What’s the Best Smell in a Car?
The internet is littered with content that suggests that what smells good to some people evokes the exact opposite reaction in others. The latest According to You question will likely add to that, but first, I owe you an explanation: This question’s origin wafted up from a very non-automotive source.
It stems from my personal wake-up call that osmophobia is real. Smells can trigger headaches in some folks, and I’ve discovered that one spice (cumin, probably) is the trigger for painful sinus headaches for yours truly. As a South Asian American, it’s unfortunate that such a delicious part of my culinary heritage does this to me, but I’m thankful it only happens when the smell is very strong.
Be it spices, freshly cut grass, a light rain, or chemicals in vehicles, we all have different reactions to smells. It’s been suggested that not everyone smells things the same to everyone for valid physical reasons. And for this very, very personal reason, I began to think about the positive angle of this topic—what’s my favorite smell in cars?
Allow me to pick the lowest-hanging fruit. Leather seats smell absolutely wonderful to my olfactory nerves. (Thank goodness they don’t trigger my headaches!) And, for me anyway, leather paired with new car smell is downright addictive.
There are other smells I enjoy, like the contrast of old engine oil versus fresh synthetic oil after performing an oil change in my own driveway. That’s the smell of satisfaction for a job well done. But it can’t touch the smell of leather in my book. So I kick the question back to you, dear members of the Hagerty Community:
What’s the best smell in a car?
100/130 Avgas. Used it in helicopters and would occasionally slip some in the tank of a Healey 3000 to cure the unleaded gas induced pre ignition.
High octane, leaded petrol in an old Alfa.
The perfume on the lady sitting beside me in my C6.
The Connolly leather, wood and original Wilton wool carpet smell in my 71 year old Bentley are better than ANY new car smell!
I hand an immaculate 1986 Series III XJ-6. Same smell. Absolutely glorious. Smelled like a humidor in a really good tobacco shop. I’d go into the garage just to sit in it and bask in the olfactory sensousness. Still smelled the same when I sold it 13 years later…..
A properly running 2-stroke SAAB. Probably one of the worst offenders polluting the fragile thin atmosphere surrounding our little planet, but I still love the sound and smell of the 2-stroke.
Aah yes the 2-stroke exhaust smell. Living near the public boat launch, I often get the waft of an old Evinrude or Mercury cranking and puffing to life.
The smell of the leather leather combined with whatever it’s leaking at the time in my 66XKE
Cam II fuel smell wafting into the cabin.
Surprised nobody has said the obvious: The wonderful smell of burning rubber from a gratuitous burnout….. Second favorite is that slightly rich smell from a well-tuned turbo car in boost…..
My favorites have already been named so I’ll go with an alternate: the forming oil burning off a freshly installed exhaust pipe. It’s extra sweet because it’s always paired with a suddenly better sounding system.
And rich Corinthian leather but only if you roll the “r”s!
Kahn!
New car leather but it depends. On some cars the leather smells great time after time, but others can give you a migraine headache after a long trip.
Race fuel
The provocative aroma emitting from the tailpipe of a race engine while it ferociously gulps down 110 octane fuel…
The smell of the interior when first sitting in our ’64 Vette convertible. Gives the smell of long ago cigarette/cigar smoke, old well aged vinyl, previously heated fiberglass, left over spent exhaust gas from the side pipes. Always a thrill, makes me wonder about her past.
Rubber and Nitromethane with a touch of noise.
The faint smell of gasoline that always lingers inside a car with a carbureted engine when it has been sitting for a few days, right before you fire it up for a drive, followed immediately the exhaust smell of the oil that burns off at startup!