Remember African Mirror? In the faraway pre-TV days of the late-’50s and early- ’60s, the black-and-white newsreels screened at the local “bughouse” before the main feature were a must for a crazy young motorsport fan like me. They provided the only opportunity – aside from bi-annual visits to the East London GP circuit – to view my heroes in action. I remember vividly an edition depicting the 1962 Nine-Hour at Kyalami. And what sticks in my mind is the footage of a breathtakingly beautiful sportscar with an oval front air intake and three extra slots on the bonnet above, between the fairedin headlights. It was, of course, David Piper’s Ferrari GTO, which won the rain-soaked race. Ever since then, the GTO has been one of my all-time favourite cars…
Scroll forward a few years, and I recall how, while standing with my mates outside the varsity Students’ Union and eyeing the girls in their miniskirts (Mary Quant’s creations having just hit South Africa), my attention would invariably be distracted by a Porsche 356B T6 Hardtop that regularly parked in Durban’s King George V Avenue. It sparked a love of Porsches that led to my buying a 356C a few years later, and has now culminated in my current 356A restoration project…
And then there was Dany, the cute little French girl with the 2CV, whom I met while picking grapes in the Beaujolais region. I remember a ride into Villefranche-sur-Saône to go clubbing one evening. The unforgettable “whinny” of the flat-twin had more resonance with me than the music of the group, Téléphone, playing at the gig. The result was that three of these eccentric engineering marvels have found space in my garage in subsequent years. The current one will hopefully have a home there until I shuffle off one day…
We all have motoring dreams, some of them realisable and others that are unreachable but continue to tantalise for a lifetime. So, starting on page 18, we’ve brought you the results of a poll among the current CAR team, featuring the weird and wonderful creations that rev our motors. It’s not our definitive list of the best cars of all time, simply a line-up of those that we desire most. And, to add perspective, we’ve also compiled a list based on votes by visitors to our website, cartoday.com. The result is the stuff of dreams…
