I dream about cars quite often. They’re never fully realistic, and often bizarre mashups of far-out styling elements. And they’re often capable of flying, which always seems so obvious—why didn’t I realize earlier that they could fly? Last night I woke up at 5:30 to a very clear and rather unusual car dream: I was at a car show and a guy wanted to show me his car. We walked over and there was a two-tone 1955 Pontiac safari wagon, but without any wheel covers. We walked to the front and he popped the hood, and in the engine compartment was something that utterly surprised me: a flathead six but with a very fake valve cover mounted slightly above the cylinder head.
What? Pontiac offered their old flathead six in 1955, in addition to the new V8? And they tried to disguise it as an ohv engine? But the disguise was so lame…this makes no sense at all. (do dreams ever?)
Unlike typical OHV valve covers, this one was rounded at its peak in the middle, more like an OHC valve cover, kind of like this one on the Kaiser-Jeep Tornado six, except it didn’t have the hump in the front. And it was stamped painted steel. But the really odd thing was that it hovered an inch or so above the head, held up by several mounting tabs along its sides, so one could see part of the flat cylinder head hiding below. And near the front there was a pretty good-sized hole from rust, some three inches or so in diameter, through which one could clearly see the spark plug on cylinder #1.
I was flummoxed. Why would Pontiac decide to keep the old 239 cubic inch flathead six in this all-new 1955 car along with its also all-new ohv 287 cubic inch V8 engine? And then try to disguise it so feebly. And why would someone buying by far the most expensive model in the Pontiac line, the Safari wagon—which shared its body with the Chevy Nomad—with this ancient feeble six, making all of 115 hp?
It did occur to me that Canadian Pontiacs (“Cheviacs”) were of course available with with sixes, but like their V8s, these were pure Chevy engines, like this Big Six in a 1956 Pontiac Pathfinder. But for what it’s worth, the Safari wagon was not built or sold in Canada.
I awoke at this point and decided I needed to remember this absurd fragment of a dream, meaning I didn’t really get back to sleep properly. So now I need to offload it, by sharing it with you. Do you dream about cars?
About as weird as many of my vehicular dreams I’m afraid .
-Nate
The only dreams about cars that I’ve had were about real cars that I haven’t actually owned. And very rarely. The most memorable was maybe 5-10 years ago (after I started reading CC, which may or may not be relevant). In the dream, my Mom called me, or perhaps I was visiting her, and she was pretty annoyed about my car that had been sitting in her backyard carport for a long time. The car was a green 2nd gen Camaro. Except that when I had this dream, my Mom had been dead for several years. And I never owned a 2nd gen Camaro, though I did have a 2nd gen Firebird (not green, and which I’m sure my parents never saw) and a Vega GT which was the same green as the Camaro in my dream. And my parents’ backyard had a very narrow, Model T era driveway which did fit my Vega, but proved too narrow for my Tacoma. So not very realistic, which isn’t surprising, nor as interesting as an OHV Safari. I did post about my own Safari here
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-american/cars-of-a-lifetime-my-first-car-was-quite-a-handful/
Hmm, that post was about six years ago, maybe it triggered, or was triggered by, my dream.
My car dreams often involve either getting stuck, the car being stolen or misplaced, or the most reoccurring me disassembling a car almost to its bare frame at the most in opportune times… I can’t imagine why…
I’ve had these weird mashup ones too, I remember one with a lamborghiniesque project car I had inexplicably acquired that seemed like 50% countach, 50% foxbody mustang, and to access the engine I had to somehow lift off the body from the “chassis” similar to a scale model car, with the bulk of the dream me being contorted in tight spaces trying to solve some issue.
The Pontiac safari in and of itself is an almost dream mashup. When I think of this roof I think Nomad, seeing the rather “generic 50s car” Pontiac body below it rather than the iconic Chevy bodies almost makes me want to pinch myself awake
Honestly I don’t ever remember dreaming of cars but then again I rarely ever remember my dreams. Maybe that’s why I have a tendency to daydream. A yellow Ferrari Dino 248 is the only car I have been transfixed by but I was fully awake. The greenhouse on that Pontiac Safari is amazing.
One of my most common recurring car dreams is to be backing up while driving, and the brakes never allow me to bring the car to a complete stop. I keep going backward, with the exception that if the car happens to have a manual transmission and I can get into first gear, I can finally stop and then start moving forward.
Ha Ha I get those regularly too. Another variation is going forward and either not being able to reach the brake, or leg paralysis not being able to push it. Also, loss of steering control and veering off a causeway into water. It’s ALWAYS a causeway.
