Top 10 Childhood Dream Cars
Top 10 Childhood Dream Cars

Top 10 Childhood Dream Cars

January 9, 2024
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As a child, your dreams were tangible targets you could achieve by merely believing in yourself. You could achieve it no matter what it was because you believed dreams could come true.

This was especially strong when it came to cars.

Remember racing an early 2000s Lamborghini Murcielago on a countryside road in NFS: Hot Pursuit II on your PS2?

We used to say, “Hii gari… Hii hapa… Hii ni yangu.”? We dreamt of driving these cars for real along the Mombasa-Nairobi highway at full speed in blissful ignorance.

Being a kid was fun.

So, what cars did we dream of as kids? We asked that question around the CARS360 office and got many answers. Some cars were bonkers, while some were, well, dumb. But all the same, all these were our dream cars as children.

Here are the top 10 childhood dream cars from the CARS360 office:

 

 

Modified Land Rover Defender 110

Land Rover Defender:

This was pretty much the most unanimous pick for the office. Seeing these otherworldly 4×4 cars barnstorming all over the place, being cool, awesome, and, well, Defenders, was awe-inspiring. It makes sense, though. As a child, if you wanted an off-road car, even a Land Cruiser or a Jeep, you still called it a Land Rover. Land Rover was anything that went off-road. That’s just how good these cars were.

 

 

 

2022 Mercedes-Benz G-Class

Mercedes-Benz G Wagon:

Let’s be honest, this is still our dream car today. This boxy Mercedes that came from being a failed military vehicle to the preferred choice of the ‘LOOK-AT-ME!’ community took our breaths away as kids. The V8 noise, the sleek design, and the sheer road presence made us dream of stepping out of these cars when we grew up. Today, all we dream of is stepping out of these cars and having all the ladies interpret the masculinity of the car as our pure ‘man energy’. Sigh, one day.

 

 

Michael Keaton’s Batmobile

Michael Keaton’s Batmobile:

For us children who grew up watching comic book animations on television, remember just how cool Batman was? His gadgets, his fighting style, his voice, his Batcave, and his car. This car, inspired by the Michael Keaton Batmobile, had a jet engine, looked like a goth prototype vehicle, went fast, and had all the gadgets that would make a small child squirm with joy. I know you can’t use this car as a ‘car’, but hey, these are childhood dream cars. This counts just as much as a Land Rover Defender. Plus, who wouldn’t want to be Batman for a day?

 

 

1967 Shelby Ford Mustang GT500 ‘Eleanor’ from Gone in 60 Seconds

1967 Shelby Ford Mustang GT500 Fastback:

Now, let’s get something straight from the start. This car is just so damn cool! Look, it has a 7.0-liter naturally aspirated V8 with 400 hp, a 4-speed manual gearbox, and rear-wheel drive. It sounds great, looks great, and just oozes so much charisma. So much so that it is the beloved muscle car that Nicolas Cage’s character names ‘Eleonor’ in the hit movie Gone in 60 Seconds. Remember that movie? As a child, this was the car we wanted to use to run away from our parents in less than 60 seconds. You know, when you didn’t finish your homework and clean your rooms.

 

 

1973 Citroen DS

Citroen DS:

I am pretty sure you have seen this car in a garage somewhere. Abandoned, neglected, and wasting away. I assure you, this car from our childhood was the most fascinating car we had ever seen. It would pull up to the gate in Ushago, toot its French horn, drive in, and before people alighted, it would drop to the ground like it crashed out of the sky. It was witchcraft! The hydro-pneumatic suspension, a word many of us didn’t know how to pronounce until our 20s, was years ahead of its time. That aerodynamic body looked like it came straight from an airplane. We yearned for this car that looked like it was conjured up by a wizard. Amazing car!

Speaking of amazing…

 

 

1997 world speed record vehicle: Thrust SSC

Thrust SSC World Record Car:

I get it. Up until now, you had never even known that this car existed. As a matter of fact, if we are being honest, this doesn’t even look like a car. It looks like a syringe with two jet engines strapped to its sides. But I assure you, this is the true definition of a dream car. This car, back in 1997, at Blackrock Desert, Nevada, being driven by RAF pilot Andy Green, went faster than the speed of sound! Yes, you heard me right. FASTER THAN THE SPEED OF SOUND! It reached a Guinness world record of 1,227.989 km/h (a little over the distance from Nairobi to Mogadishu), a speed that, up to this day, has never been beaten. This car boggled my mind and caused many sleepless nights for yours truly here. It was the ultimate trump card for “Gari yangu ni noma kuliko yako!” arguments. This car is why I love cars—a true dream car.

 

 

2000 Toyota Corolla G-Touring

Toyota G-Touring:

From the extremes of supersonic cars to mundane cars. A few people in the office swore that this made them love cars. One even said that when his uncle drove into their home with this car as a child, he lusted over it. He wanted this car more than he wanted a girlfriend. In our book, this extreme reaction makes this most common of cars a dream car.

P.S.: he turned into a teenager and reversed this sentiment faster than a car hitting a tree. He is now happily married and drives a RAV4.

 

 

1978 VW Golf GTI

VW GOLF GTI Mk 1:

If you were looking for actual, down-to-earth road cars that also happened to be dream cars, then this was the car for you. This was the kind of car driven by your young male neighbor who always had an unbuttoned shirt, bell-bottom jeans, an afro, and aviator shades, and way too many ladies came over. This guy was who you wanted to be as a young man, and his car was the car to drive.

 

 

 

 

1990 Porsche 911 Turbo

1990 Porsche 911 Turbo:

Ah, yes, the widowmaker. All the people living on the extreme edge drove this car. The car made men out of boys and women out of girls. The automotive equivalent of snorting cocaine. In black, this car looked like it just broke the law by existing. As a child, I was asked to describe what a naughty person looked like if they were a car. This was the car. And boy, did we want one!

 

 

 

2008 Lamborghini Murcielago LP640-4

Lamborghini Murcielago:

As children in the early to mid-2000s, playing NFS: Hot Pursuit II on your PlayStation, if you were told to pick a car you would buy in the next 10 years, this was it. This Lamborghini looked so vulgar and ostentatious; you couldn’t make yourself look any cooler even if you were made of ice. With its scissor doors, bright orange paint, big V12 engine, and an engine sound that would tear down mountains, this was the dream car to end all dream cars. Plus, if asked at a future dinner party what car you drove, you could say a Lambo.

 

Those were our top 10 childhood dream cars. Which were your childhood dream cars? Comment below, and we will post the most popular on our social media platforms.

You can also read: https://www.cars360.co.ke/top-5-popular-fuel-efficient-dream-cars-in-kenya/

Drive your Dreams today with CARS360.

 

Written by, 

Antony Madilschy, CARS360 Consultant 

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