So my best friend from high school and her husband bought a Lotus Elise last fall. I don’t see her but once every couple of months and usually kids are in tow, so she’s driving her Outback. Monday, with both kids and her husband off to Boy Scout camp, she calls me up and asks if I’m up for a road trip. We drove the Lotus from Sacramento up to Donner Lake to escape the heat and had a picnic, drove around and then headed back to town. I was happy just being the passenger.
When we got off the freeway in town she pulled over and asked me if I wanted to drive. Squeee!!! I was like, “Really? Bob won’t mind?” She just said of all her friends, I’m the one who knows the most about cars and drives a stick. And of course when we got back to her house she took pictures.
So, here’s a couple of pictures of me driving her Lotus.
I’m sure many of you have driven (and even own) very cool cars. I’d love to hear about it.
You’ve got me beat by a mile. We garaged my Brother-in-law’s Boxter for several years, and I could drive it whenever I wanted. I thought it was uncomfortable, obnoxiously loud in the cockpit (like any ragtop really), and not all that performant. My ancient BMW 3-series was much more fun to drive.
Cobra. Drove it yesterday. Don’t get it off the rack very often. Makes me grin every single mile when I do. Makes everyone who sees (or hears) it grin, too.
1982 Buick Regal. That’s what my folks bought for my brother to drive when he turned 16 in 1993. He drove me around in it and we put stickers on the glove box. We drove it to the record stores every weekend.
It lasted long enough for me to start driving 2 years later, and I drove it a few times. But being a girl I got fitted with newer used Fords, not big old GM boats.
I friend of mine wanted to show me the toy he bought himself - a brand new (at the time) 2012 Ford GT500.
It was beautiful.
He said “would you like to drive it,” and I said “uhhhh, YEAH!”
It was absurdly powerful - I wanted to pass someone on the freeway, and I was going 90 before I even noticed it. I would be afraid to own a car like that - to expensive, and to ticket-prone.
Tesla Model S. There’s no other car like it–the acceleration is just so instantaneous. I don’t think anyone that drives one can come to any other conclusion than that gasoline cars are dying–maybe not in 5 years, or even 10, but one day, and soon.
It is rather low powered. But since it is very lightweight, it performs fantastic. I read somewhere that it accelerates from 0 to 60 in about 6 seconds which is very hard to beat. That speed compares with a high powered Corvette.
For people who love high performance, the Lotus certainly has that. But it also has the handling characteristics of a top notch European sports car. You must have had one Hell of a time driving that.
I used to own a 1980 RX-7. It was not very high performance. But it certainly ramped up in subsequent years. By the time the RX-7 was produced in 1995 or so, it was an extremely faster car with a much more powerful engine. I would have loved to own one from around that time. Very hard to beat the performance of the RX-7 from recent years.
I drive a 1929 Ford in college (had to sell for $ in senior year). No syncromesh in first - I may be the oldest person to have learned to double-clutch before 18.
In high school, I was a passenger in a freind’s Porsche 911, his dad took us for a spin, that’s what infected me with the love for cars…
Coolest car I have personally driven?
Saturn Sky Redlineconvertible (basically an Opel GT, a car tuned by Lotus), only 260 HP, but the handling was brilliant, stuck to the road like glue, and being able to do 0-60 in around 6 seconds with the top down, well, there’s nothing like it
Hm, I have owned and driven [duh] a nash metropolitan, a tvr vixen, a 75 mustang with a fairly modified engine and an abarthed out yugo.
My absolute freaking favorite? WW2 freshly restored Mercedes staff car. A friend worked at one of the better body shops in the world and had the job of restoring it a number of years back. I was asked not to be too specific when discussing it because the owner wants to remain anonymous so I also can’t specify europe or us … but it drove like a freaking dream [for a huge boat of a car of the time.]
Just Plain Fun: 1983 Fiat X1/9 with an Acura powertrain conversaion.
If I HAD to go with one,it would be the Land Rover Defender that a buddy of mine owns. we spent four days putting that thing through mud, hills. trees, water, and everything else mother nature had. Wow, what a blast.
68 Shelby Cobra Mustang convertible. A car dealer bought it at an auction and paid me to drive it from Portland to Tacoma. Set the cruise control at 70 just after crossing the border and didn’t touch the gas or brake pedel till I hit the off ramp in Tacoma. At the time I wasn’t impressed, I was driving a 64 Mercury Comet with a 428 stuffed under the hood. Saw a car exactly like that one sell at a Barrett Jackson auction a few years ago for $275,000.
I worked for Harold LeMay, a noted collector of cars for about a year and got to drive a lot of neat cars including a Tucker. The Shelby was still the best.
