*AN ALL NEW
TOP TEN CARS OF ALL TIME, OR  
SINCE THE BEGINNING OF THE WORLD WHICH EVER COMES FIRST (as of  25 APR 06)

NOTE: To Whom it may concern:  I have save all the previously published drivel and replaced it with all new drivel as you will see below.  This represent a move in my attitudes.  Here is a summary of the Changes

7 CARS HAVE BEEN BUMPED OFF THE ORIGINAL LIST. Here is the listing of the bumps, and the reason/s why.
PORSCHE 356 CABRIOLET,PORSCHE 911,1959 BUGEYE* SPRITE - I really need to lose some weight before I can list these cars.  How's that for chutzpah, these cars are disqualified because I am a lardass.
1973/74 NOVA HATCHBACK -  Seriously now, should it have been there to start with.  When I finish it as a project I will put it back on.  Until then, it can park to the back of the bus.
1965 AUSTIN MINI COOPER - My son, Alex, has a good one of these, so in consideration that this is sort of my grand car, or I am this car's grandpa I remove it from the list.
BMW 2002 TII -     One has to becareful with BMW's they have telekinetic powers over money.  I have had my pocket picked by a 635 Csi several times.  I even caught it with my ATM card.
1961 XKE JAGUAR ROADSTER - I AM TRYING TO CUT BACK ON ENGLISH CARS.  IF ALLOW MYSELF ONLY ONE THEN IT HAS TO BE A RAGTOP WITH A SMALL BLOCK CHEVY IN IT.

10.   MORGAN PLUS 8 - EVER AVAILABLE IN ORIGINAL FORM.  RAGTOP WITH ACTUALLY AN ALUMINUM BUICK V8 WHICH WAS DERIVED FROM SBC.  STYLISTICALLY, UNCHANGED SINCE THE BEGINNING OF TIME (NOW YOU KNOW WHEN TIME STARTS).  I WAS READY TO ORDER ONE IN 1972 AND IT WOULD HAVE COST ME 4,200 $ (WITH THE OPTIONAL LEATHER BONNET STRAP), BUT I GOT ORDERS FOR VIETNAM,  SO I DIDN'T MAKE ANY LONG TERM COMMITMENTS. (DANANG, USARV, 277TH S&S BN)IN

9.  FIRST GENERATION NOVA -  I looked a the going away part of Tony Moreau's Pro-Street Dream enough to become in thrall if not totally in love.   Actually, I have had a very warm place in my heart for Nova's ever since I worked with Don Cranford at the Safeway in Stephenville, TX in 1968-69.  Don had a '63 SS which was not a six cylinder.  I did not get the significance of that  until just recently.  His car was Dark Blue and very very nice.   '66-67 are box beautiful the way the next car in the list is swoopy beautiful.  Boxy happens a lot on my various iterations of favorite cars.  tri-fives are boxy.  I learned to drive in a '55 so I care very much for boxy.  I will consider this for another chapter in my book Fun with Inertia, the thrill of still.

8.   71 Camaro RS/SS - This is arguably the most beautiful car ever made by Chevrolet.  I am a novice in Camaro lore, because these cars (Camaros) were like Whataburgers, you could get them any way you like, with a bunch of factory options, and dealer options.  I am sure that Camaro-lore could be a legit topic on Jeopardy

7.   2006 Corvette Convertible- The engineers have done their jobs. Three cheers for the engineers.  Looks, torque, horsepower, and fuel economy in a handsome package at a bargain price.  Corvette is the least expensive "exotic" made.  The crowd it runs with is at least twice as expensive.

6.   67 Plymouth Savoy/Dodge Polara - By this time the Chevy and Ford guys knew that the  Mopar guys had IT, and they knew the Mopar guys knew that they had IT, And the Mopar guys  knew that the Chevy and Ford guys knew that they knew. It is like being all in with pocket aces. 

5.   A RAT ROD, OLD SCHOOL, VINTAGE - A hotrod says look at me.  A Ratrod, oldschool, vintage, screams it.  If I had one I would innocently try to park next to a Boyd car.

4.  1940 FORD - IN THIS ORDER  PICKUP, SEDAN, COUPE.  AS PREVIOUSLY STATED THIS IS THE MOST GORGEOUS RENDERING OF SHEET METAL EVER.   

