What Car Always Makes You Feel Funny Deep Inside When You See It In Person?

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I know that headline is sort of vague, but I actually do have a specific feeling I’m referring to. This isn’t asking what’s your favorite car, or what car you think is coolest, or would most like to have, or anything like that; I mean a car that has the strange and unique ability to make you pause. A car that, when you see one in the metal-flesh –  a photograph isn’t enough for this particular situation – makes you actively feel things, makes you stop and really take a moment to look at the car, to walk around, it drink it in, your mind wiped clean of any thoughts other than the car in front of you. I know there’s cars that can have this effect on you, and they’re not always the ones you expect.

I’ve felt this with a number of cars. It’s happened a few times when I’ve gotten to go to the Pebble Beach Concurs D’Elegance, for example, and been around that 1934 Voisin C-25 Aerodyne, for example, or, really any number of other cars there.

I know I definitely felt it when I was in the presence of the 1948 Talbot-Lago T26 Grand Sport Figoni Fastback Coupé, and I think you can see and feel the emotion I’m talking about in this video:

I still love the ending of that video.

I do think it’s a bit cheating to pick an incredibly rare one-off for this, though, so I may refine the question to ask of you what car makes you feel gelatinous and shaky and funny and electrified deep within your kishkes that is also a production car.

For me, I think it would have to be either the Jaguar E-Type or the Studebaker Avanti. Oh, or a Tatra T87. At this very moment, for some reason, I think I’m going to say Avanti!

I’m not entirely certain why, but I know every time I’ve been around an original Avanti, I’ve gotten that strange, numinous feeling, a combination of awe and wonder, fascinated by the little details and the overall form, the smell and feel and presence, all at once. It’s powerful and potent and maybe even a bit petulent. I love it.

So, for you, what car have you found yourself near and found yourself affected in ways that perhaps you didn’t expect? What car made you stop in mid-sentence and just walk around it, silently, focused, lost? I want to know!

 

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Mercedes Streeter

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147 thoughts on “What Car Always Makes You Feel Funny Deep Inside When You See It In Person?”

  4. I saw a Toyota 2000 GT recently. It just blew me away. It’s so tiny in real life, and so gorgeous. It really stopped me in my tracks.

  5. With all apologies to Mercedes but any time I see a Smart Fortwo (or a Scion iQ) I get a big goofy grin on my face and some times I even point at it and yell “meep! meep!”. My wife tells me it’s not nice to point but I can’t help myself, they’re just too cute.

    1. Also with apologies, but seeing one elicits an involuntary laugh, not in a cute way but in a clown car way. I’m always expecting 10 people with orange hair to pop out of it.

  6. Almost any odd or low volume car will at least get me looking it’s way, but the one that seems to always Drag me over to ooh and ahh is rather basic compared to some. But any 1965 Riviera gets my attention, a GS with light mods more so. full customs repel me though. I know, weird right.

  7. The cyber truck gave me a good couple of chuckles when I first saw it in person, because jeez is it stupider in person (though quite unique!)

    1. Yeah, it “makes me feel funny deep inside” since I want to throw up when seeing one like I did yesterday; and now it’s on my list as basically the ugliest vehicle/junk ever made

        1. Thanks! Yeah, of course it’s just a stock photo but one of my faves since there’s so many together and the wonderful Easter egg colors…my brother used to have a 68 Superbee years ago so it’s a dream to eventually get one like it in Petty Blue (or any blue) even though they are really expensive it’s one of my favorite cars. I used to have a pic of Steve Urkel w/ his Isetta just because I grew up w/ that show and that car has such interesting history (This site has an amazing article on it) so I’m also getting more into the small, quirky, rare cars on here, some of which I didn’t know about

  8. Might stretch the concept of series production here, but the one time I saw a 1929 Bentley Blower it stopped me in my tracks. Previously, I was aware of them but they weren’t a specific interest of mine. Seeing it in person, it was clearly different and special.

  11. The obvious ones are those I own, the MX-5 is fairly common, but it’s always exciting to see someone out and about because they’re probably equally as excited to have spotted me in return and they’re just such a fun little car to see cruising about. Seeing any of the classic British sports cars that inspired it also brings me joy.

