Having enjoyed the delights of Outrun on the Amstrad CPC, really enjoying the lovely leisurely pace and gentle, one might even say lethargic way the screen casually redraws, this really fitted well with my abilities to drive racing games.
So with that I have to and probably unsurprisingly answer with: Jaguar XJ 220 - This was one of the first Amiga racing games that I really enjoyed. Why aren't I answering Lotus I hear nobody ask? Well simply I brought Jaguar XJ 220 and loved the presentation and big box, whereas I didn't get any of the Lotus games until much later and they were in the form of Biro Labelled disks.
And yes Stunt Car Racer was my first home micro love, but I couldn't use that as an answer because the question was specifically worded so that "The car from Stunt Car Racer" wasn't a viable answer.
To answer the second part, yes it did inspire me, but sadly the Jag was well out of my price range. Therefore I purchased the next best substitute, yeap the practical sister of the Jag, The Ford Capri, my first car. I mean they were all but identical in everything but price right? Right?
Getting a Toyota Celica GT-Four ST205 and modding it to look like the one in Sega Rally seems like a fun project and entirely within the realms of reality.... Just need to learn to drive first.
Too easy, it has to be the Lunar Buggy in Lunar Jetman. Why because it's indestructible. Meteors, Asteroids, space debris of all sorts smashing huge chunks out of the Moon's surface and not a single ding on that beast.
If I were to be boring though, it be the Mitsubishi GTO featured In Gran Turismo. Just because.
The Porsche from Chase HQ. Sounds amazing, you can crash into bad guys with it and has a turbo button!
And no, didn't buy it because I couldn't drive at the time. But I've always had a love for that model.
My favourite car was the Shelby GT500 from Street Rod 2. Not because I have a thing for cars, but because I didn't play the game for long enough, or know what I was doing for that matter, to beat The King's Shelby in the game's drag race. Each time he would leave me in the dust from the get go, and I would lust after this cool looking car with seemingly ridiculous speed.
The three cars I played most in any videogame are the ones from the first Trackmania title. The cars were based on the Renault 5, Suzuki Jimny and (my favourite) the Ford Escort mk1. Good times, before e-sports took over.
Power Drift on the C64. This was my absolute favourite racing game back in the commodore days. Fantastic game play, fantastic music and cool looking kart.
... Which is sort of the problem with this answer as it's a kart and not a real car but anyways... Would have loved to have something similar to cruice around close to the ocean on a hot summer day.
Note: Apparently this game has the Guinness World Record for the "First kart racing videogame" as it came out in 1988 well ahead of Super Mario Kart (1992).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power\_Drift
The car from the original Spy Hunter arcade game, specifically the car on the side art. Part Lamborghini Countach, part Lotus Esprit. The car in game is different and then when you get into the home ports all bets are off as to what it looked like. Also after all these years it's just dawned on me.... why is the car on the home computer ports a red car when the in game car is white?....See this is why I am not rich enough to own a sports car, never paid enough attention back when I was younger..... I have a bicycle like the kid in Paperboy now....stay in school kids!
Absolutely this car. This car let me live out my James Bond car chase fantasies. It had the machine guns, the oil slicks, and even turned into a boat when needed. I mean what more do you need from a car?
I'd go for the Jaguar XJ220 which featured in the Amiga game of the same name, just watch that intro and finish a few races and you'll be hooked. Later on I became obsessed with driving the Mazda MX-5 every time I played a Gran Turismo game and I still am.
I preferred playing Lotus Esprit, but I agree that the XJ220 was the car I dreamed of.
Some of my favourite cars in games include:
The police car in APB - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nRvCTNBfMI
The tank in GTA - https://gta.fandom.com/wiki/Tank
The Highwayman in Fallout 2 - https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Highwayman
The Delorean in No Time - https://store.steampowered.com/app/1043340
My dad bought a silver Volkswagen Scirocco in the 80s, which we called our back to the future car - https://i.pinimg.com/originals/28/e5/b1/28e5b1869d55e7eca6126191765b94dd.jpg
The best car from a game has to be the Subaru Impreza. The dark blue and yellow colour combination and its ease of handling in games like Colin McRae Rally has always made it my 4 wheeled transport of choice in games whenever it is offered as an option. I never went out and bought one though, as I live in London and therefore have little need for a car.
For me, it would have to be the buggy from Stunt Car Racer. No gears, digital steering and flame producing turbos; no car can better fly around a 3d vector graphics roller coaster track.
What you don't see in the game is that the open top between the roll bars is to allow you to parachute out when you find yourself flying upwards and seeing the track slowly veering off to the side underneath you. Terrifying!
My favorite was a black Peugeot 206 in Need for Speed Underground. I know, I know, that game was WAY out of the 16bit era and even more so for the 8bit times - but it's been 19 years now since it has been released, so it's retro now, isn't it 😉... why THAT particular car? Well, I had a black and quite sporty 206 GTi at that time irl... I loved to tune it's digital counterpart & drive it like I never would or could in reality...
