(first posted 7/5/2015) It was a quiet afternoon in the office, so a quick one round only game of Fantasy Garage seemed to fit right in. Which five cars would you have?
Being the Curbivore, my selection was little more eclectic than others. No souped up 911, Ferrari FXX, not even an E Type Jaguar. A Lamborghini Miura, McLaren F1, Citroen SM, 1966 Lincoln Continental 4 door convertible and a Bentley Continental.
“Oh, a Continental? You mean the latest Bentley Continental GT Speed?” “No, the 1955 Bentley Continental by Mulliner”. A quick Google and then a view of Don Andreina’s wonderful recent piece, and my suggestion was accepted as being better than the footballer’s special. Don’s piece actually looked in detail at the earlier (1952) Continental R-Type, and although visually very similar, the 1955 model was a new car, with a longer wheelbase and lower roofline.
This example was seen in central London and added to the Cohort by Hannes. This car will have a 4.9 litre, straight six engine, with a four speed automatic gearbox. And coachwork by Mulliner, worth looking at closely for the detail shapes.
So, a good day at the office.
Legendary Swedish car journalist Gunnar Friberg owned a ’57 S1 Continental, so once upon a time it was an attainable goal even for journalists. Friberg was a real eccentric, the Swedish version of a farmers league LKJ Setright, only with more bottles of wine. He had the car garaged, but didn’t fuzz about it, and used it for Sunday drivings. Here’s an article about that particular car.
http://www.klassiker.nu/reportage/bildspel/bentley-i-ottan
Thank you for posting the referenced link. I wasn’t familiar with the magazine, but once translated I got engrossed in the articles. Some great stuff there. And the photography is fantastic in that piece.
My 5 car fantasy garage. Real one has only competent but bland Buick Verano and Prius C.
1981 RR Corniche II FHC Last year made had all improvements
1972 Citroen DS23 Break Might as well have your Goddess utilitarian
1967 Hillman Super Imp Urban car should be impish, even super impish
1965 Imperial Crown Coupe Chrysler quality, Lincoln style, only for a few
1965 Aston Martin DB5 Hold the modifications, and painted BRG
Thanks Roger for your picks. This Continental’s tail is quite dramatic.
Interesting to see a Hillman Imp in someones Top Five list! Indeed, a good sorted Imp is a joy
Excellent choices Roger, it’s so hard to pick if limited to five (or ten, or twenty!). I’d have trouble picking just five Citroens.
I’m fortunate to work very close to a leading Rolls-Royce and Bentley restorer in west London, and I always preferred these S1 Continentals to the slightly more ‘dated’ R-Types. They also had some rather splendid late sixties Mulliner Park Ward 2 door coupes, based on the Silver Shadow, which would be very tempting as well.
Decisions decisions
Steve McQueen drove a very similar one in Thomas Crown Affair. I picked the later one in my comment above for the better steering/FI/dash and I loved the air dam they put on the Corniche 11’s.
The wide quarter windows looks too much like a plebian two door sedan. Reducing those by widening the C-pillar sail panel would fix the problem.
Roger, interesting that you picked the S1 Continental fastback rather than the more famous (and valuable) R-Type. They’re both beautiful cars, but I’ve always liked this later one just a little bit more. A bit wider and lower, I think, it seems to sit in a more “planted” way.
My five?
Lamborghini 400 GT 2+2
Ferrari 330 GTC
Facel Vega HK500
Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 Villa D’Este
Aston Martin DBS Vantage
Beautiful car,but the roofline and rear fenders remind me of a `51 Chevy fastback coupe.
Oh, I’ll have a go as well:
1969 Imperial LeBaron
196x Jaguar 420G
1956 Cadillac Coupe de Ville
1967 Citroen DS19
1972 Buick Electra
A five car garage isn’t really a lot, is it?
Lovely Bentley!
