The first vehicle was a particular Rolls Royce Phantom Mk I with Tourer coachwork by Windovers which I saw on a US website for Blackhawk Collection. Built in 1925 it probably had its coachwork done in the newly completed Windovers workshop in Hendon and then promptly ended up going to the USA with its owner only to return to Britain with a new one a few years later only to return again to the USA and ending up in the Blackhawk Collection. I fell in love with it when I first set eyes on it...
I then decided I needed another iconic car to add to my garage and none are more iconic than the Type 57 SC Atlantic by Bugatti with its beautifully streamlined body work which summed up everything about the 1930s obsession with speed and streamlining...
From this steamlined beauty I lurched lustfully towards my next car whose designer was inspired by the Atlantic (amongst other cars) to design this for the Morgan Motor Company...
A Morgan Aeromax
From Bugatti inspired beauty to bluff British muscle which inspired great rage in Bugatti's founder Ettore Bugatti who claimed they were the world's fastest trucks. Of course I'm talking about the Bentley Blowers...
These machines were classic examples of British imperialistic dick waving by men known as the Bentley Boys who supercharged the 4.5 litre engine in an attempt to win Le Mans but it failed to win any major races, however W.O. Bentley did win Le Mans with a 6.5 litre monster in 1929 and 1930. It was also the real car of choice for James Bond in the original novels too.
After that little lot I decided I needed something a bit more useful for every day use and I plumped for the quick and rather good looking, shark nosed Mitsubishi Galant VR4 (thats the quick version) with an estate body for extra haulage space...
After being so sensible I had a burst of stupidity which greatly amused Ben and Matt as I choose a ploughing engine...
Behold the amazing behemoth! Two of these large machines would be at either end of a field with a cable attached to both of them on their drums slung underneath the boiler. A specially designed plough would be attached to the cable and slowly dragged back and forth across the field by these machines winding in or out the cable slowly shuffling along the field edge as they went. Now I have no interest in ploughing but ploughing engines were some of the biggest traction engines ever built and for that reason alone I wanted one. Neither Matt nor Ben can understand this love of steam but driving such a contraption is considerably more difficult than a car and its turn key technology and a great deal more fun (no really)! After some thought though I decided to drop the ploughing engine and opt instead for one of these!
MHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!!! I can see myself now, with a pipe clenched between my teeth set in a manic grin with highly waxed whiskers and a top hat on at a jaunty angle, mowing down all you little people, oh yes it's all so steampunk. This folks is a Hornsby Chain Track Tractor and it was an utter failure but the idea of a tracked vehicle was brought back to life during the First World War with the tank.
After that lunacy I moved back to practicality with a Land Rover 110 Station Wagon with the 200 tdi engine (because of it's bullet proof reliability)...
I then opted for a piece of Gallic style and technology which is hideously expensive if it breaks (according to Ben "it will break") a Citroën DS23 Pallas (that's the top end model). It looks like a space ship and when the engine is switched on it rises up on its hydro-pneumatic suspension like a space ship. It is cool and that is a fact.
It even has lights that swivel in the same direction as the front wheels so the lights point in the direction of travel but this clever innovation was illegal in the UK and had to be disabled for UK roads.
Of course a muscle car should be included on this list because so many iconic films have these thirsty leviathans roaring around. I went for the bad guys' choice in Bullit; a Dodge Charger...
The last car is the German machine in my line up and until the new gullwing SLS came along it was without doubt the best looking modern Mercedes. It is of course the Mercedes CLS...
Of course some jerks beat me to it in writing up this dull episode in my life with their own angle on what went down that evening and what they choose. My list has the largest combined age and the highest combined cost and therefore is the best.