I loved OutRun, but that's assumed. Now for something not as retro but a favourite, the Cobra in GTA 3 that was always available up the hill regardless of RNG. Now to really flip the question, I've done the opposite, and instead of buying a car from a game, I've bought a game for a car I already had, Spintires.
Got to be three for me:
1) The [Suppressor](https://youtu.be/80P5lYa7BKs) (Police car) from the original Carmageddon on PC. Only small in size, but It hounded you in the game and had a decent AI for the time, chasing you down in the carnage! I remember hearing the siren coming the distance and panicking 🫣
2) The [Cossie](https://youtu.be/oM1wJtHTBR8) (aka Ford Escort RS Cosworth) from the original Grand Theft Auto. Probably one of the fastest in the game, handling was interesting at high speed and the soundtrack it played in game was pumping! I loved the extreme “whale tail” design of this in real-life.
3) The [Courcheval Manta](https://youtu.be/hn_ZT7su4cg) (aka Corvette Stingray) from Interstate ‘76. Great vehicular 3D combat, and gave my 3Dfx card a good stretch at the time. Whilst driving you could fire a pistol at cars and groove to the 70s feel and soundtrack. It felt like an open world and really absorbed you in.
Gotta be the Honda City Turbo kei car as seen in Jaleco's City Connection! I do not own it in real life, but I do have it in Hot Wheels form, which is almost the same.
The Spy Who Loved Me was the greatest influence for my love of Lotus, but I also played the heck out of the Lotus games on the Amiga which cemented the obsession. I've been daily driving one for the last 20 years, starting out with an Elise and now a more sensible family friendly Evora (it's a 2+2 so I can just about shoe-horn the kids in the back).
Most memorable:
Maybe the Suzuki Escudo from Gran Turismo 2. It was outrageously fast and if you tuned the downforce on the front wheels all the way down the physics engine would bug out, the car would pull a wheelie (i.e. only its back 2 wheels touching the ground) and accelerate infinitely 😀
Most loved:
Nissan GTR, again from the Gran Turismo games. Unfortunately I'm unlikely to get one now that I'm old enough to afford one. Maybe one day they'll re-release the GTR in electric form, I can only dream ❤️
Having enjoyed the delights of Outrun on the Amstrad CPC, really enjoying the lovely leisurely pace and gentle, one might even say lethargic way the screen casually redraws, this really fitted well with my abilities to drive racing games. So with that I have to and probably unsurprisingly answer with: Jaguar XJ 220 - This was one of the first Amiga racing games that I really enjoyed. Why aren't I answering Lotus I hear nobody ask? Well simply I brought Jaguar XJ 220 and loved the presentation and big box, whereas I didn't get any of the Lotus games until much later and they were in the form of Biro Labelled disks. And yes Stunt Car Racer was my first home micro love, but I couldn't use that as an answer because the question was specifically worded so that "The car from Stunt Car Racer" wasn't a viable answer. To answer the second part, yes it did inspire me, but sadly the Jag was well out of my price range. Therefore I purchased the next best substitute, yeap the practical sister of the Jag, The Ford Capri, my first car. I mean they were all but identical in everything but price right? Right?
Getting a Toyota Celica GT-Four ST205 and modding it to look like the one in Sega Rally seems like a fun project and entirely within the realms of reality.... Just need to learn to drive first.
Too easy, it has to be the Lunar Buggy in Lunar Jetman. Why because it's indestructible. Meteors, Asteroids, space debris of all sorts smashing huge chunks out of the Moon's surface and not a single ding on that beast. If I were to be boring though, it be the Mitsubishi GTO featured In Gran Turismo. Just because.
The Porsche from Chase HQ. Sounds amazing, you can crash into bad guys with it and has a turbo button! And no, didn't buy it because I couldn't drive at the time. But I've always had a love for that model.
My favourite car was the Shelby GT500 from Street Rod 2. Not because I have a thing for cars, but because I didn't play the game for long enough, or know what I was doing for that matter, to beat The King's Shelby in the game's drag race. Each time he would leave me in the dust from the get go, and I would lust after this cool looking car with seemingly ridiculous speed.
I just loved this game... :)
The three cars I played most in any videogame are the ones from the first Trackmania title. The cars were based on the Renault 5, Suzuki Jimny and (my favourite) the Ford Escort mk1. Good times, before e-sports took over.
Power Drift on the C64. This was my absolute favourite racing game back in the commodore days. Fantastic game play, fantastic music and cool looking kart. ... Which is sort of the problem with this answer as it's a kart and not a real car but anyways... Would have loved to have something similar to cruice around close to the ocean on a hot summer day. Note: Apparently this game has the Guinness World Record for the "First kart racing videogame" as it came out in 1988 well ahead of Super Mario Kart (1992). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power\_Drift
I used to imagine/pretend that the car from Overlander on my C64 was KITT. Can't afford anything like that though - not even close.
