Its never gonna happen...

[Mr Lobster]

It might just be me, or the rest of you might get the same feeling but sometimes, I'm sat there reading something - although C&SC is best for bringing the feeling on - and reading the articles and looking at the pictures gives me a certain wistful feeling of some sort of regret or sorrow that I'll never actually get to own some of the really nice cars featured or experience them as they should be.

 

For example, I'll probably never get to drive something like a Lancia Flaminia on a late summers day on a deserted Tuscan backroad, I'll never get to own and appreciate a Ferrari F40, never be able to breeze around 1960's rural France in a Simca Chambord enjoying the warm sun and scenery, be able to wander at leisure around a 1980s Renault dealership marvelling over new R18s and 30s or just cruise around 1950s America in a big wobbly Yank. In a similar vein I'll never be able to stroll around the teak decks of some classic ocean liner wearing a panama hat.

 

The realisation that none of the above will never happen is a little sad.

 

I'm sure it can't be just me?

 

 

 

[whitevanman]

I know exactly what you mean, I also get it at some car shows

[Cavcraft]

Absolutely. However it's possible to console yourself that one day you'll drive your dream shite car. Kid you not I often imagine cruising round leafy Cheshire lanes in an immaculate ADO16 (Morris version) just sort of bumbling along admiring the view.

It might not be on par with crusing down the Riviera in a DB5 with some right nice bit of flange on your arm but it's something achievable.

[chaseracer]

Total empathy here too, my crustacean friend

 

It just makes it all the more important to enjoy the here-and-now, so that in the future (when cars are electric and fossil fuels run out, etc. etc.) we can look back fondly at our experiences and remark on how young people don't know they're born and wouldn't appreciate a Morris Ital if they fell over one...

[ashmicro]

 

+

 

Antrim Coast Road

 

 

=WIN!

[VWPowered]

my problem is there are to many cars i'd like to own

[Torsten2001]

If I were you I'd just revel in the things have have done and will do. I have driven F40's and Alfas in Tuscany and to be honest I'm right there with Cavette in that I long to drive an ADO16 if not in Cheshire then maybe Ireland. I'm sure you've had experiences that will far outweigh the sheer ball ache of owning a highly strung super car!

[Mr Lobster]

Don't get me wrong, I'm happy with what I've got. For a long time I fancied a R4 van modified to what I wanted it to be and I've got it now and enjoy it very much. Theres plenty I've done automotively speaking that I've really enjoyed - sunrise on a French autoroute at a pleasingly rapid pace towards the sun springs to mind as one example.

 

But there is that part of me that really wishes I'd been able to experience an earlier generation of cars back in the day when they were new.

 

Still, if my son grows up to wish he'd blown the engine on a Mondeo ST24 accelerating very hard on the A56 one winters evening, I can tell him exactly what its like

[ChinaTom]

or do something similar to what I hope to do:

 

Choose one scenario and spent the next 10-20 years or so planning it informally - I swear half the enjoyment is in fact the fantasy - and when the kids have moved out / gone to university etc etc, do it. Or as close to it as you can. It need not cost a fortune, and by this time we (we're about the same age I think) should even be able to afford it.

 

I have three basic ideas for myself (and I always use C&SC etc to fuel the fantasy):

 

1) As my specific industry will be reborne in Cuba round about this time, I shall be very involved in it's redevelopment having studied it in micro-detail for the last few years; write my book about that industry, it's amazing history, lot's of small details that will flesh out a lot of Castro / Guevara history too. I shall drive a lada engined yank of some type around the whole island talking to the people before they get too old to remember.

 

2) Drive the Jag throughout South America so my missus can see the Inca stuff

 

3) more or less the same as your idea Mr. Pinchy

 

Just maybe, it might happen.

[Formula Autos]

A supposed 'dream drive' that's never going to happen to me is one from a recent issue of Practical Classics - a Lambo Espada towing a caravan across Europe.

 

It's not because I can't afford it though (I can't in any case), but because something tells me it's just deeply, deeply, wrong. Supercars (even four seaters ones) just shouldn't be subjected to towing caravans.

