What was/is your dads coolest car?

[Noger]

Alfa Romeo Alfetta GTV. We lived by the sea, so it fell to pieces in a week or so. Loved it whilst it lasted.

Sitting low in the leather bucket seats was my first taste of a sports car.

[Lord Benjamin]

Coolest car my dad has owned.



After (thankfully) moving on from BL products, my Dad went all Jean Reno (I suspect before even Jean Reno went all Jean Reno) and started buying Renault's. He had a (fairly) decent start with a Renault 12, and then dropped the ball a bit with one of these...



...before progressing to the 30. After that he lost the plot completely and started what was, and still is (other than a 1992 5351 SE that coincided nicely with my 17th birthday), a long association with Volvo. Having said that, in spite of his transgression the front seats of a his old N plate 3.0 960 CD are still the most comfortable seats I have ever sat in.

[Lord Benjamin]

Nooooooo.

Click on the 'x'. The coolest car my dad has owned was not a Renault 18 GTX.

[215cu]

Slightly ecletic mix from what I remember..

Late 60s/Early 70s
Morris Mini MkII 850 with Cooper interior apparently then an Escort Mk2 1300L which I vaguely remember.

Cortina 1600L & 2000E - which is now very cool which is strange, the 2000E was a bit of a heap.


Daf 66 - which replaced the 2000E for quite a while, which was funny and I think quite cool. Used to make my Dad laugh at the wheel unlike the Cortina 2000E.


The 2000E saw service right up to 1980 when Dad got a two year old...

Rover SD1 3500


Despite their early reputation as flaky was an utterly superb car, never missed a beat, thumping V8 soundtrack and uber-comfy ride. My mum never got a look-in at the weekend and I remember this thing bombing up the Warwick by-pass to Coventry and everyone getting out of the way. Great Unc' had a P6 3500 auto and Dad had the SD1. That was heaven for me.

After that, a bit downhill..

Various Vauxhalls & Fords saloons.

[Chris71]

My fathers car history goes something like,

Wolsey Hornet Special (1930s racer, not the 60s mini copy)
Austin Healey 3000 mk1
Austin Healey 3000 mk2
Healey Silverstone
TVR 1600M
Alfa (alfetta) GTV6
SSC Stylus

Of those I think the Silverstone (still got...) is coolest being a genuine 1950s LeMans car. The TVR (also tsill got...) is a very civilised place to be surprisingly - he once clocked over 800 miles in a day in it across europe. The Stylus (currently building...) would undoubtedly be the fastest on a track. I think my personal favourite would have been the blood red Alfetta (coincidentally the first car I can remember and one of my earliest memories full stop)

[zagato]

Mk1 Carpri in white. Then many years later in the 80's, it became a new Mk3 Capri 2.8 lazer, in black with pepper pot alloys. I was a proud little lad

[central]

Bunch of youngsters on this thread.

[cocopop]

TR4
Lotus Elan
Lotus Esprit
Ferrari 308GTB for a few months
MK3 Supra for about 3 weeks

And since then just boring BMWs, he needs it to be 'practical', although a few months ago he walked in and loudly proclaimed "I think I'll buy a Maserati, or maybe an NSX", so we'll see..

[Lord Benjamin]

zagato said:

Mk1 Carpri in white. Then many years later in the 80's, it became a new Mk3 Capri 2.8 lazer, in black with pepper pot alloys. I was a proud little lad

Pretty sure that the Mk 3 Lasers were only fitted with 1.6 and 2.0 litre engines. The V6 2.8's were badged as 'injections' and (later) specials, before the run out 280's. The Laser was originally intended as a special edition, but later became a standard badge for the last of the 4 cylinder Mk3's.

Perhaps your dad told you a little white lie

[Lordbenny]

My dad had an NSU Ro80!!!! a Rover 3500 (Just like thge police ones) a couple of sporty Fiats (This was in the 70's), then he got a decent job an had to have boring motors (MkV Cortina & Vauxhalls! )

[zagato]

Lord Benjamin said:

zagato said:

Mk1 Carpri in white. Then many years later in the 80's, it became a new Mk3 Capri 2.8 lazer, in black with pepper pot alloys. I was a proud little lad

Pretty sure that the Mk 3 Lasers were only fitted with 1.6 and 2.0 litre engines. The V6 2.8's were badged as 'injections' and (later) specials, before the run out 280's. The Laser was originally intended as a special edition, but later became a standard badge for the last of the 4 cylinder Mk3's.

Perhaps your dad told you a little white lie

Memory fails me. I do remember a red pin stripe and the word injection in red also. It was definately a V6 2.8! The only part which I may be wrong about is the word lazer?

[Jspesh]

Capri 2.9 was his best car. Now he's boring and drives a MK4 Golf Diesel because "it gets from A to B".

[Lord Benjamin]

zagato said:

Lord Benjamin said:

zagato said:

Mk1 Carpri in white. Then many years later in the 80's, it became a new Mk3 Capri 2.8 lazer, in black with pepper pot alloys. I was a proud little lad

Pretty sure that the Mk 3 Lasers were only fitted with 1.6 and 2.0 litre engines. The V6 2.8's were badged as 'injections' and (later) specials, before the run out 280's. The Laser was originally intended as a special edition, but later became a standard badge for the last of the 4 cylinder Mk3's.

