Category: Drive Time

When you think of all the Lamborghini models ever released, the ones that probably come to mind quickest are the Miura:

…the Countach:

…or if you’re one of those Readers of more recent vintage, the Murciélago:

…or the Aventador:

It will probably come as no surprise to anyone that I wouldn’t touch any of the above with Bill Clinton’s dick.  (No comments on that topic, please, this is a serious automotive post.)

No, the only Lambo I would ever consider owning — and that only after Iain Tyrrell had worked his magic, re-tuning and rehabbing it — is the early-60s model 350 GT, with its 3.5-liter V12 engine:

Now, my children… if you are unfamiliar with the design expression “half a teardrop”, follow me to Mr. Tyrrell’s Workshop and let him explain, in just over half an hour, what that means; and along the way, you may just start to agree with me.

No electronic gizmos, no nanny warning noises, no rev limiters, double-clutch automatic gearboxes or any of that modern folderol;  just a car that one can enjoy driving, in the truest sense of the word.  With Mr. Tyrrell babying it for me on an annual basis, it is unquestionably the car I could drive for the rest of my life.

When I first came over to the U.S., I went to the Chicago Auto Show and just for the hell of it, sat in a Jeep Wagoneer (not the Grand Wagoneer, the smaller one).  It looked exactly like this one:

Immediately I sat in it, I thought, “This is a nice, comfortable car, and I wouldn’t mind owning one.”  For the record, it is one of the few cars I’ve ever felt that strongly about at first seating, so to speak.

I couldn’t afford it new, of course, because I was just starting to rebuild my career pretty much from scratch and hadn’t the funds even for a down payment.

A year later, however, I did have the opportunity to buy one.  One of the execs at the Great Big Research Company was being moved to France permanently, and he needed to sell his Wagoneer.  He was the original owner, and the thing only had about 4,000 miles on it.  Even better was that he didn’t want a lot for it — and I’d scrimped and saved enough for a deposit, and built my credit score up enough for the bank to okay a loan for the balance.

So like a good husband I went home and bounced the idea off the (then-) Mrs., and was shot down in flames because “that tank gets crap gas mileage.”  (I should point out that I lived three miles from the office, and my longest drive would be to the airport.)

Anyway, I never did get the Wagoneer, and I’ve always regretted it.  Jeep stopped making it a year or two later, leaving only the over-large Grand Wagoneer in the showrooms.

Now for the RFI about that Wagoneer:  huge miss, or lucky escape?

Question for the tifosi:

Was the Testarossa when Ferrari decided to build bigger and fatter cars?  I mean, from the Mondial:

…to the Testa, in less than a year?

It’s a serious question.  I for one have always preferred the smaller-framed Ferraris over the bloated modern models, and I think it was the Testarossa which started the trend.  But I seek info on this topic from someone who knows more than I do.

Frequent Contributor Mike L. sends me this snippet:

GM on Friday unveiled the Cadillac Celestiq, previewing an upcoming car that will cost $300,000 or more when it goes into production by late 2023. The car marks a pivot for Cadillac into hand-built vehicles, which are typically reserved for high-end sports cars and uber-luxury models.

And I have to admit that for the modern style of car, it’s not too horrible:

Still as ugly as shit, but no worse than the new Rollers.

Of course, then we come to the real dog-turd in the ice cream:

Cadillac is calling the vehicle its new “all-electric flagship sedan.”

And there I was thinking that a decent 7.2-liter V12 engine would make this a worthy entrant into the hand-built car sector…

Hard pass, Cadillac.  Wouldn’t accept one for free, let along have to cough up 300 big ones for a battery-powered car.  Celestiq it up your Detroit assholes.

…for Iain Tyrrell, anyway:  it’s a Dodge Charger R/T 426 Hemi.

Take a quarter-hour off, and get a lesson from a master.  And enjoy watching Iain trying to squeeze that fat-ass Dodge into a teeny Brit “B” road.