Boy Racers Dream Car??

When i passed my driving test around 20 years ago, the boy racers car at the time was the old MK11 Escort, it was cheap and readily available in various specifications and lent itself to being modified with relative ease. My first Escort was a 2 door 1.1 Pop which i bought for 30quid! I was in the motor trade so several months and two or three donor cars later it was transformed. We shoe horned a 2litre Pinto engine out of a Cortina, uprated the suspension, brakes, fit alloys and interior etc from the 'donors'. It was the typical wolf in sheeps clothing, i kept the car for about 5 years and then sold it to a work colleague who blew the engine in the first week! Since then i've had a whole host of performance Fords including RS2000, XR2, XR3i, XR4x4, Sierra Cosworth but the one car i would have back would be the old Escort.
What was the boy racer car when you started driving and which car you have owned would you buy back?
Sean