What is your favorite Grand Touring car?

Outside of really expensive unobtanium cars, I'd have to go with an XK8

Or an XLR-V

I had to say when they were new and not beat to the ground, I found the Mark VIII to be an awesome touring car:

If I was going to build something, I keep coming back to the early Riv's. Put a Ride Tech setup on there and EFI and just roll down the road.

A 550 or 575. Cruise all day as fast as you feel. Decent luggage room too.

Build: Add a 6spd and some nice seats to my E36.

Tough to beat the Pontiac(Holden) GTO but if you want to go low dollar, Ford Contour SVT. The Caddy is great option but they are tough to find and hold their value too well for GRM purposes. Also tough to beat the mid-80's Porsche 911 unless it is a hot humid day in Ga

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: I had one once... 1988 535is It would do 120 all day long in lovely leather buckets. Handled pretty good for a car of it's era. Made good noises too. It was everything you need, nothing you don't. I miss it.

My M535i (basically the euro version of a 535is) is a great road car, I've done several multi-thousand mile trips in it.

The '04 GTO I had was a very nice GT car, though you really couldn't fit a tone of stuff in the trunk due to the gas tank layout. But man were those some comfy seats for long trips.

If money was no object though I would go to my dream car. XJ220, it's long, it's low it's powerful, not much luggage space under the bonnet. But who cares? It's soooo sexy

1996 Impala SS. There I said it.

My first thought was Monaro/GTO but they're just not that interesting to me so... If money was no object my ideal long distance cruiser would be a nice Mark VII with a no-expense-spared suspension refresh and then Coyote/6 speed swap... Anything is possible if you throw money at it.

Or an XK8 because sexy.

For cross country highway crushing utter comfort with the ability to absolutely scream along I'd want a Bentley Continental. GT or Flying Spur your pick.

For a reasonable budget though..... I like the pickup idea, modern trucks are so quiet and comfortable on the interstate at speeds you can actually get away with.

For the better part of 4 years, I was able to drive a DB7 pretty often.

One of those drives, on an open road, I got to thinking- what a pointless car.

At 100mph, the car is barely working, so to actually use the car, it's not about breaking the law- it's about being around other drivers.

Great car, super smooth, and if I were forced to get one, I would get an Aston- as much due to the relationships I made with them as how cool the car was.

But I see them as a waste.

We drove my GTV across the country- that thing just eats up the miles, and does it very comfortably, and economically. It would cruise way above what would be safe among other drivers all day long- and it would be an easy mod to make it even more comfortable.

Maybe it's the fact that I grew up with small cars. But I'm not into wasting my money, either.

A large GM convertible would make for a interesting trip.

In reply to JohnRW1621:

Best used for bat country.

I, too, was going to say V12-powered 8 Series Bimmer, butRexSeven beat me to it.

Instead, I would say it is a toss up between a Mark IV Supra and a late model Mustang.

I reckon my ultimate grand touring car is the one I just recently picked up as my DD. 03 Brabus E55 K8. Damn you Ebay....

My old Dodge Intrepid R/T was a great GT car. It was big and had FWD with a slushy 4 speed, but it was only 3500 pounds and had a decent suspension and was very aerodynamic. That meant that once you were up to cruising speed, you could stay there all day in comfort. You never felt claustrophobic in the car, you could pack your bags in the huge trunk and just roll along. If budget was very low, that would be my pick.

If budget were very high...

1988-1992 Mazda MX-6/626 Turbo. My personal record for long distance driving was the 1800 miles / 27 hour stint from Portland OR to eastern KS in mine.

Acura Legend, either generation, although I imagine the 2nd gen was more cush. I always like the looks of the 1st gen coupe a lot.

Infinity Q45, especially the later ones that took the emphasis off of sport.

I don't get some of the suggestions here. Pro-Touring? No sidewall on extremely wide tires?

In reply to pres589:

No. I said something like a pro touring build with more emphasis on comfort. No super wide thin tires. But fix the suspension geometry using good quality components and take out the slop. I'd prefer to keep the factory 15's on it.

Small budget: My 280zx

Large budget: A built 510 wagon with sr20 swap.

In reply to Nick_Comstock:

Okay, all of that I can agree with.

I use this for roadtrips. Comfy heated seats, removable top, 6spd manual just lopes along at 1700 rpm at highway speed, downshift to 3rd and pass long lines of semis and RVs even while towing my camper, gets close to 30 mpg without the camper and 20 mpg towing the camper.

The tongue weight will even save your ass in the random snow storm!

Additionally;

Reliable, fuel efficient, used as daily drivers by many in their day, interesting and attractive, removable roof, decent storage space.

For outright sexiness on wheels, I present the DB9

Volvo S60R. Glorious seats with growly in line 5 turbo. Sleeper status.

Mercedes E63 AMG.

But realistically, probably a Buick.

The only real long trip I've taken was 1500 miles. I did it one way in a SRT4 neon, the other way in a FJ Cruiser non-stop. Surprisingly the Cruiser is comfortable, will drive all day at 85.

Whatever it is needs to have comfy seats. I've done 700 in one day in may 2010 Camaro SS, and while it is a blast to drive your butt and back start to hurt after awhile.

this, while wearing...

alfadriver wrote: For the better part of 4 years, I was able to drive a DB7 pretty often. One of those drives, on an open road, I got to thinking- what a pointless car. At 100mph, the car is barely working, so to actually use the car, it's not about breaking the law- it's about being around other drivers. Great car, super smooth, and if I were forced to get one, I would get an Aston- as much due to the relationships I made with them as how cool the car was. But I see them as a waste. We drove my GTV across the country- that thing just eats up the miles, and does it very comfortably, and economically. It would cruise way above what would be safe among other drivers all day long- and it would be an easy mod to make it even more comfortable. Maybe it's the fact that I grew up with small cars. But I'm not into wasting my money, either.

This. Today's small cars are well equipped, reasonaby powered and quiet. I've done 1100 mile days in my CooperS very comfortably. Anything will easily cruise at extra-legal speeds these days, so the real answer is probably a minivan.