Topic: What turned you into a car nut??

[blur911]

I guess for  me it started the day I saw my mom coming down the driveway with a '69 Mustang Mach 1.  She had gone to Montreal to visit family and shop for a used car for the family.  I was about 5 or 6, but fell in love with that car.  I cried when they later traded it for a Pontiac Laurentian.  My dad never cared too much about sporty cars, he like them big and preferably black but my mom always liked a fun car.

Later, much like a few others here I started driving a small Honda, a Z50 Mini-trail.  Soon that became a bigger Yamaha, then a Kawasaki, then a Suzuki RM125.  About this time we also acquired a VW beetle based sand-rail.  (I lived on an island with no police and lots of trails and beaches to ride on)  I also drove pickups about locally helping out my dad, usually with a load of lobster traps on it or a ton of rocks or wood.
Bought my first car at 16, a '70 MG Midget, since then I've always had something interesting in the garage and usually a bike or three.

Better half is pretty supportive of my obsessions.

[Julie]

^^I dunno.  Just because you get married and the wifey doesn't like your hobbies, doesn't mean you need to abandon them.  IMO THAT'S selfish on her part.  While I am lucky to have a car nut girlfriend, she still has some hobbies that I have little interest in.  But I would never make her give them up, because she had those hobbies before I came along and they mean a lot to her. 

As far as cars not being family centric....there are many people on here who's fondest memories are puttering around in the garage with their dad while working on a car.  It's certainly one of my girlfriends fondest memories, and likely the reason she's a car nut.

I'm not saying your wife is a bad person or anything.  I'm sure she's great and the relationship works for you.  I'll just never understand why getting married means giving up the things you love..the things that ultimately make you who you are.

Where I see tensions rise is when one of the partner fails to give family the same dedication as their hobbies.

I think you hit the nail on the head Snowy.

Baby, I was born this way

I was going to say the same thing.  When we immigrated to Canada when I was 4, my parents said the first English words I spoke were the names of cars.  I could name all the cars coming down the street, my parents were shocked. 

[bridgecity]

^^I dunno.  Just because you get married and the wifey doesn't like your hobbies, doesn't mean you need to abandon them.  IMO THAT'S selfish on her part.  While I am lucky to have a car nut girlfriend, she still has some hobbies that I have little interest in.  But I would never make her give them up, because she had those hobbies before I came along and they mean a lot to her. 

As far as cars not being family centric....there are many people on here who's fondest memories are puttering around in the garage with their dad while working on a car.  It's certainly one of my girlfriends fondest memories, and likely the reason she's a car nut.

I'm not saying your wife is a bad person or anything.  I'm sure she's great and the relationship works for you.  I'll just never understand why getting married means giving up the things you love..the things that ultimately make you who you are.

Where I see tensions rise is when one of the partner fails to give family the same dedication as their hobbies.

I think you hit the nail on the head Snowy.

I totally agree also.  To go even further, whether or not you have kids can make a difference.  If I didn't have kids you think I would be driving a Tundra and a Pilot?  Not a chance.  I'd probably still have the truck as I'd still have an RV, but the Pilot would magically change into something with two doors and rear wheel drive  . 

My love of cars comes from the same reason as many other members.  I helped my Dad repair his vehicles since the time I could hold a flashlight.  I never once recall him taking a vehicle to a garage.  I remember helping in the garage swap a tranny in an '86 Caprice.  At this very moment, he's reassembling the rear axles on his Titan because he replaced leaking axle seals. He's pushing 70. 

The love of cars continues in through my marriage.  My father-in-law is a car nut and owns a '29 Ford and a '64 Olds convertible.  Both my brother-in-laws are also enthusiasts.  One has a 69 Chev pickup thats chopped with airbags and a custom tubular rear frame.  Very cool.

I was also into dirtbikes as a kid.  Honda 50, Kawasaki KM100, Yamaha YZ125.  I changed out the shift cam assembly on the YZ when I was 12, which involved cracking the crankcase.  I still can't believe I was able to get that bike running again.

All I need now is mo' money so I can have a truck, a family hauler, and a toy to sit in the garage during the winter.  Ah well, it will come with time.

[dougjp]

I used to ride my bicycle every day to the local Cities Service Station

to drool over a '34 Ford, in orange, which had a Oldsmobile Rocket 88 motor with triple carbs, sort of like this

I subscribed to Hot Rod magazine and would be 'lost' on the day they would arrive, pouring over it. From there I found a Fish carburetors ad, and modified my parent's VW bug with it.

So began the madness. 

I can remember all this in detail, yet sometimes haven't a clue what happened last week! More a sign of "what's important" than anything else, I think (hope)! 

[Brigitte]

I've been trying to figure this question out, and all I can say is that riding around in my mother's (5-speed RWD) Celica once I got my driver's license, I was hooked.  Cars have never been appliances to me.  I think I still have the bumpy prints (from sleeping on the back-seat vinyl of Dad's blue Pontiac Stratochief) on my face.  And, if you were to ask me what any employee in our 100+ strong company has as a daily driver, I can tell you the make, model and colour.  It's bizarre.

What really enabled me, though.... was joining this forum when I bought Miss Jetta in 2004, because I had a question about white blobs on her dipstick.  The veterans ribbed me, and the rest is history.  I have learned a great deal from just reading the various threads and discussions over the years - and of course, from also sharing my own misfortunes and adventures.   

[Scaerio]

I really have no idea.  My mother has a box with my first baby shoes and other things in it, among them a white Corgi Juniors Whizzwheels VW bug police car; my first 'dinky' as we always called them in Newfoundland (regardless of brand name - Matchbox, Hot Wheels, Majorette, Corgi, all 1/64-ish scale model cars were called "dinkies").  I am pretty sure I was introduced to toy cars well before my first birthday.  We moved into a house in a new development in St. John's sometime in 1971, while a number of houses were still being constructed and our street was being built.  I apparently spent hours and hours in the big bow window of our oh-so-trendy-for-the-time bungalow watching the various dump trucks, cement mixers, front-end loaders, steam rollers, and other construction equipment.  As well, I could see and here the trains in the distance (though by that time we only had freight trains in Newfoundland, as passenger trains were replaced by a trans-island bus service in 1968).  I guess all of this conspired to make me fall in love with cars, trucks, tractors, and trains.  As with many kids in the 1970s, most of my toy cars were made by Corgi, Matchbox, and Majorette, and for that reason, were mostly models of European cars.  I figure this is why I have developed such a love for European cars, plus the fact that my Mom's sister married a guy from France when I was 6 only helped encourage my fascination for Europe and European cars...

[johngenx]

My missus is tolerant and intolerant at the same time.  She has no patience for the money-sucking high-maintenance devices of my youth.  But, she understands my need to go fast.  I also need a winter capable wagon for my various outdoor pursuits, so a Subaru and a motorcycle are the perfect compromise.

[safristi]

  so you got rid of the wife............... ...give a guy enuf ROPE and he will hang himself..............