what was the car that inspired you to be nuts about cars?

[E.rodz]

I just ran accross a picture that brought back alot of memories and I thought this was the first car that just grabbed me and never let go. this car was my neighbors car when I was a kid and I still remember the sound when he would fire this thing up I would run full speed over there and see what he needed to do to the car to get to go for a ride polishing brass was my job I THINK NOT ONE PERSON ON HERE KNOWS WHAT THIS IS????????
Thats me in the front seat with the Danial Boon coat on This man and his car were why I got into cars whats yours ???

POST THEM UP EVEN WITH NO PICTURES.!!!!!!!!!

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2013/02/IMAG2326_zps44931f95-1.jpg

[Mr.VENGEANCE]

Biggest influence was my dads 68 RS Camaro.. its what led me to my camaros now.

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2013/02/DadsCamaroFull-1.jpg

Then I liked cars since the 80s countach poster days.. forgot cars.. then got a 96 gti.. then saw this car and it started me out HARD to like vws.

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif

which resulted in my vw mk3 like this.. and this was 2002-3

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif

[Todd in Vancouver]

When I was born my Dad brought me home in a '55 Chevy with a Dual quad 409 in it. When I was a little tyke he would take me out for rides in his '67 427 SS Chevelle, and we took the first holiday I remember in his 2x4 289 '66 Shelby Mustang. When I got older I always thought everybody's Dad had a hot rod and I wanted one as Long as I can remember. I wrote off my first car at 10 years old, hot rodded the family riding lawn mower and blew that up by the time I was 11 so it's in my blood.

Here is a pic I posted on another thread when he bought a new Camaro which got the full treatment as I grew up.

71239

P.S
My dad is now retired and in a wheelchair but just finished building a '68 Bronco that is lifted with a hopped up 302 big tires and lots of chrome. Once in your blood hot rodding never leaves

[Ron.in.SoCal]

P.S
My dad is now retired and in a wheelchair but just finished building a '68 Bronco that is lifted with a hopped up 302 big tires and lots of chrome. Once in your blood hot rodding never leaves

Love that.

[Thephranc]

My moms early 70s Pontiac Ventura.

[SRD art]

I've always liked cars and would usually ask for car presents for birthdays and Christmas- hot wheels, model kits, Tyco race tracks, etc. My grandfather worked at a GM plant in NY his whole career. I remember seeing photos of my dad in his 20s with his 57 Ford convertible and telling me stories of racing his 55 Chevy. Then when I was 12 my Sunday school teacher gave me some car magazines and on occasion a few rides in his tricked out daily driven 340 Duster that ran high 11's back in '82, and he had time slips to back it up. One of the magazines he gave me showed a photo of a Nova doing a huge burnout. I was hooked on them when I saw that. My first car at age 16 was a 69 Malibu which had a mismatched motor that broke 3 months after I bought it. Then I bought my first Nova at 17, and I have owned several Novas over the years. I currently own two of them besides the g-body wagon. I think cars are ingrained so deep that I'll never be able to walk away from the hobby.

Here's my first Nova at age 17, circa 1987. This car taught me about building motors and after several drive trains and upgrades eventually ran 11.80s @ 110 on the motor in '92. Notice it's a more door, it was great old sleeper.

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2013/02/174dr_zpsc218cac5-1.jpg

[fastfail]

My Camaro now. My dad got it when I was 2-3 and I've hand my hands in it since then. I'm sure I have an old pic somewhere.

Me and my Camaro when I was 5, lol.
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2013/02/IMG_0110_zps2c6e1211-1.jpg

[turbomonaro]

For me, Ringbrothers Reactor mustang build book. when I saw that!,! I realised what you could do to a muscle car. Credit to them they put muscle cars on another level.

[WILWAXU]

I don't remember a time when I didn't love cars.

[gmc]

When I was kid my dad had a 55 Chevy and a 69 Camaro SS; I've been in love with the 69 Camaro ever since. I spent a lot of my childhood either at the dragstrip or the dirt tracks around central PA and have had gasoline in my veins from a very early age. Hell, back in the 70's they used shut down parts of downtown for guys to come out and race. I think I was born about a decade too late.