[Pete-M]

I was watching the intro to the Italian Job last night and I've decided that my mission for 2011 is to drive around Europe for a week or so in something a bit more nimble than the Jag (and a tad more fuel efficient).

 

My list of roads to do is the Stelvio Pass, the Nurburgring, an Italian Job run around the Italian Alps, up to Czech and then back via as many WWII locations as I can be bothered with.

 

I don't know what car I'll take, but it'll have to be under £2.5k to buy, over 200 bhp, a decent motorway cruiser but good at being thrashed up and down mountain passes, have comfy, preferably leather seats and working aircon. It there's a chance that it could tow the Escort back from Czech on a trailer, that would be a bonus, but it would mean that it would have to weigh over 1500kg to meet German and Czech towing restrictions. I'd buy the trailer in Czech or Germany so I wouldn't have it on the way out.

 

I'd consider another Audi A6 quattro Avant, but that would mean a V6 diesel one, and they're not pokey or reliable enough. Never know, the SD1 may get the job.

[Guest Leonard Hatred]

Rover 600ti

[Pete-M]

Rover 600ti

 

I'm not a fan of them, but one would fit the bill. I'd probably get an Impreza Turbo before I went for the 620ti though.

 

Legacy Turbos keep grinning at me from ebay. I don't like Jap stuff, but a good Legacy Turbo wagon might just be all the car I ever need.

[Guest]

Just set your sights low, I aspire to driving a Ford Sierra 1.3 Base around Heckmondwike so I'll be alright.

[lancashireclamper]

As a child one of my must do ambitions was to drive a Ford Mustang around San Fransisco in the style of Steve Mcqueen;

Never happened of course, like all the other must do's of my youth but last year I stumbled across a classic car hire company in the Midlands that had a mid sixties Mustang on the fleet, hired it for the day and that was that, not exactly San Fran but had a lot of fun, sometimes dreams have to be adapted to suit other considerations in life so I try to hold onto mine in a flexible way, of course the other idea I had regarding the young Gillian Blake from Follyfoot and 36 gallons of peach melba yoghurt is still very much on the starting grid.

[Justin Case]

It might just be me, or the rest of you might get the same feeling but sometimes, I'm sat there reading something - although C&SC is best for bringing the feeling on - and reading the articles and looking at the pictures gives me a certain wistful feeling of some sort of regret or sorrow that I'll never actually get to own some of the really nice cars featured or experience them as they should be.

 

I'm sure it can't be just me?

 

 

And is it also just me that has the same feeling when they see something really nice on the road? Co-incidentally I had that 'it will never be me' feeling when a silver Mercedes Pagoda SL wafted by me on the M5 yesterday, doing an effortless 80 or so mph, it looked stunning even in West Bromwich Frustratingly, I suppose that if I really wanted to I could run to a low-spec high-mileage R107 (its successor) but one of those just isn't the same.

[pompei]

I've just been perusing a copy of What Car that FIL sent me and found the whole thing deeply depressing. Everything they tested was flawed in one way or another, from the Perodua to Porsche. My motoring ambitions are pretty modest I've realised - something that can get past a bumbling git in a 35 mph Kia and not give me backache in the process is ok by me.

[CIH]

I've never aspired for expensive cars but I'll probably never do interesting stuff like drive route66, pan-america highway, Tokyo city streets at night etc. Stuff like that. I probably could, but TBH, probably couldn't be arsed. So I lament my own lazyness....

[seth]

I'm a bit pissed that a trip I had long wanted to do, and looked like it would happen last year then fell flat due to a work project not progressing as it should have (I think the banking meltdown got to the guy a bit so orders dried up...) We'd even got as far as planning route, what size RV to hire etc. It may be a long while before we can spunk several thousand quid on a holiday now.

 

Mostly this

 

Bonneville Speed Week 2010 by numnuts, on Flickr

 

with some of this

 

 

and other stuff added for good measure.

 

Obviously I enjoy what I am doing now, it really is fun messing about with daft old cars, and I live partly in hope that some of my other wishes may come true.

[Renault18]

For example, I'll probably never. . .

