What's your favourite/most memorable car 'moment'?
Discussion
Standing next to a Porsche 917 that was being started for the first time in twelve years, sounded like a bag of spanners for a few minutes and then it was just heaven. Also lucky enough to be at silverstone when "Babs", the Parry Thomas land speed record car was being run for the first time in decades, fuel putting out of the carbs onto the engine, flames everywhere....
It's going to take a very special moment to top bringing my Sierra home, as vanilla as a 'first car' moment may be. It was a first in a lot of ways; my first drive in my car, as well as being my first on a motorway, at night, in a petrol rear-wheel drive car, but like William P mentioned (albeit with an Aston), it's the realisation of a major goal as well. I had wanted a Sierra for about 15 years at that point and, even on the journey home, I couldn't quite comprehend having managed it.
Second best is either a run over the border to pick up a car on a beautiful day last summer, or a drive that most accounts say takes 15 minutes but I know can be done in just over half. Both were moments of sheer driving pleasure - one with spectacular scenery and one with a delightfully smooth run, but neither beat the first.
Second best is either a run over the border to pick up a car on a beautiful day last summer, or a drive that most accounts say takes 15 minutes but I know can be done in just over half. Both were moments of sheer driving pleasure - one with spectacular scenery and one with a delightfully smooth run, but neither beat the first.
My funniest moment has to be when I was leaving a local village in my old stage 3 rear wheel drive Sapphire Cosworth, as I exited the 30 limit I booted it in 2nd and because it was running 350bhp (T34) and standard 15" wheels it spun up the rear wheels as it howled down the street. At the time a middle aged couple were walking down the footpath and the guy literally shoved his wife into/through the hedge!
Either he didn't like her very much, or it was a complete overreaction.
Either he didn't like her very much, or it was a complete overreaction.
Great tread. And so many great or strange moments in my mind!
Drive in under a big lorry in small s
tty fiat (last thing I remember was very very big rear wheel flying into my front corner)? Trade another stty fiat for ford granada 1986, our first not-so-stty car (reasonable and very true comment from coworker at the time: "so you are doomed - ??? - you jumped too big gap, you will never ever like any smaller car")? Or maybe small test of toyota on Berliner Ring, just 140mph and SURPRISE - somebody flashing me on back (I jumped to another line, and fresh Z4 and mustang flies by me, like I sit on shoulder)? Or maybe small race in ford 2.0 on lights, I looked at wheel and fender of big SUV next to me, "lets look how this landcruiser diesel push", floored ford, and 15s later I have watching very angry flying object vanishing on the horizon, like Millenium Falcon but with small print "Cayenne" on back (but Your Honour, it was very first Cayenne in the country!)
And many more...
Drive in under a big lorry in small s
tty fiat (last thing I remember was very very big rear wheel flying into my front corner)? Trade another stty fiat for ford granada 1986, our first not-so-stty car (reasonable and very true comment from coworker at the time: "so you are doomed - ??? - you jumped too big gap, you will never ever like any smaller car")? Or maybe small test of toyota on Berliner Ring, just 140mph and SURPRISE - somebody flashing me on back (I jumped to another line, and fresh Z4 and mustang flies by me, like I sit on shoulder)? Or maybe small race in ford 2.0 on lights, I looked at wheel and fender of big SUV next to me, "lets look how this landcruiser diesel push", floored ford, and 15s later I have watching very angry flying object vanishing on the horizon, like Millenium Falcon but with small print "Cayenne" on back (but Your Honour, it was very first Cayenne in the country!) And many more...
My Dad trying to keep up with Petter Solberg's Impreza between stages on Wales Rally GB... apparently Petter had a suspected issue and had been asked to put the car under load and see how it reacted (from memory could be making it up). All I know is we were happily following and we approaching a small hill that turned right, crested and then went left... blip blip down 2 gears and planted it, classic wrc scoob sound and a bang on upshift whole car squatting and squirming up the crest and gone! Same day we were doing 120mph behind Gronholm in a 206. And Didier Auriol passed us in his and gave me a wave (hero). Good times.