[rfalker1]

When I was growing up my family never had any cool mind blowing cars, only awesome bicycles!! So the thing that got me hooked on cars was probably the Bigfoot the original monster truck video, Hot wheels, and the original blues brother movie....

[GeoffP]

My family has a lot of history in and around cars...my earliest memories are in mid-70's Corvette's (in the mid-70's). My mom and dad used to buy and sell them to make extra money for the family budget because my uncle was BIG into 'Vette's, so big in fact that he ended up president of Bloomington Gold for several years. We had several 60's and 70's Vette's over the years and then my brother bought a 70 Chevelle for his first car - 350 Chevy with a Comp Cams 280H cam kit. It talked the talk and walked the walk in the little town we lived in and had a rep for being the fastest car around though we didn't do much street racing. I think the Chevelle and my brother's suggestion to buy a 68 Camaro as my first car at 14 were the two biggest influences to my interest in cars, especially Camaro's. In fact, the longest I've ever gone without owning a Camaro since that first one is 7 months and I'm now 41.

[Deebo]

For some reason, when I was a kid, I took to Pontiacs HARD!! You couldn't pull me away from the tv when Smokey and the Bandit or Knight Rider was on. My dad was an engineer for GM and would bring home a Trans Am or a Formula that he was testing every once in a while and take me for rides in them that I wished would never end. That got the initial spark going. My first car ended up being an 89 Formula that I bought. That car was a piece of CRAP......but it was MINE and I loved it so I kept it for several years and the modding began! I eventually followed in my dad's footsteps and worked for GM as well. Since I was making some decent money, I felt it was time to upgrade so in 99 bought a 94 Formula. I still have that car and am in the planning stages for its 3rd motor. It currently has a Vortech supercharged 355 ci LTx based motor. It definitely moves but my butt dyno has started to get bored so I'll be slowly building a turbocharged 396 over the next couple years. Over the last couple years, I've been getting the itch to do a pro touring old school. I've fallen in love with B-Body Mopars so I see a 68 Coronet being in my future. I'd like to get that going before the motor for the Formula. Here's a pic of the Formula:

[silvermonte]

I dont know this as fact but I think Iowa has one of the highest number of dirt tracks of any state in the US,a quick google search told me 28, North Caroline has 8, and it being a fairly flat state with tons of corn fields the sound of the motors from the race cars on a saturday night will carry for miles.I lived 8 miles from a track and can always remember hearing the cars thunder around that track and always wanting to go and my parents not being car people would never take me. In 1988 my uncle got a brand new Monte SS and I was there when he brought it home and I fell in love with that car.I was 6 at the time when he got it and I got to ride in it and compared to my parents huge 1970s grand prix that monte was fast and my 6 year old mind thought that monte had to be one of the races cars that I could always hear on saturday night, I didnt know any better at the time since i had never been to a race and thats when my love for cars started.

[JAG.]

For me it was a few cars, and all in a round-about way. It all started with this one, the Mako Shark II Concept:

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/839/chevroletcorvettemakoshu.jpg/)

Uploaded with ImageShack.us (http://imageshack.us)

I saw a photo of this car when i was a kid but had no idea what it was. My father and uncle were the car guys in my life and after trying to describe it to them in my 6yr old mental picture all i got was 'sounds like a corvette'. That's where i started, on a mission to find a 'corvette', and i was 6yrs old. Thru lots of searching and books and movies of studying cars, really developed a love for them. Was mesmerized by how they worked, what they could give and how much potential each one has in its own right. Well, in all that research i realized my uncle had a real gem and it had been sitting right under my nose the whole time! He had a 1968 Charger R/T:

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/163/349946136995521968dodge.jpg/)

Uploaded with ImageShack.us (http://imageshack.us)

I fell in love with the design, the shape, the stance of it and the power it could have. My uncle's was bone stock, not too pretty but i remember the sound it made when he started it up. I'll never forget that rumble. Sadly, he got rid of it well before i had a chance to drive it. To this day, i haven't driven an old Charger.

