What got you interested in cars?
 

I was just wondering. I know, the thing that really got me hooked was the first time I ever heard my dad fire up that 1968 Firebird 400 of his. Then my first car being a 80 TTA.

As a kid in the 80's, I spent my Friday nights watching "Dukes of Hazzard" followed by "Knight Rider" religiously. I think that was the early beginning. Then, in my teen years, my 'cool' uncle bought a '74 Camaro. This thing was an absolute basket case. It had a ton of body damage up front, but I guess the subframe and unibody were straight because he built that ride from the ground up. Every time I would visit my grandparents, he was out there rebuilding the engine or the trans or fixing whatever he abused. When he was done, it went from a crappy metallic brown hunk of metal to a straight ride that was black with white rally stripes. Still miss that car (He eventually threw a rod in Texas, where he now lives, and then got addicted to Jeeps...got me hooked on those, too!). That's what got me hooked.

Like many, I watched Smokey and the Bandit and had the bird on my mind ever since.

Still looking for that elusive 2nd gen TA for pennies on the dollar. :)

Stupidity

As far back as I can remember I liked cars...Loved 5.0's in the 80's...Buddy had a 93 LT1 Camaro in the early 90's that got me into fbodies...was never big on 1st,2nd, and especially 3rd gens....though there are some sweet 1st gens.

my dads 67 chevelle SS396 he had til i was like 10....then my buddy bought a 93 Z28 when he turned 16 which interested me in fbodies...then my other buddy had 3 foxbody mustangs so that turned me on to them....and here we are

I would say my dad's 87 T/A and also my lack of money to pay someone to work on my car, LOL.

I always was into cars. Anyone old enough to remember Matchbox cars? Always dreamed of having one of those little cars when I grew up. Also remember being a kid and my dad telling stories about the Hudson Hornets he would tear apart and rebuild and race to the 56 Chevy he had. ( I want a 57 though) By the time I was 8 or 10 I couldn't wait to get a lisense so I could get my own car. (a 74 Chevelle with a 350 by the way) Always wanted either a Camaro or T/A back then and finally did and have had it for 20 years now. Of course I still want more cars that I will never be able to get.

A bunch of my friends all had fbodies and I lost to one, I've been hooked to not only fbodies but cars in general ever since.

-Bill

Born to a car family

I wanted to bond with my dad..... and GM was the way to go lol

Yeah, that pretty much sums it up.

My dad is a mechanic, has been since I was born. My mom was at the local dirt tracks when she was pregnant with me, i was at my first dirt track race when i was 13 months old, and all my toys as a child were cars (most of my toys still are....).

- Justin

what got me interested was my dad being a mechanic and working on cars at home....like his two 69 Nova's, and building a 350 for his truck in the garage when i was a kid.....since then i was always fascinated with cars....especially vettes but mainly anything in the GM category.....then i fell in love with 3rd gen camaros, when i found one for sale, it would up being an LS with Z28 gfx on it and was asking wayy too much. then when i drove around in my Nissan Stanza with my head hung low, i saw an 87 t/a for sale....got that puppy for 1700 and since then i have been working on little stuff here and there and each time i find something else to do on the car, i become more and more fascinated with cars

My Neighbor's Porsche 911. ironically enough lol. .He used to let me sit in it and pretend to drive it. All the guys in my family are Ford Losers, so it was only natural for me to go Chevy.

My dad had a 1950 Chevy and a 1954 Chevy on the side of our house for as long as I can remember....he eventually sold the 50, but we decided to restore the 54 when I was about 9. We pulled it all apart, we bought an aircompressor and a sand blaster and we blasted it. We were going to restore it all original. The day we took the blue flame 6 motor out some dude stopped by and had a 1954 corvette he was restoring without the engine or trans. The guy offered us a rediculous amount of money because the engine so happened to match the build date of his Vette. Right then and there we sold it, bought the ZZ4, and we started to build it as a hotrod...unfortunately my dad bought his 66 Thunderbird, then his 68 GTO Convertible that sidetracked us big time. I cut grass, shoveled snow, raked leaves, saved birthday money and did everything I could to make money to buy what at the time was my dream car (a 69 Chevelle) but I couldnt afford them. When I was 13, I found my 64. I bought it because it had well over 6k in body work, brakes, and a 12bolt with 4:10s already in it...the rest is history until in 2003 3 weeks after I graduated from HS, and my Jeep was starting to decide it wanted to break down more than stay running. I put it out front for sale and this guy bought it within 30 minutes...Two days later when my dad traded our Van in for our Pacifica I saw what would soon be my 94 Z28 get traded in by an older lady. The rest is history.

