Oppo: Who started your car obsession?

"Dsscats" (dsscats)
05/23/2014 at 15:01 • Filed to: None

My dad started my car obsession. He was an awesome car guy and took my brother and me to the Beverly Hills concourse every year along with the LA auto show. His first car was a Triumph TR3 that had an insane amount of things wrong. He went on to own a Supra and (of course) a VW Bus at one point. The last car he owned was an E39 wagon with the M package. It was ice blue and fucking gorgeous. I want one. Now. It's much more blue than in this picture.

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DISCUSSION (47)

Brian Silvestro > Dsscats
05/23/2014 at 15:04

My father when he brought me to a Porsche dealer. I saw this

Kinja'd!!!

and this

Kinja'd!!!

and this outside

Kinja'd!!!

Had no choice but to love cars.

Vince-The Roadside Mechanic > Dsscats
05/23/2014 at 15:04

My uncle was a mechanic at a Dodge dealer I would say he started my unhealthy obsession. He also took me for the ride of my life in a rental Dodge Charger. Crap that was fun.

Jagvar > Dsscats
05/23/2014 at 15:08

Honestly, I have no idea where my car obsession came from. I'm the only car person in my family, and no one else gets it. At one point, my mom was driving a RAV4, my dad was driving an ES300, and my brother was driving a Camry. All at the same time.

oldirtybootz > Dsscats
05/23/2014 at 15:08

I'd always been somewhat interested in cars buy when my dad bought a 1969 Camaro when I was about 11 or 132 it's like a lightbulb went on and I was obsessed from that day forward. Also, thats a 12 baxbackk thereñ kinja doesn't want me fixing it. Or any of that. Fuck you kinja.

David McKay > Dsscats
05/23/2014 at 15:09

My Dad did to. I went with him to pick up and drive home his dream car (a 1972 oldsmobile culass supreme convertible) when I was 7. I've loved cars ever since.

yamahog > Dsscats
05/23/2014 at 15:10

Mom and Dad for sure. Mom loves Camaros, Dad loves Mustangs and motorcycles. My younger sister and I grew up working under the hood of whatever project car Dad was resurrecting at the time as well as going to car shows and motocross/enduro races.

Dwhite - Powered by Caffeine, Daft Punk, and Corgis > Dsscats
05/23/2014 at 15:10

For as long as I remember. I'm told I was into cars since I was a baby. I was like 2, maybe younger and my Grandma wanted to get me a Lionel train set and my Mom told not to bother, go with cars instead. So before memory for sure.

The earliest car I remember thinking was awesome was a bug eye Impreza with the Blue on gold color combo. I was around 6ish when I saw it parked out front of a Subaru dealership.

TwinCharged - Is Now UK Opponaut > Brian Silvestro
05/23/2014 at 15:16

If I'm honest, nobody really. My father only helped by being a father and sharing similar car interests as I do. He tells me that when I was a baby and whenever I cried or couldn't sleep, he'd take me downstairs, pop me in my car seat in his TA40 Celica and go for a drive. I'd soon either be very happy or fast asleep.

yamahog > oldirtybootz
05/23/2014 at 15:17

Another ñ? Now you're just rubbing it in... or drunk already :P

Brian Silvestro > TwinCharged - Is Now UK Opponaut
05/23/2014 at 15:18

That's cool, but I think you replied to the wrong thread!

$kaycog > Dsscats
05/23/2014 at 15:18

A boyfriend.

oldirtybootz > yamahog
05/23/2014 at 15:22

I have to hold down n on my phone's keyboard to make a comma, and it also brings up all those ns, so if I move my finger slightly to the left during that process I end up with a drunken ñ. Give me a few hours and it'll juast be the alcohol though.

505Turbeaux > Dsscats
05/23/2014 at 15:25

my dad, and all the lead on the paint on the matchbox cars I used to eat as a little one

Zipppy, Mazdurp builder, Probeski owner and former ricerboy > Dsscats
05/23/2014 at 15:26

I was born with the fascination of cars, but the mechanical part started when I helped my father try to start the old VW Fox when I was around 8 years old, which he left sitting in the backyard for about 5 years, it cranked, but no fuel.

miadaman? yes please > Dsscats
05/23/2014 at 15:29

Started to like cars when I was forced to drive rentals for work. Started to enjoy cars when I bought my first manual tranny. Started loving cars since my first autox.

BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires > Dsscats
05/23/2014 at 15:34

Might get a little personal here, but my first ex-girlfriend.

I was certainly interested in cars before, but not to the extent that I am now.

Basically, she was the first person I had a relationship with that I could genuinely see going the distance, and I did the typical thing that people do in that situation of spending so much time with her that everything else in my life suffered. I drifted away from my friends, from my family and from my hobbies. As did she.

Then, her ex-boyfriend (not a good chap, who I had persuaded her to break up with) started playing dirty with emotional blackmail and whatnot. She caved, and it ended.

So, I had spent quite a while forming a sense of self-identity around a relationship that had just ended. I felt empty, purposeless, at a loose end with nothing to do.

