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Alright guys, time to be honest. How little did you know when you started getting into cars?
I didn't get the bug until I was 16. Before then I couldn't have cared less about cars. And when I did start getting into them, I have to admit, I wanted to turbo a Sunfire. I also had to ask which was faster, our Regal GS or my dads Corvette 
I know, I was bad. I'd like to think I know more now though!
I got the bug when I was about 12. I didn't know anything about anything for a long time. Still don't really.
Actually, looking back, I think I must have lost any knowledge I did have. I want a station wagon and a Yugo
I caught it at about 15 when a friend acquired an '85 Escort. I enjoyed helping get that thing back on the road and learned a ton about cars in general.
I didn't start wrenching on my own car until early in college with my '96 Escort. At that time I was focused on body kits and perceived performance, though I never really divulged myself much into that realm primarily due to being, well, in college. Fortunately, I discovered motorsports shortly after college and was broken of such fiberglass "prospects". My newly found employer was avid in professional motorsports and introduced me to such. My first "performance" driving event was a track day at Road Atlanta followed up by an introduction to autocross a few weeks later. It wasn't until the Escort popped its engine at my third event ever did I decide to take the next step and undertake an engine replacement myself. I've always been fairly mechanically inclined, so I looked forward to the challenge. The swap was a success and I was surprised at the simplicity involved.
The rest is history. After a successful transplant, I replaced that Escort with a Protege5 and shortly thereafter acquired my first Miata, then the second Miata and so on. It's been a slippery downhill slope ever since and I've enjoyed every bump and cut through that ride.
Really, really young. I'm told I played with Hot Wheels by 2 and raced slot cars by 5. I built my first car model at 7 and helped assemble my first engine at 13. I had no chance...
P71 wrote:Really, really young. I'm told I played with Hot Wheels by 2 and raced slot cars by 5. I built my first car model at 7 and helped assemble my first engine at 13. I had no chance...
Same here. Apparently I did most of the cam install on my Dads (flathead) 47 Mercury B mod stock car. He told me what to do, and helped with the assembly. I was 4. The story comes up ocassionally, and he swears I did most of the work.
I was porting 2 strokes at 13.
its been said around our family table that as a toddler i went to sleep with a hotwheels in each hand and there was hell to pay if you try'd to remove them. around 7 or 8 i was tearing stuff apart on the farm and 10 when i got real interested
I started with bikes. i wanted a dirt bike and i was told that if i could get the old ducati 100 running (it was completely dismantled, my father was getting ready rebuild it, but never got the chance) i could have it... i put it back together and got it to run, and despite mom's surprise, she kept to her word and gave me the bike. i was about 10, there was a long and varied progression of assorted makes of dirt bikes after that...by the time i was 15 i had moved on to cars and started fixing vw's...
I loved cars as a boy, hot wheels, matchbox, micro...whatever, remote control... and somewhere lost interest for a while, but got it twice as bad around 19ish.
Drewsifer wrote:I also had to ask which was faster, our Regal GS or my dads Corvette
Depends on which years the cars were... it's not outside the realm of possibilty that a Regal GS could outrun a late-'70s Vette.
Warning: there will be a long post following this announcement that will tell you more than you need to know about Maroon92 and his obsession with the automotive world.
I was probably 16 or so when I started to "learn" about cars. I watched Gone in Sixty Seconds, and fell in love with Eleanor, mainly because my Dad loved Eleanor... for a while after that I could only see Mustangs! they were the only cars for me!
When I was 17 I lived in Spain for a few months on a foreign exchange program in High School. I had a layover in London, so I picked up a copy of EVO magazine at the airport. That started to spark my interest in sports cars and exotics. During my stay, my grandpa sent me his old car magazines every month so I would have something to read in English. He sent me Mopar, Car Craft, Hot Rod, and Motor Trend. This furthered my lust for Muscle Cars.
Two days before I graduated High School I bought my first Triumph TR-7. A few weeks later I picked up a copy of GRM that showcased the Challenge. That issue changed my life more than any other single thing. The rest is history!
I think most of us here have been car silly for years - decades even and know tons of stuff.
Given that, I believe we've all been surprised by our lack of knowledge due to preconceived notions or even just relative to other people we meet along the way.
I know a lot about cars compared to the average person. But when I come on here and see the challenge build threads and read the technical discussions, I realize that I really don't know E36 M3 . That's why I like it here. 
I'm very good at it because I always do it two or three times before it's right.
I started taking things apart at a young age. Sometimes I could even get them back together. Was helping my dad fix cars when I could still walk under the bumper of a jacked up car. Was welding by 13. One of the rules around our house was if you drove it you maintained and fixed it. Being that I was hard on cars I got to fix them a lot. I still like old and simple more than new and computerized, at least for play toys. I tend to like all old machines whether they are cars or not. Just finished building a steam engine.
I was raised around cars, so I began the assimilation at a very young age.
Guess.
I went to Chimney Rock when I was 13 months old. Then I was in the shop every day afterwards.
Duke wrote:Drewsifer wrote:I also had to ask which was faster, our Regal GS or my dads Corvette
Depends on which years the cars were... it's not outside the realm of possibilty that a Regal GS could outrun a late-'70s Vette.
It was a 2000 Corvette. I was just very n00b.
I was 1997, and I decided I wanted a racing game for the playstation.
It's been all downhill from there.
Like Tommy, I was at my first track event while still in diapers. My Mom used to put me down for a nap after lunch and I would sleep until the last race was finished and then wake up (it got quiet). I knew mu numbers before I could spell my own name and I still love the smell of gas and oil and hot tires.
