What were your "attainable" childhood dream cars?

What were your "attainable" childhood dream cars?

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white_goodman

Original Poster:

4,042 posts

190 months

Monday 18th June 2018
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I'm sure that many of us have had their car obsession from an early age and grew up dreaming of owning a Porsche/Aston Martin//Ferrari/Lamborghini supercar one day but what of the more "attainable" dream cars. What cars did you dream of owning as a kid (i.e. from before you could legally drive) that have at least been attainable to you at some point in your adult life? Here are some of mine.

The ones that I actually got to own...

Alright, mine was a 1.6 not a 1.9 for insurance reasons but nevertheless it was a dream come true!



VW Corrado VR6. Mine wasn't the nicest example but such a cool-looking car, pretty capable handling and a lovely sound from the V6 (I could have easily gone for a mk1 Golf GTi Convertible or a 3 dor mk2 Golf GTi 16v instead but the sonorous V6 won out)!



The one that is still reasonably attainable...

preferably the 20v Turbo



The ones that I missed the boat on. Most of these I could have purchased for 5k or less around 10 years ago and now they go for at least 3 times that!



944 Turbo



Good luck finding a clean example of one of these...



The S1 is cooler but I would still take an S2 in Mercury Grey.







The "attainable" family cars. Having kids of my own was pretty far from my mind when I was growing up and with the practical family car choice being limited to a boring estate car like my dad had (most were diesel or 2 litre petrols or smaller) or an MPV, these cars proved that having a family didn't mean that getting to own a "cool" car was over (I'm not sure if RS2s were ever truly cheap though).









The one that became cheaper than I expected (Jaguar XJR). I've always loved the shape of the classic XJ and I'm not generally the kind of guy that's into big saloons but these were 50k cars when new and I never expected them to fall into bargain barge territory. The MD of the company where I did my school work experience had a dark blue one and I thought that it was a beautiful car. The V8s are still lovely but the earlier straight six version for looks.



So, looking back to your childhood, what "attainable" cars did you dream of owning when you were older?

Edited by white_goodman on Monday 18th June 19:00

mike9009

6,919 posts

242 months

Monday 18th June 2018
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MK1 MR2.

Owned from about 1998 to 2004. A great car too.

Mike

Dinoboy

2,494 posts

216 months

Monday 18th June 2018
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308 gt4 from around age 6 to 10
RS1600i from 10 onwards, collected every road test/brochure etc.

anonymous-user

53 months

Monday 18th June 2018
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Mk2 MR2


AREA

497 posts

224 months

Monday 18th June 2018
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As a teenager I set my heart on a 911 (done), Merc SL (done), Merc saloon, Ferrari (done), TVR (done) and a 924 (not done).

I had The Observer Book of Automobiles and every single night before I went to bed I'd look at the pictures on the relevant pages and said "One day I will have you."

Hmmm... perhaps I should have done that with Playboy magazine as well.

P5BNij

15,772 posts

105 months

Monday 18th June 2018
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Definitely this one, my unrestored late '65 Mk1 1275 Cooper S, which I stupidly let go...








cherryowen

11,683 posts

203 months

Monday 18th June 2018
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Daft as it sounds, this springs to mind:-



It's still an itch I'd like to scratch!

LP670

819 posts

125 months

Monday 18th June 2018
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that mini is lovely, i feel for you

Plate spinner

17,650 posts

199 months

Monday 18th June 2018
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I always wanted to local vicar’s Rover SD1 3500 Vanden Plas.

Never owned one though and I’ll likely never bother now.

Moonhawk

10,730 posts

218 months

Monday 18th June 2018
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James_B

12,642 posts

256 months

Monday 18th June 2018
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Toyota Celica GT4, and I still regret that I never had one.

I had a lovely Celica GT, but it’s not the same car at all.

I think the RS4 and couple of R8s I’ve had have in part been driven by that 4WD car that I always wanted.

James_B

12,642 posts

256 months

Monday 18th June 2018
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I took out a Sport 350 for a test drive (I could swear it was in Docklands, but was there ever a Lotus dealer here?), having wanted an Esprit for a lot of years, but it seemed too expensive, I regret it now.

Edited to say that was supposed to be a reply to the post about the Esprit...

Shiv_P

2,727 posts

104 months

Monday 18th June 2018
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A blobeye imprezza

loskie

5,145 posts

119 months

Monday 18th June 2018
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Manta GTE (had to be coupe) or Monza for me. Passed my test in 1988.

Edited by loskie on Tuesday 19th June 07:06

Mastodon2

13,818 posts

164 months

Monday 18th June 2018
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Blob eye STi or an Evo VIII for me. I could buy one but they're old and getting tired, with the values of nice ones inflating and making them less attractive as cars to actually drive. I suppose that's the effect of the manufacturers dropping support for these sort of cars.

Subaru carried on with the Impreza but it lost the charm of the bug and blob eyes for me and the engine tech hasn't kept up with their competitors.

Stick Legs

4,825 posts

164 months

Monday 18th June 2018
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Jaguar XJ-S



This was mine.

Ford Capri



This was mine.

Aston Martin V8



Unlikely now. I missed their £25k phase. :-(

J4CKO

41,287 posts

199 months

Monday 18th June 2018
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Capri 2.8i, came close twice but never owned one.

Sierra Cosworth 3 door, never even came close.

Oh, and the Pink Panther car. the one the kid drives the Pink panther and the Inspector to Manns/Graumans Chinese theatre,

This, one,

https://jalopnik.com/the-return-of-the-pink-panthe...

Edited by J4CKO on Monday 18th June 21:12

white_goodman

Original Poster:

4,042 posts

190 months

Monday 18th June 2018
quotequote all
James_B said:
Toyota Celica GT4, and I still regret that I never had one.

I had a lovely Celica GT, but it’s not the same car at all.

I think the RS4 and couple of R8s I’ve had have in part been driven by that 4WD car that I always wanted.
Yes, I get that. My "Blobeye" WRX wasn't the car that I had always wanted but part of the reason for me getting it was to fulfill the want that I had for a Quattro/S2/Cossie/Integrale when I was younger. smile

white_goodman

Original Poster:

4,042 posts

190 months

Monday 18th June 2018
quotequote all
Mastodon2 said:
Blob eye STi or an Evo VIII for me. I could buy one but they're old and getting tired, with the values of nice ones inflating and making them less attractive as cars to actually drive. I suppose that's the effect of the manufacturers dropping support for these sort of cars.

Subaru carried on with the Impreza but it lost the charm of the bug and blob eyes for me and the engine tech hasn't kept up with their competitors.
Yes. A lot of my attainable dream cars are only around 15k or so, which in the grand scheme of things isn't that much but not attractive as daily drivers when you can get much newer and quicker cars for the money.

tinnitusjosh

324 posts

71 months

Monday 18th June 2018
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C63 for me, I'm afraid, although not quite 'childhood' (I was 22 or so when they came out). I saw a red one Mayfair when I was out buying shirts for my first job, and I still have the photo of it as the background to my old ipod.

Bought one about six weeks ago. Without sounding excessively sentimental, it was a real landmark 'made it' moment for me, having both got married and bought a house in the preceding 9 months, then bought the thing I had been looking for the best part of a decade.