3.  2006 BMW M5 - Well, they did it again.  They did a psychic tap of every 60 year old gear head wanna be and made a car that does everything, really really well.  Anyone who has ever driven or owned a BMW has said, "This car is great, but it need a button that gives it 100 more horsepower when you feel like it."  The M5 has that button.  Push the button and you get 100 hp added to the 400 you are already messing with.   It's like have a sawed off 12 guage, to back up your 357. CAVEAT.  For years BMW has made incredible NEW cars. A used BMW likes expensive parts (see note above re: BMW's appetite for and ability to sense extra money.  My 635 made me go through the couch cushions.  Actually, cushion diving in a Q8Ts house can be quite rewarding"  The one thing a new BMW doesn't do is make noise.  This was a problem with their Z4 Roadster.  Testers noted that a top down car should make some car noise, and that not making it was off-putting and had a negative affect on the drivability of the car.  (Couldn't hear the shift points)  In most new cars you really can feel or hear anything, which is a bad thing for us (aficionados and auto-homos).  Well in typical German fashion the engineers solved the lack of sound problem by developing a little drum head on the firewall which is mechanically thrummed so as to imitate engine noise.  I have never driven one, ridden in one, don't know anybody who has one, so I what I say is not empirically derived.  It is just some useless information I read somewhere.  Wonder if one of these could be made to imitate the sound of a Big Block Chevy or a full-grunt hemi.  You could use it in a hotrod geezer trap.  You could make a cd and play it when you are accosted by those little shits in their funny sounding, funny looking cars with big wheels.  (To think I had rice for lunch yesterday)  Back to the BMW.  Anyone with $81000 dollars can get one.

2.   2006 Z06 - What I said back there for the Convertible goes double for this which surpasses its peers.  Bang for the buck factor most excellent.  This is the Smart Bomb of cars.  (The Daisy Cutter of Cars is next, PTL!}

1.    COBRA 427 (At the Church of Torque and Recoil, this is the Supreme Being).  A couple of years ago John Ross gave me a ride in his 427Cobra.  Changed everything for me.  The quickest turning point ever.  Retina bending acceleration.  Braking that makes an old man think of Depends as racewear.  I saw Elvis twice in twenty minuets.  Deep brown engine sound with seismic power sufficient to set off car alarms and activate motion sensor lights in a three block radius. (If you had a Cobra 427 wouldn't it be delicious fun to share a stoplight and a block long cruise with one of those folks who think bass resonance is cool and manly).  This is zoot wrought in steel, exotic alloys, and fiberglass.  It is very very quick art.  It is truth, justice and the American way.  It is the ultimate reality show.  I learned the difference between a real cobra and the un-real.  One cannot see a real Cobra.  If you see a Cobra on the road or in a parking lot it is not real as real ones are not for mortals to see.   The real one are inside.  John's un-real Cobra was, well.....unreal in the most positive sense.  650 ponies are hard to fake.

Note:  TONIGHT, (18 Aug 2006) at the McDonald's on Abram in Arlington I saw my second Shelby American Cobra. (Thanks for bringing it Rich).  I get dog brained.  (you remember the Larson cartoon where he illustrates what goes on in a dogs brain when we talk to them.    Dogs hear their name.  "Blah, blah, blah blah, Ginger. Blah, blah, blah blah, Ginger. Blah, blah, blah blah, Ginger.  When I am dog brained in the presence of  a Cobra  I am hearing "Blah, blah, blah blah, COBRA. Blah, blah, blah blah, COBRA.  Blah, blah, blah blah, COBRA. "but that is the way it is with these things.  I didn't grasp the significance of Shelby American until tonight.  If I was inadvertently offensive my excuse is that I was snake addled.  NOW I understand there is another dimension to Cobra-ness.  Real, Not Real, and Original (Which used to be what I called Real. 

AS I RE-READ THIS  I SEE CLEARLY THAT THIS IS NOT A TRUE TOP TEN LIST.  THIS IS THE WHEN I WIN THE LOTTERY SHOPPING LIST.
KNOWING HOW I FEEL ABOUT CARS MY WIFE HAS SUGGESTED A POST-NUP SO THAT WHEN WE WIN THE LOTTERY, WE SPLIT IT RIGHT DOWN THE MIDDLE, THEN WE SPLIT MY HALF RIGHT DOWN IT'S MIDDLE.  WHICH IS NOT BAD BECAUSE I CAN COVER THIS LIST WITH.......ROUGHLY, $310 K  IF I LEAVE OFF THE SNAKE.  $350 WITH A RUBBER SNAKE, WHICH WOULD BE JUST AS GOOD BECAUSE I WOULD PROBABLY NOT WANT TO EXPOSE MY SNAKE IF IT WAS THE REAL DEAL.

(YOUR THE ONE WITH A DIRTY MIND.)

THE NUMBER OF TOP TEN CARS OWNED AND OPERATED BY ARON JOHNSTON. . . . . .0 

Ok,  I am no longer Mustang Proof. (Spending more than 10 years in Kuwait with cure a person of Mustangs, Corvettes, and Chevrolet Caprices.)  FOMOCO Bill, hit one out of the park with the 05 Mustang, and hit one off the planet with the GT.  I have the GT commercial and I only watch it when I am very happy, or very sad, or somewhere in between.

If you have something to say, step up and put in your 2 cents worth. (if you are Canadian that will be 3.06352 cents so as to keep the pot right) write me theoldcartooner@yahoo.com and I will make you famous in places almost as big as Rockeyford, Alberta, which is not the end of the earth, but you can see it from there. 

OK you are on.  Write me.  theoldcartooner@yahoo.com 
more links will be posted later.

FOR AN OVERWRITTEN TREATISE THAT BORDERS ON BEING A RANT, CHECK THIS LINK  ZOOTNOTES

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When Aron's Blather Tree falls in the forest does anybody hear it?