The Most Important Car the Year You Were Born

[Raza]

https://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/g23320934/car-history/?utm_source=facebook_arb&utm_medium=cpm&utm_campaign=arb_fb_pop_m_i_g23320934

This list may not go back far enough for some of our older members, like Dave (it only goes back as far as 1918), but pretty much everyone should be covered.


I was one year off the Testarossa, but I got the 560SEL, which is still a cool car. What was your car?

[Payman]

I was cringing as I was clicking through to 1968, but they got it right... Dodge Charger.

Dino 206 GT and Ferrari 330 GTS would have been acceptable as well.

[RomanChariot]

Dodge Charger

[CaminoRacer]

Integra.

I'll take that, my parents had an Integra ('92) and it was a cool little car. I always wished they kept it around until I could drive

[cawimmer430]

[shp4man]

Vette. Oh,ya.

[Gotta-Qik-C7]

Blah! '73 Monte Carlo

[CaminoRacer]

What's the worst year?

1984, 1998, 2000?

[Eye of the Tiger]

What's the worst year?

1984, 1998, 2000?

2020

[FoMoJo]

[AutobahnSHO]

girl at my first year of college had one of those (1993). Someone keyed it.

[AutobahnSHO]

Volvo 242/244/245

[Payman]

girl at my first year of college had one of those (1993). Someone keyed it.

Last year of the G-body was 1987.

[Laconian]

Last year of the G-body was 1987.

Maybe he was in college in 1993 and the car was a few years old.

[Eye of the Tiger]

Last year of the G-body was 1987.

Ah, the year of the third brake light, IIRC.

[Payman]

Ah, the year of the third brake light, IIRC.

1986

[Payman]

Maybe he was in college in 1993 and the car was a few years old.

But, is he saying his first year of college was 1993, or the car was a '93?

[Morris Minor]

1956: Continental Mark II

[Payman]

1956: Continental Mark II

What a simple and elegant design, compared to everything else from the mid to late '50s.

[Morris Minor]

For 1965 I'd have chosen the Renault 16 - the first successful hatchback.

[Raza]

That seems very on brand for you. 

[Raza]

I didn't know all E28 M5s were black. How very Model T of them.

[dazzleman]

https://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/g23320934/car-history/?utm_source=facebook_arb&utm_medium=cpm&utm_campaign=arb_fb_pop_m_i_g23320934

This list may not go back far enough for some of our older members, like Dave (it only goes back as far as 1918), but pretty much everyone should be covered.


I was one year off the Testarossa, but I got the 560SEL, which is still a cool car. What was your car?

Haha, I'm old but not that old.

I felt really old when I saw the car for my year - the Studebaker Avanti.  I never heard of it.  My mom had a Studebaker Lark when I was a baby but I don't remember it

[Payman]

OMG you've never heard of the Avanti?   

[dazzleman]

OMG you've never heard of the Avanti?   

I didn't know it was a Studebaker.

[Payman]

I didn't know it was a Studebaker.

Probably the most successful Italian design by a domestic manufacturer.

[FoMoJo]

Haha, I'm old but not that old.

I felt really old when I saw the car for my year - the Studebaker Avanti.  I never heard of it.  My mom had a Studebaker Lark when I was a baby but I don't remember it

The Avanti was the fastest production car when it was first produced, 178 mph apparently...on the Salt flats I believe.  I coveted them when it first came out.

[Eye of the Tiger]

The Avanti was the fastest production car when it was first produced, 178 mph apparently...on the Salt flats I believe.  I coveted them when it first came out.

I can't believe that a stock Avanti did 178

[FoMoJo]

I can't believe that a stock Avanti did 178

That was wiki, other articles claim 169.  This was the supercharged version. 

https://classicmotorsports.com/articles/studebaker-avanti-worlds-fastest-production-car/

Although it's best known today for its distinctive styling, back in the fall of 1962 Studebaker advertised its Avanti as "The World's Fastest Production Car." They backed up the claim with 29 new American national stock car records from the Bonneville Salt Flats, including the flying mile at 168.15 mph and 10 miles at 163.9 mph–and these were two-way averages. On the return leg of the 20-mile record run, the Avanti reached 178.5 mph.

The slippery Studebaker shattered record after record, blowing through the previous American Class C benchmark (held by a Dodge) by more than 50 mph. Fast indeed for a barely dry model that only 16 months earlier had been on the drawing board.

Was it a publicity stunt? Sure, but the United States Auto Club sanctioned each of these records. They also certified the Avanti R-3 as completely stock and fueled with Mobil premium pump gas.

Hotshoe Andy Granatelli, who knew a thing or two about driving fast–and even more about promoting merchandise-was president of Paxton Products at the time, and one of his superchargers wailed under the Avanti's hood. In a letter to Studebaker President Sherwood Egbert, Granatelli wrote, "The thing that never ceases to amaze me is the ease in handling the Avanti. I took four people [including the L.A. Times auto editor] for a ride at speeds from 166.6 to 172.5 mph, and in each instance I let go of the steering wheel for several thousand feet to prove how stable the Avanti really is."

[Eye of the Tiger]

Oh, 169 is totally different. Still can't believe it.