What Unforgettable Detail Do You Always Appreciate On A Car?

When someone asks you to talk about your favorite car, where do you start? The wonderful and yet sometimes frustrating thing about being a car aficionado is that there is a lot to love about any vehicle. A lot is accurate, as Edmunds notes that there's about 30,000 individual components on the average vehicle, and many of those components help create other special facts and numbers that add to those special interests. Are you overwhelmed yet?

From horsepower, to spec numbers and design to quality builds, tires, engines, you name it — there's a whole lot to love on a car. Some of us get hooked on specific brands. Or take former Jalop Jason Torchinsky's deep affinity for tail lights (which also made us love them a little more). If you weren't aware of it now, having a special interest is an important part of the job of working at Jalopnik. 

That's been the beauty of this site as we tend to focus not only on our special interests, but celebrate yours as well. And with all of our special interests combined, we can find out some really cool things about the cars we love. So I want to know, in regards to your special interests, what unforgettable detail(s) do you always appreciate on a car?

Growing up in the Metro Detroit area, I could almost drowned in never-ending car shows featuring Detroit's muscle and jet-aged cars. But two shows brought me an extraordinary next level of car exposure: Eyes on Design and the Concours d'Elegance of America (which I was a chairman of in its later years). Sure, the shows are truly prestigious, and can be stiff-collared. But the cars on display were of another plane of existence for someone who grew up right outside of Detroit. So were the assortment of hood ornaments. 

I remember my first "donut chaser," which is the Goddess of Speed ornament found on the hoods of old Packards, and a man who stopped to explain the story behind it. My curiosity snowballed from there. Any time I find a show with more hood ornaments, you'll likely find me inspecting them. I'm terrible with their names, because I'm terrible with names for everything, but I do love trying to keep track of what companies used which figures and seeing how they changed until hood ornaments fell out of style.

As an aside, the Gilmore Car Museum, in Hickory Corners, Michigan, not far from my home here in West Michigan, also houses an extraordinary collection of hood ornaments. If you think you know a hood ornament, well, this room of hood ornaments will prove you otherwise. I love to stop in there at least once a year to just brush up on things.

I could also go on about my affinity for old dashboard gauges, as well as Auburns' and Cords' too-beautiful-to-be-described designs, but I'll leave it here. For now. Only because it's your turn to share. Tell me what unforgettable details you always appreciate on a car, and we'll share them with the rest of the class later this week. Please feel free to really nerd out in your responses.