1977-1984 Coupe De Ville/Sedan De Ville, 1977-1986 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham, 1987-1992 Cadillac Brougham

This article was originally published on September 5, 2015 on CarLustBlog.com. Some links have been added or refreshed, a video was added and some very minor editing has been done.

Where I work, there’s a used car dealership right beside us. It holds an eclectic collection of automobiles, ranging from Hyundai econoboxes to old Ford Super-Duty trucks suited for different applications. Among them there’s old ‘80s metal for sale. Parked right outside the window I stare out of in a daydream-like haze is a worn-down, big, white Cadillac.

From that view to that dealer I’ve lusted after a neat, red Z31 Nissan 300ZX and a beater early-3^rd-gen Chevrolet Camaro, to name some. Then how come that Cadillac, with mismatching whitelines and blackwalls and faded business advertisement telephone numbers still present on its rear flanks grabs my attention as much as iconic 1980s sporty coupes? Ladies and gentlemen, I believe we have a case of car lust.

The James Bond Cars (In Loving Memory of Sir Roger Moore)

We’ve all wanted cars we can’t have… but how about wanting cars that don’t exist?  Well, OK, maybe some of these do, but when is the last time you operated an oil slick or machine gun from your driver’s seat?  Had pontoon skis pop out of your rocker panels?  Have you ever said, “Can you swim?” then driven off the end of a dock?  Lost an unwanted passenger via an ejector seat?  Of course you and I haven’t, but we all know somebody that has, with vehicles that feature all of these “usual refinements” and more, and he’s been around for quite some time now.

AMC Hornet: The Best Bond Car Ever

Note: I am posting this to honor the passing of Roger Moore in whose film this car appeared.

“He’s mad, I tell you, mad!”

No, I’m not. (“Denial! That’s the first sign!”) Friends and fellow car lovers, before you start composing angry emails to management berating them for letting a raving lunatic type his incoherent rantings into the blog, first lend me your eyes and allow me to make the case.

Roger & Me, a review:

Roger & Me is not a car movie per se, but it’s automotive-related enough to warrant mention here, IMO. It talks about the social-economic nosedive of the once-prosperous historic town of Flint, Michigan (the director’s hometown and point of interest and ironically enough, General Motor’s birth city) and the quest of the documentary’s director to talk to the man who has been labeled responsible for the loss of jobs due to outsourcing and restructuring: the General Motors CEO Roger B. Smith. Along Moore’s odyssey to even get close to Roger, we see everything from glory-days flashbacks to inevitable then-current state of things ranging from foreclosures and evictions to disturbing forms of making ends meet and survival, as well as interviews with Flint-raised celebrities, the rich, the laid-off and the hopelessly optimistic (a fancy Hyatt hotel in Flint to make it a more appealing destination. Really?).

1998-2004 Porsche 911 (996)

This article was originally posted on March 4, 2015 on CarLustBlog.com. Only the intro has been tweaked.

♪ The stars are out tonight
The moon is shining down on me
With rays of pure delight
And I’ll be spendin’
♪ 24/7 in my 911
And I ain’t gonna work
A 9-2-5
24/7 in my 911
On a highway to heaven
It’s the time of my life… ♫

–Vengaboys.

Porsches, particularly 911s, are typical car-lust fodder for the masses. That’s OK, it’s earned it. It has also ended up being disliked for a number of reasons. That’s OK, it’s earned it. But as you read on about the following example of Stuttgart’s icon -in its polarizing 996 incarnation- you’ll see why this is a machine to lust after.

Back in the 90s, while Uncle D lived in Chicago, he oftentimes let me know on his visits to this magical place called the Chicago Auto Show, which, of course I could never attend, being in Chicago and all that. One year, around the turn of the Millennium, Uncle D sent me some new car brochures. Among them was the then-new Porsche 911s. I was smitten! Here in my hands was the brochure of the 911 of the future, complete with cutout pics. While I was very much aware of Porsches and 911s, I didn’t know anything about its previous air-cooled brethren, its lack of full evolution throughout the model run; I just thought it was the coolest thing ever.