Whats the nicest car you have ever driven?
Discussion
jackal said:
Every person i know who has owned an F40 says that it was a massive disappointment. Of course they only get to this level of honesty afte they have sold it or are close to that point.
Interesting. More evidence to suggest the saying "never meet your heroes" is an accurate one. I'm curious as to what's so disappointing about them though.
. Driven lots of very very very 'nice' cars.
I deel a lot of the experience has to do with WHY you happen to be driving it, WHERE you are driving it, WHO you may be with and so on.
Driving an M5 might be a great car to drive. But sitting in traffic on a soggy M25 isn't going to make you remember that as the 'nicest' (comfortable true)
Driving a DB7 from Sussex to the Isle of Skye aged 21 with my then very very stunning girlfriend, that's gotta rate as one of the nicest drives.
As does sharing the drive back from Maranello with my father in his brand new 575 would rate as one of the nicest drives/cars
Chucking a FFord round Brands would be there
Being wafted through the streets of central London in the back of a RR Phantom VI would be up there.
an INSANE 3 laps around silverstone in the Orange Arrows 3 seater F1 car (ok, wasn't driving)
One lap of the Ring in a £600 alfa 155 V6 would be up there
As would a Continental GT albeit only a 70 odd mile trip. Was a truly lovely car to drive
At the same time, a middle of the day vehicle follow driving a Leland DAF V8 PSU with no power steering,van through crowded town centre could be considered 'nice'. It was certainly exhilarating!
To pick one? Sorry. Can't do.
I deel a lot of the experience has to do with WHY you happen to be driving it, WHERE you are driving it, WHO you may be with and so on.
Driving an M5 might be a great car to drive. But sitting in traffic on a soggy M25 isn't going to make you remember that as the 'nicest' (comfortable true)
Driving a DB7 from Sussex to the Isle of Skye aged 21 with my then very very stunning girlfriend, that's gotta rate as one of the nicest drives.
As does sharing the drive back from Maranello with my father in his brand new 575 would rate as one of the nicest drives/cars
Chucking a FFord round Brands would be there
Being wafted through the streets of central London in the back of a RR Phantom VI would be up there.
an INSANE 3 laps around silverstone in the Orange Arrows 3 seater F1 car (ok, wasn't driving)
One lap of the Ring in a £600 alfa 155 V6 would be up there
As would a Continental GT albeit only a 70 odd mile trip. Was a truly lovely car to drive
At the same time, a middle of the day vehicle follow driving a Leland DAF V8 PSU with no power steering,van through crowded town centre could be considered 'nice'. It was certainly exhilarating!
To pick one? Sorry. Can't do.
BadgerBill said:
Mk2 Mx5 jackal?
Really?
Really, really?
Yes, really. I have to say, there are few cars that can match the MX5 as a grin inducing machine. Especially when they are so cheap and such an easy car to own. They're probably the best place to start sports car ownership, as you get used to the foibles of RWD two seaters as well as getting to have all the fun.Really?
Really, really?
You can go at any twisty little B road and give it loads of attack and still not be breaking 60mph. They make lower speeds fun, and the relative lack of pace allows you to enjoy the experience for longer, probably having a cleaner drive while you're at it. I got my MX5 after I sold my Ford Focus Zetec and the change from a slightly upgraded family car to a sports car was made smooth and easy by the MX5. They're just great fun to drive, and they love being driven hard.
but the nicest car I've ever driven is the Laguna II that I've just sold.I have driven a fair number of nice cars, but as usual, the challenge is to judge them in their time. Evidently a Series 1 E Type today is not a spectacular performer, but is still beautiful for instance. Given that, the most interesting car was probably a 1955 300SL Gullwing because it surprised me so much. It was about five years ago, and I was surprised how physical the thing was, and how loud. Nice is too difficult a word otherwise for me personally. Maybe a Porsche Carrera GT would qualify as nicest, but if we rate cars in terms of a memorable positive experience, then its the Gullwing.
BadgerBill said:
Mk2 Mx5 jackal?
Really?
Really, really?
BB.
Edited to add; never thought that the owner of one of my favourite 7's would ever have written that... Also, if it was A&T's brg one, on it's aftermarket alloys, I'm even more shocked!
Absolutely.Really?
Really, really?
BB.