As i got older and got my license, i made it a point to drive every car i could get my hands on, just to know how well they drove, or didn't. Turns out you need a lot of money to buy or build a car. Even more to race it. I had to face the truth that working a minimum wage job was not gonna cut it to buy myself a true muscle car, so i'd have to settle for something else in the mean time. Japanese cars were my only real option, they were cheap and abundant and reliable for a college kid living on mayonaise sandwiches. Enter the Nissan 240sx:

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/842/summerphotoshoot2008134.jpg/)

Uploaded with ImageShack.us (http://imageshack.us)

4 cylinder engine, 2 doors, RWD. Not very big, not very scary but it'll put a grin on your face throwing it around the track. Cheap too. Still have mine and probably always will, but still on my never-ending quest for more cars to drive.

- JAG

[Toadman]

My brother always had a different car about every 6 months in the 70's, but here's one I remember. Go figure, I'm into Chevys!
71389

[SRD art]

Mayo samwiches? Eeeew! It was Ramen for me, lol! Cool lookin' 240 tho'.

Cool vintage T-bird there!

[FirebirdSteve]

This one right here!



https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2013/02/vette_zpse3e97e2e-1.png

[novaderrik]

my dad had a '30 Model A 5 window coupe street rod that he built in the mid 60's.. it was an all steel body with a '32 grill, no hood, no fenders, big loud side pipes, reverse big and little steelies, and a Buick nailhead powered the thing.. one of my most vivid memories of my childhood is mom and dad packing all 4 of us kids in it- yes, 4 kids ranging from about a month old to 7 years old- and 2 adults packed into that little car and cruised around.. life was better in small town America in 1982.. my 5 year old brother died from liver cancer about a month after that, and my dad died a year and a half after that.. when i was 14, i sold the car to a guy for $1500 because that was a lot of money to me at the time and i didn't quite grasp the concept of "sentimental value" at that time.. but before selling it, my grandpa taught me how to do donuts in a hay field and big smokey burnouts on the street in that car.
sadly, i have no pictures of that car.

[TonyHuntimer]

My first real car influence was started by my uncle Ken (and aunt Patty). He was a car guy. Every birthday and Christmas, he would give me cool car stuff. The first hot rod thing that I can remember is the coolest blanket a kid could ask for!

I've attached a sample I found online. I don't know what happened to the original blanket.

71477

Thanks uncle Ken for my car obsession! :)

Tony Huntimer
TonysSpeedShop.com

[tazzz25906112]

My first ride through the eyes of an 11 year old in a 70 Lucy Blue Trans Am with a white stripe and a deluxe Bright Blue interior..... My Hockey coach (friend of the family) came to pick me up for a fun team skate as they called it back then.... That car pulled up the driveway with a rumble and when I got in and saw that machined dash, a four speed and that fat steering wheel I was hooked.....

That reminds me that the next time I see him I'll have to mention that little "fun skate" cost me a fortune LOL...

[E.rodz]

there is some pretty cool stories and memories on here now I need to find some more old picts. to back up some of the memories!

PLEASE KEEP THE POSTS COMING! THE MORE THE BETTER !

[68lovebuzz]

Mom has always had vettes. 65 327/365horse car was one that turned me on. She's had stingrays and sharks and 80's cars. I burned my leg as a kid on her side pipes! that hurt. She recently upgraded from a c5 daily with 150k still going strong to a c6. I have Always wanted a vette and still do. Once my camaro is done I may get a c6. Here is a picture of her gunmetal 72'

[cornfedbill]

It looked like this:

I used to race it until it got so hot it smoked. I modified it several times. I thought it was real fast. :drive:

[srh3trinity]

This may be a cop out, but for me, it wasn't one car. My dad owned several muscle cars over the years and I remember him talking about all of them. Falcons, 60's and 70's Chevelles, Javelins, Mach I Mustangs, etc. When we drove around, we would see who could name the car the quickest.

[Junior13]

Without a doubt. The Black Camaro from the movie Better Off Dead.

[moreHP]

I dont have any pics. But I came home from the hospital in a 70 Camaro RS and then after that my parents bought a 77 Camaro that I remember well. My dad was an old school drag racer and had lots of cool cars I remember but I got to "help" with his 70 El Camino when he was tinkering with it that got me into cars.

