What's your fetish?

[warren t claim]

Ever since I can remember there have been certain "things" that do it for me. 

 

As a small boy I was obsessed with cars that had push button door handles and separate side lights, both items missing from the Mk1 Granada that was our family car at the time. Later on I forged my lifelong fondness for anything with a column change gearbox, both auto and manual. In my early 20s saloon cars with rear wipers like the 306 Sedan and early high spec 1991 Ford Orions gave me the horn. Nowadays any four door economy car with flip out rear windows has me nipping home for a cold shower.

 

So that's my confession over with. Your turn now.

[JohnK]

Quad headlights I.e BMW

 

Vertical rear lights clusters particularly MK3 escort

 

I'm a steering wheel freak...a steering wheel design can make or break a car for me and it's well known I will change a shit wheel for one I prefer from the same model but higher spec, different age etc. ..

[warren t claim]

 

Vertical rear lights clusters particularly MK3 escort

 

 

Estate?

[JohnK]

Estate?

Hatch. ..where the cluster is horizontal but light design is vertical...see also mk4 Escort, pre facelift E30, Talbot Solara etc. ..

[eddyramrod]

American.  I love a pillarless hardtop, especially with four doors; a style made nowhere else, and even in the US only for 20 years or so.  Add in the big soft seats, a RWD V8 and a column-shift automatic and I'm riding on Cloud 9.  Could it be better?  Yes: add fins.

[sierraman]

A pair of 21 year old attractive lesbians that fancy a three way in an Travelodge.

 

Other than that it’s one of the mythical black bumper Mondeo mk1s they sold on the continent.

[Ohdearme]

Don’t shoot but I’d never say no to a Mk2 Cavalier Calibre...Vauxhall were my growing up cars (Viva, Cav mk1,2,3) and as a result I have a fetish for not having blank switches to remind you, that you possess a POV spec model.

 

Extended as far as me retro fitting heated seat mats and switches in my mk3 cav cdi...mmm, I miss my blue velour upholstery now...

[RayMK]

Three cylinder 2 strokes because of the smooth sound they made under acceleration.....but then I heard about Tatra's air cooled V8s (4 strokes, of course) and was spellbound.

 

From an early age I had Meccano sets but never built the models in the instruction books.  Instead, suspension design fascinated me and I was still pulling Meccano chassis either running or behind my bike when 11 years old in order to test suspension.  It was a fetish that none of my friends had and caused me to be considered a bit weird.  I regarded that as a compliment.  

[bramz7]

Good seats. I never used to find it an issue, but if the seats are bad, i will sell the car. I also like non mingebag spec now, again never used to be an issue but having had so many cars in such a short time, I find pov models really dull. Guess I just like buttons. Sometimes they even work.

 

I do like something that sounds nice too, although being drawn to older diesels I do like one which has a fairly whistley turbo, I want to know it's on boost. If its a petrol, I want the whole car to shake when it hits its peak power. 

[MorrisItalSLX]

Estate cars. I have always been a huge fan of a nice station wagon. From the Volvo 240 to the Holden Kingswood to the Mercedes W123 to the Toyota Camry. I want them all!

 

I also love a nice steering wheel, the less spokes the better (Citroen single spokes are pure pornography). But I detest aftermarket steering wheels though.

 

Number plates are also very important, but often overlooked, aspect of a car. British number plates should always be in a period correct font, preferably raised digits, and Australian plates should also be up to specification (I won’t bore you with the details!).

[ChinaTom]

Leccy windows is mine. Growing up with decent spec BL cars then poverty spec furrin cars, placcy winders would have to be carefully used to try and pretend the old man had ticked the option box.

 

The fascination lived on with the position of the switches, the thought behind the decision on why to locate them wherever.

 

Favorites are obviously the Alfa roof mounted switches for the airline pilot look at toll booths. The Megan’s RX4 rears being down by the driver’s right knee. BMW 8 series rear passengers not having any switches at all. Pug 604 rears on the shelf. Renault 21 and Pug 405 rears on the trans tunnel and perfect for being twatted by size 10s as they shuffle along the bench.

 

Lancia Y10 LX spec had Leccy rear hinged windows. Spent an hour at a Lancia stand at a local car show just marveling at this. I know BMW Compacts has this, as did the Fiat Ullyse.

 

I was also fascinated in the little blank rear isolation switches - usually little blank buttons. Sierra, Stellar GSL, BMW, Granada, Senator etc.

 

It’s all a little boring now with door arm-rest mounted switch packs.

 

Am I to understand that the top end Fiat Stilo Multiwagons has roof mounted switches? Heard a rumour but never bottomed it out.

 

Has anyone here ever had the pleasure of operating the sliders on a certain Datsun Sunny Coupe?

 

Or had the pleasure of lowering and raising that tiny window on a 929 coupe?

 

I know I have a problem....

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[skattrd]

I have a list, pop-up headlights, single wipers, but possibly the worst is shooting breaks.

The Lotus Elite is very high on the wantometer.

[Sir Snipes]

Pop-up headlights for me too, but only single squares so not Corvette Sting Rays, MX5s, Ginettas etc.

