Inspired by a pub conversation with a couple of mates, do you remember a specific moment in your life that made you fall in love with cars? I don't mean when you first found out you were interested in cars but when you discovered that cars were your passion and that you wanted to know everything you could about them and experience them as much as possible.
Mine was the first time i saw a Ferrari on the road, on a family vacation when i was 8. We were driving along on a motorway in the UK, on a grey and rainy late afternoon and suddenly i heard a glorious noise, pretty much like what i thought at the time half an F1 grid would make, and in an instant a rosso corsa Testarossa had overtaken us probably at twice the speed we were doing, all in movie-style slow motion of course. The noise and the sight of that bright red rocket against a miserable grey background are still as vivid today, 17 years on. From that moment on i was hooked and since then i can't get enough of anything to do with cars.
Over to you.

PS. I know i'm asking for it and i welcome any snide comments about watches but since you're going to post something do spare a couple of lines regarding the topic, i'd genuinely like to hear about your moments.
By the way im sorry if this thread has been done before, i didn't come across it, although i'm sure someone will point it out soon enough.

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Power is nothing without control.

Wanting to find out how an engine works and asking my dad. It seemed the next logical step from building gearboxes out of Lego

Sitting on a milk crate holding onto the roll cage as my dad donutted a Rover V8 equipped Ford Zephyr until the tyres burst .

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bastard monkey hands

Good topic. I can't say one memory stands out, but I think it was when I was given a Matchbox model. Can't remember which one exactly, maybe a Porsche, but I was about 4 or 5 and it kept me going for ages. Making my own sound affects - engine noise, tyre screeching... I hadn't mastered the down-shift sound affect, but I could pull a mean oversteer around the kitchen table. Much to my parents disapproval Since then, the blood in my veins has been converted to high octane petrol!

Funnily, I still collect the odd matchbox model - Ford GT a firm fav.

ps - not sure about the watches gag, so I am staying well clear of that one...

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Car was supposedly the third word I ever said (after mum and dad ), so no, I don't really remember when I started to take an interest in them

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cheers,

Harry

Too many old sheds.

I don't remember the moment I realised I loved cars, but I've loved them as long as I can remember if that makes sense?

My Granddad ran a small car sales business up until I was about 10, so spending time there when I was younger is probably my first actual "moment"

My mum reckons I used to make car noises before I could talk. I don't remember ever not loving cars and talking endlessly about them. On one amusing occasion, I asked my Dad, loudly in front of a group of people, whether a car on the cover of a magazine (probably Custom Car) was an Austin 7, completely oblivious to the young lady wearing no top draped across the bonnet (it was almost certainly a Ford Pop).

Updated March 6, 2012 at 1:41 PM

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integrale_evo said...

Car was supposedly the third word I ever said (after mum and dad ), so no, I don't really remember when I started to take an interest in them

Similar. My first word was apparently Golf, whilst pointing at a mk1 Golf from the baby seat.

When the only way I would settle when a baby was to be driven around by my Dad in our old Chevette

Dave!

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I came here to drink milk and kick ass..... and i've just finished my milk!!!!

I've loved them as long as I can remember, my first memory as a child (and only proper memory of my dad in fact) is having a Scalextric set up in the kitchen at night with the lights off and lights on the cars (I think they were actually trucks) going round. I was about 2 years old, so it amazes me that I can still picture the scene.

I think the moment of realisation though came when we were staying with my uncle and went round his dealership. Inside he had a new XJ220 in a big plastic bubble, an immaculate grey E-type coupe, and a yellow TVR Griffith. Outside he had an F40 (didn't even make the showroom ) and numerous Chimaeras. I was particularly taken with the Griffith and had a postcard of one on my wall from then (about 11 I would think) until I went to uni. Every time I hated school I used to look at it and think it will all be worth it if I can afford one of them someday... now that I can I probably won't get one!

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+ Non-limited edition of the Exige 240R
- Uninspiring soundtrack

Well, I can't say for sure - I had toy cars waiting for me before I was even born, so it was a given really.

But a really early memory was going with my Dad to test drive a really cool Rover v8 - the old "Z-Cars" one with the spare wheel on the boot and hitting 100mph in the process - a figure that blew my tiny mind.

