Old Car Exhaust smells.
Discussion
Just sat at my desk in the front of the house, the window is open, someone just drove a Mk5 Cortina down the road and the smell of its exhaust gave me a huge pang of nostalgia, reminded me of school mornings getting a lift in my mates dad Cortina "Crusader" in like 1984, took me right back, I had forgotten how smelly older car exhausts were, and probably totally evil but they smell strangely compelling.
Anyone else had this strange nostalgia for hydrocarbon fumes, or any other old car smells, I know some people were paying £30 for an old school unused "Feu Orange" air freshener.
Yes, I am a bit strange.
Anyone else had this strange nostalgia for hydrocarbon fumes, or any other old car smells, I know some people were paying £30 for an old school unused "Feu Orange" air freshener.
Yes, I am a bit strange.
I was driving behind one of these a while ago and the smell was very distinctive, like a petrol station from my childhood in the 1980s. It was actually rather unpleasant, like poppers or marker pens.
Modern cars don't always smell very nice, but what progress there has been, I'm actually glad of.
Modern cars don't always smell very nice, but what progress there has been, I'm actually glad of.
My 944 smelt awesome, obviously not like a perfume type smell but like the dog smells nice, even if it really doesn't, sort of reassuring and familiar.
I sprayed a bit of WD40 round my 350Z hood mechanism and now that has a nice twang of it.
In fact Jap cars generally smell distinctive, even modern Jap interiors still smell similar to how I remember various Bluebirs and Cherrys smelling when my dad used to trade loads of cars when I was a kid, must be a type of plastic they use, also noticed a very similar smell on the Bullet train they have at the National Railway Museum in York, Eau d'JDM.
Gunk always reminds me of when I was a kid, used to get bathed in it, no, my dad used to clean engines with it, horrible when fresh but when dried and you warm the car up, gives off an agreeable smell.
The smell of hot coolant when driving K series engined Rovers.
MK1 Golfs had a smell all their own.
Modern diesels smell pissy and grim, modern petrols dont smell of much.
thrashed fast petrols/supercars sometimes emit a fantastic smell like matches or that smell you get when the red arrows deploy their coloured smoke.
I sprayed a bit of WD40 round my 350Z hood mechanism and now that has a nice twang of it.
In fact Jap cars generally smell distinctive, even modern Jap interiors still smell similar to how I remember various Bluebirs and Cherrys smelling when my dad used to trade loads of cars when I was a kid, must be a type of plastic they use, also noticed a very similar smell on the Bullet train they have at the National Railway Museum in York, Eau d'JDM.
Gunk always reminds me of when I was a kid, used to get bathed in it, no, my dad used to clean engines with it, horrible when fresh but when dried and you warm the car up, gives off an agreeable smell.
The smell of hot coolant when driving K series engined Rovers.
MK1 Golfs had a smell all their own.
Modern diesels smell pissy and grim, modern petrols dont smell of much.
thrashed fast petrols/supercars sometimes emit a fantastic smell like matches or that smell you get when the red arrows deploy their coloured smoke.
k.LittleEnus said:
I find I am quite carist though and detest the smell of say a Micra but love it fro a SkyLine... odd reaally
I suspect it's a placebo, I can't even tell the difference. What you're smelling with old cars is the combination of unburnt petrol due to over-fuelling and "uncatalysed" burnt petrol. You're not wrong OP it's a lovely whiff and I miss it!
I'm sure it would be a different story if the streets were clogged with them clouding up the air though.
Old-style plastics in cars always have a particular pong to them too, especially in the summer.
A few times I've walked past a 70s or 80s car in the summer thats got the window open or roof down and I have to be careful not to look a complete freak standing there sniffing around taking it all in!
Anyone else think cars from different manufactures/countries had their own distinct smells?
80s Japanese coupes all seem to smell the same to me!
I'm sure it would be a different story if the streets were clogged with them clouding up the air though.
Old-style plastics in cars always have a particular pong to them too, especially in the summer.
A few times I've walked past a 70s or 80s car in the summer thats got the window open or roof down and I have to be careful not to look a complete freak standing there sniffing around taking it all in!
Anyone else think cars from different manufactures/countries had their own distinct smells?
80s Japanese coupes all seem to smell the same to me!
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