I Made a List of 6 of My Favorite Cars

I whittled it down from 117 or so and had to expand my list from 5 to 6

How do you decide on Maserati, Bugatti, Mercedes, Jaguar, Corvette, and a VW Bug?

Making a list like this is like trying to figure out where Jimi Hendrix is on the list of greatest guitarists who ever lived.

In any case, here it goes. You decide if I got it right, let me know what is missing.

1957 Maserati 250F

I remember this car from grade school. I used to draw pictures of it. Quite often, I added a hard-top and a giant engine stack to it. Juan Fangio drove the 250F to fame during the 1957 Formula One Season. I think it is one of the most beautiful cars ever. Oh, I almost forget to mention this but I left my red Maserati hat on the plane so if you see it.

1931 Bugatti Type 41 Royale

This car, like so many of the fabulous cars of the 1930s, captures my imagination. Look at the size of this thing. Let’s say the average chauffeur is six feet tall. The top of the front tire would be taller than the height of his/her wrist to the ground.

The very wealthy rolled up on the 24s way back when.

Bugatti made this car from 1927 to 1993. The car weighed 7,000 pounds and measured 21 feet long. The engine was a 12.7-liter straight-eight. Surprisingly, the engine made only 300 horsepower. Bugatti made between seven and nine of these cars. The cars, chassis, and body sold for an estimated $45,000. A Type 41 sold at auction for $20,000,000. When purchasing the car new, the buyer took a rolling chassis and motor to a coachbuilder for bodywork. No sign and drive back then.

Jaguar E-Type

Jaguar produced the XK-E from 1961 to 1975.

The line-up included a convertible, a coupe, and my personal favorite, the 2+2. I love the long hood contrasted with the roofline.

You never see them on the road anymore. To give you some idea of what a V-12 Jag could do. These cars could go 160mph right out of the showroom.

Enzo Ferrari was upset when he saw the first E-Type car calling it the most beautiful car ever built. I have to say I tend to agree. Legend has it that Mr. Ferrari sulked around the Scuderia for a week. He did not speak to anyone. It seems Jaguar beat Enzo to the punch. The car in the picture is a 1968 E-Type.

1952 Mercedes 300 SL Gullwing

The gullwing production era was from 1954 to 1957. Seventy years later — it is still popular among enthusiasts, collectors, and sports car nuts. Mercedes made 1,400 300SL cars. You see them in all sorts of colors. I like the plaid interior versions. MB made the convertible version up until the early ’60s. The iconic car is at home in a wide variety of settings and backdrops.

I imagine myself in the 300 SL tooling around Monaco with the top down.

2010 Chevrolet Corvette Convertible

Harley Earl gave us the Corvette in 1951. Chevrolet sent only 300 1953 Vettes to dealers when the car hit the market three years later. We are now on the C-8 mid-engine Corvette supercar. The Corvette has evolved and continues to dominate the world of sports cars.

The car attracts attention. You can’t miss the yellow Corvettes at 24 of Daytona and 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The beauty of this car is that you can put one in your driveway. Corvette — coveted, dreamt of, collected, modified, raced, and pulled over by the local police. By the way, there was no 1983 model year for the Corvette, although the one surviving ’83, RBV098, sits in the National Corvette Museum.

1967 Volkswagen Beetle

The 1967 VW Beetle. My first car. I was 17. My Dad paid $200 for it. I washed dishes in a steakhouse to pay him back.

You can tell the early to mid 60’s bugs by the driver-side rear mirror — it’s rectangular, and the railings along the top of the front and rear bumper. The top speed was close to 58 mph with a tailwind assist.

My bug caught fire twice. No problem.

A car not without quirks. The heater worked in the summer, and the AC worked in the winter.

I loved that the window washing fluid squirter connected to the inflation valve in the spare tire. When you needed to clear the windscreen, the air from the spare tire would push water onto the dirty window.

The car was perfectly balanced over the four corners, and it stopped on a dime. I could fill it up for about $5 bucks and go for two weeks or so!

I loved my bug. What a car!

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Douglas Pilarski is a writer/journalist living in Portland. He covers luxury goods, lifestyle, exotic cars, CJ-CX, workplace issues, food, horology, and tech. He is a regular contributor to medium.com

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