For a whole generation of kids, Lamborghini Countach posters became a fixture on the bedroom wall, along with a Farrah Fawcett poster. Or maybe someone else; I’m not very good with popular culture. So what about you; what car did you obsess on in your adolescence, or what graced your bedroom wall?
When I was in quite a bit younger, about seven and eight, I practically covered my bedroom walls with car ads, especially the dreamy Fitzpatrick and Kaufman Pontiac renderings.
After we moved to Baltimore, that all went away. When I was fifteen (1968), there were so many incredible new cars, especially out of Italy, that it was literally hard to obsess on any one for too long. But the one that I did obsess on the most was indeed a Lambo, but ironically the four-seater Espada, which arrived in that year (JPC’s CC here).
As much as I loved the exotic mid-engine super-sports cars, there was something about a full four-seater coupe that looked this good, that really grabbed me. Why couldn’t American cars look this good? This is what a 1968 Thunderbird or Riviera should have been, in my mind.
The Espada was pretty much the the only car I drew often at that time, in profile, and its lines deeply etched into my visual cortex, or wherever these lines are stored. Come on, Detroit; you could be building this! The closest they got that was probably the 1971 Sebring/Road Runner.
I might have had one on the closet door for a while, but what dominated my room at the the time was a large poster-board drawing I did of a Chrysler hemi engine cross-section. I copied it free-hand from a book or magazine, and figuring out all the relative sizes and dimensions in a much larger scale was a challenge, with just a ruler. But it came out pretty decent, and it dominated my room for quite some time. And the skills acquired in making it served me well decades later when I draw up plans for my houses. I still use a pencil and ruler for that; it’s just more enjoyable than using a CAD program for me.
I don’t really recall having much in the way of posters on my wall growing up (shared a bedroom with my next-youngest brother). I sure built a lot of scale models of my favorites, though – between me and my three brothers, we had over 300 on display by the time I finished high school.
See if you can ID some of the car models in the pic… (c:
Building model kits is always a good and lasting hobby. In the last semester for the technical writing course, the professor (around 60yo) fondly recalls the time he was assembling the model kits as a boy long time ago, and he worked in GM for more than three decades afterwards. Even though the instruction we ( a group project ) wrote is about assembling a Soviet model car, I can still see he appreciates it a lot and likes it personally. And I think the retro styling does some help too.
I am still vaguely envious when I see people who have really competently executed model kits with customized details and so forth. I tried building model kits when I was a kit, but I was always crap at it — I could manage the assembly okay, but the painting was always a disaster. I tried building one many years later, as an adult, and was no better at it despite being marginally smarter about it.
I had a whole lot more patience then than now.I found a 1/72 P40 Warhawk on the bus and handed it in when i finished work. No one claimed it after 6 weeks(I think) so it was mine.It sat around gathering dust unopened and I gave it to a friends boy.
I was only 13 but the 68 Thunderbird 4dr. would have been the ultimate car at the time. Dreamed about this picture many times. I remember how that name conjured up so many images in my young mind and nothing expressed it better than the picture on the link below for the whole family to travel in. To fly into Atlanta on a Lear Jet and then get picked up in this car and taken to the Regency Hyatt House downtown would have been heaven on earth. http://oldcarbrochures.org/NA/Ford_Thunderbird/1968-Ford-Thunderbird/1968-Ford-Thunderbird-Brochure/1968-Ford-Thunderbird-10-11
I was 15 in 1982-83. Don’t laugh too hard, but for me it was probably the GM A-cars, which were new at the time — especially the Pontiac 6000 STE and the Olds Cutlass Ciera. I even tried to get my folks to buy a Ciera, but they bought a 1983 88 Royale instead. Probably a wise decision! Other than that, I was still obsessing over the Toronado/Riviera/Eldorado, the 1979-85 versions that were in the middle of their run around then. I never got tired of them, and I owned a 1979 Toronado this decade that I’ve now sold.
This one will hit home for Paul – ’83 Thunderbird Turbo Coupe. When we came up to Illinois from Texas for our annual Christmas visit in ’83 my maternal grandparents had the brochure lying around the house. They were thinking about trading their ’78 T-Bird and went to go see my great uncle Frank, a career Ford salesman. I don’t remember the reason why they decided to keep their old car, but in the end they did.
I couldn’t put that brochure down. The Aerobird just looked so different from anything on the road. The obsession continued all through my high school years. Every fall I stopped by the Ford dealer that I passed on the way to school each day to pick up the new T-Bird brochure.
