What is your favorite sports car?

[Radretireddad]

On 7/9/2025 at 9:59 AM, papajohn97 said:

1962 Austin Healy 3000 Mk II. Not because it was the greatest sports car of all time but because it was my dad's mid-life crises "new" used car in 1964 (in Florida Green).  I remember riding shot-gun cruising around town and watching my dad row through the gears and thinking I was the coolest and luckiest 11 year old in Lakewood. CA. The sound and shake of that tri-carb straight six, the smell of the worn leather seats and occasional wisps of motor oil and brake fluid. When I see one of these I think about my wonderful childhood and the incredible father (and mother) that I was blessed to be raised by. Mid-60's in America....sweet spot in time!

My father also restored and drove a ‘62 big Healy. I remember being with him the night he bought it off a used car lot in Houston in the mid sixties. Anytime he went out in it my brother and I always wanted to ride along. I remember asking my dad why everyone stopped and stared when we drove by. He sold it right after he bought the E-type and we both still regret not keeping it but we only had enough room for one toy at a time.

[bytownshaker]

[Jim Dodson]

On 7/6/2025 at 8:23 AM, Ulf said:

Boxster, any generation.

Owned a late first generation and it was hands down the best twisty roads fun I have ever owned!

[OldSkool81]

As a kid and teen, I wanted to become a car designer, but my plans changed. But I always was heavily into car design. And while I never owned or drove any of these cars, here are those that I just can't get enough, that are still as incredibly sexy to my eyes as the day they came out, even as time go by. The Porsche 993 Turbo and Carerra, and of course the FD3S Mazda RX-7!!!

Edited July 12 by OldSkool81
typo

[Wickersham Humble]

The Datsun 240Z. I bought a new one (HLS3547) in July of 1970, drove it with a huge smile on my face for twenty four years, and restored it as the subject of my book HOW TO RESTORE YOUR DATSUN Z-CAR, (CA Bill's Automotive Handbooks, 1990) and sold it back to NISSAN USA in 1995.  BTW, the book was never out of print for 35 years, but is now in a new revised edition distributed by Car Tech Books, easily found on Amazon, etc.

I have a '71 Resto-mod Z now, a conservative personal build with about a hundred 'improvement' features.  Sadly, I'm 80, and need to sell it with less than 500 miles on the complete job, 'frame-up' (no frame, oc) and never having been driven through a puddle.  

The Z was built to a price, and not in contention with any of your exotic hand-built GT's, but was (is) hugely popular and brought more driving pleasure to more folks world-wide than many other sports cars since the beginning.  And, it was always affordable: my first Z cost me $3660 in '70, when the 911S was heading for $6K.  They don't cost much more than a Mustang to rebuild (if you can find one nowadays) and are cheap to run.  And beautiful!

I'd love to have a Scarab, or maybe a J-2 Allard, or one of the Harry Miller street machine roadsters, but the Z is/was accessible, and a lovely thing!  My only regret was that is wasn't built in the USA; John DeLorean's Pontiac OCH Banshee would have been my choice, if produced.  Wick Humble

[Wickersham Humble]

Oh, should I live so long, I'm going to build my big-scale Tamiya Fairlady ZG into a replica of my 1970 car, with standard front bumper/lights, and left-hand drive!

Yes, I know Z's rusted, but so do all other cars:  even Corvette frames suffer from the tin worm.  I recall auto guru Mike Lamm's DeTomaso Pantera, the one owned by Dean Martin, with a rust hole in the body side you could have reached through with your hand!  

[Rodent]

3 hours ago, Wickersham Humble said:

Yes, I know Z's rusted, but so do all other cars:

Yeah.....

My friend bought a '71 in 1979 that was an original Sacramento car (Turner Datsun) and in that short period of time in a very dry climate it had rust perforations around the rear window and windshield gaskets. Another friend had a '76 280Z that he bought in 1979 when he lived in Santa Barbara. The salt air was enough that the cowl and hatch area were perforated even after moving to Sacramento in 1980. I helped him replace some of the metal and he did a respray in the garage. It turned out very nice.

Pretty sure most of these cars didn't outlast their original owner's loan in road salt states.

[Wickersham Humble]

Steve,

The first edition of my book had some rust repair illustrated that was just catastrophic; but with some other stuff I omitted it from the new revision because a Z with that much damage -- at today's commercial body shop rates -- would put the owner upside down in a tic.  I took out the 'paint your own resto' section too, because that isn't done much anymore, but both can be seen in the old copies.  As I point out, the Z wasn't the only collectible that had body cancer proclivities; the '55 Chevy was vulnerable in some areas, especially over the headlites, and lower front fenders.  And the Nomads: the trick hardtop bodies, behind the front doors to the wheel wells had virtually no 'scuppers' to drain moisture -- or dust buildups -- and needed lots of surgery to be saved; I began my driving career with a '55 when it was only six years old (1961) and had about twenty, including all but the ragtop -- and let's not talk about them!  My second car was a '51 Ford 'Special' from MI, and it had no floors, which made ditching beer cans easy, anyhow... 

[LDO]

I don’t think I could pin down a favorite. There are so many that I would love to have. Right this minute I would say a street legal Porsche 935 K3

[Daddyfink]

[dino246gt]

My favorite sports car................. is the one I own!

I HAD a Dino for 7 years, now I have a 308, had it for 18 years!