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What car got you hooked on cars?
Everyone had the first car that they rode in, drove, or looked at that got them hooked on the car hobby.
What's yours?
Mine?
1968 Chevy Caprice 2dr 396 Ex FBI unit - triple black with hideway headlights
I was 5 years old, my brother was 17 - and brought this car home much to our dads dismay. My kindergarten teacher told my mother that in every art class, all I drew was black cars. I was hooked early.
My father came back from a tour of Duty in Spain with a brand new 1968 Opel Kadett Rallye. Yes.. that Rallye, the homogulation special. Was probably the only one in the states until at least 1980 when he sold it (in excellant shape) for $500.
I can remember him AutoXing it and running it on the wooden track in Pleasantville NJ.. not to mention sitting in my child seat in the back while they ran rallies.
I was doomed from the start.
My Love of the fiat spider came from the son of the people who owned the house behind us. He had a blue 124 spider with a white spider stenciled onto the hood. I loved the noise it made.
My step-father's 94 C4 Corvette. He didn't own it long before selling it to move to a less expensive lifestyle, but his tastes in automobiles (he owned three 911's) stuck with me.
I guess my Fox Wagon got me into cars the most though because I actually got "connected" via VW Vortex, and it all went down hill from there.
2 years later I was driving a $500 Dodge Shadow in an autox and reading GRM.
I stumbled across a VHS tape that had a recap of the 1993 WRC season. The subaru legacy turbo was what had me hooked. Since then I've become more and more interested in motorsports and started working on my own car.
Unfortunately I don't have my own legacy turbo yet, but I'm working on it.
My first car, my 1986 Camaro got me addicted to speed. Then it was over to Japan for some Japanese goodness . . .that got me hooked on drifting and cornering. I learned there's a such thing as balance with some high horsepower Skylines, Silvias and RX7s . . .and that was a wrap ever since.
sigh
Dad's bugeye and the stories of his 64 Elan (racing Hershel McGriff and his NASCAR Falcon on old Columbia River Highway)
his best friend raced Formula Fords for many years and as I got older I got to help crew, a great learning experience.
I don't know that it was any one car. It grew on me for awhile. Probably if I had to narrow it down to one thing it would be crew-chiefing on my dorms team for the Purdue Grand Prix my freshman year. Karting with roll cages different but fun.
1957-59ish, Austin Healey. Awesome car for a 4 year old in the back seat. I can remember the sound, the smell, the heat from the transmission tunnel. It was all awesome.
Neighbor had a fully loaded, green, 4-door hardtop 69 olds delta 88 custom that they inherited from an uncle. They left it outside to rot and us kids all played in it. I always wanted that car. One day when I was about 15 they decided to tow it away and a tow truck driver came for the car, he was paid $50 bucks to haul it away. Before he could do so, my brother asked to have the car and the neighbor said ok. The tow truck driver must have been pissed but he towed the car to our house. My brother gave up trying to start the 455 engine after a few days and gave the car to me and I couldn't have been happier. By that time it was all rusted out but a friend of mine and I ended up getting it running, we drove it around the block and that was it. My car buddy friend (who taught me how to drive in his 70 SS chevelle) ended up dying a few years later but I cherish the fun we had trying to get that old car to fire up. In spite of the rust, I should have kept the car, instead I took it all apart but kept the engine (in pieces) and trans, which I still have 25 years later. I only found one other car that was like it on ebay and I bought it a few years ago but later sold it. I still stay in touch with the guy who bought it.
I had always been into cars as a kid (posters on the wall etc.) but what made it stick was my Aunt had a old MG that she used to take me for what I call sporting rides in.
Then on Christmas day in 00 (I only had my permit) she taught me to drive stick in her red 2001 BMW M3. Taking off from a stop on icy roads in 2nd gear I lit up the tires. I can still remember that smell to this day...
I dunno. None in particular. Any car I had was great. It wasn't the car, it was the driving.
What hooked me was living in Monterey. I showed up to an auto-x at Marina airport and got a ride in an MR2 Turbo. I would have run my Chrysler Cirrus, but I had a Check Engine light. Then watched the Historic Races at Laguna Seca and loved that.
