Vehicles that stole our hearts

Click through to see all the cars that stole our hearts.Photograph by: National Post, Canwest News Service Post Driving writers reveal their hearts’ desires just in time for Valentine’s Day.Smart Fortwo Cabriolet LimitedIf we were to compare men with cars, some would be like gas guzzlers: big, dirty and bad for your health. Others would resemble Earth-friendly convertibles: cute, fun and conducive to your well-being.The Smart fortwo Cabriolet Limited is like that special man you will remember fondly long after you’ve gone your separate ways. Thinking about him makes you smile. It’s like that with the fortwo — I’m smiling as I write this. I drove the Smart last fall, when the weather was ideal for top-down driving. Each time I came into the office I would announce excitedly to my co-workers, “I LOVE this car!”I had a big smile on my face the entire time I drove it. It wasn’t just the car’s looks that made me happy, although it was gorgeous with its tan leather seats and chrome-accented details. But it also drove like a dream — it was fun, frisky and felt fast despite its modest 1.0-litre, 70-horsepower engine. It was fuel efficient, easy to fit in the tiniest of parking spots and never gave me any grief. Perfect strangers, both adults and children,waved at me when I drove it. I was so happy, I waved back.I loved that car! Patricia Cancilla, Canwest News ServiceHonda CB1100RC I know that as a card-carrying autojournalist I am supposed to express my total devotion to one automobile this February 14. At least that’s what the Editrix says. Or, if not a new car, then a new bike, for I am at heart a bike fanatic.Sadly, I can do neither for as much as I loved Aston Martin’s DBS and the Triumph 675 I drove/rode last year, my favourite ride continues to be my old 1982 Honda CB1100RC. It is indeed ancient, not overwhelmingly fast and, man oh man, are the brakes lousy compared with those on a new bike.But, like a great old sweater, it fits me in all the right places, brings me back to a place I once loved and perhaps more importantly, every time I see it, I think it is the most gorgeous motor bike on the planet.I could wax lyrically on this last, but here’s the bottom line: When it’s stored (as it is now), I take off the bodywork and put the various carbon fibre bits in my bedroom. They are about the last things I see every night before switching off the light. David Booth, Canwest News ServiceCorvette ZR1Unadulterated lust at first sight. Sure, the Corvette ZR1 is less sensuous than an M3, but when this missile is wrapped around the driver like a well-tailored glove of love, all bets are off.Valentine’s Day is the one day on the calendar that my significant other takes precedence over all things. However, if the call to drive the Corvette ZR1 came Feb. 14, my heart would surely be torn. Women say chocolate is better then sex — for me, a romp with the ZR1 would be, well, maybe the same. Firing a single digit at the local constabulary when flogging around my “private” race track in this road rocket is the equivalent of a certain beer commercial’s premature pour.It’s not so much the 638 horsepower and the 3.4 seconds needed to reach 100 kilometres an hour, it’s the ability to make multi-millionaires driving Ferraris look like boobs.That’s love, Gear Head style. Graeme Fletcher, Canwest News Service Porsche Cayman S“Did you ever have to make up your mind? Pick up on one and leave the other behind.” So goes the refrain to the Lovin’ Spoonful’s ’60s classic Did You Ever Have To Make Up Your Mind. Initially seduced by the honking V8horsepower of the otherwise understated Mercedes C63 AMG sedan, my heart eventually succumbed to the charms of the light and oh so tempting Porsche Cayman S. With superb handling characteristics and a much stronger, 320-hp, 3.4L boxer six sitting midship, the Cayman S is the embodiment of the engineering ideals that spawned the original 911 some 45 years ago. What’s not to love?As intimate as only a two-seater can be, the Cayman S can scamper to 100 km/h in less than five seconds and has moves that beg to be unleashed. Find it a long and twisty stretch of tarmac and it will carve corners all day until you run out of breath — because it never will.What a ride! Brian Harper, Canwest News ServiceHyundai Tiburon As Post Driving’s resident twentysomething writer, I don’t get the chance to test the supercars my older — er, I mean more experienced  — colleagues get to drive. So, when I was offered the chance to bash around a supercharged V6-powered Hyundai Tiburon that was churned through the company’s performance wing, I wholeheartedly accepted.The sexy, baby blue coupe was shark-like in appearance, but it moved and sounded like a hungry cheetah on the prowl. Before I started the ignition, I rolled down all the windows so I wouldn’t miss a moment of the glorious explosion that was the supercharged engine coming to life.I felt coquettish driving the coupe and experienced a strange desire to smoke a cigarette afterward ...No, the souped-up Tiburon wasn’t the most practical or refined car I have ever driven, but, sometimes, love (or lust) is the most impractical thing of all. Jodi Lai, Canwest News ServicePorsche 550 spyderThere are several cars I’ve driven the past year that have ignited my passion — the brief but unforgettable fling with an incredible Mercedes SL63 AMG at AJAC’s TestFest; a stirring weekend with the high-tech GT-R from Nissan; the incredible sounds of a Mustang Bullitt; the pure adrenalin rush of a Challenger SRT8 in full song, to name a few. But the one that stole my heart is from a totally different era; in fact, it was old enough to qualify for a pension. Still, the time I was able to spend with a Porsche 550 Spyder has sparked memories that will last a lifetime. It’s sensuous shape, the naughty exhaust sounds, the wind tearing at my face, the incredible handling dynamics as this classic beauty from the ’50s flew around the legendary Willow Springs raceway on a chilly morning in California’s Mojave desert will be forever imprinted on my mind. Clare Dear, Canwest News ServiceFord F-250Is it possible to love a truck? Well, I’ve loved a few — a deep, loyal love — not the cheap chrome-lust car kind. See, truck love is different from those flighty car crushes — it’s born during adventures, daily hard work and occasionally real adversity and it happened to me again recently, driving to Sault Ste. Marie with my family in a Ford F-250 pickup.All packed for a week away, we hit the last nasty snowstorm of the season just south of Sudbury. Cars and trucks littered the ditches as near-whiteout conditions slowed us to no more than 50 km/h. Adding to the stress of the howling crosswinds and poor visibility was the 30-foot enclosed snowmobile trailer I was towing, its sidewalls catching those gusts like sails on a schooner. But that diesel Ford just seemed to hunker down and push doggedly through that storm despite being drowned in freezing slush.That’s how this love grows — from the unfathomable sense that this truck knew everything in the world dear to me was in that cab. I felt it hang on to that highway with every shred of rubber it could muster. That’s love.Howard J. Elmer, Canwest News ServicePorsche 911 SI saw her in the orange glow of a streetlight, her bi-xenon headlamps motioning in my direction. When she pulled to the curb, the exhaust rasping as if it had smoked too many cigarettes, my blood began to charge. The 2009 Porsche 911 S in Ruby Red Metallic was nothing short of flawless.She smelled terrific, of brakes and engine and leather. Perfectly proportioned with shoulders and hips you couldn’t help but touch, the new 911 was and is the one car that elicits in me a feeling that no inanimate object should.While the car was in my possession, my wife wondered what was up. Nothing, I replied. But she sensed it. I was cheating. I wanted nothing else than to spend time with the 911. Like the first one I enjoyed so many years ago, the 911 was pulling me closer every day. I was lost, ridiculously overcome, hopelessly determined to spend the rest of my life with her. Derek McNaughton, Canwest News Service

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