The first car to put a real smile on my face, after decades of Ford/Vauxhall company cars, was a Subaru Outback - only 170 bhp but it would rev up to its limit (and beyond!) and the ability to go to/from mild understeer to mild oversteer on the throttle (helped by the 4wd increasing rear torque as the throttle increased) was just a wonderful feeling - although the high clearance and long travel suspension allowed quite a lot of roll, the grip was still amazing. It really shouldn't be able to do all that given where the engine weight is, in front of the front axle - but it does.

Other markets got turbo and twin turbo versions of the Outback, I'd love to try one of those.

Subaru Legacy 2.0 litre petrol estate 2006 model, (the first one with the twin cam heads).

Dreadful power delivery after being used to a diesel (you have to drive it like a 600 motorbike and rev the n*ts off it to make it go), but roadholding to die for. There is an argument that every car should be 4WD purely on safety grounds).

I would have loved a 3.0 Spec. B, but the economics just didn't add up, I may regret this when I'm a bit older though?

Edited by nick62 on 24/07/2017 at 23:33

Some thoughts;

a Vauxhall estate car, a Velox? with 3litre straight six petrol at full chat...very stable, with reasonable brakes, Aberdeen to Glasgow trips were not a problem in the 70's...

BMW 730I on the autobahn, Porsce 911 tubo on the California Freeway-what a ride!

Jaguar XJS- so quiet on a cruise, and a 911RS( a track car)- scary and too crude for me. Morgan plus8, too ancient, nice engine though.

Rover 350sVP Aberdeen to Poole, Dorset, overnight, average speed- HUGE, very stable car at speed, memorable.

Ford Escort RS, a GREAT car!

Ragging a Opel Commodore at full chat acroos the desert roads in south Iran, dangerous but fun.

Define best.

I had a go in a Jaguar F-type roadster, the V6 340bhp one. It was absolutely ridiculous, although nicely kitted out. I stopped in the middle of Thame, and felt very embarrassed when, unbidden, it did its crackling exhaust routine on start up in the busy high street with the top down. It can be turned off, apparently - it really is just for show. Such machines are not about transport, or even enjoyment of driving, but status and conspicuous consumption.

On the other hand, a friend had for a while a topaz 1992 Bentley Continental with a plum leather interior which I drove on a number of occasions and I admired it tremendously. But it was really impractical for all sorts of reasons.

The car I have most enjoyed, which was mine for a while until it fell to pieces, was a series 6 Morris Oxford, 1965. 1600cc B series, 60bhp, 0-60 in over 20 seconds. A great people carrier. It always started. The leather bench seat, shiny ebony steering wheel with chrome horn ring, and the lustrous dark blue paint just delighted me. I loved it.

I currently have a Mitsubishi Outlander, for mainly practical reasons although I like it well enough - it only dawned on me after I had signed on the dotted that I probably chose "Tanzanite" (formerly known as Cosmic Blue) because with its showroom shine it stirred the memory of that old Oxford.

Edited by Manatee on 26/07/2017 at 22:09

I never thought of it as slow. And for 1965, even 1976 when I got it, it wasn't, really.

"1600cc B series, 60bhp, 0-60 in over 20 seconds."

Yes, but the B-series had masses of low-down torque so it never felt as sluggish as that - at least mine didn't. My first-ever car was a 14-year-old Austin A50 - always started and never let me down. It would go up quite steep hills in top gear (fourth) and was far more relaxed at cruising speed (60-65 mph) than the new MG 1300 which followed it.

Just had to look up the original specification www.automobile-catalog.com/make/morris/oxford_3/ox...l the 1622 B-series was 62 PS / 122 Nm, about the same as a modern 1.3 non-turbo.

My brother bought a Rover 2000 in 1965 & I thought it was great - all I had driven until then was a Morris Minor 1000 & a Morris 1100.

However, it was trouble & a Triumph 2.5 Fuel Injection replace it - only some 130BHP or so but it was rapid, smooth................... & was really great UNTIL it was written off when a drunk came through red lights & t-boned it.

I'd agree re the Mini. We only owned one example, an orange and rust-red W reg model bought one night in the rain, the full horror of the state of its bodywork not being revealed till the next day. Holes in floor, pitted all over with the red stuff..we had serious work to do. But done it was.

And what fun. No need to slow down going round corners. The excitement of approaching a roundabout in a turbo charged shopping trolley, never knowing whether you'd reach your intended exit unscathed, or be wiped out by another motorist who was incapable of noticing any vehicle below their eyeline.

The intimacy with every bump in the road and that driving position...just wonderful.

Best car I ever had, however, was our 1990 Primera. Wonderfully reliable and dependable, till a local garage got their hands on it when I asked them to replace the timing chains, and because they couldn't manage to replace the seals properly, despite several attempts, an engine which had never leaked a drop of oil became a messy disappointment.

Edited by argybargy on 16/08/2017 at 17:34