With my Dad being in the car business, and driving a new car every year (sometimes two cars per year) and me being a young impressionable kid, I was destined to become a "compulsive" car buyer. Having a older Brother who got his first car when he was 14 didn't help matters either.
Since a neighbor a few houses East of where I grew up owned a 58 Corvette, and another neighbor 2 houses West of us owned a brand new 57 T-Bird, that's probably where my love for 2 seaters got started.
Actually it was the T-Bird owner who shared some of his wisdom with me, that has pretty much been my "mantra" for car ownership ever since.
It was the summer of 1957, and he was washing his new Bird on his circular paved driveway when a precocious 6 year old kept circling him on his 20" Schwinn.
Finally I stopped to ask him what he was doing? Duh Instead of being like most 20 year old guys and telling me to beat it, he simply said he was giving his "baby" a bath. I then asked him why he had changed his car so much? (he had installed Spun aluminium disc wheelcovers "Bonneville Style", removed the fender skirts, and replaced the original tail lights with flat lenses).
He stopped what he was doing, turned and looked at me with a smile, and said, "It's really not your car until you make it YOUR car, by changing it so it looks just the way you want it to look". I guess the rest is history. MIYO.....make it your own.
By the way, he still owns that 57 T-Bird, in the same "original" condition.

 

i think i just had too many hot wheels when i was young, i've just loved cars and trucks forever

 

I just think it's in my DNA. I can't share any similar stories. My dad worked for GM (Fisher Body Division) but he's wasn't much of a car guy. It was just transportation to him.He always drove a family sedan, and had no interest in a two door car. Back in the 60's two door cars were always hotter looking, and I remember being disappointed my dad always bought a 4 door.

All I know is that from a very young age (5-6) I was very interested in cars and would keep up with all the model year changes. I was the one who washed my dad's cars and not because he asked me, I just liked a clean car so also waxed it often. I know kinda sick uh?

When I got my first car (the family hand me down) I started modding it and that love for cars never has ended.

 

It was "bred" in me by my grandfather. Bought me my first model car at 9, took me to car shows and I hung around at the dealership he managed as a kid. I've always been into cars. My grand dad was also the one to make sure I got my license. I'll never forget the last day of school, June of 1966. he pulls his 300 over and says "get in the drivers seat, you drive home from here!" he was about 6'3" I was 5'7" so right away I had an "issue". But I made it home and that was it. Had my license a few weeks later and learned how to drive a stick in my buddy's 66 Vette.
Pat

 

Why am I a car guy/gal?

Let's clear up one part of the question. I'm a car guy. Been so since 1947.
My parents purchased my first Buick for me. Driven by twin, but very weak pistons, manual tranny and manual steering it had really lousy suspension. But the gas milage was awesome. I could go three maybe four blocks on a single banana.

As soon as I find the picture again, it will be my Avatar.

Ta da

(Edited 5/12/08 Check it out)


I was four at the time.
Been hooked on roadsters/ragtops ever since


roadster with a stick

 

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.

 

i live my life a quarter mile at a time. for those 10 seconds or less... im free

 

My first car was a 1971 Pinto. Since a mechanic cost more than the car, and since the engine was so incredibly simple, I learned how to work on it, and learned more about fixing cars than I ever did by reading about it. And no, it never burst into flames, though I didn't have to worry about anyone tailgating me...

My mom insisted that me and my three sisters all needed to know how to pump our own gas, change our own tires with regular car-issued jacks and crossbars, change out the oil and radiator fluid, and for me, at least, to learn how to pop the clutch while in heels (since I was the only one who preferred a stick shift over automatic). Being female meant that we could be at risk if our cars were ever stuck alongside even the busiest road.

Plus having a few boyfriends who were car idiots (really, had one that had the cahones to call me to change a flat tire since he had no clue how to do it - and I was stupid enough to agree).

In the ensuing years (decades ), I had no patience to deal with mechanics and dealerships that assumed that because I lacked a measurable amount of testosterone, that I also lacked any mechanical skills (yet reference above about idiot ex-boyfriend), and in the few years that we have been living here along the Tx/Mx border, finding a decent mechanic at all is nearly impossible. I've learned to weld a cat converter on our 4Runner, changed the water pump on our old BMW 323, and learned how to rebuild the brake calipers. I'm not afraid to get dirty, and thankfully, my husband doesn't have 'problems' that his wife is more of a car buff than he is.

I'm more of a CarChick than my husband is a CarGuy, and even when it came time for him to get his dream car, a '69 Camaro RS/SS, it was me that found the car, negotiated a price, and when the car came here, I was the one literally crawling around the massive engine bay to help with tuning. I had almost restored a '70 Datsun 240Z on my own until health issues and finances forced me to sell her, though not before I taught myself how to rewire that car, as well as tune the carbs. Love the smell of a carbureated engine.

