The shirt and the pants
07/22/2025
Sometimes just a small gap is enough, the side window is open a hand's breadth and the unique scent of a historic car hits your nose. But it is usually not so easy to describe. In some cars it smells like grandma's old sofa, in others like the witch's kitchen of a plastic alchemist. And in between are all the nuances that only the pristine interior of an old car can produce.
Porsche 901/911, chassis number 57: the well-known "junkyard crew" car was completely rebuilt. Only the scent inside could not be reproduced.
With most cars, this scent is only slightly perceptible, but with some it is so strong in the nose that it burns itself into the cerebral cortex inseparably together with the impressions of the car. In other words, if the scent were gone, you would unconsciously get the feeling that something about the car was different or worse: broken!
Original interior of a Jaguar E-Type V12 S3 OTS, it smells very intense even when open.
But it's really great when the car accompanies you home, I mean olfactorily accompanies you home. Of course, this can happen from time to time, for example when the fuel spills out of the filler neck and spills down your trouser leg. However, it then smells primarily of petrol or - for me with some memories of military service - diesel. But there are cars where everything that has been sitting or lying inside for barely half an hour really does smell. Sometimes that's quite nice, but sometimes it's rather unpleasant.
New car: Porsche 911/992 Sport Classic. Will it develop its own scent one day?
Well, you can take a positive view and say that man and machine are becoming one - at least in terms of scent. Certain leather interiors have this tendency, such as those with leather from Conolly, but recently I had the pleasure of driving a Jaguar E-Type, which smelled rather harsh.
By the way, what I really don't like at all are these scent trees! Because it's even worse with them: I constantly have the scent of trees in my nose when I'm driving and the clothes still end up smelling like - old car interiors. Or do they smell?