In no particular order;
Doing 130mph in my XR4i down the M4 at night past Port Talbot steelworks coming from Swansea heading to Risca with me in the passenger seat enjoying the 'ambience', my best mate driving and four people (who may have been female....) in the back seat.
Aged 18 thinking I was some kind of driving god ragging a mk3 Granada around the lanes outside Abergavenny, losing the back end (as expected!) and going through a fence and down a banking into a field. Total damage was a cracked front bumper and a very dented ego, the car didn't even get stuck, it drove back up the banking!
After my mate blew the engine in his Escort we drove up to Birmingham to pick up another engine up in my Sierra (not the XR4i mentioned above, this was a bog standard basic 1.8L), on the way back we were going up the steep a465 (black rock if anyone knows it) and it had snowed heavily, there were stranded cars everywhere and I would have been stuck too but because I had a zetec lump (and box!) in the boot I had immense traction and cruised up hill past everything. There were 4x4 drivers looking at me daft, I can just imagine them thinking 'how the f*ck is a Sierra getting up here?'
The day I bought my e39 M5 I can remember joining the M4 at Newbury with my mate in front of me driving the e39 535i that the M5 was replacing. I had told him not to hang about and by f*ck he didn't! I can remember the back of the 535i squatting down as he kicked it down a gear or two and the growl from the M5 as I gave it the beans in third. For about 30 miles the road was clear and in that time we didn't drop below a speed that may have already been mentoined. And the best bit was that it was so effortless.
Doing 130mph in my XR4i down the M4 at night past Port Talbot steelworks coming from Swansea heading to Risca with me in the passenger seat enjoying the 'ambience', my best mate driving and four people (who may have been female....) in the back seat.
Aged 18 thinking I was some kind of driving god ragging a mk3 Granada around the lanes outside Abergavenny, losing the back end (as expected!) and going through a fence and down a banking into a field. Total damage was a cracked front bumper and a very dented ego, the car didn't even get stuck, it drove back up the banking!
After my mate blew the engine in his Escort we drove up to Birmingham to pick up another engine up in my Sierra (not the XR4i mentioned above, this was a bog standard basic 1.8L), on the way back we were going up the steep a465 (black rock if anyone knows it) and it had snowed heavily, there were stranded cars everywhere and I would have been stuck too but because I had a zetec lump (and box!) in the boot I had immense traction and cruised up hill past everything. There were 4x4 drivers looking at me daft, I can just imagine them thinking 'how the f*ck is a Sierra getting up here?'
The day I bought my e39 M5 I can remember joining the M4 at Newbury with my mate in front of me driving the e39 535i that the M5 was replacing. I had told him not to hang about and by f*ck he didn't! I can remember the back of the 535i squatting down as he kicked it down a gear or two and the growl from the M5 as I gave it the beans in third. For about 30 miles the road was clear and in that time we didn't drop below a speed that may have already been mentoined. And the best bit was that it was so effortless.
Edited by njw1 on Sunday 26th March 00:42
My most memorable moment was in 2006 riding as a passenger in my uncles brand new Carrera GT, it was my first supercar experience and it will stay with me forever, probably the best souding car ive been in plus at that time the acceleration seemed out off this world. You always remember your first supercar 
Three for me:
North wales in my new to me 355 on deserted dual carriage 15 years ago
West wittering to chobham in my old chimaera 5.0, roof down on a Sunday night driving home through midhurst again 15 ish years ago
More recently the mile straight in a brand new vanquish (courtesy of Aston martin) 187mph at the end if anyone is interested !!
Phib
North wales in my new to me 355 on deserted dual carriage 15 years ago
West wittering to chobham in my old chimaera 5.0, roof down on a Sunday night driving home through midhurst again 15 ish years ago
More recently the mile straight in a brand new vanquish (courtesy of Aston martin) 187mph at the end if anyone is interested !!