Fantasy Five garage:
1956 Jaguar XK140, black
Jaguar XJ6 Series III, racing green
1963 Cadillac 60 Special, midnight blue
1978 Lincoln Town Car, Williamsburg Edition
Keep my 1975 Oldsmobile Ninety Eight Regency, which is powder blue, but would happily take a Buick Electra Limited or Cadillac Sedan DeVille in the same colors…
What was the colors on the Williamsburg edition Lincoln?
Weren’t all of the Williamsburgs two tone silver and dark gray?
Actually, there were at least 5 different two-tones: (unfortunately I don’t have the Lincoln names for the colors)
-sort-of pink champagne metallic over redwood
-yellow over gold
-cream over brown
-sea foam metallic over aqua metallic
-silver over charcoal
www. mjcclassiccars.com frequently features these
Orrin, you would have loved the black 63 Sixty Special that I drove in 1979. Wow, kinda cool having owned a car that is on someone’s top 5 list. Had I known this then, I would have felt a lot better about the regular monthly three figure cash infusions that the poor old thing demanded. 🙂
Gorgeous Bentley Continental! Wonder if the owner knows he has one denizen of Fantasy Garages?
My Fantasy Five (for today):
1946-47 Packard Custom Super Clipper Touring Sedan, 21st Series, dark blue throughout
1949 Cadillac 60 Special sedan, dark blue or gray or maroon
1952 Bentley Continental R-Type Mulliner coupe, medium dark gray-green
1956 Packard Caribbean convertible, Maltese gray with Danube blue stripe, matching interior with white accents, white top
1961 Lincoln Continental convertible, dark gray metallic, red interior, black top
So the fantasy garage doesn’t need to contain at least one DD? I guess in the fantasy world one has people to go to Home Depot and the grocery store. Right now, I think my fantasy five would be a Volvo 210 (Duett), a 1970-1/2 Z28, a 300SEL 6.3, a Model A pickup and a Lamborghini 400GT. Ask me again in an hour, it would be a completely different list.
By the way, I posted this before seeing that ThreePedalGuy also listed the Lamborghini. And that would have been on my list in 1967 when I was ten years old.
It’s been in my Fantasy Garage for about half a century. Now if only it would be willing to come out of it.
Humber Hawk tail lights have never before had such a nice setting. Beautiful car.
That’s it! I was wondering where I’d seen them before. They seemed eerily familiar.
These Hawks are likely as rare as the Bentleys by now
Much more attractive than today’s Bentley.My 5 cars below
Bristol 410(though any Bristol V8 would do)
Jaguar Mk2
67/68 Mercury Cougar(black cherry small block 4 barrel auto)
Facel Vega
A Continental from America the MkII
The problem is that I have always viewed the Fantasy Five garage as more of a by-the-day thing than as a lifetime thing . . . . But that said, here goes.
1932-ish Duesenberg SJ dual cowl pheaeton – The king of cars
1947 Chrysler New Yorker convertible – a T&C without that pesky wood
1958 DeSoto Adventurer convertible – There must be something from the Forward Look
1963 Studebaker Avanti R-2 – OK, or maybe a 63-64 Super Hawk in a pinch
1968 Chrysler 300 4 door hardtop – For getting the groceries on a rainy day.
This list is valid until the close of business today.
One of the longer lasting lists then 😉
My fantasy garage is a big as the Boeing Everett plant.
These 5 would be there:
-a black 1965 Buick Riviera.
-a burgundy 1968/1969/1970 Plymouth GTX.
-a new red Alfa Romeo Giulia QV…let’s see what Sergio and his men came up with.
-an Audi A8 4.2 TDI, color not important, daily driver.
-a Mercedes W124.036, aka the 500E, a classic and legendary sleeper.
First new car and first diesel in the fantasy garage. I too am looking forward to the Giulia.
This is it. RWD, 510 hp from a BiTurbo 3.0 V6.
The more humble Giulias will follow soon….
