Dad cars: what's the best car your dad's ever had?

Nissan GT-R (R35)

Lee Stern – Content editor

This was the first car that truly terrified me. Unrelenting performance and physics-defying dynamics, I had never experienced speed like it. Sitting sweaty-palmed in the passenger seat it was easy to see why the GT-R won favour with the motoring press. Since my dad collected it eight years ago, I can’t say the fear factor has ebbed away, I don’t think the choice upgrades taking it past 600bhp have helped.

One memory of Godzilla, though, will stay with me. After my constant demands to try launch control, for the first time, my dad acquiesced. So violent was the acceleration, that it left my dad pale and light-headed – an amusing moment I treasure!

Fiat 131 Mirafiori

John McIlroy – Deputy editor

Our family had a string of Fiats during my youth; I recall my mother driving a 127 Palio, and my father had a well-used Regata 75 Super that we once drove from Northern Ireland to southern France for a summer holiday. There were also at least two Stradas, but I managed to stop him from going the whole hog and signing up for a Croma.

The highlight for me, however, was undoubtedly the 131 Mirafiori. On paper it wasn’t remotely glamorous, painted as it was in a toilet-related shade of brown. But it was relatively big for our family at the time, with me in short trousers and my sis in nappies, and it felt comfortable.

Crucially, though, it had a glorious connection to motorsport, via the fabulous 131 Abarth that scored numerous victories in the World Rally Championship. And for a boy who regularly boiled the paint off his Matchbox model cars, to then relivery them in motorsport colours, this sealed the deal.

Click onto page four for more of the best cars our dads have owned...