Whether it started with the nearly imperceptible shape and accompanying wail of a passing Italian exotic, hours spent staring down the lines of a German poster car, or your first time slogging through mud that no machine should be able to transverse — all the cars of our dreams have their origins.
My first dream car — and most car people will have at least a few in their life time — began to take form upon hearing my first burbley V8. It was a passing sound that is attached to no vehicle in my memory, but it stuck with me. It wasn’t until I saw the lines of a 1966 Pontiac Tempest GTO that the form took shape. When I heard that boisterous engine while staring at a GTO, I knew that car had worked itself into my mind forever.
Since that time, there have been other vehicles that have gotten lodged in my brain. They have included slinky numbers from Italy, brutal turbocharged beasts from Japan and more than a few cheeky British roadsters. In the end, the Pontiac remains.
On so many levels it doesn’t make sense as a car to own. It is from a completely different time when safety was secondary and horsepower was taking its thrown as king in America. To me, part of the point of dream cars is for them to remain just that — an untainted dream.
We want to hear from you. What is your dream car? What caused it to become lodged in your mind? Have you ever owned your dream car? Let us know in the comments below.