What famous car made the biggest impression on you?

My all-time favorite has stood the test of time (for me) and warms my loins today as it did when I first saw it in 1953 -- Ron Dunn's '50 Ford coupe built by Emory and Jensen at Valley Custom in Burbank, California.


Un-chopped and with a 4-inch body section and radiussed rear-wheel openings, it was as close to perfect as a shoebox has ever been done.




The car was later restyled and treated to some modifications that were popular at the time -- not to any good effect, IMHO.


More recently it underwent a complete professional restoration, in its second iteration. It was interesting to note that one of its significant construction features was retained in the latest rework -- the low-agony treatment of the exterior door and quarter panels that were connected along the cut line with screws/rivets rather than full-length welds, and then concealed under the stainless rub strips. I think that's as clever today as I did when I first learned about it at age 15.

Mike Bishop

 

This car, even being a Hot Wheels, has had my attention since I was a kid. Famous, maybe not, but I love it.

 

Hot Wheels Purple Passion

 

For me it was the green monster and blue flame speed cars as a kid. Then the yellow 57 Chevy in Hot Rod magazine.

 

http://www.kustomrama.com/images/e/e9/Ed-roth-beatnik-bandit.jpg

This car showed a 10 year old kid that cars didn't have to be a box with wheels. Outrageous, impractical, unforgettable. Still one of my favorites.

 

McMillen 32 Ford Roadster, Hot Rod magazine, 1966

 

There are two that always come to my mind when I think back upon my younger days planning what I would like to build.
The AlaKart.


And the Jackman brothers 32 sport coupe:

 

Growing up in the 60's was just to cool, see my brothers and I were model car builder so we built them all. We had this Fantasy that it would have been so cool that if we built it and then drop a few drop's of water on it, it would become real and then we would have any hot rod, race, custom car and anything else for the day of fun and play. So I guess I would have to say that just about any famous car that had a model car fashion after it was a impression on us. We loved then all. When I finally sold my model car collection it brought a nice tidy sum of 3000.00 dollars. So the famous car from the 60's impressed me a lot.

 

The Red Baron!

 

I built a plastic model of that as a Kid!

 

Its funny, when I was young, the Ala-Kart didn't really push my buttons, but as I have gotten older, I have started to look more and more at some of the details on that car. Theres a lot to see...

 

You are so right george. I do not think there will EVER be an era like the 60s cars, both show and drag!

 

Grey Baskerville's roadster made a profound impression on me.

It wasn't a show car or anything remarkable but Grey drove that car daily for years and drove it hard. HRP

 

Jim - The world to me in the '70s was models of every wild car, dragster and plane I could get my hands on. Damn shame M80's were cheap.

 

Plus, any car with machine guns is ok with me.

 

I'm amazed that I've never noticed this thread before.
There have been many strong impressions, but these are among the strongest:

If you're familiar with my cars, you can see echoes of each of these in mine.

 

I second that emotion.

 

Hell yes. I was already well down the road, but reading Jim Jacobs description of his first drive in the car after it was restored, at night on a more or less empty freeway still sticks with me today, and still runs through my mind whenever I do stuff on my coupester...

 

That was one for me as well. LOVE that truck!

 

I seriously considered copying Simonatti's channeled-with-full-fenders scheme on my own '34 truck, but Keith Tardell talked me out of it on the grounds that the truck was too nice an original. I did copy his stacks, however, and this is the way it looked when it came from Keith:

 

One of my favorites, as you know. Funny thing is, without the stacks, to me, it would just be another "nice truck".

Speaking of channelled, this one REALLY does a number on me. If I had a '33/'34 PU, this is what it would look like.

Most guys know it this way, which frankly, leaves me cold, kinda boxy and ugly, but man, add fenders and stacks and OH YEA!

 

And another thing: the reflections on the hubcaps of Simonatti's truck in that side view taught me an easy way to draw chrome baby moons realistically, which I then used on innumerable drawings of hot rods in high school:
Recalling our earlier debate about full wheel covers vs poverty caps on West Coast hot rods in the '50s: It's possible that my recollection of the universality of small hubcaps was caused by my drawing them exclusively.

 

Doyle's coupe did it for me

 

I drew Torq-thrusts ON EVERYTHING!!!! Cool drawing!
When I was in grade 5, I won a Christmas art contest with a pastel and watercolour of Santas sleigh on a roof, no reindeer in sight, but a blown early hemi with a vertex mag. My prize was this cool book with Clare Saunders Limefire cuda doing a wheelstand on the cover. There was an awe inspiring shot of Hyder & McLouds '34 inside. Wish I still had that. Obviously, they bought the prizes after they'd decided who was winning what.

 

Well, they didn't have Torq-thrusts in 1957!

 

I know, I was thinking that, you are a little older than me. Well, hell there wasn't a Hyder & MCloud '34 or a Limefire Cuda then either!

 

This one, the "lil beaver" I saw at a car show in Milwaukee when I was a kid. I still cant believe how deep the blue was...