old man has been drag racing since the 60's, used to drag me to island when I was 1 plop me in the playpen, tell me to block out the noise, sometimes give me some tools or something to play with. When I was 16 I started working at his pontiac dealership and I bought a 91 RS camaro that came in on trade and started running the cars. I learned a lot working in the shop, including not wanting to be a machanic, so I went to school for engineering instead. My brother however is between crew chief and driver on a pro mod team. When im at the track and watch him make a 6 second pass it ,makes me wonder sometimes wonder if I made the right choice. Im so bored at work all I find myself doing is surfing the web for car parts. In retrospect I prolly should have done something in the automotive industry. Although I once heard it said that "a hobbie is a lot of work you wouldnt do for a living" My passion for years was playing hockey and softball, after my last three knee surgerys, Im leaning more towards racing now tho...

Ever since I was little I've had matchbox cars and so on, on top of my dad having his 65 stingray. All throughout growing up my dad and uncle raced jersey speed skiffs so thats where I really fell in love with the sound of a worked SBC through open exhaust. My dad and my uncle always had cars growing up and friends in the local towns who had their share of tearing up the streets with their muscle cars back in the day. It's always been a part of my life.

As most have said, I too was born into a family that has always been involved in cars. My grandfather had a black '65 Ford Galaxie that he bought with a high-output thunderbird engine. I always had Matchbox cars as well as models that I would put together. My dad and uncle used to always bring me from car show to car show, every year till this day we still go to the LEAD EAST car show at the Hilton Hotel in Parsippany. My dad used to take me and my brother to drag events and Monster Truck Shows when I was little. My uncle built up a '55, thats right a '55 Porscshe that he always used to race on the round track. Him and my dad always had cars growing up that I have heard stories about. Their choice of car was the '57 Chevy. My dad at one point had a '55, a '56 with no motor or trans, and a '57 Bel-air sitting on the street in front of my grandfather's house. The one car he had, a black '57 with a white hard top, was all jacked up and had exhaust cut-outs, one time he went down the shore w/ his friends and told my grandfather if he needed it to use it, so when he came back from the shore, my grandfather was coming home from the food-market, and my dad just heard my him nail 2nd and smoke the tires coming down the street. Then my uncle's first car was a '57 that my dad gave him for his birthday and my uncle still has it till this day. My dad unfortunately doesn't have any hot-rods anymore, most recent car was a '49 Merc that he got rid of when I was 4 because his landlord at work told him he couldn't keep it there anymore. My uncle on the other hand still has a '67 Marina Blue Corvette Stingray, '55 Ford F-100 with a 454, blower on top, painted black with yellow, orange and red flames in the front, and right now is building up a '53 Willy's Aero Ace. When my cousin who is two years older than me got his license, he bought an '87 Mustang GT that he built into a monster with a supercharged 306 pumping out 600 horse painted custom, silver in the front fading to black in the back, and I was hooked on mustangs since I was 12, so when I got my license, bought an '89 GT. I restored mine, but things started going wrong with it, so I put it up for sale for $5,500, but my friend gave me the tip on an '83 Z-28 w/ a brand new 355 Stroker without any miles on it that the guy wanted $2,000, when I asked why so cheap, the motor alone cost $5,000 when he was done with it, the guy said he needed the money to make a college payment, so $2,000 was his price, a week later, dropped the price of the stang down to $3,500, sold it for $3,200 a few days later, on the same day took a flat bed to get the camaro, and used the remaining $1,200 on insurance and rims. So my whole life I have been hooked on cars, I've had my share of races for a 19 year old. When I drive a car of my own, I need to hear that rumble and smell the exhaust smell that we all love so much. Love cars and will probably love them till the end of time, I get very curious to see what cars lie ahead in my future. Later, Jeff.

also born into a family of cars. my dad had a 57 chevy pickup, sold it and got a 73 cuda which i fell in love with. after he sold that i got a 85 camaro, 87 firebird, 91 firebird, and now my 86 bird. my sister had a 70 ****stang and now she has a 69. my brother had a 78 t/a that was a rusted p.o.s and he sold that and got his vette. when i was a baby my mom had a gold 79 t/a. i have always wanted to go fast, prolly because i grew up near quads, dirtbikes and cars, which explains my speeding tickets but u cant do that with a riceburner so its a good thing my family got me hooked on american cars.

