Fathers/Sons/Cars

bludroptop wrote: My dad taught me to appreciate German cars. bludroptop's driveway 1967: (img)

I have wanted a squareback my entire life. Nice picture.

slantvaliant wrote: My Valiant is the last car my grandfather bought (used, from a little old lady). He passed it on to my father, who later gave it to me. It's been in the family 30-some years, and with me for 22. I think that's one reason I hang onto it.

And the fact it's so beautiful has nothing to do with it, I suppose.

I'm jealous. I'm the first gearhead in my family, and since my daughter didn't catch the bug, I suppose I'll be the last.

My father got me started helping him work on his cars when I was 12 or 13. He always had some "hot-rod" type of car. The picture is of his 65 Hi-Po 289 Mustang and the Alfa I bought when I graduated from college.

If it weren't for my dad my cars would have never gotten to where they are, he's always helped me every step of the way no matter what it's been. I know he hated me while I owned an LT1 but that's self-explanatory.

Here they are......in order

And then the challenge car....

OT: Black Stig's pictures...who here wouldn't want those two clowns living next door? Imagine the fun times.

My father and I had a tempestuous replationship. He wasn't really a car guy, but did have certain obsessions like his '57 Willys Jeep that required near-constant work. I don't think I was allowed to 'help'. He, to this day, has very little patience when working on something. I learned it is best to stay away. He did an awful lot of work on my first car, a $300 Fiat 124 Spider I probably shouldn't have bought, but I was never 'taught' to do anything, only allowed to watch. As I got older, I figured out we simply were two incompatible people and could not work on things together as our styles were opposite. I will lay on a creeper and stare at things for several minutes mentally doing the job in my head while he will dive right in and tear things apart. Neither of my folks have ever come to watch me autocross or hill climb and I doubt he will be there for my first road race, either. He's 73 and is what he is and I've accepted that. My Mom likely has Alzheimer's so my most supportive parent is no longer available to me.

No kids of my own but several nieces and nephews I'm ready to guide as needed if any show an interest in cars or racing.

^ That is very sad, it makes me feel bad because you both obviously have a similar interest in cars, and is seems like It would mean the world to you if your dad was ever to do something simple like just show up at one of your events.

Stuff like that is one of the things that makes me want to involve my kids in playing with cars, even at such an early age. My daughter is not really into cars from what I can tell, but my wife has told me that she will "be taught" by me to be at least knowledgeable of all things automotive, so she will not get taken avantage of by unscrupulous mechanics.

My son on the other hand, I think will definatly take after me, I already see the qleam in his eyes with anything car related. I'll always be supportive of what ever my kids are interested in, and will consider myself lucky if they follow in my interests. Perhaps your dad just didn't have the patients to let you play with cars. maybe he was just afraid that you would mess it up or something, but that is the way people learn. Just seemed sad to me.

Chris Rummel

My dad started me on the road to ruin by buying a mini bike that didn't run when I was about 6 years old. He and I wound up disassembling the old Breaks & Struggles (Briggs & Stratton!) flathead on the picnic table behind our old house and he says I was rapt, never took my eyes off it. He's been digging out a bunch of old pics and scanning them, maybe he will send me something I can post.

I got interested in motocross at age 13 when I bought a 1971 Honda SL70. He and I stripped all the lights etc, added a Powroll big bore kit, cam and pipe and that's what I started my MX 'career' on. He made me mow lawns, throw papers etc to pay for it all.

When I got a little older, he bought a 1932 Plymouth coupe with a small block Chevy and 3 speed, he and I worked on that thing together many times! Then he traded it for a pair of Corvettes, one was a 1956 that had been heavily modified and the other was a 1958 with the factory Rochester FI.He sold the '58 and kept the '56, we reworked that one from stem to stern and that's what I learned to drive fast in (he wouldn't let me drive it by myself, though. Wonder why?). Yessir, bias ply tires and ~400 HP in a car that flexes like it's made of chewing gum.

He has been a car nut all his life but never a true 'racer' (even though he has footage of him spinning an MG TD at Sebring!), that's something I decided to do on my own. Unfortunately, he has decided at the age of 81 that there's no way in hell he's going to climb into a race car with me (do I drive that bad?) so it looks like that's something he and I will never share.

I definately got the car bug from my Dad. He's taught car & truck mechanics in a local tech college for years, and he used to race a Sunbeam Alpine at Mosport. Our styles are a bit different - I'd rather be hands-off and just drive, but I do my own work out of necessity, whereas Dad has never been afraid to get his hands dirty.

Here we are triumphantly returning after my rather poorly planned trip to New Mexico in 2007. It was great that he came along, especially since the first he'd heard I was thinking of going was when I asked to borrow his Jeep for "next week." Also, we bought the trailer two days before leaving.

Here's his & my cars as they sit now, in hibernation:

(Same Starion on the right, just with a colour change.)

I haven't got the Starion on the road yet but we're going to have a showdown between the two next time I'm back in town on an autocross day.

Dad also has a '65 Mustang in storage (which he now wants to trade for an Esprit - hmm, jealous of my Elan? ) and we were slowly building up a really nice shop before I moved overseas.

He's going to retire in 2010 and I might move back to Canada. If that happens we're hoping to take a shot at Targa Newfoundland.

(If anyone's wondering, my Mum's daily is a GC8 Impreza 2.5RS and between the two of them they have 7 cars and four trailers. Yep, I got it from them alright.)

J

Reading these posts brings a huge smile to my face. I too grew up with a father who is also a car nut. My Dad was more of a driver than a builder. He had a variety of cars when I grew up. There were a lowered '58 Chev with a 348 /; 4 speed, a big block 4 speed Galaxie, a 289 HiPo Mustang rag top, and a bright yellow Rabbit GTI. Also due to his job as a police officer there were various plain looking sedans with a bit of attitude in our driveway. When I turned sixteen I bought a VW Beetle which I started modifying the day after I got it. When I got the urge within a year to turn it into a dune buggy I had his full support for the project and a copy of the Highway Traffic Act to make sure it was legal. I still remember the smile on his face as I drove it out of the driveway. I now have two kids of my own. I brought them to autocrosses, races and rallys while they were growing up. They both have project cars of their own. My son has a '85 RX7 with a Turbo Coupe drivetrain swapped into it. My daughter has a '87 Mustang GT which we hope to have finished this year. Here's a link to my son's You Tube page with some video of his cars and also a few of mine.

http://ca.youtube.com/profile?user=CurJam87&view=videos

My Father was always too consumed with providing for us 4 kids.We had a slew of cars in the driveway, but he wasn't a hands on kinda guy other than go karts and motorcycles. He's Pop, and I couldn't ask for a better person to be my Dad. Now, he just shakes his head when I tell him about my current auto-adventures.

I will, however, pass along my passion for cars/trucks to my Son.