Edited to add; never thought that the owner of one of my favourite 7's would ever have written that... Also, if it was A&T's brg one, on it's aftermarket alloys, I'm even more shocked!
Edited by BadgerBill on Sunday 20th March 23:30
Personally, for me, a lot of the FUN of a driving comes from exerting you will onto a car, transcending a car, breaching its limits, commiting an act of violence upon it and being bigger than the actual car is.
Ok, so that's not the only form of fun ... for instance I happen to love it when a car is very obviously a lot bigger than you and makes you feel like its going to kill you every 10 minutes or so. I love the thrust of say a GT2 in 4th gear, listening to the sonics of an aircooled flat 6 at 15mph, going round bends at Mach4 in a slick shod R500.
.... but for the former type of fun, I think its the most satisfying type of fun and the MX5 is just incredible for it because on the public road you can do all those things and spend a large proportion of your time time doing all those things as well. In an MX5 you can scream the thing to the redline in every gear and almost constantly get that deeply satistying feeling that you are extracting the absolute maximum from the car yet you will be travelling at speeds where people will 'just' about refrain from reporting you for dangerous driving on their mobile phone.
Throw into the mix a lovely low down seat, a very agile and inertia-free nimble feeling, a great gearchange, decent steering, fabulously natural balance and a classic 'British' front engined/RWD power-on-oversteer feel and you honestly have a car that is truly wonderful.
Ok, so a 118bhp elise and a Caterham classic on skinny tyres does the same thing ... but an MX5 is what, 2 or 3 grand ? It's also arguably slightly more rounded and softened in response and feedback than those two as well which on the average mutilated UK B road is no bad thing. Finally, no MX5 would be accurately described if you failed to mention the sheer wild abandon and sense of total liberation and psychological freedom that comes from cheap, disposable almost throwaway cars. If you're anything like me you always drive them ever so slightly harder and enjoy them just that tiny bit more.
Of course the conundrum here though is that to fully appreciate something like an MX5 one requires a blind eye to the greener grass; you have to have 'done' the GT2's, the R500's, the Audi engined elises and the 'Norris Designs' 600bhp EVO's !
Edited by jackal on Monday 21st March 00:51
char5 said:
Whats the nicest car you have ever driven?
Back when I was a kid a couple of centuries ago, a schoolmates Dad drove us across Devon in a DB6 Vantage, and it was the first time I can recall a car accelerating hard with a real feeling of sinking-into-the-leather-seats. Was a highly memorable trip, aided by the whole Sean Connery / 007 association at the time.
More recently in 2009, I was given the chance to drive a mates Bentley Continental Supersports.
Now, I've never really been into Bentleys and wasn’t really sure what to expect from this "Granddads sportscar". Initial impressions were that it was an extremely "nice" place to be for sure, and smelt amazing.
But on first approach it looked like it weighed 3 tons, give or take the odd 800kg, and would need an anchor thrown out back to slow it down. Initially it felt like you didn’t really know which county the wheels were in since if was about the size of Kent.
However … despite its Titanic proportions… this thing REALLY shifted, was sofa-comfy, had gods own brakes, and handled too. I was well n truly gobsmacked by it.
Then I found out it had 4WD, adaptive dampers, 650+ bhp, 0-100mph in high 8's, carbon ceramic brakes, 202mph top-end.
Compared to a 911 turbo, or whatever, its overiding impression was one of being an iron fist wrapped in a velvet glove, and a bloody nice car to drive with a whole dose of Britishness.
Edited by Carparticus on Monday 21st March 03:04
For outright epic-ness probably my bosses Merc SLS that I was thrown the keys to a couple of weeks ago, but it was only for a short drive so I didn't really get to experience it fully.
The nicest extended drive was probably the Nissan 350z roadster I had for 6,000 miles around California and its environs a couple of years ago, driving it down route 1 with the roof off, stereo on just made me grin like an idiot for hours.
The nicest extended drive was probably the Nissan 350z roadster I had for 6,000 miles around California and its environs a couple of years ago, driving it down route 1 with the roof off, stereo on just made me grin like an idiot for hours.
The car that put the biggest smile on my face was a hired mk1 Focus 1.6 on a long thrash across the Scottish Borders following an aggressively badly driven BMW 7 series. The Focus kept up so easily even when the BMW was getting seriously ragged it was almost embarrassing. A great car that was always on my side and inspired great confidence.
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