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Editorial Director Ted Gushue was recently at the Petersen Museum’s grand opening, something, naturally, that we had to talk about as soon as he could. I find the larger museums quite overwhelming; with floors packed with exotic, iconic machinery, it’s difficult to pore over all the details in just one sitting. A car per day is just about my pace.
There are, however, always vehicles that are instantly captivating.
For Ted at the Petersen, the Alexander Calder BMW 3.0 CSL Art Car, a superlative in every sense of the word, was love at first sight. Mine? Porsche No. 1 and the first time I saw a Messerschmitt KR200 are right up there, but mine has to be the 1970 Porsche 917 LH in its “Hippy” livery, parked at the Simeone Museum in Philadelphia.
What car was love at first sight for you?
Image Sources: Ted Gushue, Tommaso Bertotti, wikipedia.org/Porsche-917, wikipedia.org/Porsche_356/1, mad4wheels.com
Walking through Ipswich, England, I heard it before I saw it, a Dino 246 GT. Stunned when it drove by, I gave chase. Thankfully the driver pulled in for petrol and I got as close as I dare. Gob-smacked as they say. Still to this day I’m smitten but thankfully while never owning one I’ve got a few thousand miles under my bum in one. They drive as grand as they look. Also like another person on here, the Ford GT 40. They came with my Scalextric set. This I have owned and what a stunning car they are to own and drive.
I was flying off an aircraft carrier in the South China Sea when I first saw a Datsun ad for their new 240Z. The picture was an overhead shot of a green Z driving across a dry lake in the desert. The shape was perfect, it was a combination of XKE coupe with some styling cues (headlight nacelles) from a MGB GT. I was in love ! When I got back to land, I read more about it and sent my dad $200 to make deposits with both Datsun dealers in San Diego County. I eventually took delivery 3 months after getting home. It was stolen in 1995 but I’m now building its replacement that will be everything I wanted the original car to be but didn’t have the money. What a wonderful car !
For me it was/is the GT40
I remember well when I saw a Citroen 2CV for the first time , I did not understand so well about cars and thought fantastic design that car so small and friendly . It was love at first sight. After almost twenty years got mine and every time knock at him in the garage have the same sensation the first time I saw him
I would say my favorite car on sight was the Porsche 914. I was around 8 yrs old.
It had hidden lights, a removable roof, the unique opening engine cover/grill.
It wasn’t very tall. and seemed like the first car, someday, I could actually buy.
I was always saddened some to often here it was an ugly duck….as I never thought it was….to this day it is still really nice for me.
when i was about 6 years old my family moved to a new house and i remember me and my brother and my sis playing outside with our bicycles when i always just stare at our neighbor Porsche 964 seeing it for the first time and i was just blown away i knew from that moment that i really loved 911’s and he was so generous for letting us inside the car and feel it, i just cant forget that moment!
thanks to Michael Banovsky for an amazing article bringing us lots of good memories.
The Lancia Stratos. Prior to the Stratos, I was a hotrod & Harley guy in the late 60s / 70s… then one dark night in ’75, a shiny red, new Stratos came up along side me. Impossibly small, impossibly lunatic… WTF iszat!!! I didn’t bail out on the hotrods & Harleys for a few more years… but I dreamed of the Stratos… still do after 40 years.