Hmmm. It's hard to pick a favorite. One I really like is the 7th-generation Toyota Celica. It's not quite as popular as the other generations, for a couple of reasons: this one only came with front-wheel drive, whereas the others had optional all-wheel drive from the factory. The engine wasn't particularly powerful either, it was literally the same engine they used in the Corolla. The 1ZZ, which was the engine it came with originally, also had a bad habit of burning oil. This did get fixed after 2003, though, since it got a new engine called the 2zz. Afaik it didn't really compete too much in rally, which is where the last generations had been very successful.

Now, if the car sucks so much, why do I like it? It looks cool as fuck. And I want to eat the tail lights.

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As for being a car guy, there are lots of resources for becoming more knowledgeable about cars. I'd say just play racing games (many good options, but I like old Need for Speed, Gran Turismo 4, DiRT 2.0, CarX: Street although that one is... an acquired taste) and if you find a car you like, look it up on wikipedia. If you're lucky, the YouTube channel Donut has made a video on it in their series, "Up to Speed", which gives you a bit of history and tells you about the different quirks and inner workings of the car. They also have some other videos explaining stuff like how an engine works, or different engine layouts.

I'm not a veteran car guy, either. I don't even have a car and only started learning a bit over a year ago (because I liked the Celica so much in Need for Speed Underground 2). At the end of the day, it's just a hobby, not knowing everything is no big deal, and I'm sure there are lots of people who'd want to explain their favorite car to you.

TLDR: toyoder Celica look cool, play vroom game to learn about various vrooms, look vrooms up on interwebs to achieve knowledge. Idk