Is the 3.0 V6 Pentastar based or the older Alfa one from the 164?
I’ve read it’s basically a Maserati V8 minus 2 cylinders and then tuned by Ferrari.
The 1,750 cc turbo gasoline engine and the 3.0 V6 diesel would be some other logical engine choices. (That’s the VM Motori diesel as used by Jeep, Ram and Maserati)
I know it is all the same company, but part of me thinks it is sad that Maserati can’t tune their own Biturbo. Just joking of course.
John C.,
The Thomas Crown car was actually a 1967 Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow Two-Door Sedan, Coachwork by H J Mulliner, Park Ward Ltd. The two door was almost double the cost of the standard Rolls four door, very elegant and in keeping with the other possessions of the classy Mr. Crown.
I know. I was responding to agonynine’s comment on the late sixties version. There was also a boxier James Young version that beat the Mulliner version to market. The Corniche name was only used in 1971 and later.
The Corniche II version had all the improvements of the Silver Shadow II plus by 1981 had received fuel injection and the Silver Spur Citroen based hydraulic suspension. that was why I picked that year for my fantasy garage comment. After 1981 the fixed head coupe was dropped though the convertible lasted into 1992.
Thomas Crown Affair was supposed to be one of Steve McQueen’s favorite roles. Being more sophisticated than the more gritty roles he often played, Mr. McQueen really felt he was acting. The role was offered to Sean Connery first who refused it.
I’ll go a bit more exotic with a Daimler Majestic Major, powered by an Edward Turner designed hemi-head V8, a Lotus Elan, a Landrover Defender 130 crew cab, a BMW 3.0CSL “batmobile”, and a Citroen CX GTI familiale.
Only five? Decisions, decisions…Okay, I’ll take a
Mercedes-Benz W113 with pagoda top, in that cool tobacco brown Mercedes used in the late Sixties;
Renault 16 in dark green, because I love Citroens but I’m wary of all the hydraulics;
Saab 96 V-4 in red, for a little innocent rough and tumble now and then;
Porsche 356C, any color, for the sheer joyous precision of it; and
Rover P5B saloon in Arden green, because sometimes you simply want to arrive in style.
My fantasy five:
1968 Mercury Cougar. Lime frost metallic with black vinyl top, and black interior. We’ll take it easy on Mother Nature and spec the 289 4V with 4 speed.
1964 Studebaker Hawk Gran Turismo, black with black vinyl roof and black interior. Prefer the 289 (again!) with four speed.
1980 Rover SD5, with Buick V8, four speed. Bright yellow with saddle brown leather interior.
2012 Fiat 500 Abarth. Silver with black interior. (Daily Driver)
2013 Cadillac CTS-V wagon. Any color, any interior. That is all…
i’ll take a shot!
top five(in no particular order)
1972 buiick Riviera gs–gold with white interior, brown vinyl top
1969 mercury marauder x100-blue with black top and interior
1964 mercury parklane convertible-red interior with black body
1964 Cadillac 60 special-black with grey interior
1976 Chrysler Newport 4dr hdtp-black with red interior
these are all family cars from over the years that are but memories having been scrapped at the end of their lives but they make me wish mr Peabody and the wayback machine were on standby!
I can’t even begin to pick a top 5, so I’m picking 5 that I actually saw at a show on Saturday.
1930 Model A coupe.
1940 Ford covertible
1959 Cadillac convertible
1962 Buick LeSabre sedan
1972 Olds Cutlass convertible
Honorable mention for the Greyhound Senicruiser that the DJ uses.
I sense the CC Effect is strong in this one.
Look what I found in Paris a few days ago, quietly resting at the curb.
I love those rear blades. Sublime.
Hmmmm….
