Cars.

I was into cars, once upon a time. I'm not talking Matchbox and Hot Wheels, here, although I liked those, too. My friends and I played with them for hours, and we'd take the beat-up ones out in the middle of the street from time to time and run them over with our bikes.

No, I'm talking full-size automobiles, the kind found in the pages of Car and Driver and Road & Track. I was a particular fan of European sports cars, and would eagerly discuss these fine, superexpensive cars with anyone willing to listen.

My overall favorites were, of course, the very limited production models. The Aston Martin DB series were an early fav, as well as the Porsche 916 (which differed from the sputtering 914 only in engine type and flared fenders, but I didn't care), the Lamborghini Countach and many other rare drives.

My friend Tim was also an avid enthusiast, but whereas he was interested in all aspects of a car, I was much more into styling than anything else. I wanted to design cars, not build and race them. So many of the cars I was into, Tim scoffed at. He could tell what was coming down the street by the rumble of its engine -- I only cared what it looked like. Oh well.

Those feelings have faded a bit. I'm still interested in car design, but I'm less impressed by the supercars and more impressed by little touches, like the curve of the rear door on the current VW Golf, the way it mirrors the curve of the rear wheel and hatch. And I'm willing to make concessions to usability and comfort, which of course take the Countach off my list of cool cars. I loved the New Beetle until I sat in it and realized it was built to look good but not necessarily feel good. I love the Mini and am this close to buying one, but the gas mileage isn't impressive, so I'm looking elsewhere -- when you drive more than 300 miles a week on average, 20mpg city tugs on the wallet a little more often than you'd like.

It pains me a bit that I'm probably not going to get the Mini. It's such a nice car, and I could actually park in all those half spaces lousy parkers leave all over my neighborhood ('cause they really need an extra two feet behind their car, and are willing to deprive someone else of a space to get it.)

But no, I'm going the economical, environmentally friendly route: once I sell the little black Golf, I'm getting a Civic Hybrid. Sigh. Maybe I can put some silly trim and a whale tail on it or something.

(The following was going to be a MetaFilter post, but someone beat me to it.)
WreckedExotics.com is the collision of two interests: exotic cars and accident voyeurism. The site showcases really expensive cars -- as well as trucks and police cars -- in varying levels of destruction. There's also a selection of crash art. "All in all, you'll find almost a quarter of a Billion Dollars worth of damage within this car crash collection."

Posted by Andrew Huff at August 12, 2003 02:40 PM