Ha, I get a variant of the leg paralysis issue; in my case I’m sitting on my legs or otherwise can’t reach the pedals and so have no control! Sometimes I’m even sitting in the back seat.
When i remember a car related dream, they involve a car wreck. i envy your wild ones.
While watching, studying, researching, and generally boring my wife about cars takes up a goodly part of my day, I rarely dream about them. This has actually puzzled me for years. However, that Pontiac is definitely the stuff of dreams!
Despite being my major hobby, I can’t remember a single dream involving cars. Of course, now that I wrote that, I know what tonight’s dreams will be about.
I do dream about cars, the only one I can remember specifically was actually years ago and I had bought a brush painted black Renault 12…
…analyze THAT, Freud.
Given my lifelong interest in cars, I should dream about them more often than I do.
The most common one is when I have my first car back, a 69 2 door Valiant hardtop with a 318, its always a happy dream not surprisingly.
The Pontiac Safari doesn’t look as nice as the Chevrolet Nomad.
Agreed, the Noman is much smoother, lighter, sportier. But beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and this is occurring 70 years later, so….what do I know…
I dreamed about my car the other night. I dreamed that I put the snow tires on, but they were held in place by some sort of inflatable devices, and I had to go somewhere else to have the nuts installed. So I drove the car and it was a good solid ride, then had the nuts put on.
Wacky or what.
Very infrequently I will dream about my 74 Dart Sport, thinking that I had the car again and was driving around. It’s always a sunny day when those dreams occur.
I once dreamed about my Volkswagen Beetle, but those are nighmares.
I have always dreamed about my cars, but I remember the dreams far less than I used to. Unfortunately for my bride, I’ve always been a sleepwalker and sleeptalker, so I will regularly share the mechanical concerns of somnolence, to which she replies, “Let’s fix it in the morning, OK?” That usually shuts me up.
Nifty. I’m not sure I actually knew that Pontiac had a ‘Nomad Sibling’. Did the other GM cousins get one? (I guess I can go google it quicker than waiting for my comment to be approved, then read, then ‘maybe’ answered).
Nice car though.
Also, way too many crazy car dreams to even begin discussing.
Unfortunately extinct now because of all the Chevy Nomad guys junking them to harvest their glass.
I dream about cars and driving almost every night, possibly because I neither drive nor even own a vehicle currently.
(I’m not driving in Manila!)
Most of the themes are recurring, and have been for years, even before I quit. Freud could have written volumes about mine alone, including but not limited to:
-loss of steering control and veering off causeways into deep water, and it’s always a causeway.
-inability to brake especially while going backwards, jamming gear lever into Park to stop Other times my leg is too short to
reach the brake pedal or my legs are paralyzed.
-gradual loss of engine power until car barely moves
-being on the docks of Incheon, South Korea and receiving a newly shipped from home car, either our ’66 Mustang or my
crummy ’81 Skylark
-Frequent ones about me piloting my parents last 4 cars, ’76 Elite, ’78 LeBaron, 82 Audi 5000 and 88 Honda Accord (which
outlasted them BTW!), and encountering tornados in the 70s cars.
-Being on a car lot (always a Ford dealer) in my home town where I have spent little time in the last 3 decades, and despite
the knowledge that I have a bank account loaded with cash some unseen force prevents me from actually buying
anything.
-Being in said home town and being unable to rent a car, despite having a DL and a credit card, usually the problem is
nothing available at multiple locations.
-Having my car go missing from where I parked it, and being in a bad neighborhood and trying to get home to my mothers place,
who actually passed in 2012. I have a smartphone and money but I either don’t know the taxi number or I keep misdialing
it, and taking refuge from criminal gangs in seedy drug stores or bars . Indeterminate locations but always in North
America and frequently Saskatoon. (80% of Saskatoon is a bad neighborhood now anyway, LOL!).
Another less recurring theme is the ability to cross to different continents because of a new and extensive road system. One example is finding myself in Whitehorse,
Yukon Territory, looking for a cafe, knowing I had driven there from Daegu, South Korea, thru North Korea and Russia, across a road which traversed the Bering Strait,into Alaska, then Yukon, on my way to Saskatoon, in a Daewoo Lanos!
(I’m not driving in Manila!)
