Finally tracked down the car that's been bugging me for weeks

I know that feeling of chasing a car sighting around in your head. A couple summers ago I kept hearing this flat, angry howl echo up my street every Friday around five. Took me three weeks of half-catch glimpses to finally see it parked at the gas station, and it turned out to be a Ford GT in that dark blue with the white stripes. I had genuinely convinced myself it was some kit car untill I walked around it and saw the badge. The guy lets the local shop handle the oil changes and aparently the whole rear clamshell has to come off for serious work, wich blew my mind. Around here a car like that shows up maybe once a decade, so nobody believes you when you describe it the next day. What stuck with me was how normal the owner was, just filling up like the rest of us while I stood there grinning like an idiot. Now I keep a note on my phone with descriptions whenever I spot something I can't place, and it's saved me a lot of late night guessing.

Funny reading this becuase my approach is the lazy one. If I see a car I can't place, I just write down the model name off the back if there is one, or snap a quick photo at the next light, and text it to my buddy who's been into exotics since we were teenagers. He ID'd a McLaren 720S for me in about ten seconds once from a blurry picture that mostly showed a wheel. Saves me the weeks of guessing.

I will say the Zonda sightings are a whole diferent tier though. My cousin in the car scene says a guy brings one to a cars and coffee about an hour from us maybe twice a year, and people practically form a ring around it before he's even parked. The unprotected carbon look is polarizing in person, some folks think it looks unfinished, but up close the weave is mesmerizing. The commuting in it part doesn't shock me much anymore. There's a dentist near me who daily drives an older Aston Martin, rain or shine, snow tires and all. First time I saw it in a grocery store lot I figured it was неделе someone borrowed it, nope, park spot by the cart return every Saturday. Some people just buy the thing to actually use it, mileage be damned.

Funny how the hunt is half the fun. Back in the 80s I kept a dog-eared spotting guide in the glovebox, the kind with little silhouettes, and I'd pencil in the date and mile marker whenever something weird rolled past. Saw a Countach that way outside a diner in 84 and I still bring it up too often. I imagine the Zonda sounds even crazier in stop and go, all that heat soaking the tailpipes at 5 mph. You never did say, did you catch what engine it was running, the AMG V12? Those old Italian shops sure have come a long way from hand-beaten aluminum panels.

Still figuring out how things work around here so hope this is on topic. I had the same thing happen but backwards, I heard the car first. Some low rumble kept rolling past my office every morning for like two weeks before I finally caught a look, turned out to be one of those Aston Martins with the V12. Never would have guessed from the sound alone. Does the Zonda have that distinct a noise too, or was it mostly the look that stuck with you? Genuinely curious since I've never even seen one in a photo in person.

Update: the text-a-buddy thing from earlier in this thread actually works, tried it on a weird low-slung thing at the gas station last week and had an answer before I got home. Still stuck on the hearing-it-first part though, like that poster whose office rumble took two weeks to catch. Once you clock a sound, do you ever stop hearing it on your street?