I was born into a car family. Since I was 2 or 3, my dad always took me to Atco & NHRA national events at Englistown & Maple Grove. My uncle Mark has a 66 Nova Drag car since the early 90's. I grew up around my dad building his Beretta Drag Car. I was just always exposed to cars and racing.

Born into a car family, and it was ingrained. I still have fun with it though!

Tho my father once owned a crap brown 73 Camaro, which to this day he regrets selling, He was never big into cars, so I basically grew myself up in them. First I loved trucks, like Big rigs and stuff, the more wheels the merrier, but then when I was 7, I bought a car set at Sams club, which was to become my favorite race driver, Mark Martin. So I became a big NASCAR racing fan, and hated all other forms of racing. then when I was about 11, I became a fan of Vipers, and Vipers moved me onto other cars, but I knew I never would be able to own one. Back in the day around here, many 3rd gen Camaro's were around, so I'd see them all the time, and oddly enough I liked they're styling, so my intrest in Camaro's flourished from there. My father would tell me about his Camaro, and all the good times he had with it, and one day when I was 17 a guy came into Advance Auto Parts and I overheard him talkign to another co worker about him selling his 79 Camaro. I quickly jumped on the deal and brought it home. Tho I loved cars and tho my parents werent too happy that I bought it, it became basically my classroom, my car that I learned a good 40% of my knowledge on how to work on things, where things were at, and what not to touch and break lol. then 3 days bfreo I graduated I had a friend whos cousin was selling a 3000GT, and I bought that, which I regret still lol. then a 3 months later, my Aunt was selling her 96 Camaro. I had only rode in it once before, which was the weekend that Dale Earnhardt won the Daytona 500. My mother only said hey your Aunt Dawn is selling her Camaro. I immediatly shouted I want it!!!. my mom said I didnt even tell you anything abotu it, I said I dont care I want it. 3 weeks later, it was in my possesion and have since had the front end rebuilt after an accident I had, and has become one of the nicest loking V6 Camaro's to this day. It was even autographed by Carroll Shelby, who when he say the T-top on the Table, in the middle of his signing he said, whats this out of, my father said hessitantly, its out of a Camaro. Carroll said God damnit I knew it, in a joking manner and continued to sign it. So wher is the 79 today? sadly I sold it last Fall, and I miss it still. One day ill have another 79 and make that into the car Ive always dreamed of. Now I love all forms of motor racing, adn am enthusiastic to learn more each day.

dad was a mechanic, had a 69 Chevelle with a 400SBC. So from birth I was always around cars and always helping work on them. He got his shop when I was 6 so naturally thats where I went after school. I knew how to mount and balance tires by the time i was 8, and put together a Ford V6 when I was 10. so now I play with my own cars more or less out of habit.

I remember my dad telling stories of how he got out of the service in 69 and bought a brand new Z28. Going to Reedman to buy headers and sidepipes for it over at the parts counter. He bought is speed parts at Langhorne Speed Shop.

And that was the beginning of the end. I remember drawing nothing but cars on my books in grade school. In high school me and few friends ate, slept and planned cars, then wrenching on em'. I had a 68 RS (20/20 car, mostly original 15.4@90 in quarter) in high school, my other budddy had Vega (VegaKen) with V8 (fast, fast, fast....not pretty...but fast) and the other guy had a 72 Camaro....good times. I think we hung out on Route 33 at the McDonalds almost every night. Then we'd do Levittown Parkway, the Boulevard in NE Philly, Route 29 along the River, Franklin Mills on Sunday Nights.....never ending.

Chris