What could go wrong other than a fender bender given how slow traffic tends to move in Manila. TBH, while I have been in Manila 45 times since 1991, I have never driven there. Leave it up to the taxis or wife’s cousin in 2023. However, I did drive one time between Angeles and Subic through the lahar fields in a black Ford Expedition, in 2001 with Dutch diplomatic plates. Following friends on Harleys and constantly losing them on roads too narrow for an Expedition.
Funny you asked as I did this morning around 0400 hours. Dealt with my cars and someone I have never met in my life.
Good to know I am not alone having dreams of cars, in my case cars I once owned. My dreams wake me up multiple times a night and a number of years ago at a hospital sleep clinic I spent the night wired up to determine why. Just turns out I have a strange brain-wave thing going on, LOL. Try sleeping in a cold hospital room with dozens of wires attached to your head and body.
My dreams are mostly about rushing to get somewhere, mostly chaotic, and I never find where I was suppose to be going. Perhaps influenced by a lifetime of college & career deadlines, stress related. I am retired, no stress, so stop with the stress related dreams already. Frequently my dreams do involve my past cars. I am in a hurry to go somewhere, looking for my car in some mash-up of city streets from cities I once lived. If the dream is me driving the car it always involves a loss of power. Driving a car in a dream I can not either steer it, or I can not break. I always wake up just before a crash. These dreams are so vivid I bolt upright, get out of bed, have a smoke, walk it off. Back to bed and repeat.
The only other type of dream I have is me being a college student. Its the last day of the semester, I forgot to attend a class and a design project is due. I am rushing around trying to find the classroom, and again it is just a mash-up of college spaces I once knew. I never find the classroom, wake bolt upright, and it takes me a few moments to realize I am not a student, I don’t have a deadline, I am retired. Get up, walk it off, have a smoke and perhaps a 1/2 glass of wine. Back to bed. Repeat.
I’ve heard that college dream from many others. I also have them. My variant is that I realize I haven’t attended a class
that I was registered in, at all, and now it’s graduation time. Sometimes it’s high school, sometimes college.
I like the practice of taking a little while after waking to try to remember what I had just dreamed about, especially if the dream was particularly vivid. My opinion is that there’s sometimes something under the surface that may make sense later.
I haven’t dreamed about cars in a while, at least that I’m aware, but I have had some great and fun dreams about cars. Two favorites are of piloting a Honda CRX that I had either found or parked in a dusty, old warehouse, and then one of driving a late-era Fox body Mustang GT to the sounds of Depeche Mode. Both were in young adulthood. I still can see that black Mustang sometimes when I hear “Shake The Disease”. 🎶
Certainly. Just two ’69 Barracuda related dreams (I had it from 2011 to 2021):
Arriving at home, I noticed that the garage overhead door was wide open and all lights were on, but my Plymouth was gone…
Driving around on a sunny day in a newly developed industrial area, perfect straight roads, no buildings yet, only in the distance. Then, out of the blue, a pitch black rainstorm sky arrives, as in end-of-days pitch black.
A reoccuring, more general car theme: driving a car, putting the pedal to the metal, but the car won’t pick up any real speed. Too bad, as the situation at hand just begs for picking up speed very quickly. I guess I must have driven too many underpowered cars in the first decade I had my driver’s license.
I occasionally have car dreams, but not very memorable ones, apparently. The only 2 I can recall are 1) discovering that I still own the 71 Scamp (that I sold 40 years ago). It drives so nicely that I wonder why I hid it away and 2) that I’m meeting a guy who is going to let me drive his black 66 Lincoln. Only I woke up before I got to drive it!
One of my other recurring car dreams is that I come to the realization that I still have my cars from the past as JPC describes, such as my 2 VW Rabbits from the ’70s and my Chevy Impala from the same period. They’re always in storage somewhere, and haven’t been driven for a long time. I wonder if they’ll even run.
Oddly, the dreams that I remember are usually had after I wake up in the middle of the night, get up to check on the dogs and then drift off to sleep again on the couch. These dreams are usually quite complex, involving people, places, and yes, cars, usually from my past.
Just last night I was driving a pedal-car-sized car, maybe a Miata. I was sitting ON the car at highway speed when the steering wheel came off in my hands. My only choice was to try to control the car with my feet.
Take your pick. Here we have both Electric Prunes or, more fitting to classic automotive horrors, Wayne County and the Electric Chairs’ version:
[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-v-kkryQJw[/video]
[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daqbiyJVVDI[/video]
My “car” dreams are really work ones. Always nightmares involving me having presentations that are either not good enough or late, or not being able to get clay or CAS models right. They are very realistic and usually involve the Style Porsche studio I left over 10 years ago…