Wheelerguy's 21 road cars for 21 years of living

"Wheelerguy" (wheelerguy) 10/01/2018 at 08:45 • Filed to: Musings, Listicles, Car Lists

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In a slightly drawn-out countdown to my birthday, I shall now list down cars, in groups of 21, that I consider my favorites. In no particular order:

Jaguar XFR-S Sportbrake

There are faster wagons and better wagons, but none of them is a Jaaaaaag. It’s why this car is right up there with one of my preferences. Beautiful, yet simple, the only reason why I’d prefer the blue over a muted colour is because it pops like no other wagon.

Nissan GT-R (R35)

The R35 floored me during the first World’s Greatest Drag Race, and since then I closely followed the GT-R as it came of age. While I think the 2017 car looks better, the 2011 car was the first to make its mark on me. It’s faster than a rocket, corners like it’s being chased by a legitimate race car, and doesn’t give two shits about who it’s up against. Beast.

Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X FQ-440

Yes, I’m a Lancer EVO fanboy. But that’s because I gravitated to the EVO first back in my childhood, when I got a Tomica model of the Evo IV. The Evo X, however, is almost everything I want, and that particular model takes it to the next level. The base EVO is the car I most want to own.

Porsche 911 Singer-Williams DLS

A consistent preference of mine is the most powerful, top-of-the-line version of the car. And that Singer, co-created with Williams F1, is arguably the best of its kind yet. Look at it. Man I wish I can afford that thin

Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Super Sport

After seeing its world-record run, the Bugatti’s spot in my heart is secured. I was already mighty-impressed with it in games, but the car is even more of a revelation in real life, according to accounts. Ultra-fast, super luxurious, and its entire story is some Skunk Works shit. Even today, I am still impressed.

Ford Mustang Shelby GT500

Before the Dodge Challenger Hellcat came along this was the only muscle car that impressed me. I didn’t like the Camaro, and the Challenger has yet to achieve its final form back when the GT500 was king. And it was the king. Before it killed people, that is. The Ford Shelby GT500 is the Mad King of cars.

Aston Martin DBS V12

First: Quantum of Solace was a brilliant film. Second: the Aston Martin DBS is absolutely sexy. Then they both happened at the same time. Easy to see why it makes my list.

Mazda RX-7 (FD)

While a late love, the FD RX-7 intrigued me greatly, and was the car I often chose in arcade cabinets here in Manila (but not my “main” pick; that’s the NSX). And then I saw Mr. Regular review it. That pretty much sealed the deal for me.

Ford Fiesta ST

While I said that the EVO X is the car I most want to own, I wouldn’t knock the Fiesta ST, one of the biggest automotive revelations of the decade, out of the bed. It helps that the ST is pretty much Oppo’s official subcompact, and because I have pledged my allegiance to this site, it is only proper that I aspire to own this somebay, or modify a base Fiesta to get to this point.

Porsche 911 GT3RS 4.0 (997)

Beyond being the car I used most often in Real Racing 3 back in its early days, the RS 4.0 just screams “ultimate”. Grippy, fast, uncompromising, and also comes in manual. It’s the kind o car that gets spoken in myths, except it’s real.

Lancia Stratos

Mid-engine exotics that rally are a rare breed, which is why Lancia just rules. They have the 037, that beat Audi in the cut-throat Group B class, and the Stratos, pretty much the first to nail the formula. I love it, because it’s small but spunky, and because it’s a rally car, it can go anywhere. One day I’ll have that and Singer-fy it.

Lexus LFA

Let its V10 do the talking.

Honda NSX

The McLaren F1 owes its life to the NSX, a legend among JDM. Ayrton Senna helped build it, and drove it round Suzuka as if it’s his own chariot. Its interior is perfect. Its VTEC checked out. But as a package, the OG NSX is incomparable. No wonder the sequel (which I thought was good) took so long.

Volvo 850R

Well-known as the BTCC’s fastest brick, the 850R is what got me in Jalopnik in the first place, and I haven’t looked back since. And then James May drove it to Africa. That elevated this wagon to hero status.

Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG-S Wagon

Despite the Audi RS6 being faster, it was the Merc that hit me first. A longroof that can keep up with supercars while cocooning its occupants in luxury? Why not?

Jaguar E-type

Or maybe I like the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! more? I don’t even know anymore. They’re both too stunning.

LaFerrari

The McLaren P1 laps faster. The Porsche 918 Spyder is more advanced. Koenigseggs will shit on it ten times out of 10, and Ferrari, as a company, are villains. But as makers of cars, they’re nothing less than the best, and the LaFerrari, lighter and more powerful than either of the former two and more alluring than the latter, spoke to emotion rather than reason; it went for my heart than my head, like every Ferrari does.

BAC Mono

Admittedly, it helped that Jeremy Clarkson sold this car to me so bloody well I forgot that it’s had teething problems over the years, but the BAC Mono intrigues me like no other car that I consider my favorite. It captured my imagination, and made me think of what-if scenarios once I got my hands on the car. The Mono is a modern icon, at least from my point of view, and if I had the money I would ask for more, as well as a spec racing series.

Aston Martin V12 Vantage S 7MT

!!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! is the first of its kind I read, and soon I was immediately infatuated. It’s a super-tourer of the fastest kind, able to fight supercars in its time while still providing Bond-tier touring capability. Now it’s gone, but before it went the car got 600hp and the manual transmission retur ned to prove that this is still one of the world’s best cars to drive. At the least, this is one of a kind.

Ferrari 458 Italia / Speciale

!!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! It pretty much tells the story of how I fell—and stayed—in love with what I think is Ferrari’s best V8 car.

McLaren F1

Based on empirical evidence, however, the McLaren F1 is still the king. Nothing can touch its 240mph top speed unless you use forc ed induction, and few boast of three seats with centre seating for the driver. Gordon Murray’s brilliant design stood the test of time, and is still revered to this day, even as more capable machines have been made since. !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and out of every mid-engine supercar since the Lamborghini Miura, it’s the only one to win Le Mans. Everything else pales in comparison to the mighty F1.

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Amazingly enough, there are still 21 more cars from all sorts of eras and classes that I have yet to list down, because I’m strange like that, and it will come tomorrow, same time as now.

I shall now pass the ball to you: what’s your 21 great cars?

Mini Guy- Now has a 4Runner > Wheelerguy 10/01/2018 at 09:33

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can we include racecars that we want to drive on the street? yes? ok

1. Ferrari 250 gto

2. Mini Cooper jcw R53 (becau se you know)

3. Radical RXC Spider

4. Bentley Co ntinental GT

5. bmw m3 e46

6. Ferrari F2004 bc it was my first f1 race i watched

7. Bac Mono

8. uhhhhhhhh

Wheelerguy > Mini Guy- Now has a 4Runner 10/01/2018 at 09:37

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Race cars are coming to a different list. 

  > Wheelerguy 10/01/2018 at 09:50

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My 21 cars from my own 21 years

1. BMW 850CSi

2. Ford GT

3. Citroen SM

4. BMW E63 M6 6s p

5. Mercedes CL55 AMG

6. Ferrari 812 Superfast

7. and the original Superfast

8. Mercer-Cobra Roadster

9. V10 Audi RS6 Avant

10. Toyota J80 Landcruiser

11. Spyker C8 Preliator

12. Porsche Carrera GT

13. Lincoln Continental Mark V

14. Ferrari 456 6sp

15. Safari Porsche 930

16. C10 Skyline GT-R

17. Mazda Cosmo JC

18. Last gen Dodge Viper

19. Jaguar XJ12

20. KTM XBow

and finally :

21. My 330Ci, which at this point in my life is everything I have ever wanted

Wheelerguy >   10/01/2018 at 10:21

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Oftentimes t he best car is the one you own. That Bimmer is a good choice. 

bhtooefr > Wheelerguy 10/01/2018 at 15:44

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I’ll go in chronological order. I’m sure I’m missing a lot...