Two years out of high school the dream became reality – an ex-rental ’88 T-Bird. Sure it was base model with the head gasket eating 3.8 V6 instead of a turbo, but it was still an Aerobird. Head gaskets and all it’s still the best damn car I’ve ever had.
I remember saving up allowance money and sending away for this one:
Great artwork!
No posters on the real plaster walls of our prewar house — it would be difficult to drive a nail through it without damage and tape was also a no-no in our house, even in the room I shared with my brother.
So I drew cars in my school notebooks; at the time, I was not very aware of “foreign” cars as we called them back in the day in Pittsburgh other than the very common VW Beetle and for a short time, the Renault Dauphine. And I knew about Jaguars and Rolls-Royces but never saw any in the flesh as I can recall.
My favorites at 15 were the 1965-66 Pontiac Bonnevilles. I couldn’t wrap my head around the facelifted ’67s, with their odd bifurcated front ends (upper headlamps above the grille and the lower headlamps in the grille). I also didn’t like that “slash” character line in the lower quarter panels just ahead of the rear wheels.
The ’67 Grand Prix avoided the headlight problem by having its quads arranged horizontally and hidden behind the grille — that was sharp, and there was a convertible GP for the first time. Still there was that slash…
That’s a thin slice of wall, and I feel it can represent 30% of all posters/model kits.
In early 1990, Dad announced that soon he would be trading in his Iron Duke-powered 1987 Buick Century – a hand-me-down from my maternal grandfather – for a new 1990 Honda Accord. It would be my family’s first Japanese-badged car.
As I was approaching 15 and close to gaining my learner’s permit, I welcomed this news tremendously… and soon, I became utterly obsessed with learning all I could about the fourth-generation Accord. I pored over Motor Trend’s test of the new car during free period in the high school library, collected all the promotional materials I could, and accompanied my dad on several late-evening trips to Honda Cars of Bellevue (NE) to look over the various models, without being bothered by a salesman.
I had fallen in love with a teal green EX sedan; we ended up with a dark gray LX, which still proved to be a fantastic automobile. I took my driving test in that car, it ferried me on my first date, and I would still occasionally take it to school during my senior year. By that time we’d moved to New Mexico, and I was driving my second car, a Geo Storm… that was utterly inferior in every measure to the nearly 200,000-mile Honda, except that it was mine.
Wow. When I turned 15 in 1968, I was a messed-up mess, wrapped up in school and my music studies, as well as being a primary caretaker of my bedridden and demanding mother, and I was in a phase of not caring what cars were on the road. (My mother is whole story that is neither here nor there right now!) That’s too bad, because little did I know that in a few years, the malaise era of bloat accompanied by ever-wimpier engines would enter on the scene. I can only look back now on what I might have fantasized about what I might have liked.
The Camaro and Firebird were certainly eye-catching; my brother and his wife had a Firebird, but it turned out to be an unreliable car. I liked the ’65 and ’66 GM full-sized cars better than the ’67 and ’68 models, which to my eye were sort of bloated. I just didn’t connect with their midsize and compact products.
Chrysler products? Off the radar.
Ford products? Looking back, the Mercury Cougar was a stunner, pulling off a very different look from its sibling, the Mustang.
Imports? Nah; I loathed my dad’s ’61 Mercedes 190Db, a smoky, incredibly noisy and clattery thing, with all the acceleration of an overloaded bicycle. I will give it this: it had VERY comfortable seats. And I just didn’t know much about other imports. The Japanese brands were just getting a toehold in the U.S., and they were still unknown quantities.
My fifteenth year is not one I would care to repeat. I’m glad to be far away from that time!
In 1964 I was fifteen and we had recently moved to a new house where I got my own bedroom – the car pictures I pasted up were mostly the customs and hot rods from the car magazines but I still have 3 framed photos I bought at a car show and hung with pride.
A red stock 1940 Ford Coupe
A white TR3
A silver Gullwing Mercedes with the doors open.
I remember being disappointed earlier by the new Corvette Sting Ray but have sure changed my mind since then!
I always liked luxury cars,so pictures of `67 Eldoradoes, Mk lll Continentals,Rivieras, Toronados and Grand Prix decorated my rooms, along with sports cars like `68 Corvettes , E Type Jaguars and Ferraris. Muscle cars were OK,but just not my thing but I always lusted after Cobras and Shelby GT 350s.