Perhaps your dad told you a little white lie

Memory fails me. I do remember a red pin stripe and the word injection in red also. It was definately a V6 2.8! The only part which I may be wrong about is the word lazer?

In which case your Dad had the 'top of the range' 2.8 injection. Nice motor!
When I was a lad one of our neighbours had a 2.8 injection. He used to park it next to his other car - a gold 3.0S with a black vinyl roof.

[JonRB]

Lord Benjamin said:

He used to park it next to his other car - a gold 3.0S with a black vinyl roof.

My dad's Capri was a 3.0S with a black vinyl roof and black vinyl seats. My sister and I used to get burnt on the seats in the summer and used to complain that the smell of the hot vinyl seats made us feel sick.

First car my dad did an indicated 125mph in, he told me.

It was a kind of yucky brown and colleagues used to refer to it as "the faecal flash".

[peterperkins]

Dad's Riley 1.5

[Munter]

JonRB said:

Lord Benjamin said:

He used to park it next to his other car - a gold 3.0S with a black vinyl roof.

My dad's Capri was a 3.0S with a black vinyl roof and black vinyl seats. My sister and I used to get burnt on the seats in the summer and used to complain that the smell of the hot vinyl seats made us feel sick.

First car my dad did an indicated 125mph in, he told me.

It was a kind of yucky brown and colleagues used to refer to it as "the faecal flash".

Is it just me. Or are a lot of us saying members of our family had a Capri. Was the Capri the car that got a lot of us thinking "Umm fast mota'" when we were young that's led to us lusting over the front engine RWD car of our dreams....the MX5! Or possibly something more like the TVRs. But you get my point. Was the Capri one of those critical moments in our up bringing that turned us into who we are...

[JonRB]

Munter said:

JonRB said:

My dad's Capri was a 3.0S with a black vinyl roof and black vinyl seats. My sister and I used to get burnt on the seats in the summer and used to complain that the smell of the hot vinyl seats made us feel sick.

First car my dad did an indicated 125mph in, he told me.

It was a kind of yucky brown and colleagues used to refer to it as "the faecal flash".

Is it just me. Or are a lot of us saying members of our family had a Capri. Was the Capri the car that got a lot of us thinking "Umm fast mota'" when we were young that's led to us lusting over the front engine RWD car of our dreams....the MX5! Or possibly something more like the TVRs. But you get my point. Was the Capri one of those critical moments in our up bringing that turned us into who we are...

Not sure, but for me it was equally a sucession of interesting cars. I didn't post an exhaustive list of cars my dad had in my earlier post, but there's enough there for you to get the gist - he always had something interesting. And fast.

[aka_kerrly]

my all time fave car my dad has owned was a 1990 BMW 535I SPORT in black - had all the factory options and was a huge step up from a cavalier SRI he had before which i had previously thought was seriously smart. This was bought at a time when my dad used to pick his company cars based on what was the fastest 4 door saloon in his price range lol

The BMW was sold at a auction in 1995ish and was bought by what can only be described as local drug dealer as we spotted it a few months later sporting limo tint windows and a tacky non BMW spoiler

also i have to admit i thought his Rover 800 Vittesse was quite cool, it had decent recaro interior and espeically after having a regal motorsport 200+bhp engine put in it went surprisingly fast

[zagato]

I do remember thinking my Dad had the coolest car in the street. Even the new 911 Turbo (2?) a few houses down didn't look as good to me, with it's gold body and ugly black rubber spoiler. For me the humble 2.8i in glossy black looked amazing in it's day.

[Andy_sx]

Munter said:

JonRB said:

Lord Benjamin said:

He used to park it next to his other car - a gold 3.0S with a black vinyl roof.

My dad's Capri was a 3.0S with a black vinyl roof and black vinyl seats. My sister and I used to get burnt on the seats in the summer and used to complain that the smell of the hot vinyl seats made us feel sick.

First car my dad did an indicated 125mph in, he told me.

It was a kind of yucky brown and colleagues used to refer to it as "the faecal flash".

Is it just me. Or are a lot of us saying members of our family had a Capri. Was the Capri the car that got a lot of us thinking "Umm fast mota'" when we were young that's led to us lusting over the front engine RWD car of our dreams....the MX5! Or possibly something more like the TVRs. But you get my point. Was the Capri one of those critical moments in our up bringing that turned us into who we are...

not me, i wasn't around when my Dad had his Capri

i think what got me into my petrolhead frame of mind was the weekend after weekend at brands, and Dad showing me to handle a car, no matter what it was, all the time

best memory was in the top car park of Ben Nevis, at the time he had a company e36 325 'loon i believe it was, it was icy and sluchy and he proceeded to do some donuts, drifting, j-turns and general sillyness, which myself and my younger brother loved to bits, hanging on to something to help us see better as we were only little, and then my Mum proclaiming that if my Dad didnt stop, she would get out and walk back to the chalet... 5 mins later, Dad stopped, let her out and carried on for us