    Seeing a VK Commodore is so rare these days, almost always it is a well kept HDT so they’re always genuinely exciting to see our for their Sunday drives and they inspire me to make headway on getting mine registered.

    Anything rotary also really stirs my soul, but more specifically the Mazda RX-5 Cosmo, I just love these things, they’re gorgeous and I crave one.

    But I’m here, so the real answer is *all of them.* Any car that I don’t see 30 of a day catches me, that little feeling of “Oh, I haven’t seen one of those in ages!” never tires.

  12. I always take pause when I see one in person because of just how much presence a Typhoon has in person. On paper the visual changes from a regular S15 Jimmy aren’t much of anything but in practice it feels like it’s something special in a way that doesn’t translate to the Syclone or it’s spiritual predecessors the Grand National and GNX at all. I think a lot of it is just because of how small a 2 door Blazer actually is even before GMC lowered it and a Mk I GTi-style clipper kit and big fat tires that extend to the edge of the fenders.

    It makes me think of an American equivalent to a Group A rally car every time.

  13. AMC Eagle since they are unique and there’s not as many anymore. My brother used to have 2 of them and they were awesome. It’s like your heart skips a beat then you fall in love w/ the car all over again.
    (He had a silver SX/4 which was so fun and a sedan w/ a trunk- that one wasn’t as good but was still unique)

    1. I had a black SX/4, and drove it for 11 years. I was sad to let it go (engine was okay, suspension system gave after going almost airborne over a few too many frost heaves on the Parks Highway). There were lots of them around here in the day, and there’s one still parked in a driveway not far from me.

  14. Kaiser Darrins. They’re simply beautiful things, and yet somehow always feel slightly out of place wherever they’re parked. The little pouty-lip grill, the 90hp inline six, and of course those oh-so-cool doors that slide straight into the fender. I just saw one at a show last weekend and that experience you’re describing is still fresh in my memory.

  15. This is a fun question…. mostly because of the range of emotions a person can feel.

    Let’s start easy.
    1) The first time I saw an Aston Martin DBS V12 on the street I walked into a telephone pole. My jaw still drops knowing I get to look at one in my garage.

    It was a similar feeling when AM let me stand next to the DB9 at the autoshow in 2003.

    2) the first time I saw a 70 Chevelle wagon I was excited and confused

    3) just pure excitement explains the time I sat in a Ford GT and when I rode in a GT350 at an autocross with a good driver

    Now for some deeper emotions

    4) the love hate relationship with my Mustang GT. I love the car, she hates me, I can’t sell the car because I will regret it. I love wrenching but this car loves to beat me up when I’m wrenching and thus we repeat the cycle.

    5) the giddiness I felt the first time I heard the blow off valve in my old 6.0 powerstroke diesel

    6) the weird feeling I got when I realized I really think the Toyota C-HR crossover is a good looking vehicle especially in higher trims.

    7) the strong opinions and brand preferances on minivans I developed after carpooling to work for 5 years.

    8) my general admiration of modern Kias

    9) my general “meh” feeling about the c8 corvette in all forms (and I was a corvette fan long before I was a mustang fan)

    10) my random obsession with Lincoln Mark VIII’s, especially as no one in my family ever owned one and the closest I ever came was that my dad almost bought my neighbors as my first car but he wanted too much money… so why the hell do I have this interest?

    1. I was 100% with you until you mentioned Kia admiration. Maybe they stir something for you now, but just wait until you own one.

      1. And that’s a fair assessment. My job makes me rent the cheapest car available and I’ve just been pleasantly happy with the Kias, at least in comparison to the nissan and Toyota counterparts

    1. This kind of doesn’t surprise me because you know how the behind the scenes works. My larger question is this better or worse than watching your initial concept for a design get watered down. The follow up to that is do you get excited at all when designers cut loose for limited one offs? Think more like the iococca mustang in the early 2000s or even now that fisher is out on his own.

      1. Tbh I never had anything picked to go forwards, although I did get smaller components and bits and pieces through to production. The thing about concepts getting watered down is really only a public perception – inside the studio stuff that’s going into production is reasonably close from the start of the process. Sketches are usually a little wild but by the time it gets to first clay it will already be within the realms of being feasible.

    2. I think that’s one of the saddest things I ever heard. Honestly, the only thing that makes it worth putting up with the grind is the next unexpected bit of beauty you stumble on, be it a turn of a phrase, a structure, a car, or an extraordinary ordinary object.

