I Got to Drive a Supercar Once.

[MineralMan]

In 1963, when I was a senior in high school, my Dad said, one day, "You want to see a fancy German sports car?"

He was an auto mechanic, and one of his friends had just bought a 1955 Mercedes 300SL Gullwing for the princely sum of $6000. He had asked my Dad to take a look at it for him. I said, "You bet!" He asked, because I had been reading Road and Track for a couple of years, like it was a Bible.

So we drove over to his friend's house, and there it was. Grey, and absolutely beautiful, like no car I had ever been near. So the new owner showed everything to me and my Dad. The hood went up. We checked out the amazing doors and the fuel-injected straight six engine that made 230 horsepower! I knew about the car, since I had read about it a few times. I asked questions about it as he showed us the car. I think my father had told him that I was nuts about sports cars, so he looked at me and said, "Want to take a ride in it?"

Duh. Anyhow I got in the passenger seat, and my Dad's friend drove me to the next town in his miraculous automobile. We got there and he pulled into a parking lot. "Wanna drive it?" he asked. Now, that made me nervous, but I said, "Sure, I guess."

So, we switched seats and I drove his new acquisition back to his house. Gingerly. After a mile or two, he said, "Step on it, kid! See what it can do." So, I sort of did. Never more than half throttle, but I did step on it, and was overwhelmed by the sound and the way it responded to the throttle and gears. I never went over the 65 MPH speed limit, nor did I go above 3000 RPM.

We got back to his house. He said, "Nice job. You drove carefully, but well."

Anyhow, that was my one time in a legendary car. My Dad got tired of me talking about how wonderful it was. I never did get tired of that. It's one of my best teenage memories.

[Anon-C]

1. Good to see you back. I was a bit worried, TBCH.

[Casady1]

2. My brother was the PR guy for Porshe

and I drove a couple of hot Porsche's. I have had two famous cars in the 9 cars I have owned over my life. I had a 1972 Datsun 510 which is the car Paul Newman raced. The most famous example of it is the BRE 510

&t=580s

My daily driver is a 1994 Audi S4.
It drove 242 MPH on the salt flats.
Here is the video of that car.

https://www.quattroworld.com/speed-week/the-worlds-fastest-audi-242mph-audi-s4/

[MineralMan]

4. I raced a bugeye sprite in SCCA races at the Santa Barbara Airport

A couple of times. H Production. Exciting, but not a 300SL.

[MyOwnPeace]

8. The FIRST car I owned was an.........

Austin-Healey 3000! Always loved that car - spent more time in the garage (repairs) than on the road!!!

But, OOOOOH, when it was 'right'......

[Moostache]

3. Thanks for sharing the memory!

One of my friend's dads had an Alfa Romeo Alfetta and another's dad had a Porsche 911. I had the chance to ride in them both but never drove them on open roads. The 911's owner's son was one of my best friends through high school, and he nearly wiped out in the Porsche because he underestimated the power when he took off in it full out...the Alfetta had a better story associated with it...

My neighbor was the Alfa owner, and his son and I were in school together from 3rd grade through 9th grade. He was messing around in the car one day and ended up rolling it down the hill that was their driveway and narrowly missed a group of trees in the woods at the end of the drive. He burst into my house in a panic because he did not know how to drive stick and couldn't get the car back up the drive. He really did miss rolling the thing into an old growth oak tree by about a foot and a half. Anyway, he knew that I had goofed around and taken my Dad's Chevy Chevette for a joyride (that thing was stick shift and a real putt-putt compared to the Alfetta!!) so he was begging me to get it back into the driveway for him. I was able to oblige, and got the car back into the garage on the top of the hill to their house without damaging it!

But sadly, that is as close to driving a super car as I am likely to ever get to...

[Casady1]

6. I like the Audi

4 wheel drive. The S4 is really cool. I think there might be 500 left in the country. I have had a stick in 7 of my 9 cars.

[localroger]

9. In the late 1980's my boss had a Porsche 928

I never drove it (or really wanted to) but it was a beautiful machine. One day we took a day trip from New Orleans to Jackson, MS -- about 160 miles -- and on I-55 where traffic was light he opened it up and got it to 140 MPH. Ride at that speed was smooth as glass but boy did those pine trees whizz by.

[dem4decades]

5. I was 16 and drove my brother's 440 Cuda. I was smart enough to be scared.

[leftieNanner]

7. Cool!

Back in my youth, I had a 1963 356B Porsche Cabriolet. It was a blast to drive! Only a 4 cylinder, but it could corner like crazy! Really fun to drive on the levee road up to my sister's house.

Then I had babies and couldn't afford to keep it.

Wish I had.

[MineralMan]

10. Yup. We got older and gave up cool cars.

Oh, well.

[Ocelot II]

11. Reminds me a bit of when my dad got his midlife crisis car, a Datsun 240Z.

I think I had recently graduated from college when he got it. We took it out for a spin late one night and far exceeded the posted speed limit. I'm not much into cars but that was fun.

[Nittersing]

12. Oh I worked at a Datsun dealership when I was 17/18

Basically, I was a gopher. I cleaned the chrome and removed plastic covers from the seats as they came off the truck. Kept the floor cars shiny. Picked up/delivered parts. One time the service manager got a call about a 240Z that the new owner couldn't start. He was sure it was the fan belt, so he showed me (17yo girl with pigtails) how to fix it. It was SO much fun to hop out of the little pickup, pop the hood and tighten that belt up with a couple of cranks!

[MissB]

15. Oh I loved those!

My mom had series of 240z and 280z(?) during my teenage years. Those were fun to drive.

Got into an accident once in one. Mom was driving, her current husband at the time was in the passenger seat. I was on the shelf (not actually a seat) in the back. Someone entered the freeway and wanted to exit directly across and slammed into us, spinning us around. We hit a concrete wall but obviously I survived.

[TomSlick]

13. What a great memory!

[MineralMan]

14. Yup. Lucky me!

[BluesRunTheGame]

16. My uncle was a mechanic back in the 60s.

One day he brought ‘this car’ to our house and I got to ride around the block in it.



One of a kind Phantom IV originally built for the coronation of King Faisal II. I wasn’t anywhere near old enough to drive yet and I’m certain it wouldn’t have been allowed anyway.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolls-Royce_Phantom_IV

[MineralMan]

17. Cool! The Ultimate Luxury Car.

Not much fun to drive, I'd think, but a nice ride for the passengers, I'll bet!

[ProfessorGAC]

18. I Got To Ride In One A Few Times

The president of a reactor technology company with whom we had a very close corporate relationship had a Lamborghini. The company is in Milan, so that makes sense. They're only built about 2 hours away.
His father was the founder of the company, but the guy I knew created the model of developing relationships with multinationals. Company grew about 8 fold while he was running it.
So, he's loaded & Italian.
Very cool car, & a more comfortable ride (at least in the passenger seat) than I expected. He took us out on the tangenziale toward Venice once. Thing was going 250kph and wasn't even breathing hard.
But, I didn't get to drive. He might have let me if I asked, but I didn't have the nerve to ask.