Now that I hopefully am thisclose to becoming an official XF owner, I realize that I will need to upgrade my car-learning to include computer tech, since compared to my trio of fairly geriatric cars, a XF looks positively Star Trekish to me.

 

Blaiseshimmer,

I'm sure more than a few of us are impressed. I am.

Welcome to our support group Crossfiresanonomous.

Now repeat," HELLO, my name is ...... and I'm a Crossfire addict"



roadster with a stick

 

My first toy as a child was a set of keys...haha. I had the biggest fascination with them. When I was about 5, I got a red Corvette Power Wheels, and man I thought I was hot ****. I fell in love with it. Originally from Atlanta, I had several neighbors with old muscle cars, one a 1970 AAR Cuda (was the weather man), the other doing a full ground up restore on a 69 stang, the other a grand national. I loved the sound they made, and ever since then I've loved anything with an engine, or wheels. My love turned into an obsession, into a fascination.

My first car was a 96 Plymouth Breeze 5 spd that I had for about a year, which after I got a 95 Mercedes c280 with 40k miles on it for only 12k from some old man, had that car and loved it, then sold that car for the car I had always wanted, a 96 Nissan 240sx from a guy who worked for Mich tire comp, had 34k miles, red 5-spd SE model. See my pics for pics. Sold that car to a guy whom I worked with at best buy and he totaled it 5 days later around a tree. I was saddened. Then I aquired an 03 mazda tribute with 30k miles and it immediatly had prblms and I got rid of it quickly, and then I bought an 03 Chevy Z71 Exteneded Cab with the 5.3 V-8, had 19k miles, great truck as I was living in the hills of Boone with lots of snow etc...Sold it after moving back home, and thats when I bought this wonderful ride...The Xfire...Love it more than any car ive owned, however the 240sx is still one of my favs..

 

I have a disorder in which I am dreadful at naming or even noticing what cars people drive. It's funny, because I could have even been a passenger in someone's car before and still have absolutely no idea what they drive. But don't think I don't appreciate a beautiful car just because I don't know what it is or where it's made. I am a "car guy" only in the sense that I love my Crossfire. That is what drove me (no pun intended) to this forum. Of course that was only after my son let me know that there are such forums. If not for him I may not have noticed.

 

One word: Passion

Cars to me are art, they are full of soul and beautiful works of art.

 

Well I don't really have a story or know why I'm a car guy... until one summer it just hit me like a ton of bricks. Both my parents were fairly interested in cars but I never grew up with too much experience or drive to want to work on them. Occasionally I would go out and help my dad with a few things here and there when he had the time to restore a few MG's but I mostly just cleaned them up... then he moved on to a beautifully restored '52 XK 120 coupe... man was that a sight too see black with white interior with black piping won something at every show. Yet I still wasn't really into it till one day my dad brought home a 1993 Old Cutlass Supreme Convertible that was to be my first car… well to say the least it was in miserable shape. It needed to be jumped twice on the way home as it sat in a garage for 5yrs before I acquired it with 53k on the clock. It smelled of cigarettes, everything was covered in some weird residue and it hadn’t been washed since before it was stored… I didn’t even want to sit in the thing. But the next day I got to work cleaning her up and within the next few months of cleaning and restoring nearly every thing I could get to it looked so good my dad wanted to rive it more than I did. I guess somewhere along in there is when I became a “Car Guy”… There’s just something about working on a car that instills a great sense of pride in you when you’re all done and you go cruising around in something you built, you cleaned, you put your time into. Luckily my brother was there helping out so I got him started earlier than me

Her she is the afternoon I finished her:

 

Back in the early 70's, my friends had some really slick Muscle cars. Ever since then, I was hooked! My very 1st mod a a simple THRUSH muffler install on my '67 Nova SS. The rest is history! I still can't get enough of my Xfire and just want to mod the heck out of her, but the economy has slowed me down a little.

 

Its a lot cheaper than drugs.

I learned stick on my dad's 2004 SRT-4 (sold it for a 300 SRT-8).

My dad is absolutely psychotic about cars. Rubbed off on me. My idea of a good ol' time is getting a lawn chair on a busy corner and watching the nice cars go by. While I really enjoy exotics, the most beautiful cars ever created were all made before 1987. Other kids look at computers, others at sports. I look at anything with four wheels and a steering wheel.

Umm... My name is George and i kind of like cars?

 

George, You need to take a road trip to Woodward Ave. next August. (Bring your Dad along) Great Father/Son Bonding trip.