Am enjoying looking over everyone’s Fanta-5, Here come 5 more:
1964 Austin Healey Sprite
1949 Pontiac convert.
1955 Buick wagon
1956 Desoto
1961Austin 850 (Mini)
One of the things I love about CC is that fantasy garages are not just filled with the most expensive exotics, but include a range of interesting, charming and quirky choices. I could be tempted by any of a 60’s Mini, a P5B Rover, a Renault 16, Porsche 356, MB 500E and Bristol 410, all of which are mentioned above. The Bentley Continental in the photos would do just fine also.
I’m not so familiar with American cars, but I have very fond memories of spending a week in 1988 cruising around Dallas, Texas in a 1967 Cadillac.
Fantasy garages are subject to change of course, but my current practical FG (i.e. not absurdly expensive and including at least one dd) is:
2015 Accord hybrid
3.4 Mk2 Jaguar (manual transmission)
2011 Civic Type R (FN2)
1969 Lancia Fulvia 1600 HF
and I’ll keep my 2001 Honda Insight (both of them actually if I’m allowed to – there’s only six cylinders between the two cars).
[Hmmm – that list includes at least three Hondas. Fan boy risk alert – I might have to reconsider……]
3 Hondas or anything else are fine. It would have been funny to me if someone had picked for example. A blue 89 Accord DX for when I feel economical. A blue 89 Accord LX when I feel like luxury. A blue 89 Accord EX when I want it all. A blue Accord Hybrid when I worry about the environment. Finally an 89 blue Accord SE when I feel I am at the end of the line. Here was a person of great discernment we all could respect.
The great Canadian philosopher Aldo Nova once opined. “Life is just a fantasy.” but then he poigniantly inquired; “But can you live this fantasy life?”
1964 Buick Rivera GS
1965 Pontiac GTO tri-power
1967 Rover P5B Coupe
1971 Ford Falcon XY GT-HO
1999 BMW Z3 M coupe
I’ve had several of the old American cars on some of the lists. or at least very close equivalents. My choice would be an Aston DB2.
I have only seen one DB2. It was in 1971 or 72 in the winter at the University of Waterloo in Ontario. It was generally solid, but the leather interior had some tears in it, and the paint was a bit worn. Only saw it once and I have no idea who owned it.
This is as close as I’ll ever get to that Continental. This is still sitting in my side yard. Someday, hopefully soon.
Seems I got its sister a few years ago! Here it is with its previous owner.
Jose, for your information Harrington now makes stainless steel bumpers for the MkVII. I know because I did send in the originals for them to make copies (and got a ss set in return).
Fabulous cars. Good luck with your car.
Avanti, Studebaker preferred. Hawk, Studebaker preferred. Clipper, pre-war preferred. Studebaker President or Commander C or K. Chevrolet Fleetline 2-door, ’49 and up preferred. All must have manual transmission.
55 Crown Imperial limo
55 Chrysler New Yorker 4-door sedan- all black
54 Buick Special 4-door sedan- two tone light green w/white top
58 Edsel Corsair 4-door sedan- blue w/white accent
58 Chevrolet Delray two-door- solid color
I was struggling with the 5 car thing, but then realised that the 5 bike challenge was much more meaningful to me. I think I’m more of a bike guy than a car guy. In no particular order, here’s my list.
– BSA Gold Star. Swinging arm version
– Vincent Black Shadow
– Ducati 916
– Suzuki GS1000S 1979
– Yamaha YZ490, for some brutal ring-a-ding 2 stroke action
Could swap the big Zook for a Z1, or the Gold Star for a Norton International. Or a BSA RGS. Could do a RD350LC YPVS for a more practical 2 stroke maybe. Probably would be a different list every day!
I have always had a reality check for this in the sense that it should be possible for me to actually own them somewhere in the (near) future. So this leaves out oddities like a Bugatti Royale, Bentley Continental, 300 Gullwing or any other $100k+ car.
At the moment on my wish list:
Lotus Europa twin cam (with the high top sides)
Lotus Elise S1
1959 Desoto coupe
1965 New Yorker 4d HT
1953 Studebaker coupe HT