I was 15 in 1988, growing up in a suburb of LA. My fascination was with the Citroen CX and I am still fascinated by them, having never sat in one. I also had a cutout of a 1980 Ford Taunus Ghia from a magazine on my wall. I was a pretty weird kid.
No posters but 15 y.o. me obsessed over the Dodge Charger Daytona, Maserati Bora, Lotus Europa, and the Batmobile from the original TV series.
My 15th year straddled 1964 and 1965. I did not have any posters on the wall but stacks of R&T, C&D, and Hot Rod. My two favorites then and now were the E-type coupe and the Shelby 350GT.
Those scale models take me back. I shared a paper route with another kid who put all his profits in a bank account for college while I spent mine on AMT and Johan models. We had a 6-cubic-foot cardboard box of leftover parts in our basement that I would occasionally build a car out of. Customizing was done with a jackknife heated in the flame of Mom’s gas stove, and cotton was liberally applied as interior carpeting.
I always loved cars, but didn’t hang pictures. Don’t know why.
I was 15 in 1965, and my tastes ran towards GT cars with big American engines, be they domestic or foreign built. A particular favorite was the Facel Vega, with its honking Chrysler mill, near horizontal steering column and the exotically named Pont-a-Mousson 4-speed stick. I knew I would need a tux to drive one, and that added to the appeal.
Facel Vega? You, sir, have good taste. I discovered the Excellence and Facel II in a book of European Sportscars that I got when I was probably 11 or 12, and have loved them ever since. I have a 1:18 model of that HK500, which is probably the closest I’ll ever get to one.
The interiors are perhaps even more outstanding than the styling.
+1 also a long time fan of Euro American exotics here.
No car posters that I can remember, but I had a book “Supercars of the Seventies” (with a Countach on the cover, naturally) that I treasured. I would wash my hands before touching it and handle it very delicately, like a museum piece.
I also had a Porsche 928 sales brochure I liked to look through and imagine a more exciting and interesting life than the one I had.
In 1971, I had a chunk of one wall with pics of cars on it, the “stars” of that wall were:
1970 Charger R/T, solid yellow.
1970 ‘Cuda, bright red.
1971 Roadrunner, Petty blue with white stripes.
1971 Trans Am. Red.
1971 Z-28 Blue.
Not a single Ford, AMC, or foreign car ever made my wall.
one poster was something like this:
I had a thing for targa turbo slantnose 911 porsches at one time.
Well I guess it’s time to own up to my years. No wall posters but a shelf with dealer brochures and Sunday edition classified from the Oregonian news paper. The object of my desire 1963 Pontiac Lemans convertible 4 bbl. 4 speed and 4 cly. as pictured and reported in Paul’s excellent write up. Only problem I had to wait till I was 60 to acquire it.
one poster was something like this:
I had one of these on my wall at one time:
Mid-late 80s: Countach, Quattro in Group B livery and dirt, and a BMW 6-Series.
one of these was on my wall for awhile:
I wanted a ’77 Pontiac Firebird Formula 400.
In 1979, this was the car on my mind…
I think I had one of these on my wall once upon a time:
The 1968 GTO was what I obsessed over as a teen in the early 1980s. My classmates had those Lamborghini posters, I never cared for those cars. As for my walls, they were covered in self-made “posters” of xeroxed album covers. MC5, Eddie & The Hot Rods, that kinda thing…
1984 – No posters that I recall, but like many others, there were several shelves of models. Pretty much all factory stock 1930’s – 1950’s American stuff.
I had a Harley Davidson Electra Glide which I believe was a gift.
I had the poster with the dark blue Countach as well
And being raised on Volvos I had a poster of the BTCC Volvo 855 race car
I had some hot laydees as well and probably some other cars.
Posters on the wall in the first half of the eighties:
-DAF N-series beer hauler, owned by a company nearby (poster below)
-Mack F700, also owned by a Dutch company
-Kenworth W900A
-Peterbilt 359
-White Western Star COE
My room was also loaded with 1:24 and 1:25 plastic model kits. US-trucks from Ertl (and one AMT) and Euro-trucks from Italeri (plus a semi-trailer from Heller). DAF, Scania, Volvo, Mercedes, Mack, International and Kenworth. And of course matching trailers and semi-trailers.
Conclusion: I was more interested in big diesel trucks than in cars. Let alone in sports cars.