Phib
Very hard to pick one...have driven hundred of cars from a Mahindra Jeep to a 300SL Gullwing...so I would say the most memorable were:
(1) First time I was ever in an exotic. I was quite young and we were poor. My dad had no car. Some students rented the little house next door..medical students from Iran, ( this was in Dublin). One of them parked outside the house in his brand new Facel Vega. I had never even heard of one...i was about ten or so. I stood outside..slackjawed. The student asked me if I wanted to go for a drive, so I hopped in. There was 45 rpm record player, and the sound of the big V8 was like nothing I had ever heard.
(2) My first new car. Not a Ferrari or a Rolls...a Toyota Celica 5 speed. I know its not the world's greatest car, but for me at that time it was.
(3) The best car I ever drove. I had it up to 180MPH and the V10 was like nothing I have ever heard.
(4) Having Sabine drive my 7.2RS, and having full access to the live pits for the Nürbirgring 24
(5) Getting Dr Wolfgang Porsche to sign my 991RS, taking it to the NS, and then to meet the very first Porsche ever, the type 64.
(6) Vmaxing my then new M6, (delimited) at 200MPH.
(1) First time I was ever in an exotic. I was quite young and we were poor. My dad had no car. Some students rented the little house next door..medical students from Iran, ( this was in Dublin). One of them parked outside the house in his brand new Facel Vega. I had never even heard of one...i was about ten or so. I stood outside..slackjawed. The student asked me if I wanted to go for a drive, so I hopped in. There was 45 rpm record player, and the sound of the big V8 was like nothing I had ever heard.
(2) My first new car. Not a Ferrari or a Rolls...a Toyota Celica 5 speed. I know its not the world's greatest car, but for me at that time it was.
(3) The best car I ever drove. I had it up to 180MPH and the V10 was like nothing I have ever heard.
(4) Having Sabine drive my 7.2RS, and having full access to the live pits for the Nürbirgring 24
(5) Getting Dr Wolfgang Porsche to sign my 991RS, taking it to the NS, and then to meet the very first Porsche ever, the type 64.
(6) Vmaxing my then new M6, (delimited) at 200MPH.
RDMcG said:
Very hard to pick one...have driven hundred of cars from a Mahindra Jeep to a 300SL Gullwing...so I would say the most memorable were:
(1) First time I was ever in an exotic. I was quite young and we were poor. My dad had no car. Some students rented the little house next door..medical students from Iran, ( this was in Dublin). One of them parked outside the house in his brand new Facel Vega. I had never even heard of one...i was about ten or so. I stood outside..slackjawed. The student asked me if I wanted to go for a drive, so I hopped in. There was 45 rpm record player, and the sound of the big V8 was like nothing I had ever heard.
(2) My first new car. Not a Ferrari or a Rolls...a Toyota Celica 5 speed. I know its not the world's greatest car, but for me at that time it was.
(3) The best car I ever drove. I had it up to 180MPH and the V10 was like nothing I have ever heard.
(4) Having Sabine drive my 7.2RS, and having full access to the live pits for the Nürbirgring 24
(5) Getting Dr Wolfgang Porsche to sign my 991RS, taking it to the NS, and then to meet the very first Porsche ever, the type 64.
(6) Vmaxing my then new M6, (delimited) at 200MPH.
That's just showing off!(1) First time I was ever in an exotic. I was quite young and we were poor. My dad had no car. Some students rented the little house next door..medical students from Iran, ( this was in Dublin). One of them parked outside the house in his brand new Facel Vega. I had never even heard of one...i was about ten or so. I stood outside..slackjawed. The student asked me if I wanted to go for a drive, so I hopped in. There was 45 rpm record player, and the sound of the big V8 was like nothing I had ever heard.
(2) My first new car. Not a Ferrari or a Rolls...a Toyota Celica 5 speed. I know its not the world's greatest car, but for me at that time it was.
(3) The best car I ever drove. I had it up to 180MPH and the V10 was like nothing I have ever heard.
(4) Having Sabine drive my 7.2RS, and having full access to the live pits for the Nürbirgring 24
(5) Getting Dr Wolfgang Porsche to sign my 991RS, taking it to the NS, and then to meet the very first Porsche ever, the type 64.
(6) Vmaxing my then new M6, (delimited) at 200MPH.
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