If Money Were No Object, What Car Would You Buy?
The Bentley Brooklands Coupe
“If you had all the money in the world, what car would you buy?” This hypothetical question came up in conversation the other day, and I just couldn’t come up with a satisfying answer. It’s a tough question, like asking “Whats your favorite food?” There are so many variables.
Do I go for the fastest car? The flat out most expensive? The rarest? Best looking? Most fun to drive?
The SSC Ultimate Aero TT - the fastest car in the world
Right now, the fastest car in the world is the SSC Ultimate Aero TT. It can go from 0-60 in 2.7 seconds and can make it up to almost 260 mph. It has a crazy 1183 hp and costs around $650,000. A close second is the Bugatti Veyron, which is quicker off the line and can hit 0-60 in 2.5 seconds, although it can only make it up to 253 mph and it only has a meager 1001 hp. It does cost $1.5 million though, so that’s pretty cool.
But do I really need that kind of speed? I don’t live next to the Bonneville salt flats, so really, hitting a top speed like that doesn’t look too likely, ever. So the super-speed machines are off my list.
Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B Mille Miglia - one of only 4 made and part of the Simeone Museum collection
I love antiques, so I thought maybe some sort of original racer or rare beauty. An original Fort GT40 would be spectacular, or a De Tomaso Mangusta. Or maybe further back, like an old Duesenberg or the 1937 Bugatti Type 57SC Atalante Coupe that sold for almost $8 million at one of the Pebble Beach Concours auctions. Anything from Dr. Fred Simeone’s collection would be amazing. But then again, I only get one choice. The older cars aren’t going to be nearly as drivable as a new one, and at the end of the day, all it’ll do it sit in my garage. I want to enjoy my car. I want to use it for it’s intended purpose, I don’t want to have to baby it. So antiques are out.
I want a fast, maneuverable, high quality, beautiful car.
My eventual choice, after hours of deliberation?
The Bentley Brooklands Coupe
The Bentley Brooklands Coupe
Like most Bentleys, it feels like an antique. The acres of rare wood and leather and glass and analog dials let you know it’s the ultimate luxury car with a powerful heritage; yet, there’s none of the technology that’s common in luxury cars today. There’s also no satellite radio, no iPod jack, no keyless entry, no radio controls on the steering wheel, hardly any gadgets at all, because they’re superfluous in a driving machine.
The Brooklands is a luxury car…but above all else, it’s a drivers car, and it’s about the experience of driving. Refinement is the best word for it, inside and out. There is hardly any bling or brightwork on the exterior, some small bits here and there, but nothing extravagant. The car already exudes quality without needing extra cues.
One of the more noticeable things to the enthusiast are the insanely huge cross drilled carbon/silicon carbide brakes that take up almost the whole inside of the wheel. They’re the largest diameter discs of any production passenger car ever, and this car needs those brakes. At 5,800 pounds and almost 18 feet long, it’s heavier and longer than a Chevy Tahoe. And heres the kicker: All that size and weight goes from 0 to 60 mph in 5.0 seconds and hits the 100-mph mark just 6.7 seconds after that.
The Brooklands owes it’s speed to the hand built twin-turbocharged 6.75-liter V8 that puts out 530 horsepower and a bizarrely massive 774 lb-ft of torque. That’s actually more torque than any other production car in the world. Fast, beautiful, luxurious, and rare with only 550 Brooklands planned for production. I know what I want, now I just need $400,000 dollars.
So that’s my choice, how about you? Let’s say you have a regular car, your everyday driver, and you get to buy one special car, anything you want, and money is no object. Now, what’s it going to be?
Get to the comments people, I want to hear about your dream cars.
NO question for me, should have done it when I could have done it but I didn’t pull the trigger… a 66 Lincoln Continental Convertable. Lots of cars that I’d like to own, or drive or just show off, but honestly I could see myself being quite happy to knock around in one of these suicide door classics. Practical enough that I could move the family, pick up mountains of stuff from stores, show up at a $1000 a plate fundraiser or do just about anything except off road. These Continentals share similiar lines of the 61-67 body Lincolns but the 66 and 67 are basically twins except for a small fender lamp that lights on the 66’s. Just enough for me to make the 66 slightly better than the 67. You could probably get a completely restored (built to your specs or original) for about $100k or one done for less than 70k. A solid, nice original driver seems to be around the 30k area so these are actually a little more reachable than the cars you mentioned here.
Words by Joe on August 27, 2008 at 4:06 pm | #
Why, a Prius, of course!
Not really, probably a Porsche 911 930 Turbo in perfect condition.
Words by Guyon on August 27, 2008 at 9:00 pm | #
Morgan’s lightweight coupe version of its Aero 8, the Aeromax would be my pick. You’ve got interesting styling and British handbuilt craft, combined with the smooth 333 horsepower, 4.4 liter BMW V8 under the hood.
Of course, it would take months, from the time ordering to get the car. But from what I’ve read, it would be worth the wait. I’ve ridden in vintage Moggies, and know they’re fun and the eptiome of the British roadster tradition; however, the Aeromax has most of that heritage and it is the type of car you can will to your descendents and they’ll thank you for it, just for the money it would bring, should they sell it.
But the money is the least of it. Oscar Wilde once defined a cynic as a man who knew the cost of everything and the value of nothing. The Aeromax is a car designed to teach one the value of living.
Words by Terry Parkhurst on August 27, 2008 at 10:02 pm | #
Jeeze, if money were no object, then i’ll buy anycar I like…like how most rich people do it really.
Words by john hallaway on August 28, 2008 at 4:59 am | #
One word:
Rolls Royce Phantom Drop head
actually little more than one
Words by fmfm on August 28, 2008 at 5:04 am | #
Damn. It’s a toss-up between a 1967 fastback Shelby GT, or a 2009 Volvo S80 V8 [make fun of that, please, I dare you]
Words by Suzanne Denbow on August 28, 2008 at 4:30 pm | #
A Bentley 08 brooklands on Giovanis
Words by Dennis on September 22, 2008 at 7:59 am | #