Never meet your heroes!

[Not_An_Abba_Fan]

However, as a person who is an unabashed fan of most cars in the golden muscle car era of the 60's and early 70's, having owned several and driven many, I have to say that most of these cars are very much better being looked at or taken out for a nice cruise up beach road on a sunny Sunday afternoon rather than any sort of performance driving.

Are you a driver or a steerer?

Interesting interview with Alan Moffat that I watched a few years ago, he was describing what it felt like to drive an XY GTHO around the mountain. These things were state of the art in their time, and performance driving back then was exactly that. You had to drive the car.

I am the opposite, I like the luxury of todays cars, but given the choice, I'd rather wrestle a 70's muscle car around suburbia. Owned 2 XW's, an XA Coupe, an XB, A VK Valiant, and a 70's Bedford van. Those were the days.

 

[Hertz Donut]

For me it was always the General Lee. And Daisy Duke, of course...

Personally I prefer the more analog feel of older cars, I don't want to be isolated from what's going on, be it good or bad. Our newest car is from 2004 and has most of the bells and whistles but I still get a weird kick out of punting the VS around town with its crashing and banging. Ideally I'd have an '80s touring car homologation special like an RS500, E30 M3 or even a Walkie for a "fun car". The modern stuff will do for relaxing times but I just don't get the thrill from them I do from something that I know is trying to kill me.

 

[Black5]

I grew up loving many of the cars mentioned.
KITT (For the technology really - I was such a geek - LOL)
Smokey and the Bandit Trans Am. (mainly for the Firebird decal)
General Lee - possibly more to do with Cousin Daisy.
Christine (Chrysler Fury) - For the sound! A mate of mine sampled the exhaust note from the opening credits and put it on a Cd so we could play it in loud my "megawatt" sound system in my TX5 and confuse bystanders. (now to find that CD...)
A Countach with a scantily clad lady graced by bedroom wall however - Saw one at a Melbourne Motor Show once, then got taken for a ride as a passenger by a school friend's father in the early eighties and I was hooked. (He apparently had some sort of "relationship" with Kellow Fawkner/GT Lamborghini Distributors at the time I think I recall???) - and he absolutely hammered it. It remains one of the most thrilling moments of my teenage life to this day.
(And yes, if I could find one, and afford one, I'd have one in a second, no matter how horrible to drive it supposedly is.)
Magnum's 308 - Another school friend's dad had one, but it had a special garage under the house and we were allowed in to look at it once, but not touch it, and he certainly wouldn't let any of us teenagers sit in it! Apparently he used to get up early on weekends to drive it. Daily driver was a Camira or something similar. (this was well before Ferris Bueller - LOL). I got to drive one once when I managed to get hold of a used RHD example from a dealer for a few hours in the 90's and gave it a severe thrashing. Left ankle was really sore afterwards due to offset pedals, but I didn't/don't care. Ditto re the Lambo. You can keep the 488 and the FF. I'd still own one of these if I had the opportunity and deal with the discomfort. Only a (totally unobtainable) 288 GTO could trump this one for me...
I just realised - I'm so irrational when it comes to cars.

 

[Not_An_Abba_Fan]

For me it was always the General Lee. And Daisy Duke, of course...

Personally I prefer the more analog feel of older cars, I don't want to be isolated from what's going on, be it good or bad. Our newest car is from 2004 and has most of the bells and whistles but I still get a weird kick out of punting the VS around town with its crashing and banging. Ideally I'd have an '80s touring car homologation special like an RS500, E30 M3 or even a Walkie for a "fun car". The modern stuff will do for relaxing times but I just don't get the thrill from them I do from something that I know is trying to kill me.

Where are these older cars you speak of?

 

[mpower]

I don't know what people imagine when they see old cars - but I'm sure they'd be exactly what I expect them to be.

 

[commodore665]

I was born in 1969 , I kind of had a soft spot for the Pontiac Monkee mobile from the show the Monkee's , and who can forget the Lincoln based Bat Mobile , both built by George Barris if memory serves , as for the General Lee Charger , I actually preferred Boss Hogg's Cadillac to be honest , and also the Dodge Monaco Police Cruiser's, of Roscoe P Coltrane and Enos , ( you dip stick ) .

 

[Darren_L]

I also grew up in that era
Loved the Knight TransAm - had a 1/24 scale model of it. Have another one in a box that I purchased last year that needs building when I get the time

Yeah loved the Bandits Transam
and BJ's K100 Aerodyne Kenworth
I did watch Hardcastle & McCormick, but wasn't a big fan of the Coyote car though. It was a kit car wasn't it ?
I also loved CHiPs Z1 Kawasaki's, Ponch got me interested in bikes.

On the topic of never meeting your heroes. I grew up loving the 1982 GSX1100 Katana. Bought a 1/10 plastic model, dreamed of riding one.
About 10 years I finally got to ride one..... yeah it was mistake. If I hadn't ridden modern bikes, I probably would have enjoyed the experience a lot more. But it was nothing like I expected. Heavy, cumbersome, brakes ordinary.....

 

[Reaper]

Are you a driver or a steerer?

Interesting interview with Alan Moffat that I watched a few years ago, he was describing what it felt like to drive an XY GTHO around the mountain. These things were state of the art in their time, and performance driving back then was exactly that. You had to drive the car.

I am the opposite, I like the luxury of todays cars, but given the choice, I'd rather wrestle a 70's muscle car around suburbia. Owned 2 XW's, an XA Coupe, an XB, A VK Valiant, and a 70's Bedford van. Those were the days.

I love driving great cars however I also consider myself a realist and will always call a spade a spade. The point of it is, that sometimes (often), the idea and expectation we have in our head about something we have a burning desire to own/experience/whatever is very different to the reality that pans out.

 

[Mike Litherous]

I liked those dirty big black JPs bmws of the mid 80's. I was lucky enough to pick up one some years back and after lots of fixing and upgrading the driving experience exceeds what my original expectations were.

 

[Calaber]

I guess I was lucky. I not only met my heroes. I owned some of them.During the 70's I owned two V8 Holdens with the Saginaw four speed trans. It was a heavy and cumbersome box with a gear selector setup that made changing gears feel like stirring concrete with a crowbar according to one journalist

Power steering was an option and seldom fitted to the sports models. They had faster ratio steering than the standard models so the steering was even heavier. The brakes were inadequate and the old cart sprung rear ends needed help to tie them down and behave. Fuel economy? Who cared - petrol was less than 16 cents per litre.

Yes, they were pretty crude by the refined standards of today's cars but God, they were fun and I'd have one in my garage any day.