    1. I would argue that the GNX was a late to the party End of the Buick Muscle return. Identifying what and where might be the return of muscle seemed to be more in the pony car realm a few years prior.

  19. I always smile when I see the 1998—2010 Fiat Multipla on the road. They’re getting rare, but just the fact that Fiat actually made them this way makes me happy.

  20. NA Miatas. It used to happen far more often, but now as they get more and more rare I see less, and the feeling is amplified as a result. I saw one today with horribly peeling paint, looking like it needs all the work and I was still overjoyed to see its happy face! Its eyes were closed of course, that car looked tired!

  21. Right now, I think it’s gotta be the Cybertruck.

    I don’t want one at all. But I love that they exist in all their insanity.

    The feeling is not desire, but just an appreciation for how weird life can be.

    Here in Southern California, there are enough of them out there that you can see them almost daily, but not enough to be common. So when I spot one on the highway, it looks like someone modded one into reality like it was GTA or something. It just FEELS different, and I am glad they are a real thing.

  22. the first four that came to mind but there are others: Porsche 356 Speedster, Hudson Coupe or a second half of 1930’s Eight Convertible, 1959 Cadillac El Dorado, 1970-ish Nissan Skyline that I have only seen in person maybe three times

  23. I can only recall feeling compelled to stop and stare at a car once. It was a local concours type car show that had the usual row after row of 60s and 70s American or Euro cars…

    And then there was a Duesenberg. That car has serious presence. I don’t know all that much about them so I couldn’t say much about the year or any specific options, but I just had to stop and stare at it. It was just… wow.

  24. It shouldn’t be interesting, it’s really just a bland, forgotten SUV, but every time I see a Kia Borrego I am compelled to say “holy shit a Kia Borrego!”

    I also have a serious thing for the McLaren 720s, which is a much more normal choice.

    1. There’s one around here in that cool copper color! And every time I see it, I’m all “Cool! It’s the Borrego! The ONLY Borrego!”

  25. There are many vehicles that cause this reaction from me, and I think they all share the feature of being old. Something about cars that no longer respect Kelley’s book, blue or otherwise.

    Of course, being old isn’t enough, there’s a certain need for weirdness and either familiarity or mystery. There’s a curve of how much I know about a car vs how much it intrigues me, with a valley in the middle. I think it boils down to a sum of knowledge and curiosity.

    I know air-cooled Volkswagens intimately, and I can’t resist looking at them and picturing the familiar innards, from the pan to the suspension twist beams and backwards longitudinal transaxle, as though I had X-ray vision. This feeling applies to the first-generation Miata, everything on the B5 platform, 2.3L Pinto-engined Fords, 60s Mustangs, and Boxsters. I’d equate this to seeing a magician perform a trick you also learned, or watching a movie whose book you’ve already read. In these cases, I feel a certain way because I know the car.

    If I know the specs but not quite how it all is packaged, I tend to just go “Oh, neat” and move on. Most supercars, as well as other interesting performance things like M3’s, 911s, Evos and the line are neat but I lack the power to see under their skin with my mind, and because I know enough about them to know there’s not that much new to learn in there, I tend to just briefly acknowledge them, see what’s on the skin, maybe check out the dashboard design, and move on. For example, if I see a 996 out on the road, I can apply my X-ray vision to the front half, which is shared with the 986, and I can picture the familiar M96 block out back, but the area between the front seats and engine is opaque, so I usually just picture the engine and move on. Same with the aforementioned M3 and Evo, I picture the S54 or 4G63, my mind fills in the blank with generic transmissions, differentials and suspensions, and I move on. For these, I’d love to know more, but only by acquiring an example and working on it, because while I want the car, the simple knowledge of how it works isn’t in itself an object of desire.

    Now, if I know nothing or very little of a car, or it features a system I’m curious about, I have to stop and see it for myself. I MUST see what’s going on in a Citroen DS’s suspension, I couldn’t pass up a chance to investigate any pre-war weirdness anywhere, and the intricacy of a Bruno Sacco-era Mercedes-Benz will always have me a bit intrigued. In these cases, even if I never even get to sit inside one, I must know just to satisfy my curiosity.

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