[GTOtzel]

My dad had a 1967 Chevelle Malibu convertible. Would help him work on it when I was a little like, 3-4 yrs old. He had the car since he was 17. Still has it to this day. Needs restored now, been sitting for years (in garage), I will be doing it for him sometime. I can remember climbing in and out of the window playing Duke of Hazzard, driving on his lap. Can't wait to restore it for him.

[Tom Welch]

The first time I heard of a 'fast car' was a local 67 GTO, it was supposed to be the fastest car in the world according to friends. I saw an article on the Blue Flame lsa car, Hotwheels, I found 2 issues of Hot Rod magazine on a park bench one day during recess, I'm 9 yrs old, I read about Don Garlits losing half of his foot in a crash, the mag showed pictures of the car with him behind it smiling. A local 67 chevelle SS396, my uncle's 65 chevelle SS327, I still have the first car magazine I ever got, 'The Complete Chevrolet Book', the covers are long gone from me reading every word about 1000 times. there are other memories, but finding the Hot Rod magazines is my defining moment.

[E.rodz]

Biggest influence was my dads 68 RS Camaro.. its what led me to my camaros now.

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2013/02/DadsCamaroFull-1.jpg

Then I liked cars since the 80s countach poster days.. forgot cars.. then got a 96 gti.. then saw this car and it started me out HARD to like vws.

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif

which resulted in my vw mk3 like this.. and this was 2002-3

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif
I think everyone I new had that contach poster Myself still have it somewere.lol Camaro's to vw's now that is somone with a love for cars!

When I was born my Dad brought me home in a '55 Chevy with a Dual quad 409 in it. When I was a little tyke he would take me out for rides in his '67 427 SS Chevelle, and we took the first holiday I remember in his 2x4 289 '66 Shelby Mustang. When I got older I always thought everybody's Dad had a hot rod and I wanted one as Long as I can remember. I wrote off my first car at 10 years old, hot rodded the family riding lawn mower and blew that up by the time I was 11 so it's in my blood.
Thanks for sharing it is kind of funny it grabs some people and does not let go and others could care a less. Thanks for posting!
Here is a pic I posted on another thread when he bought a new Camaro which got the full treatment as I grew up.

71239

P.S
My dad is now retired and in a wheelchair but just finished building a '68 Bronco that is lifted with a hopped up 302 big tires and lots of chrome. Once in your blood hot rodding never leaves
I agree once it is in your blood it never leaves the only way it gets better or worse depending on how you look at it is getting another car!lol.


My moms early 70s Pontiac Ventura. Thanks for posting try to dig up some picts. so we can pick on your attire in the 70's lol.


I've always liked cars and would usually ask for car presents for birthdays and Christmas- hot wheels, model kits, Tyco race tracks, etc. My grandfather worked at a GM plant in NY his whole career. I remember seeing photos of my dad in his 20s with his 57 Ford convertible and telling me stories of racing his 55 Chevy. Then when I was 12 my Sunday school teacher gave me some car magazines and on occasion a few rides in his tricked out daily driven 340 Duster that ran high 11's back in '82, and he had time slips to back it up. One of the magazines he gave me showed a photo of a Nova doing a huge burnout. I was hooked on them when I saw that. My first car at age 16 was a 69 Malibu which had a mismatched motor that broke 3 months after I bought it. Then I bought my first Nova at 17, and I have owned several Novas over the years. I currently own two of them besides the g-body wagon. I think cars are ingrained so deep that I'll never be able to walk away from the hobby.

Here's my first Nova at age 17, circa 1987. This car taught me about building motors and after several drive trains and upgrades eventually ran 11.80s @ 110 on the motor in '92. Notice it's a more door, it was great old sleeper.

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2013/02/174dr_zpsc218cac5-1.jpg


My Camaro now. My dad got it when I was 2-3 and I've hand my hands in it since then. I'm sure I have an old pic somewhere.

Me and my Camaro when I was 5, lol.
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2013/02/IMG_0110_zps2c6e1211-1.jpg

Thanks for sharing this thread brings back memories for all of us Its like a support group for car adicts!lol!!!