Over the years I have had the opportunity to drive some of the most important and exciting cars of the 1950's, 1960's, 1970's, 1980's. and 1990's. These are cars that demonstrated some outstanding feature to me. It might have been their design, their sounds, their performance or ergonomics; some quality that made them enthrallingly memorable.
Listed below are impressions and memories of those experiences, most of which I can recall and relive to this day. The cars are listed alphabetically with the year of the vehicle's manufacture and the date I first drove the car, but often not the last.
Model Year Make/Model Year Driven Sensations/Comments
1965 AC Cobra 289 1965 Quickest of them all (before 427); not easy to drive
1960 Alfa Romeo Giulietta Veloce 1961 Brother Jim's car; exceptional transmission; what a sports car; best straight arm driving
1962 Alfa Romeo 2000 spider 1965 Handsome lines; great gearbox; big for an Alfa
1965 Alfa Romeo 2600 Sprint 1965 Giulia Sprint with a 6 cylinder; not fast enough
1965 Alfa Romeo Giulia SS 1965 Pretty, but slow; woman customer raced one SCCA
1966 Alfa Romeo Duetto 1968 Better Giulia; one of my favorites; one hand top
1974 Alfa Romeo 2000GTV 1975 One of the best handling production cars; responsive; beautiful gearbox
1975 Alfa Romeo 2000 Berlina 1976 Stubby looking; pure Italian driving fun
1977 Alfa Romeo Montreal 1977 Tiny car with tiny V8; couldn't trade it; not federalized; fun
1981 Alfa Romeo GTV6 1981 Aggressive V6; difficult but rewarding; sloppy clutch
1991 Alfa Romeo 164S 1991 Handsome coachwork; good V6; but front wheel drive
1960 Aston Martin DB4 1964 Nice design; decent handling; not very fast
1960 Aston Martin DB4GT 1965 Fastest car of its time; traded on on a Porsche 356C; hairier than a DB5; brutish
1964 Aston Martin DB5 1964 Big car with similar feel as XKE but stronger and more solid; slow to get to speed
1964 Aston Martin DB5 James Bond 1965 Under all that was a beat-up DB5
1964 Aston Martin DB5 Shooting Brake 1965 Only the posh would drive one
1966 Aston Martin DB6 1966 Slightly bigger than DB5; finally a 5 speed
1976 Aston Martin V8 1977 Strong V8; lost the charm of the DB series; no soul
1955 Austin - Healey 100 1963 Faster than my Speedster but not as agile
1961 Austin - Healey Sprite 1963 Silly, but fun; no power; but felt exciting
1967 Austin - Healey Mk III 1967 Last of the breed; zero ground clearance; regulations ended it
1953 Bentley Continental R Type 1974 Huge machine with smooth power; baulky transmission; handled surprisingly well; belonged to little old lady
1958 Bentley S Type 1968 Livelier than Silver Cloud but just as big; Big Bertha
1965 Bentley Continental Park Ward Convertible 1966 Huge with decent performance
To be continued.......