Fantasy Cars

I'm sure we all dream about our fantasy car from time to time. You know the one: the out of reach sublime motor we hope someday to own. Whilst you might be more than happy with your current classic I'm actually talking about the elusive, exotic and wondrous mechanical creation you'd buy and cherish if you had the unlimited funds required to obtain and maintain such a machine.  Of course, the super-rich, like Jay Leno for example, have been able to make such fantasies come true but even they must desire cars so rare, so few in number, they elude their influence and economic muscle.

For me there are plenty of cars I'd really like to have. Those with good memories will recall some of my previous blogs where I've eluded to them. I've referenced the quirky Hillman Husky, a well-sorted Mini Cooper or a cranky Citroen SM with its six-pot Maserati engine. Unmentioned thus far is a Jensen Interceptor, a Mark 10 Jag and perhaps most exotic of all a Pontiac Aztek; just for shits and giggles I should say and not for making crystal meth. Naturally, this could be a very long list but then I thought: what about cars we've all seen but which we can never really own because, well, they don't truly exist?  I'm talking about the fantasy cars of the movies and popular fiction. Cars that in the minds of their creators have been uniquely modified to help the story, aid the hero or simply to add some mechanical dimension to the entertainment. Here's a few examples so you get the idea:

Doc Brown's Delorian DMC 12

Great Scott! Much has been written about the Delorean DMC 12 not all of it nice. Aficionados know it was envisaged as a high-end sports car designed to offer a truly innovative contender in this market sector. It was planned, on paper, to use new lightweight materials, innovative production techniques and have a radical chassis design to support its mid-slung Wankel engine. Sadly all of these intentions were whittled back one by one by lack of cash, inadequate technology, politics, and bad luck. The eventual stainless steel bodied car with rear mounted PSV engine was compromised in almost every way when it launched in 1981 during one of the deepest recessions in recent memory. Predictably things didn't go well and only 9000 were sold. Pretty soon the car was being consigned to bad car history. It was only when it was transformed into a time machine in Back To The Future that it became a fantasy motor. We all know that at  88 mph it was able to travel through time using Doc Brown's flux capacitor. And like the fabled Phoenix, the DMC 12 has in the intervening years gained a legendary status that transcends its difficult birth. I'd certainly have one if only to travel back far enough in time to place a decent bet on The National so as to avoid the bloody donkeys I always seem to favour.

Delorean DMC 12 on display at JLR Heritage Centre Warwickshire

The Bat Mobile

There have been a number of bat mobiles over the years with each new iteration more outrageous than the last. However, I thought I'd concentrate on the classic sixties version used by Adam West in his tenure as the caped crusader. You all know the one. It was indeed a very unique car probably the most exotic on this list. It was based on a 1955 concept car known as the Lincoln Futura which was never officially launched. Of course, it had a plethora of useful bat tools including a rocket motor, parachute, smoke screen and best of all a 'bat-tering' ram. Apparently the original fifties engine was prone to overheat quite badly and it had a more modern motor fitted to make it useable for filming. Two fibreglass replicas were built but the original metal #1 car is a total one-off and therefore totally irreplaceable. Good luck in adding one of those to your collection Jay.

Fantomas' Citroen DS19

Predictably, as you know, I always look for a way to lever a Citroen DS into my missives but trust me this one's a doozy. Fantomas is an obscure French super villain whose adventures were dramatised in a series of books first published in 1911. This miscreant is a murderer, thief, blackmailer and master of disguise who has, as with most psychopaths, an unquenchable desire to rule or destroy the world. His adventures were made into a series of films in the mid-sixties and his arsenal of madness included a flying Citroen DS19. Yes that's right a flying Citroen which makes quite a change from it being merely broken down. Have a look at this YouTube link and see what you think http://youtu.be/roxqTOAor0I. If you happen to have one of these by the way I'd like to buy it!

James Bond's Aston Martin DB5

I don't think I need say too much more about this iconic car. It's beautiful, deadly and utterly legendary in the pantheon of fantasy cars. Of course, I'd like to own one of these stately British lovelies. Who wouldn't? But having the option of flipping up the top of the gear lever and pressing the little red button, especially when the wife is complaining about my driving, well, I'm not sure I could resist.

Lovely DB5 on display at Gawsworth Classic Car Show May 2015

Michael Knight's Pontiac Trans Am

This car might not be that outrageous looked at through modern eyes. I've already written about my disquiet about the current move towards self-driving cars and K.I.T.T. was an early fictional rendering of this idea. The original highly modified Trans Am was an ultra-high-tech, self-aware automotive companion to crime fighter Michael Knight (David Hasselhoff). The list of capabilities the car offered was probably only limited by the imagination of the writers as they cooked up evermore scenarios in which a car could be made useful in solving crimes. The duller, less entertaining, alternative I suppose would it being parked up outside and participating in the odd car chase looking for a pile of cardboard boxes to drive through. To be fair, the series ran for quite some time and yielded several subsequent TV movies so it was an idea which obviously had some mileage.

Harry Potter's Ford Anglia 105E

Oh I love the Ford Anglia. My granddad got one when he retired in 1975 and used the excuse of taking me for a drive in it to get some respite from my grandma. With its cute little fins and raked rear window it was a great little car. Add it to my list of desired cars please. This one's unique on this list as its the only one to use supernatural powers to do its party pieces; those of flying and invisibility. Apparently J K Rowling had happy memories of trips in an Anglia during her youth so when Harry Potter needed a means other than a broomstick to cover long distances the little Ford was pressed into service. In this regard the Anglia is more akin to Dr Who's Tardis than the more weaponised motors listed above. Still want one though; flying or not.

One of my fantasy cars pictured at Gawsworth Car Show 2015

So there you have it.  There's more I could have added of course: Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, any number of Bond cars, Lady Penelope's Roller or even Mad Max's Ford Falcon. The truth of the matter is they're all just figments of various creative peoples' imaginations and none of them really exist which, when you think about it, is a great pity.