Fast forward to getting a BMW and doing auto-x in earnest, then hitting a track day... or 3, and a drift event.
Now, it's less "into", and more "addicted".
Once I realized I had a hold of a straight six from 1978 that put out 185hp and ran well past 100mph I was done. I wanted to name my car the "civic killer" but honda had to make a stupid new model that would embarass me.
For a 1978 my car will haul some ass verses other us import mercedes or american cars of it's time.
I can remember seeing a Lancia Stratos on ABC's Wide World of Sports as a kid, and also being ~3 years-old & being soooo disappointed when I discovered I had to wait till I was 16 to drive!
I've been this way since birth. I think it's genetic, since most of my family is into cars in one way or another. My sperm-donor works as a tech at a Chevy dealer. My Mom's current hobby is a Jeep Wrangler. I could name every car on the road by the time I was 5 and wore the solid rubber tires off my first pedal car.
My dad's 76 Volare station wagon. Don't remember if it was the slant 6 or the 318, but it was just the family truckster, nothing special. I remember him working on it, tuning it up and such. I was maybe 5 or 6 would would stand on the grass peering over the fender and watching in awe that one man could know so much about cars. I'd ask him "what's this called, whats that called" and he knew. I was sure there was no other man on earth that COULD POSSIBLY know that much about cars. From that moment on, I wanted to me like dad. Fast forward 30 years and I'm a certified car nut. Thanks dad.
In reply to TIGMOTORSPORTS:
I was born.
DrBoost wrote:My dad's 76 Volare station wagon. I remember him working on it, tuning it up and such. I was maybe 5 or 6 would would stand on the grass peering over the fender and watching in awe that one man could know so much about cars. I'd ask him "what's this called, whats that called" and he knew. I was sure there was no other man on earth that COULD POSSIBLY know that much about cars. From that moment on, I wanted to me like dad. Fast forward 30 years and I'm a certified car nut. Thanks dad.
my story is the same, except the car was a coupe/roadrunner package with the graphics delete except for the little bird.... fast forward to the early 80's , and a drive through the mountains in my cousins alfa, and the seed is set for not only hp, but also handling.. ruined my life forever... 
This will show how old - or young I guess by some standards - I am. It was probably 92 or 93, and I was about 13 or so. My friends dad took us up the street to the movie rental place in his AE86. It was raining, he needed tires, and he took a turn too quick resulting in a wicked long drift. It scared his dad a bit becuase he wasnt a car guy at all (and wasnt a particularly good driver now that I think about it) but my buddy and I thought it was freakin awesome. Thats been one of my favorite cars ever since. I WILL own one someday
Salanis wrote:I dunno. None in particular. Any car I had was great. It wasn't the car, it was the driving.
There is a lot to be said for this one as well...when I was a little kid, I always looked at my mom and dad when they were driving around, and I got the feeling that it was fun. I never lost that feeling for a moment
It wasn't a specific car for me. It was genetics. I was interested in cars as soon as I knew what they were.
For me it wasn't a car at all.....
It was the boobs that came with the girl when you happen to be 16 and have a set of wheels....
Early 70's...one Uncle had a dune buggy, another had a purple Ford Torino...I was probably 4 at the time.
I could name every car on the road, by make, model and year at 3 years old, I had no chance.
I was born with the car gene. Same thing with my 12 year old girl and oddly enough my 16 year old boy didn't get the car gene:-(
Sultan wrote:I was born with the car gene. Same thing with my 12 year old girl and oddly enough my 16 year old boy didn't get the car gene:-(
Same thing happened to me. My younger girl loves cars (and trucks), but my older son says, "meh."
When I was 5, my older sister used to babysit for me after school. Her boyfriend had a red 66 Mustang coupe. Every afternoon, I'd end up in the backseat of that car at the local burger place with a vanilla milkshake in my hands. I fell in love, first with that car's T-handled automatic shifter, then the tail lights, gas cap and grill.
Twelve years later, I bought my first 65 Mustang, a coupe. Fourteen years after that, I bought my second, this time a 65 fastback.
I'm done with old Mustangs, but the car bug stuck.