Also headlight wipers. Some Silvia s12s had both! How crazy is that?

 

[dollywobbler]

Pop-up headlights for me too, but only single squares so not Corvette Sting Rays, MX5s, Ginettas etc.

Also headlight wipers. Some Silvia s12s had both! How crazy is that?

 

Indeed. A Sylvia with pop-up headlamp wipers will be going in the next issue of Retro Japanese.

 

I think a fetish has to be more than something you just like, or this will just end up being another 'design features you like' thread. A fetish must border on the obsessive, which is wipers full stop for me. Always has been. I would make wiper layouts with drinking straws, bits of twig or Lego as a child. It was a great age to grow up, because buses in particular had fascinating wipers that often behaved in strange ways. Especially if air powered.

 

Also, lights that change colour - the reverse light on a pre-facelift SD3 is red until you reverse, then it turns white. I was fascinated by this trick as a child.

[Split_Pin]

White/yellow numberplates with clipped on lettering, particularly if they are scruffy.

 

Any European car from about 1970 to 1976 with the appearance it would have had in 1990. I loved spotting such cars and for some reason that was a year where I was looking back to cars which were common in the early 1980s. Can a 10 year old be nostalgic?

[Rocket88]

Lotus Carlton...............

[Timewaster]

I'm not as bad as DW but I do have an uneasy feeling when I see wipers with uneven patterns or badly adjusted so they flop off the edge of the screen.

I think the worst culprit is the Allegro where the passenger side wiper appears to do a bigger sweep than the drivers.

Mercedes 190 wiper sweep is hypnotic.

 

Like flip down sun visors, wipers are a technology I can't believe hasn't been improved upon yet. Is that still the best we can do? A squeegee on a stick?!

[New POD]

Don’t shoot but I’d never say no to a Mk2 Cavalier Calibre...Vauxhall were my growing up cars (Viva, Cav mk1,2,3) and as a result I have a fetish for not having blank switches to remind you, that you possess a POV spec model.

 

Extended as far as me retro fitting heated seat mats and switches in my mk3 cav cdi...mmm, I miss my blue velour upholstery now...

Calibre. I always wanted one. Had a 1.6 gl

1.8 cdi auto

1.8 sri

all 2 previous owners

and eventally a

Calbre which was the biggest disappointment ever.

Mind you with a zillion previous owners and so many bodges and con rods made of butter it was never going to go well.

I thought it looked like a million dollars. Everyone else thought it looked like shit apart from paid up members of the mk2 cav club who hated the fact that it had a leather calibra interior.

[Tayne]

Leccy windows is mine.

Lancia Y10 LX spec had Leccy rear hinged windows. Spent an hour at a Lancia stand at a local car show just marveling at this. I know BMW Compacts has this, as did the Fiat Ullyse.

 

 

The e46 coupe (and probably later BMw coupés as well) have electric rear windows.

The rearmost part is pushed outward when the motor winds a threaded rod, and the front part is on a piano hinge (covered by trim of course).

[davehedgehog31]

Central armrests, neither of my fleet have one either.

[Sir Snipes]

American. I love a pillarless hardtop, especially with four doors; a style made nowhere else, and even in the US only for 20 years or so. Add in the big soft seats, a RWD V8 and a column-shift automatic and I'm riding on Cloud 9. Could it be better? Yes: add fins.

Plenty of Japanese 4-door pillarless, though not sure if any were hardtops or just sedans?

[Paul Dupart]

Austin Westminster Farina fins/rear lights.

 

Triumph Stag front grill and lights.

[Christine]

Chopped off Kamm tails , perspex faired headlights, HB 2 door Vivas and droopsnoot HCs . Fastbacks too

[Twiggy]

Pre-select gearboxes. 

[HMC]

I jetwash the wheelarches of every car I buy almost immediately. I love seeing huge clumps of mud and dirty water dripping out of them. I Feel a sense of relief.

[yellowperil]

Coke bottle styling does it for me everytime, especially on a two door

Coupe, that with proper rwd offset wheels, perfect.

[chaseracer]

American.  I love a pillarless hardtop, especially with four doors; a style made nowhere else, and even in the US only for 20 years or so.  Add in the big soft seats, a RWD V8 and a column-shift automatic and I'm riding on Cloud 9.  Could it be better?  Yes: add fins.

Plenty of Japanese 4-door pillarless, though not sure if any were hardtops or just sedans?

 

France, too: Facel Vega Excellence...

 

 

Fins on the earlier ones, just for you Eddy!

 

[New POD]

Poverty spec cars with pop up head lights.

[theorganist]

I always loved the smell of newish Fords of the 80's they seemed to have a unique smell which I cant put my finger on.

 

Also central locking, the first car I had with it I was always going outside to play with it, I loved the sound of it!

[Pillock]

 

 

I always loved the smell of newish Fords of the 80's they seemed to have a unique smell which I cant put my finger on.

 

 

I'm so glad you said that. It's unmistakable.

Obviously unless you buy a new car every week or work in a dealer it's hard to keep yourself topped up, but a place I used to work at had packaging made with the same glue, or foam, or whatever it was that smelled. I just used to sit with my head in the boxes thinking of Sierras and Granadas.