1986 and the first year that the Prelude had four wheel steering (for parallel parking).

My parents bought an '85 Accord in 1989 and that fully became my car in 1997, but I was driving it from 1993 on. A few things…

I once made a trip in that Accord from Cherry Valley, Ca to Ontario Ca. Work night, I was late. That's ordinarily a 45 minute trip. I got there in 20 minutes. Cherry Valley, Ca to Redlands Ca is normally a 20 minute trip. I got there in 10 mins once. Cherry Valley, Ca to Concord, Ca. is typically an 8 hour trip. I did it in 6 hours. And…the drive from Banning, Ca to Phoenix, AZ is roughly 4.5 hours, one time I did it in 2.5 hours.

I am not saying my parents '85 Accord was better than your Saab, by no means am I saying that. I'm just saying - I was speeding.

You make a great case for Saab and now you have me interested. My wife likes Volvos already but my experience with all the decrepit Volvo station wagons my dad bought over the years never sold me on the brand. The last one like to vapor lock a lot.

 

[Richard8655]

As it was very expensive to fuel and maintain, we eventually ended up with a 1964 Rambler station wagon, which looked quite nice with a simpler design and two-tone paint.

Also a 1964 Rambler Classic in two-tone (white/green) growing up. Nice, comfortable, reliable, and practical (but not exactly a chick magnet).

 

[Chuckeee]

My dad’s 1963 ford galaxie 500 convertible

(This isn’t the exact car, just the same model)

 

[bousozoku]

Also a 1964 Rambler Classic in two-tone (white/green) growing up. Nice, comfortable, reliable, and practical (but not exactly a chick magnet).

View attachment 2346565

Ours wasn't so reliable, but it made it quite a while. It was inexpensive and that was important at the time. I'm not sure any U.S. cars were really reliable, but things were so simple, you could probably work out the problem in 30 minutes by yourself.

 

[Antoniosmalakia]

Nowhere near as beautiful as the Z8 ...

I never did like the look of the Z8 as much as the Z3. Taste in design, eh. About as subjective as it comes.

 

[avro707]

I do really admire the BMW Z8 - especially in dark blue and with that smooth 4942cc S62B50. It's so appealing compared to the overdone fake mapped noises of the modern M and AMG cars.

But my favourite BMW models are the E31 8 series and the E38 7 series. Both extremely beautiful. The V12 engines in those are so smooth, albeit not particularly powerful, but that's expected - they are for smoothness.

Watching Derrick the other day the very early 5 series Stefan Derrick was driving also very beautiful. The old telephone inside it was a blast from the past.

The other one I love is the McLaren F1 of Peter Stevens, an extremely timeless design in all of its forms, even the GTR '97.

And on the Porsche side, the 993 "allrad" Turbo in Arena red metallic, preferably with WLS2 3.6L 450hp.

 

[TheIntruder]

I do really admire the BMW Z8 - especially in dark blue and with that smooth 4942cc S62B50. It's so appealing compared to the overdone fake mapped noises of the modern M and AMG cars.

But my favourite BMW models are the E31 8 series and the E38 7 series. Both extremely beautiful. The V12 engines in those are so smooth, albeit not particularly powerful, but that's expected - they are for smoothness.

300 bhp is not special today, especially in the wake of the horsepower war era, but 300 bhp in a mainstream model was unheard of back in 1988, when BMW dropped the M70 into the E32, and a case where the self-imposed "gentleman's agreement" speed limit of 250 kph actually applied.

Sure, Merc had made hot rods before, and sports exotics had comparable, if not more power.

But it was new ground for a mundane sedan that anyone with enough money could walk in and buy, and a notch in the rivalry between the two that Merc couldn't claim.

 

[avro707]

Sure, Merc had made hot rods before, and sports exotics had comparable, if not more power.

That's true the 12 cylinder BMW engine did prompt Mercedes to do its own.

At the time there was only the V12 Mercedes W126 of Werner Niefer who had built this 12 cylinder out of a couple of prototype V6 Mercedes engines which had no type numbers (eg, the M or OM code), the engine was jammed in a W126. I've only heard of this creation, never seen it and it was probably scrapped. I understand it was quite a hack job. The German term for that was used in the description of this test engine - so I imagine it was pretty roughly constructed.

There was also that article about the supposed 140 series 800SEL 18 cylinder but that was pure fantasy on the part of a car magazine.

Later on they did the M120 in the R129 and the Baureihe 140 which was an excellent engine. That ended up going on to underpin the Pagani Zondas via the influence of Juan-Manuel Fangio who introduced Horacio Pagani to Dieter Zetsche (then an engineer - but later became the boss of the company, which Fangio predicted).

I've been fortunate to see some of the big engine SL models, the R129 SL60 AMG (M119 V8) and the SL73 AMG (M120E72). Both nice but the SL73 - just a dream machine. Lots of power and even more torque in a low-revving unit.

I could easily love a V140 S72 - one of the last of the "traditional" Mercedes cars according to some enthusiasts.

But I also love the older generations - especially the 300SEL 6.3 and the 450SEL 6.9, also the 450SLC 5.0 (homologation car). Even today the 6.3 has sensational performance and it must have been an absolute revelation when it arrived, a comfortable four door sedan with that dragster like acceleration in the late 60s. And Mercedes at the time was crazy, they had so many prototypes under development and the rally programs which were absolutely nothing left to chance, it was like a small army rather than a racing team! The costs must have been enormous.

Classic old-timers are my great interest.

 

[roland.g]

We have an e-tron GT. I like a lot of the design of that.

Of course the AMG GT-C is up there on my list of wants but I doubt I'd get one. Not available in a manual.

The 911 will always hold a special place in my heart.

And because we used to have one, the 1974 Detomaso Pantera.

 

[Herdfan]

However, for a brief moment in the late 90's, I was obsessed with the Mercedes M Class of SUV's. Specifically because of this...

That is one body style, along with the original X5, that did not age well. Those cars look very tired and old.

 

[halledise]

You're gonna get mad but my favorite design is the Cybertruck. (I'm serious, I love how it looks)

they rust easily if left out in the rain apparently - 'stainless' steel

 

[Scepticalscribe]

View attachment 2346267

I loved driving this car. Mine looked almost exactly like this one. It was a real race car. Late 80's BMW's were and are some of my favorites.

Always loved those 80s (and 90s) series 3 BMWs.

Stylish, well constructed, under-stated, reliable, yet elegant and - for the time - pretty powerful.

Fiat Dino, 1966-73, w/Ferrari V6 ...

That is absolutely gorgeous.

 

[avro707]

That is one body style, along with the original X5, that did not age well. Those cars look very tired and old.

I don’t mind the X5 E53 and think it looks great in the LM version (with the P75 V12 engines).

On the LM it has just enough extra muscle in the design without going crazy. Still looks classy.

Only one or two were built, possibly a prototype and a show car. To be an actual road car the P75 would have needed silencing a lot. and some work on its startup behaviour.

I’m sure that would have been possible, after all the S70/2 in the Mclaren F1 was a very smooth running and normally quiet unit which needed no special procedures to start it.

I also agree with the Audi E-Tron GT - a spectacular looking car. Until the latest revised Taycan I preferred the Audi out of those two.