QOTD: What Was the Most Awesome Car at Your High School?
It’s been a couple of weeks since we took a stroll down memory lane together. I asked you in May about the worst car you could recall in your high school parking lot. The incoming responses made it seem like our enthusiast B&B members were often aware they were the winner of the bad car blue ribbon in school. That speaks to our level of enlightenment and self-awareness. Think of how many people go through life not ever realizing how bad their cars are.
For today though, we run away from the rust buckets and 75-horsepower Malaise Wonders. I want to hear about the most awesome car in your high school lot.
There were always one or two high school rides that stood out from the rest. Whether through parental generosity or hours of owner labor, these select vehicles possessed an unmatched level of coolness and desirability. Speaking from personal experience in a purely hypothetical sense, these are the cars other students admire and look upon covetously as they walk past. The deep sparkle seen in the metallic paint, expensive wheels glinting in the sun while walking to your ancient front-wheel drive Audi own ride — which is awesome, but not quite as cool. My pick for coolest ride still stands out in my mind today.
That’s right, a big Taur… I mean Merkur Scorpio. Of course, it was the only one on the lot, and I’d never seen one before. The Scorpio was a rare European ride, it looked expensive, and it was a large car (all my favorite things).
Owned by an upperclassman, I think it was in this sort of condition circa 2002.
If I planned my drive to school just right, I could occasionally arrive after the Scorpio was parked but before all the spots were taken. Then I could either park next to it or in a space where I’d could walk by. Such was the subject that filled my early morning mind in high school: Advanced Parking Strategy.
Now as I recall, the Scorpio didn’t make it all the way through the owner’s senior year. The black beauty disappeared at some point, replaced (suitably) by a newer and less interesting light bar Mercury Sable. Looking at the pictures above brings back all my memories. Car stalking is real!
So what’s your pick for the most awesome ride in your high school lot?
[Images via eBay; Craigslist]
Interested in lots of cars and their various historical contexts. Started writing articles for TTAC in late 2016, when my first posts were QOTDs. From there I started a few new series like Rare Rides, Buy/Drive/Burn, Abandoned History, and most recently Rare Rides Icons. Operating from a home base in Cincinnati, Ohio, a relative auto journalist dead zone. Many of my articles are prompted by something I'll see on social media that sparks my interest and causes me to research. Finding articles and information from the early days of the internet and beyond that covers the little details lost to time: trim packages, color and wheel choices, interior fabrics. Beyond those, I'm fascinated by automotive industry experiments, both failures and successes. Lately I've taken an interest in AI, and generating "what if" type images for car models long dead. Reincarnating a modern Toyota Paseo, Lincoln Mark IX, or Isuzu Trooper through a text prompt is fun. Fun to post them on Twitter too, and watch people overreact. To that end, the social media I use most is Twitter, @CoreyLewis86. I also contribute pieces for Forbes Wheels and Forbes Home.
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Our HS share the parking lot with a JC next door. The best car everyone dreamed of is a white MKIV Supra. I also liked the mid / late 90s yellow Mustang convertible along my bus ride to school. For actual student owned cars, it would have been Integra GSR.
Hollywood FL, 1977. Several Trans Am's, a Z28 and my buddy Dave's '77 Corvette, black over tan L48 Automatic. Another buddy had an orange VW Campmobile that was the go-to ride for Friday night keg parties at the beach. My girlfriend had a 260Z Automatic and there was a sprinkling of old Detroit land barges that while not cool then, would be front row material in today's HS; a Ford XL with a 428, Pontiac Grand Prix 455, Buick Centurion convertible, an old Eldorado and a few big Olds coupe's. But the king of the HS was a kid named Tony, who on occasion drove his '68 Shelby Mustang GT500 convertible. Grabber Green over White vinyl. 428 with the C6 Automatic. His dad owned a couple Exxon stations and was an avowed Ford guy. My humble VW Rabbit cowered in the back of the lot in comparison to these Boss rides.