1908 Fritchle Victoria Phaeton

I wanted to get an early BEV in here, and the one that actually managed a road trip from Lincoln, NE to New York, NY in 1908 ? That’s a good one. One of the longer-range early EVs (at 100 miles, compared to the 50-80 more typical of the class), with emphasis put on light weight, and with regenerative braking (which many at the time lacked).

1915-1922 Owen Magnetic

I believe the pictured car may have been the first application of the power split electric transmission concept, although it did it purely through magnetic gearing, rather than the much more common planetary gearing of Toyota, GM, and Ford hybrids. Clever as fuck, that thing.

~1929-1939 Morgan Super Sports

Why settle for a modern imitation when you can go for the original? (The 1928 is ugly to me, though.)

1934-1935 Tatra 77

The Tatra 77 arguably pushed the state of the automotive engineering art ahead by decades, with its streamlining, and I love that about it.

1955-1975 Citroën DS

It’s beautiful, really, and it pushed suspension technology forward in ways that were never really bettered, except maybe by air suspension. (I haven’t driven a DS, though.) And, it’s just weird .

1958-1961 FMR Tg500

Quite a lot of people adore the Isettas, I instead adore the Messerschmitt KR200 and FMR Tg500. I went for the Tg500 because, well, four wheels is better than three, and it’s the sports model !

1959-1963 DAF 600

I find the DAF 600/Daffodil/750 design just adorable, and its contributions to automotive drivetrain technology are... either you like them, or you absolutely despise them. I happen to like them. (Those contributions being effective CVTs - purely centrifugally shifted ones, even with a torque ramp (as found on scooters even today), aren’t anywhere near as effective as the vacuum-sensitive CVTs that DAF used.)

1966-1988 Wartburg 353

I actually like the 353's styling, but I find it impressive how effective they were at taking a 1930's design, and bringing it solidly into the 1960s, with the limited resources available in East Germany. Basically, this is the alternate universe Audi 80/90/4000 (it’s actually descended from the same common ancestor, the DKW F9, although much more closely related) - instead of a 1.8 inline 4 with 90 ish hp or a 2.1-2.2 liter inline 5 with 110-120ish hp, you get a 1.0 2-stroke inline 3 with 45-55 hp.

For whatever reason, I actually like it quite a bit better than most of the other communist nations' attempts at peoples' cars.

1976 Porsche 912E

Take everyone’s favorite daily-dri vable German aircooled class-buster (is it a sports car? is it a grand tourer?), take out the frills and the comparatively complex engine, and put a lighter weight, simple family car engine in it. What more do you want? (Annoyingly, these are fully infected with Porsche aircooled pricing too.)

1980-1986 Renault 5 Turbo

Take your average 1970s French econobox.

Take its small 4-cylinder longitudinal mid-engine FWD powertrain, turn it around, and put it in the back, to get a 4-cylinder longitudinal rear-mid-engine RWD car.

Put a big-ass turbo on it.

Actually sell it to the public, as a homologation special.

1984-1988 Chevrolet Corvette

I know, they weren’t actually that good. But, I’ve always liked the C4 styling, and this was when GM was trying so desperately to be seen as technologically advanced, with things like digital dashboards and automatic overdrives on 4-speed manuals. It’s so “the malaise era is really over for real now, trust us!”

1990-1993 GM Dustbuster vans (Trans Sport/Lumina APV/Silhouette)

I don’t know what it is about these, but I actually really like what they did with the styling. By all accounts, these aren’t the best minivans, but they’re the most interesting-looking ones, and the Buick 3800 could be had in some of them, so...

1990-1999 Subaru Sambar

IMO, this is quite possibly the pinnacle of kei van/truck technology - Subaru was trying so many things, and this was the limit. The subsequent generation actually had worse powertrain options, and the generation after that was just a rebadged Daihatsu.

