What was the first "exotic" you saw as a kid that started your passion?

A new 4 headlight 330 2+2, mid 1960's. Not too exotic by today's standards but compared to the family '63 4-door Buick Electra, it was a spaceship.

 

Testarossa.

 

1975. Couldn't drive yet, but in Edmunds New Car prices they had the 308gt4. All powerful and clean looking, hunkered down. Other marques had multiple models, but here was one amazing car. And the price! Wow, could anyone actually afford that!?

 

One day (when I was 7 or 8 YO) we were on our way down White Oak Avenue when a white Daytona Spider just plain ripped up the other way. Since then, whenever I go down that street, I still hope to see it again.

DL

 

When I was 7 or 8, (I'm 15 now) my dad and I were in the car going across a bridge since we lived off the island of Montreal, and this red 308GTS flew by us and cut us off, I didn't really care because it was a Ferrari, and it was going fast and it sounded REALLY good. Then in 98 when I was 10 or so my uncle gave me 3 issues of Car & Driver, I still have them today, and I've read them front to back at least 15 times each. Also, there is a black 456GT in one of the issues with a tan interior, that helped for the Ferrari end of it.

 

The first one that I saw in person was a fly yellow Ferrari 246 Dino that was parked right in front of the High School that I went to. It belonged to an infamous local Chev. car dealer (Dick Balch) who was giving a business speech to the DECA class that day. I had never seen a Ferrari in person before, and I was just floored by that Dino. What a beautiful car!

 

int was 1983 I thing my father showed me the movie CannonBall Run and I was hooked

 

It wasn't one it was a combination of them. My dad's office is in Ardmore,PA and Algar is right down lancaster ave from it. When I was younger and would go to work with him sometimes when I had off from school we would always driveby and sometimes stop in Algar. I still like driving by at night when they have all the indirect lights on. The cars look awesome.
Erik

 

the earliest exotic related memeory i have is my dads Mondial, when we both went to pick it at the dealer ..i think i was already passionated ( i was 4 yo ) but thats the earliest i can come up with.

 

it was a beautiful red dino i was with my father and asked him what it was? he told me a Ferrari. i told him i was going to have one of those things one day and he said "yeah right!" Now he loves to drive my 308.

 

Pictures of Dad's Superbird as a newlywed have me salivating. Mom made him sell it

But as a kid, I loved my neighbor's '70 Charger R/T : tan/brown exterior & cream interior. He was from the deep south. Bet he cried when his yankee wife wrapped it around a pole.

I also busted my chops near the same summer to have my parents by me a Corgi '70 Jag 2+2 Type E. I still have that model.

 

Gary, you dog! Did you go to Federal Way High School? I was class of '70. Of course I remember Dick Balch and his yellow Dino. I can remember driving down to Redondo in my Fiat 1100 and waiting for him to come screaming by in his Dino. I later worked for him, when his Chevy dealership was about to go out of business. He didn't want to turn the franchise back to Chevy, so he needed to show that he had a service and parts department. I was the service department, I think. And I got to feed Duffy Shepard, and clean out his pen. When irate customers called, we asked if they wanted to speak with Duffy Shepard (woof!).

My first exotic was a Jaguar XKE, when I was a paperboy and one of the houses in my neighborhood had one in the driveway. My first auto show in Seattle had a GT40, Ferraris, Mangusta, Marcos, Toyota 2000GT, etc. And Pete Lovely's Lotus 49. I worked for him also, years later.

 

A white Countach and this would be in the early 80s I think.

I also loved:
The black Countach in Cannonball Run,
Magnum's 3x8 (what was it?)
and that thing that The Dukes of Hazzard drove (Dodge Charger?)

 

I dont remember my first exotic car. But back in elementary school I had a poster of an F40. Soon later I saw one in person at Ferrari of Houston and they even let me sit in it!

I also remember a red 308 parked in front of this train car diner with a gravel/dirt parking lot in Houston.

 

In the early/mid 70s, our neighbor always drove Porsches but in unusual colors like orange or brown. I knew they were cool cars, but my blood didn't really get going until I first saw the 308. That was it.

 

from as far back as i can remember there was only 3 exotics i always wanted.
1) a ferrari 308. mostly because my dad loved magnum pi and he loved the 308's.
2) testarossa. because my dad also loved miami vise. but i loved the white testarossa.
3) lamborghini countach QV500S. i still have posters of black QV's.

at 23 i have the 308. now working on the testarossa. and will someday complete the trio.

 

When I was 10 or so, we went to a "car show" that was at the mall - very small and rather lame (was in an unleased store space). But there was a 308 there I couldn't keep away from!

The REAL firestarter that ignited the blaze of my Ferrari obsession though, was when I met a dot-commer in Seattle (SJ) who let me come over and see his Ferraris, and then took me for a great ride in a 348 Spyder. Since then, I've been a man possessed to own one!

 

I remember back ot the early 70's when I was 5 or 6 years old, I knew there was something special about that black 911 that wld pass our house. We lived at the bottom of a hill, and said Porsche wld always downshift and slowly wind the engine to a stop. That air-cooled motor sounded so different from the big Caddy V8's my parents drove. Around the same time, my Dad's buddy wld bring his Bora over and rev the engine for me - I was hooked!

 

I was in Europe in the Soutwest of France. The hotel I was staying at had a book in their library on Jaguars. The last section had the most recent Jaguar - the XJ220. I loved it. I looked at the pictures for ages.

From France, we went to England. I saw an ad for Beaulieu automotive museum - http://www.beaulieu.co.uk/ - and what did they have, but an XJ220. I went and saw it in person. The rest is history...

 

I've seen pictures of the Lotus Europa, Lamborghini Countach, and Ferrari Daytona as a child. The Countach was the most impressive until I saw a 1984 issue of Car and Driver Magazine with the Ferrari 288 GTO, and then the TR. Been a Ferrari fan since.

 

It was 1970 (I was 11) and my dad took me to the NY auto show....I saw the Ferrari stand and of course all the cars were roped off and no one was getting close....but one of the guys saw me drooling and let me back to sit in a yellow Daytona coupe....About 2 weeks later I was on my bike on a Sunday Morning and I heard this cool sound driving through the woods on this windy road. It turned out to be a yellow 275 GTB/4.

After both of those incidents I was hooked.

Ciao

Dino

 

Two cars far ahead of the all:

Ferrari 308 and Lamborghini Countach.

I really thing that they tstill are the best looking cars ever produced.

Ciao

Eugenio

 

Black Ferrari 308 GTS. Not sure what year it was but it had some fat rear tires on it. I was about 10 so that means it was a 79 or 78. Since then I have wanted a black 308. And now I have one

 

OK kids, I'm going to show my age. In 1961, I was at the races in Elkhart Lake, WI, and saw a Bocar Stiletto ( anyone remember that car ).
I though I would cream my pants! Have never seen one since.

 

There is no one here who can service it, so hopefully it will continue to be as trouble free as it has been the first 6 years of its life.

As for roads, there are some pretty cool roads, one 5 mile stretch for going full blast, bust some very cool twist, windy mountain roads.