Another was the first time I drove - it was our Austin Princess on the beach at Western Super-mere (when you could drive/park on the sand) - and I was hooked. I just "got it" - even though I wasn't really any good, I just instinctively could "feel" and understand what I was doing...

Both highly important events in the young Pugster's life.

actually, i was thinking about this earlier.

when i was at primary school our school bus was shared with the middleschool, so we'd finish at 3, drive round to the middleschool which finished at 3.15.

one of my friends asked me what a car driving past was, then the next, and another until i'd sat there for 10 minutes giving the make and model of everything which drove past.

at that point i realised i was a bit of a car nerd, more so than anyone else i knew who whilst having toy cars like all boys do, weren't fascinated with the vehicles themselves.

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cheers,

Harry

Too many old sheds.

My dad was a gearhead and he got me a subscription to a car magazine when I was 9. I was into planes as a child, but the magazine sorta sucked me in. For my 10th birthday my dad asked what I wanted, and I told him I wanted an engine from the junkyard! He got me an old dilapidated small block chevy, we rebuilt it and eventually got a car to put it in. But it was taking apart the dirty, grimy engine that made me realize I loved it. It was like some mystical puzzle to a 10 year old and I wanted to see how it worked.

Loganmotor said...

My dad was a gearhead and he got me a subscription to a car magazine when I was 9. I was into planes as a child, but the magazine sorta sucked me in. For my 10th birthday my dad asked what I wanted, and I told him I wanted an engine from the junkyard! He got me an old dilapidated small block chevy, we rebuilt it and eventually got a car to put it in. But it was taking apart the dirty, grimy engine that made me realize I loved it. It was like some mystical puzzle to a 10 year old and I wanted to see how it worked.

I'm 28 and still want to really figure it out. lucky git you.

Since when i was 1 year old.Everytime i was in a toy shop even not being able to speak i always wanted the car from other things.Than when about 2-3 years old i had nothing but cars as toys,still remember the 300 SL cabrio i had.When about 8-9 year my passion for cars faded completely,was registered in a football training camp and football was everything i was interested.My passion returned in my early teen years thought thanks to the cars my uncle owned and a car my dad owned.Since that moment my passion for cars/driving has been growing and growing.

I'd liked driving since I used to sit on my dad's knee and steer trucks round the yard before I could reach the peddles.
I even liked driving my 104 but that was more about the freedom that a first car gives you.

For me it was when I was looking at left field options to replace the terminally dull 1992 Mitsubishi Lancer 1.5 GLXi. I happened upon the 155. The test drive did it.

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Would you raise a hand to Evana? She'd kick your ass. Then insert stiletto heels up it.

Great topic!

I didn't have a Eureka moment as a kid or anything. But I always loved driving and going fast! - whether it be on bikes, go-karts, quad bikes or dodgems at Blackpool Pleasure Beach (you could get the ones shaped like American football players really sideways!). I even got to steer my uncle's XR3i while he worked the pedals - epic fun when you're 10.

Like others, my dad was into cars and he always had a stash of mags in the bog. I think my passion was slow burning, but really took off when I hit my teens and now I'm crazy about them.

I think for me it was being driven around by my Granddad as a kid down country lanes and over crests in the road. I just loved the way he'd mess around just to wind them up going over the little jumps! I was always screaming from the back for him to go faster!

Afetr buying a copy of CAR magazine from WHSmith's when in my teens. Still remember one of the tests in it too. The writer went with Barry Robinson to the Lambo factory to pick up and drive back his brand new red Countach (reg - BR33).

I couldn't remember anything at school but could tell anyone 0-60's and top speeds of a variety of supercars.

After that i used to loiter in WHS waiting for the next issue.

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Less is more

This video clip off one of those Group B rally car videos, one of my earliest childhood memories was watching this with my dad when I was about 3 or 4. Ever since that day I have been a petrolhead. I didn't truly realize cars were my passion until I was about 12 though, the big Saleen S7R's, Dodge Viper's, 911 GT1's, GT3 RSR's and 360 GTC's that used to race in British GT cemented that. It was cemented forever when I went to Silverstone in 2005 for the Le Mans Series, I'll never forget the noise of that Dallara with it's Judd V10 screaming down the hangar straight.

V10 goodness

Group B goodness

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