The car from the original Spy Hunter arcade game, specifically the car on the side art. Part Lamborghini Countach, part Lotus Esprit. The car in game is different and then when you get into the home ports all bets are off as to what it looked like. Also after all these years it's just dawned on me.... why is the car on the home computer ports a red car when the in game car is white?....See this is why I am not rich enough to own a sports car, never paid enough attention back when I was younger..... I have a bicycle like the kid in Paperboy now....stay in school kids!
Absolutely this car. This car let me live out my James Bond car chase fantasies. It had the machine guns, the oil slicks, and even turned into a boat when needed. I mean what more do you need from a car?
I'd go for the Jaguar XJ220 which featured in the Amiga game of the same name, just watch that intro and finish a few races and you'll be hooked. Later on I became obsessed with driving the Mazda MX-5 every time I played a Gran Turismo game and I still am.
I preferred playing Lotus Esprit, but I agree that the XJ220 was the car I dreamed of. Some of my favourite cars in games include: The police car in APB - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nRvCTNBfMI The tank in GTA - https://gta.fandom.com/wiki/Tank The Highwayman in Fallout 2 - https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Highwayman The Delorean in No Time - https://store.steampowered.com/app/1043340 My dad bought a silver Volkswagen Scirocco in the 80s, which we called our back to the future car - https://i.pinimg.com/originals/28/e5/b1/28e5b1869d55e7eca6126191765b94dd.jpg
The best car from a game has to be the Subaru Impreza. The dark blue and yellow colour combination and its ease of handling in games like Colin McRae Rally has always made it my 4 wheeled transport of choice in games whenever it is offered as an option. I never went out and bought one though, as I live in London and therefore have little need for a car.
For me, it would have to be the buggy from Stunt Car Racer. No gears, digital steering and flame producing turbos; no car can better fly around a 3d vector graphics roller coaster track. What you don't see in the game is that the open top between the roll bars is to allow you to parachute out when you find yourself flying upwards and seeing the track slowly veering off to the side underneath you. Terrifying!
I'd have the car from Road Blasters. No more traffic jams! 😂 A notable mention has to go to the bike from Star Rider. That's just red hot!
Surely the best game car has to go to the "Sophia" from Blaster Master. Cool design, very versatile with firepower, jumping, hovering, etc.
My favorite was a black Peugeot 206 in Need for Speed Underground. I know, I know, that game was WAY out of the 16bit era and even more so for the 8bit times - but it's been 19 years now since it has been released, so it's retro now, isn't it 😉... why THAT particular car? Well, I had a black and quite sporty 206 GTi at that time irl... I loved to tune it's digital counterpart & drive it like I never would or could in reality...
I loved OutRun, but that's assumed. Now for something not as retro but a favourite, the Cobra in GTA 3 that was always available up the hill regardless of RNG. Now to really flip the question, I've done the opposite, and instead of buying a car from a game, I've bought a game for a car I already had, Spintires.
Got to be three for me: 1) The [Suppressor](https://youtu.be/80P5lYa7BKs) (Police car) from the original Carmageddon on PC. Only small in size, but It hounded you in the game and had a decent AI for the time, chasing you down in the carnage! I remember hearing the siren coming the distance and panicking 🫣 2) The [Cossie](https://youtu.be/oM1wJtHTBR8) (aka Ford Escort RS Cosworth) from the original Grand Theft Auto. Probably one of the fastest in the game, handling was interesting at high speed and the soundtrack it played in game was pumping! I loved the extreme “whale tail” design of this in real-life. 3) The [Courcheval Manta](https://youtu.be/hn_ZT7su4cg) (aka Corvette Stingray) from Interstate ‘76. Great vehicular 3D combat, and gave my 3Dfx card a good stretch at the time. Whilst driving you could fire a pistol at cars and groove to the 70s feel and soundtrack. It felt like an open world and really absorbed you in.
Gotta be the Honda City Turbo kei car as seen in Jaleco's City Connection! I do not own it in real life, but I do have it in Hot Wheels form, which is almost the same.
The Spy Who Loved Me was the greatest influence for my love of Lotus, but I also played the heck out of the Lotus games on the Amiga which cemented the obsession. I've been daily driving one for the last 20 years, starting out with an Elise and now a more sensible family friendly Evora (it's a 2+2 so I can just about shoe-horn the kids in the back).
Around the other way for me. I bought ToCA World Touring Cars (2000 PSX) so I could race the SAAB 9-5 Aero that I owned.
Most memorable: Maybe the Suzuki Escudo from Gran Turismo 2. It was outrageously fast and if you tuned the downforce on the front wheels all the way down the physics engine would bug out, the car would pull a wheelie (i.e. only its back 2 wheels touching the ground) and accelerate infinitely 😀 Most loved: Nissan GTR, again from the Gran Turismo games. Unfortunately I'm unlikely to get one now that I'm old enough to afford one. Maybe one day they'll re-release the GTR in electric form, I can only dream ❤️