My dad immigrated to the US in 1955 from Belgium and was sponsored by a guy who helped get him into Chrysler where he put his degrees in both mechanical and electrical engineering to good use for roughly 30 years. Before he left Belgium he did some saloon racing, even spending time with Paul Frere (Paul passed away a couple months ago but he was a contributor to Road & Track for many, many years and won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1960 and he won his class in the 1953 24 Hours at Spa Francorchamps driving a Chrysler Newport, a race my dad attended). It was dad's love of road racing that initially piqued my interest in sports car and Formula 1 racing, Le Mans, etc. To this day you can keep NASCAR, NHRA, etc - give me sports car racing of any kind (prototypes, GT, etc) and F1 any day.

But that's just my racing preference. When it comes to cars in general I love 'em all - hot rods, muscle cars (I remember my brother wrecking one of dad's company cars back in '71 and the only vehicle available for dad to bring home from the "product planning" lot was an orange and black Dodge Trans Am Challenger with a 340/6 Pack and 4 on the floor - yowza!!!!!), antiques, classics, historic race cars, etc. I love the looks, the sounds, the smells. A rumbling 426 Hemi, a screaming Columbo V12 in an old Ferrari, the thunder of a big block Chevy or the high pitched whine of a 20,000rpm Formula 1 engine. It's all music to me.

I'm a hands on guy too, but I'm the greatest with a wrench. I'd rather be behind the wheel, or behind the buffer. I love making paint look absolutely perfect. I love a spotless interior. I love this stuff so much I walked away from a 20 year career in direct mail marketing/commercial print to work for Meguiar's. So I'm not just a car guy, I'm Car Crazy.