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!
1960 Ford Starliner. A model only built for two years, with a major refresh after 1960 that – in my opinion – made it look worse.
I started lusting after these upon seeing one on Bring a Trailer a few years back, but didn’t see one in person until last month. The interesting thing is, when one comes up for sale, they’re still a reasonable price.
Okay, 3:
A BMW E23 7 series.
Whenever I see one I stop and ruminate.
Why? I had one as my first car, and my third car….
It’s not because I am obsessed with them (which, I am) but it’s because it makes me feel things. The E23 was such a large part of my young life that it transports me back in time.
Like a song that can transport you back to a moment of your life, a first kiss, a first love, a first loss…. The E23 has taken up some of that role for me.
Sometimes I’ll hear a song and I’ll remind me of driving my 7 series around all night… or I’ll see an E23 7 series somewhere and it’ll make me feel a strong yearning to go back to a time in my life, or feel regret for a missed opportunity, even make me giggle thinking of something that happened in my youth…. Even just a simple feeling of innocence from a brief flashback of slowly drifting that BMW around in snowy parking lots at 1am with the soft red glow of the dash illuminating the cabin around me and the heater blowing full blast on my feet…
I can’t really say there’s a single feeling I get when I see them, but it’s safe to say the E23 makes me feel a whole lot of things.
I didn’t get any weird feelings, but the only Avante I ever saw was growing up in Davis, CA and riding my bike past the home of UCD Mechanical Engineering Professor Paul Moller.
He is probably best known for working tirelessly for over 50 years on the Moller Skycar. Moller M400 Skycar – Wikipedia
(He also started up Supertrapp, a manufacturer of aftermarket exhaust systems for motorcycles.)
The Avante was always in the driveway with some prototype of the Skycar occupying the garage.
This one was from my childhood days: Moller M200G Volantor – Wikipedia
Maserati A6GCS.
The most beautiful car ever made, and make me feel funny in the cockles of my heart when I see one.
51 Muntz Jet convertible; saw bright yellow one at a car show in Napa CA once, could not stop looking at it..
56 Nash Ambassador; Torch could do a column on the art-deco tail lights alone, but the grill is what sticks with me, with the scrunched face look.
Last gen RX7
BMW Z8. Dead sexy and never fails to stop me cold in my tracks. There is one that has made its way out to the cars and coffee at Laguna Seca once or twice. That and who isn’t a sucker for an EB110?
Lancia Aurelia B20 GT coupe. I first saw one in person at the Revs Institute museum, surrounded by vehicles worth many times its value. It just… stuck with me. It’s an absolutely perfect little jewel of a car.
Floyd Dutton’s Miss Ethyl. The only Edsel that will make you confused as to why you think an Edsel is beautiful. It’s like that confusion you had about that friend that one time in college where maybe a couple drinks were had and you weren’t sure what you were feeling about them or if you were feeling it at all….but with an Edsel. Google it.
um…
..the owner of the local Ford dealer had them build his wife a Bronco Wildtrak. What is fascinating to me is the shade of PINK. It’s not Pepto, it’s not Barbie, it’s not salmon. I wanna say Strawberry Shortcake, but no. Not Elvis pink either, not even close to Mary Kay. Nothing ever in car history has obsessed me like this Bronco pink
There’s a lot of cars I feel that way about, but one that comes to mind right away that I have a lot of experience with is the W126 560 SEL. From the moment childhood me first saw the first one my grandmother bought when she retired, I was awestruck. The design of every part and how it all flows together and makes for a car that just feels so special to be in or around. In my teens I drove both of them around a lot, carrying myself with the slightest feeling that I was doing something right with my life. Unfounded, possibly, but I tuned out alright. After my dad buying them they broke a lot, then sat and rotted. I’d love to have one of my own someday, but even then I don’t think I’ll stop ogling every one I see in the wild, taking in the joy of it all, and probably being late for something due to meandering down memory lane.
I need a w126 as well. Good choice.