Did you send off for car brochures as a kid?

[wolfracesonic]

Reading in the ‘Unregistered 959’ thread about a school being banned from writing to Porsche for car brochures and posters, took me back to my brochure hunting days. Most, which I’ve still got, are run of the mill stuff picked up in showrooms when my Dad was car hunting, however I occasionally plucked up courage, practiced my bestest grown up handwriting and wrote directly to makers requesting stuff.

Now I’m not sure if Yvonne Hilton, customer liaison at JCT 600 Porsche in 1984 knew I was some snot nosed kid on the scrounge but the general Porsche cars brochures she sent and the apology for not having any 911 turbo specific material certainly made a young Wolfracesonic very happy.

Honourable mentions also go to BMW for their shark nose 6 series brochure, GTI engineering, Zender, KAT vehicle design, Jaguar and Mercedes and others.

[Phunk]

Yup, used to call around all the manufacturers.

One of the highlights was for the just released 1st gen Audi A8. The brochure came inside a nice big piece of aluminum and contained an invitation to try an A8 for the weekend. Being 10 at the time I couldn't take them up on the offer but my dad was delighted

[g7jtk]

Also used to ask for badges

[996Type]

As a young teenager, would also send a pound postal order off for all the kit car exotics brochures built in the U.K.

Think I have them still somewhere!

[bristolbaron]

My brother an I used to collect them from local garages and shows. We would also collect beer mats and keg tops. There was a great book called ‘free stuff for kids’ which was a directory of companies who’d reply to letters.

I wounder whether there’s any car salespeople here who received brochure requests from Tony Perry?

[abzmike]

There should be a pile in my parents loft from the seventies. I remember Lotus, TVR, BMW, Saab and Porsche being quite generous when sent a little letter or filling in a coupon from a magazine. Ferrari and Lamborghini less so…

[Caddyshack]

I was a very young looking 19 yr old, I was earning strong money for that age and went to a BMW dealership, I went there in my 325 sport wanting to buy a new one, the sales guy said "hi guys, we are pretty busy, did you just come in for a brochure?’ That ended that visit for me.

[1690cc]

Loved car brochure collecting as a kid in the 70's. Top of shop was achieved in 79 I think it was when I got a Rolls Royce brochure featuring the Camargue.
My dad had a series of Volvo company cars in those days so I had plenty of Volvo ones which were pretty dull, although I did get a,special edition one for the 262C which was nice.

[Lotusgone]

Gathered all I could at motor shows, from dealerships, wrote off for some (at times in my Dad's name) and even bought some. Had the habit pretty bad for a couple of years.

I did sell a few for decent money some years after.

[DoctorX]

Lotusgone said:

Gathered all I could at motor shows, from dealerships, wrote off for some (at times in my Dad's name) and even bought some. Had the habit pretty bad for a couple of years.

I did sell a few for decent money some years after.

I sourced similarly. I sent off a coupon once for a Fiat Croma brochure once and received a large box with said brochure, a VHS test drive with a young Tiff and a cassette of classic music. Amazing (for that time) - I was easily pleased. Ford ‘Cars’ brochure was always the best though.

[Second Best]

I'm in my early 30s and still love a brochure. There's something about having a physical item about something you want that makes it so much more appealing than "here's a QR code, check out our instagram and be sure to like and subscribe".

[Griffithy]

Thanks Maserati!
I still treasure my Quattroporte, Biturbo and Spider brochure set

[Threadbear]

Yes I collected car brochures back in the late 70s. Mostly run of the mill stuff, but remember material picked up from the Ford dealer in Framingham on the Granada Ghia range including the Coupe.

Also had Land Rover Series 3, a nice brochure from Jeep on the Cherokee, BMW 6 series and I believe we once had a salesman from Mercedes Benz turn up to demonstrate and offer a test drive. My Mum had to explain it was her son who’d requested the brochures. Not sure what happened to them. Also was reading Autocar from about 7.

[yellowbentines]

Yes, the highlight of the year was the visit to the Motor Show at the SECC - always came home with carrier bags full of brochures and badges.

[Jader1973]

yellowbentines said:

Yes, the highlight of the year was the visit to the Motor Show at the SECC - always came home with carrier bags full of brochures and badges.

Me too! I’ve still got a bag full somewhere.

I loved the Ford brochures in the 80s.

[Robertb]

Absolutely! Still love a brochure.

The brochure for the 1990 Lexus LS400 was my favourite as a lad. It was as obsessively detailed as the car.

[Bobupndown]

Oh yes!
My favorite was an early 80s Range Rover brochure, a fold out 2 page picture of a red RR wading headlight deep on Landrover's jungle track. I was already keen on Landrovers but that image certainly helped. I'd love a copy of it now.

[Dynion Araf Uchaf]

@Soxboy.

You still send off for them now don’t you?

[sawman]

Used to cut out the coupons from the sunday papers and send off for brochures all the time - i remember a big folder of lancia info, and a great brochure from saab.
I went to the motorshow in 1978 and came back with a couple of carrier bags full.
My dad worked for a papermill in the very early 80’s they produced the paper for some of the high end cars, he brought me home a lagonda brochure.

[wolfracesonic]

I wonder, in the world of car brochure nerds (even more than here) what the Holy Grail of brochures is? Maybe something obvious like for a pre-war Bugatti or something obscure like a 1980s Talbot Tagora brochure where there was a typo on the front, the majority were caught and pulped but a few escaped into the wild, thus giving brochure geeks fevered dreams of getting their hands on one