1992-1996 Ford F-150, 300 I6, manual, long bed, regular cab

The configuration is important (although I’m pretty sure the photo isn’t of that exact powertrain, I see what looks suspiciously like a column shifter, and that gen didn’t have a column-shifted manual), because I’d argue that this is the last honest American full-size truck, that isn’t trying to be a performance vehicle or a luxury vehicle. Simple and torquey, focused on work, but slow... but it’s a truck, it’s not supposed to be fast.

1993-1994 Autozam AZ-1/Suzuki Cara

This is not the best of the kei sports cars. (That would be between the Beat and the Cappuccino.) This is, however, the best looking of the kei sports cars. Therefore, it is my favorite. (It’s also the one that I’m least likely to be able to drive - if Jeremy Clarkson can fit in a Beat, I can, but this, I’m probably too tall for.)

1994-1996 Buick Roadmaster Wagon

Much as I have the contemporaneous F-150 as the last honest truck... this is the last American family car. Have a giant boat, on a frame, with a big V8, enough seats to carry a large family, and enough space in the back with the seats folded down to make the family larger . And that big V8 is a detuned Corvette engine (same engine code anyway).

1998-2000 Toyota Prius

This one’s gonna get me a lot of hate... but it was ultra-conservative Toyota getting scared by a loss of marketshare (under 40%!), panicking, and trying something new. Oh holy shit did they try something new... and it actually worked , even (although this very first version didn’t work well, but they stuck with it - the facelift version sent worldwide for MY2001-2003 was much better, and the second generation for MY2004-2009 was a completely different car (based on the same hardware)). Really, there’s parallels to the modern era of Toyota, although they’re not doing as well at trying something new.

2002-2004 Volkswagen Passat W8

This one gets a video instead of a photo, because the video shows the entire reason I have it on the list.

I’ve learned to hate Volkswagen, and that was from owning Golfs and a Jetta, not the absurdly overcomplicated Passat W8. I would despise owning this car.

It wasn’t even that good - the later B6 Passat 3.6 VR6 was, on paper, better in every way.

But yet... the song of its people is inspiring.

2011-2012 Lexus LFA

Yeah, I’m just gonna steal this one from you (I’ll at least use a different photo), because I love the song of its people, and if this is what happens when Toyota’s desperate, Toyota should be desperate more often.

2014-2016 Tesla Model S P85D

The Model S is not my favorite Tesla product, and I have no interest in buying a Performance model.

However, I feel that this model is the single car that changed the most minds about electric cars, and therefore the sheer impact is what gives it a spot on the list.

And, why the P85D specifically, instead of the original 2012 cars? Sure, the RWD cars were quick - I’ve ridden in an early Model S 60 (so early it was originally ordered as a 40, with the software lockout on the battery) full of people, and the damn thing moved - but the P85D is what took it from quick to world-beating.

2017+ Tesla Model 3

Well, if I just said that the Model S isn’t my favorite Tesla... I guess I have to put this thing in (because it is my favorite so far, even if there’s a dealbreaker that prevents me from rushing out and ditching my Prius for one (namely, the trunk instead of a liftback)). Is it the perfect car? Far from it. Is it good? Holy shit yes, after having driven a friend’s Dual Motor.

wkiernan > Wheelerguy 10/01/2018 at 16:13

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The ones I’m think of are different than the poster’s list; they’re all a lot cheaper and more common. But if you gave me one of those cars, I’d sell it, whereas I’d keep any of these 21 as long as I could . Here goes : Citroen DS, VW Type 1, Alfa Giulietta Spider , Lotus Elan, SAAB 93/ 96/95, Chevrolet Corvair, Ford Mustang, Buick Riviera, Volvo 1800ES, Jaguar XK6, MB 230/250/280SL, BMW 2002, Datsun 510, Mazda RX-7, Honda Prelude, Mazda Miata, Toyota C orolla , Toyota Prius , Lotus Elise, and a while I’m dreaming a couple of kinda pricey new ones: Porsche 911, Tesla model S.