I lost a little of my enjoyment of cars and racing after my parents got divorced. But the Army sent me to Italy (great place to renew a love of the car) and it hasn't let up since.
Not sure when I started as I can't remember that far back. I do remember helping steer while dad and my brother pushed his bugeye sprite out of the backyard to be hauled away by the new owner. I think I had to practically stand on the seat to see over the wheel.
When I wasn't playing with lego's, or erector sets, I was taking things apart and sometimes putting them back together. I learned pretty quickly not to take things apart unless it was already broken. Built my first push scooter from an old bike frame with dad doing the welding when I was 6 or 7? I think.
Since we couldn't afford to put me in a Kart, we went R/C Car racing. Learned a lot about patience when driving and setting up preparation procedures and following them.
I'd also be out at the track with Dad and his friend when they were racing a Crosley FF. Usually I just helped fetch tools and tried to stay out of the way, eventually I graduated up to pumping the pedals when bleeding the hydraulics and after a while I was spotting things the other guys had missed when working on the car. Never did get to drive it though, it was sold by the time I was able to afford renting it for a weekend. Oh well, I have my own Autocrosser and now I help race a ChumpCar!
Someday, I'd like to build a FV-like vehicle and do some local racing with it. I say FV-like because I'd use a cheap N/A Subaru boxer and more modern suspension and make it look like a 60's F1 car with modern safety and construction. Of course a Sports-Racer of some sort would be great as well since I love the old Can-Am cars.
akamcfly wrote:I think most of us here have been car silly for years - decades even and know tons of stuff.
Given that, I believe we've all been surprised by our lack of knowledge due to preconceived notions or even just relative to other people we meet along the way.
I know a lot about cars compared to the average person. But when I come on here and see the challenge build threads and read the technical discussions, I realize that I really don't know E36 M3 . That's why I like it here.
What he said! I've turned into a pretty fair parts changer over the years (started on Britcars as a teen), but I can't really fabricate or weld. Or set up a suspension..I just kind of play with the basics until I get the balance I like, and then just wrestle it. I still really wish I could learn to seriously tune for grip.
Tommy Suddard wrote:Guess.
I went to Chimney Rock when I was 13 months old. Then I was in the shop every day afterwards.
I just think it's cool you caught the bug. My own kid doesn't care about it at all. Everybody says it's because she's a girl, but I've got a couple of old SCCA friends (married to each other) who's daughter caught the bug instead of the son.
I was able to rip stuff apart and put it back together at a very early age. My dad owned a couple of laundromats and the coin mechanisms would screw up, he'd replace three or four, bring me the old ones and I'd rip them apart and make 1 or 2 good ones out of them. I was5 or 6. My dad still talks about that.
Around that time, my dad also bought us a minibike, one of those lawnmower engine things. In fact, Toyman has one that looks almost exactly like the one we had. Anyway, the damn thing stayed broken so my dad and I would hoist it up on the picnic table in our back yard and fix whatever ailed it. My dad still talks about that, too.
I graduated to motorcycles when I was about 11 or 12, but I did 4 strokes. So I was reringing top ends, grinding valves, etc on my own by then. I was splitting cases and replacing transmission gears etc too. That was SCARY the first time. That's when I started racing motocross and man I LOVED MX. I quit with it for a while when I discovered girls and later beer. Sometimes I think I'd have been better off sticking with the MX.
I got my first car when I was 15 (a 1965 Ford Falcon Futura) and of course it was slap worn out (hey, even in 1974 $225 did NOT buy a lot of car). I knew motorcycles pretty well but not much about cars but if I was going to roll I had to wrench. So I learned first hand about clutches, manual transmissions, fuel pumps, alternators, brakes, suspension stuff etc because it was all just plain worn out and I replaced stuff as I got a few bucks. And man did I make some mistakes. One memorable boo boo was when I decided to put a floor shift in the Falcon and 'eyeballed' the floor pan hole, turns out I cut it way too far forward. 
When I told my dad, he said "Measure twice, cut once'. Smart ass.
I got a 1968 Triumph Spitfire a few years later and thanks to it I learned a whole different way of looking at cars.
I think I knew more about automotive history when I was 9 than I do now. I didn't start working on them until I was 17 or so though, and I will admit my first mods were of the audio variety. As in two subwoofers that just about filled the back of my hatchback. But before I turned 18, I discovered autocross and that was that.
when i was 4 i helped my dad put a newer 230 inline 6 into his 48 chevy fleetline. then we drove it around the block - i had no chance.
I'm a bit of a Mazda freak, my first car was a BHA Protege. Since then I've had 3 BG Proteges, 2 B2200 pickups, an FC Rx7, a Miata, and a Mx3 GS SE. I did have a DA Integra for a while, but it got stolen once, and then broken into twice more after I found it, so I said berkeley it, no more Hondas for me.
I started early with go-karts though. Not the kick ass shifter carts, but the one wheel drive 5hp Briggs and Stratton powered gokarts. Mix in a splash of R/C cars and a strange fetish with strapping Estes rocket motors onto K'nex cars. I'm especially proud of my K'nex cars, I spent the better part of a year blowing them up and refining my design. By the end, I was having to super glue them together so they didn't fly apart at 80mph, and my ill fated trials with two stage rockets. Damn thing disintegrated at well over 100mph, couldn't keep them together no matter how much I glued or melted together. As for running them on a string, get that E36 M3 outa here. We don't need no Bob Costas string. Either you free wheel it or you go home
