What were your "attainable" childhood dream cars?

[white_goodman]

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

[white_goodman]

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.

[white_goodman]

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.

[white_goodman]

Let off some steam Bennett said:

Luckily enough to have owned mine, astra gte 16v, sierra cosworth and lancia delta integrale. 2 lived up to my expectations

Out of interest, which one didn't and why? The Integrale and Cossie would have been in my list too but to the best of my knowledge have never been within reach when I've been in the position to buy!

[white_goodman]

cmaguire said:

Virtually all of those old 'dream cars' are only nostalgia items for posing about in at slow speed anyway. Modern stuff would piss all over them without breaking a sweat.
I can see a certain logic to them with our pedestrian attitude towards speed nowadays.

I agree about current pricing for these modern "classics" being crazy and that a lot of these cars wouldn't see which way a new Golf R went but isn't that missing the point? The older cars have presence and offer more involvement by not doing everything for you. For me, it's more about how driving a particular car makes you feel rather than outright speed. Not to say that all these "old" dream cars won't disappoint but despite being a "slow" car by modern standards, my 205 GTi had the presence and involvement down in spades! Personally, I would struggle to make a list of 10+ "attainable" dream cars from the new cars on sale today.

[white_goodman]

TWPC said:

Excellent answer to the 'saloon or estate?' question; top marks.

Congratulations! That's a pretty epic pairing.

[white_goodman]

SidewaysSi said:

Have loads:

- Peugeot 405 GTX 1.9
- Renault 25
- BMW E34 525i (drove and didn't buy)
- Mercedes W124 300E (owned a 220)
- Caterham Superlight 1.6K (currently own)
- Evo VI RS Sprint
- 964 C2 (driven a modified SC)
- Lotus Elise S1 (currently own)
- BMW E36 328i (currently own)
- 205 GTI (owned and sold)
- Mini, the proper one (owned and sold)
- Defender 110
- 968 CS (drove and didn't buy as it was a disappointment)

Sure there are a few more but these were my childhood heroes.

That's a pretty eclectic list but humour me...Renault 25 and Peugeot 405 GTX 1.9? Nothing wrong with the 405 but why not the SRi or Mi-16?

[white_goodman]

Missed this one from my OP. Not sure if these have ever been affordable to me (they're certainly not now) and like the 996 now, I seem to remember a time when everyone was fawning over the 993 and the 964 was the unloved 911 generation. Loved the 964 though, from a time when the 911 still had the narrow body and Porsches still appeared to be over-engineered and mechanically bulletproof. I would have been over the moon with a black Carrera 2/4 but despite not being a fan of the Turbo in other 911 generations, there was something about the 964 turbo (last one with RWD too)?