Nice livery on that thing.
In the eighties it was “hot” to Americanize (West Coast !) Euro rigs. Chrome, vertical exhaust stacks, wild graphics, sometimes a separate sleeper, etc.
In factory trim the DAF N-series from the early eighties was essentially a very naked heavy-duty truck, developed and built for harsh (African) conditions. Think Mercedes L-series. It was only available as a 6×4 truck or tractor and it had the cab of the Magirus-Deutz Eckhauber. As you can see the DAF above is very dressed up and as such it’s a fine example of a West Coast class 8 rig. Sort of…
That looks like a mixture of:
Ford
Sterling
Mack
maybe a little bit Western Star
Two DAF N2800 dump trucks in factory trim, “African style”.
And the White Western Star mainly stood out thanks to its cab graphics.
I’m shocked to realize that I can’t remember half the posters on my walls in my youth, but the one I can still clearly see in my mind was of an Eleanor Mustang that was all the rage after the Gone In 60 Seconds remake in 2000, I think I got the poster from the Chrom & Flammen American car magazine. I also had a bunch of 1:18 model cars, including a Porsche 993 Targa, Ferrari Testarossa and Bugatti EB110, and a whole crate of Matchbox and Hotwheels. Whenever I needed a crashed car to recreate a chase scene with a big accident I took a Matchbox to my dad’s workbench and banged it up with his vise and a hammer.
Countachs ? Diablos ? Testarossas ?
Nah… Only the true path of the Brougham is worth following.
So, during my youth, I had advertisements cut out from US magazines and pasted to my wall.
– Chrysler Imperial : a simpler way to get world’s best engineering ;
– Dodge Dynasty : for those that have enough money to throw around and enough sense not to ;
– 1993 Buick Park Avenue.
I also had two drawings made by my father : a late forties Buick convertible and a 1959 Cadillac 62 convertible.
Dad’s 1960 Chevy Impala sports sedan!
Besides that, a 1957 Chevy and/or an army Jeep.
As for the Lamborghini Countach posters, who in their right mind would want a piece of junk like that? I’m not kidding, either.
I wouldn`t mind having that “hood ornament” on the orange Lambo!
Usually the late 60’s and early 70’s muscle cars and of course the then new 1984 Vette and most any neat F-body. Most of my friends at school liked those too
My father had a 1953 Studebaker Champion Starlight from 1954 through the early 1960s. He always talked fondly about that car, along with the 1951 Champion sedan that he had bought as a slightly used car, and then sold to his parents when he bought the 1953 Studebaker.
In the late 1970s, he took me to the Harrisburg Auto Show, and I bought a poster featuring photos of several vintage Studebakers. The poster was on my bedroom wall for several years.
The car in the center of the poster was a mint 1953 Commander Starliner. I’ve wanted that car ever since.
My father also had a 1953 Studebaker, a Commander 4 dr. When I was 9 he took me out on a desolate country road for my first driving lesson.
The Alpine A 110 and 4 Cyl A 310
A110
A310 and A110
A310 (the 6 cyl)
A110 was definitely an object of desire for me in the late ’60’s. I did see a few Miuras here in the US, but Im not sure I’ve ever seen an A110 outside of a magazine picture.
You definitely had excellent taste and an impressive concept of performance for a youngster.
On my bedroom walls at age 15, I remember having a DeLorean DMC-12, a Lamborghini Countach, wedge Lotus Esprit, Ferrari 288 GTO, Vector WX3, Plymouth Superbird.
I had a poster of an Opel Calibra on my wall when I was about 7. I did think it looked great at the time, but it was also the only car poster I happened to get my hands on since my dad got it from the Opel dealer I believe (where he bought a Kadett of course).
Seeing as I will be 15 until late July, I am currently obsessing over the:
-Citroen S(&)M
-Saab 900 SPG
-VW Golf R(32) series
-Mk2 Chevy Corvair Corsa coupé
-1965 Chrysler 300 Letter
-1935 Auburn
-Duesenberg SJ
-Cord 810/812
-Panhard 24
-1973 Pontiac Grand Am
-1961-63 Plymouth Valiant with the NASCAR Slant 6
-Alfa Romeo Alfetta GTV6
-1965-66 Dodge Charger
-Studebaker Avanti
I always knew I was the weird child, and this should prove it.