 

. . .be able to wander at leisure around a 1980s Renault dealership marvelling over new R18s

 

Pop down to Winterley for a brew - you'll be taken back in no time

[Lord Sterling]

I'm not really bothered where I get to drive my cars. I long to own/drive a mint 87' 825 Sterling which I can park in a nice warm gararge along with my other 3 fully working and near mint condition Sterlings. Its not just cars that I aspire to, I'd also like to own a house/land/large garage. I get 'that feeling' when I venture into more affluent parts of the city.

 

But alas none of this will happen, I live in the real world, the world where I have no relationship with money, I struggle to find even a private space to park my car. I dont even have a drive. The garages I do have are a long way from my home and cost an arm and a leg to rent.

 

Sigh

[eddyramrod]

As a child one of my must do ambitions was to drive a Ford Mustang around San Fransisco in the style of Steve Mcqueen;

Never happened of course.

 

In March I was in San Francisco; driving a rented Chevy Suburban but close enough. Drove over the Golden Gate, down the famously wiggly Lombard Street, down the Pacific Coast Highway, visited Alcatraz... We also drove a bit of Route 66 on the way back to Vegas. I know I'm very lucky, I've done rather a lot of the things I "always wanted to" including owning two Cadillacs and a black-and-white police car, but I still get those moments, when I know I'm never going to do whatever it is...

[warren t claim]

When I was growing up I had three ambitions.

 

I wanted to be a taxi driver,

 

I wanted to be a motorcycle instructor,

 

I wanted to shag Debbie Harry from Blondie.

 

I've achieved the first two and the ex Mrs_Claim is a blonde singer and dancer so I'm thinking that maybe I should of set my ambitions slightly higher.

 

Be careful what you wish for....

[garethj]

You might get what you want, it could happen.

 

When I was a kid I really wanted to drive this

 

So after 30 years, a stack of work and loads of money I built this

 

You know what? It was fantastic, worth every penny and more. If you want it, do it.

[PatrickMcRebel]

Good on you Gareth.

 

I'd like to drive a De Tomaso Pantera on some nice country roads.

 

Turn up at a shoot in a mint early 2 door Range Rover.

 

Race a Mk1 Lotus Cortina.

 

List goes on

[nigel bickle]

I do have some valuable cars-tucked away.

Some were bought whilst 'valueless (I still do that..) some bought when I was earning pots - back in the day.

 

Almost without exception,the driving experience isnt that special.

Life is a permanent hassle (parking,keyed doors, getting out at junctions etc) everyone wants to race you,the cost of parts/service is HORRIFIC .

 

When I (re) married ***years ago, these got parked up. She didnt like driving them, the idea of them getting damaged scared her, and she didnt trust me in them.(Possibly rightly)

 

I'm happy in an old shiiter. You've probably guessed.

 

Nowt to prove, no depreciation, minimal running costs,fun to drive-whats to hate?

 

IfI/we really want a thrill - we'll go up & attempt some aeros.Much more like it.

Cheaper option is a sports m/cycle-but can tend to hurt more.

[AnthonyG]

As another post indicated classic car hire companies are the answer to some of these wishes ..

 

I hired a Cortina 1600E last year just to try a 1960s Cortina, so I had a idea of what one would be like to drive before I buy one.

 

I had a lot of fun and I now know what one is like to drive.

 

This was a bit more of a practical reason to hire a classic than most, but it will still well worth it. More exotic stuff (E types etc) is available from these firms. They are also branching out a bit, its not just Minors, TR5s and Sherpa Coupes anymore, there's one nr Worcester with an Alfasud Ti for instance.

 

£250-400 for a day's drive is a lot of money but is a lot more achieveable for most than £30k+ to own something like an E type or Aston, and as NB says, most of the ownership time of that sort of exotic classic would be spent fixing it, earning the money to fix it, or worrying about it.

[Mr Lobster]

[Rusty Pelican]

Always fancied driving this

 

 

 

To here

 

Chamois to chamonix , I know , Im a twat , Towns logo is a Chamois goat so they will nick all my badges for sure

[scruff]

If you want it, do it.

 

AMEN BRUVVER, life's too short etc etc etc etc