Which brings me back around to working around a bunch of car guys. Nearly everything you can imagine about working for a car magazine is not true. Yes, we get to see a bunch of great cars, but the rest of the job is sometimes like running from an avalanche. One saving grace is that we do get together at lunch and talk. Sometimes this includes magazine staffers from Classic Trucks, Popular Hot Rodding, Super Chevy, Street Rodder, Custom Rodder and, of course, yours truly defending the honor of KIT CAR.
It was at one of these gatherings where the concept of The List of Ten came up. It was derived from the thought: If we only have a certain amount of time left here on earth, what would be the ten cars you'd like to have in your garage? Surprisingly, the informal list from these editors was very different. Some leaned into rare, number-matching Vettes while others looked to a '32 Duesenberg for inspiration.
I currently own 10 cars, and I consider myself lucky, as I already own a few of the cars on my list. But my list doesn't have the rare supercars or one-off Ferraris, just the cars I missed out on growing up-ones I now have an appreciation for. They are: (10) '73 Ferrari 246 Dino, (9) '59-60 Vette, (8) '32 Ford three-window highboy, (7) '32 Ford highboy roadster, (6) '55 Porsche Speedster, (5) '65 Barracuda, (4) '64 Aston Martin DB5, (3) '56-58 Karmann Ghia, (2) '49 Jaguar XK120 coupe, and my favorite car, bar none, a (1) 1950 Abarth 205 Vignale Berlinetta.
There were only three of those Abarth 205s made, but I've been lucky enough to hang out around the only known restored version in existence and get some photos. I'll never own an example of the real car, but I've done half-scale drawings of it and, when ever my garage gets finished, I intend to build one in full scale, either in 'glass or metal (I've got lots of metal bending tools that are just aching to work something!).
That's what's great about the time we're in right now: we can build or own cars, personalize them to set them apart from anything else on the road, and enjoy looking at them every time we open up our garage door. We'd like to know if you have a List of Ten, and what would be on it. If you send it in to kitcar@primedia.com (with "List of Ten" written in the subject line), we'll publish your dream car garage list in an upcoming issue.