Not too weird. 2nd Gen Corvairs were quite desirable but still affordable and fairly common when I was 15, and the GrandAm came out just before I turned 16, and I liked it then as well. Ditto Panhard 24’s and Cords. Charger and Avanti, not so much. No SPG Saabs then, but the 850cc Saab 96 Monte Carlo was perhaps its counterpart at the time.
Saab !
Mr. Saab (rally legend Erik Carlsson) passed away a few days ago, at the age of 86.
RIP Mr. Saab.
Also, the Alfa Romeo Montreal
I was 15 in 1962 and there were a lot of cars that I lusted after, but I was completely fixated on having a ’57 Thunderbird as my first car. Never happened, but when the retro-Bird came out, the obsession started anew, and at the age of 56, I finally got my ’57 T-Bird in the form of my ’03 model. Still driving it and still loving it, and it still draws considerable attention. Never had any posters on my wall, but my 20-odd promo car collection occupied a prominent place on my bedroom bookshelf. Still have all of those, too.
From the time I can remember (so maybe 5 or around), until I moved from that room to a different room in the house, I had a huge Ferrari Testarossa poster. I loved that poster and it’s still around but almost 20 years of tape have made it so I haven’t tried unfolding it 🙁
I also have an F50 poster similar to it but it never got on the wall. Still rolled up somewhere.
It looked very much like this one if not the same. I don’t remember the reflection on the bottom.
I turned 16 at the end of 1963 and the muscle cars, except the GTO had not come out yet, as neither had the pony cars. The car I lusted after and would still like to have was a 1963 Studebaker Avanti R3.
I was fifteen in 1969, a freshman in high school. The car that I really dreamed about wasn’t a Mach One, a Corvette or even a Jag XKE. It was a 1960 Cadillac series 62 convertible. This car was obviously well cared for because it was a shiny glossy black with a black top and chrome baby moon wheels with black walls. It was slightly lowered and sported a pair of chromed slash cut exhaust pipes under the rear bumper. I would see the car parked in front of a tavern on Marsh Creek Rd. in Clayton Ca. just before the big curve. I saw this car all Freshman year and dreamed of piloting this black rocket ship along the back highways of Northern Ca. I’d always loved Cads and this car sealed the deal. In 1975 I bought my second car, a 1964 series 62 Cadillac convertible. Gold with a tan top and interior. Boy did I love that car! When someone offered me twice what I had in the car, I stupidly sold it.
I turned 15 in 1990, which is when my walls turned from Countach to… Lexus. I think I had every single framed Countach poster ever made (incl. all 4 pictured) hoarded from K-mart, a craft store my mother went to and various carnival winnings.
Beginning in 89 my walls started going Lexus, with every clipping I could find and the pull out ads and brochures and an AWESOME dot-matrix banner printed at home, LOL. On the ceiling was a Batman poster (in front of the Batmobile), Elvira (3 posters) and a Ginger Lynne poster that my older brother gave me for Christmas. I had just gotten my Learner’s permit and I was set on buying an ’85 Cadillac Seville that was for sale by my school bus stop. That summer we moved to Europe.
I didn’t have any car posters at all, but I was drawing pictures of cars with fins similar to 1957-58 Chrysler products. I did have one magazine ad of a 1958 Cadillac Sixty Special sedan on my dorm room wall, along with a number of old license plates.
Speaking of posters, I had criticized my friend a few months ago. He found a perfectly preserved large poster that belonged to his older brother with the Oldsmobile lineup of cars from the late 80s. I think it included the boxy Cruiser station wagon, Tornado and Cutlass Ciera among the cars. He put it up in his office/den/man cave room using tape of all things. The sun from the windows on the opposite wall could possibly cause some fading and further deterioration now that I think about it. The cars and the poster are now hard to find in 2015 (here in Canada).
You’re talking about 1977 for me, so it was a rather eclectic mix of racing Porsche, Aston Martin Lagonda (the Williams Towns designed straight edge car) and James Hunt’s F1 Championship winning MacLaren M23, along with a few big trucks.
And, rather worryingly, I remember an Austin Allegro estate as well.
’69 GTO The Judge. ‘Nuff said.
I wasn’t even 5 at the time, but I loved watching “BJ and the Bear” when it was on. Ever since, I’ve liked the Kenworth K-100 Aerodyne.
I grew up in the golden age of Lambo/Ferrari posters. I totally did not care for them. I had the then-new 1980 Trans Am and Firebird Formula promo poster, One of a Corvette, and one of a ’67 GTO.