It was at that point that I started rediscovering the things I'd enjoyed before, and started getting into cars again. It made me happy, and I've never looked back :)

So, now I am a solid car-guy. It gives me purpose, motivation and drive. It gives me passion and joy when I speak, which so far has proven to be a very attractive trait ;)

In short, she helped me find myself, even though she was a bit of a bitch in doing so :)

BoulderZ > Dsscats
05/23/2014 at 15:49

Hmmm. I guess I'd have to say my brother. My Dad taught me how to work on and maintain cars. Shocks, oil changes, wheel bearings, all the usual stuff. And he's always liked cars, mostly American V8 stuff, though not all of them. My Mom taught me to drive a manual. But my brother always liked cars, any cars. He came home from college with a '78 280Z when I was in high school, and I was hooked. We weren't able to hold on to that car, regrettably. I still hate PA for salting their roads. But we each have our own '78s now, in no-salt cities. I've flown back from Seattle with parts in my carry-on from his salvage buys. FYI: TSA will pull you aside if you have an oil pump priming shaft or turn signal assembly in your carry on. Apparently they don't look good in X-ray.

Dsscats > BoulderZ
05/23/2014 at 15:59

Kinja'd!!!

Z bros!

oldestyoungn > Dsscats
05/23/2014 at 16:03

The employees of Need for Speed and Hot Wheels. It did start dying out but when I turned 14 everything sparked into an inferno.

BoulderZ > Dsscats
05/23/2014 at 16:07

Nice! I've always wanted a TT 300ZX. I'm just having troubles coming to terms with the fact that we'll likely need to get a different house. Looks like a GT-R lurking back there. At a meet, or just a coincidence?

newton > Dsscats
05/23/2014 at 16:07

Not sure. Subconsciously, probably my dad as he exposed me a lot to cars but wasn't a huge car guy himself.

I've been into cars ever since about a year old.

Luc - The Acadian Oppo > Dsscats
05/23/2014 at 16:17

Kinja'd!!!

R Saldana [|Oo|======|oO|] - BTC/ETH/LTC Prophet > Dsscats
05/23/2014 at 16:21

My father started a body and detail shop in Memphis when I was but a wee lad. One night he came home late, after I had been sent to bed, with a Porsche 928 (white with the checker cloth interior). He woke me up to take me for a drive down a curvy two lane freshly paved road near our neighborhood. I will never forget the surge of acceleration when my dad dropped the hammer on the one straightaway at the beginning of the road. I don't remember how fast, but when you are 6-7 years old, any speed when driven with aggression feels like a million mph. Add to the fact that my father was a mechanic in the USMC and worked on hydraulics and avionics for FA-18's. And his awesome pre-Tacoma Toyota 4x4 pickup that we blasted to and from the beach in when we lived in CA before getting stationed in Memphis.

R Saldana [|Oo|======|oO|] - BTC/ETH/LTC Prophet > BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires
05/23/2014 at 16:23

We are but what time and circumstance has made us, brother.

R Saldana [|Oo|======|oO|] - BTC/ETH/LTC Prophet > Dsscats
05/23/2014 at 16:25

Kinja'd!!!

Mein Gott, do I want one of these.

jariten1781 > Dsscats
05/23/2014 at 16:26

My maternal grandpa started my love of mechanical things. Some of my earliest memories were watching him work on combines and tractors on his farm. He also built a LongEZ that we flew out of a dirt strip near Enid OK. He also had a number of Pipers, Cesnas, and even BD-5 for a while.

However, no one in my family is a car person but me.

jkm7680 > Dsscats
05/23/2014 at 16:27

I'm not sure what started it, I honestly just remember loving everything with an engine...

Dsscats > R Saldana [|Oo|======|oO|] - BTC/ETH/LTC Prophet
05/23/2014 at 16:28

If I ever get the chance to buy one like his, I WILL. When my father died, we sold it to a close friend who treated the car like shit. It was wrecked a few years later (not his fault)

Dsscats > BoulderZ
05/23/2014 at 16:29

Just a coincidence. Mine is an NA 2+2. It's...expensive

R Saldana [|Oo|======|oO|] - BTC/ETH/LTC Prophet > Dsscats
05/23/2014 at 16:35

Kinja'd!!!

I am sorry to hear that. My brothers and I send you the deepest of apologies.

BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires > R Saldana [|Oo|======|oO|] - BTC/ETH/LTC Prophet
05/23/2014 at 17:28

Truer words have not been said :)

I'm happy with what time and circumstance has made me, which is all you can ask for really...

Mark - Sixpots None The Richer > Dsscats
05/23/2014 at 17:35

It wasn't a person who started my car obsession.

I grew up with my single mom and we were relatively poor. That's why we had no car. So early on "driving" was something special to me. To this day it doesn't matter what the car is like, I just like to be on the move.

What shaped my car enthusiasm was occasionally watching American movies and TV shows. They were exotic and entertaining compared to our boring German stuff. Knight Rider and The Fall Guy were an important influence on my taste in cars when I was young. That's the reason why I'm writing from Germany on an American website and not in a German youngtimer forum.

KnowsAboutCars > Dsscats
05/23/2014 at 17:35

I think I was born with car enthusiasm in my blood. I can't remember time when I wasn't into cars. My dad isn't interested in cars, he doesn't even own one, but he did bring me car magazines which he got from work for free. My mom loves driving and took me to car shows and museums but I can't really classify her as a car enthusiast. There are some people in my family who are kinda into cars but I don't see them so often that they really could've made an impact to me.

cabarne4 > Dsscats
05/23/2014 at 18:50

My parents honestly have no idea... My dad used to be into cars, but "outgrew" it, he says. He taught me how to drive at a young age (about 12, on a farm), and wouldn't let me get my license until I knew how to keep a car in control under any circumstance... I guess that spawned to a love of driving?

Dsscats > R Saldana [|Oo|======|oO|] - BTC/ETH/LTC Prophet
05/23/2014 at 20:00

Thanks. I cried the day I found out.

Agrajag > Dsscats
05/23/2014 at 21:47

Both of my parents. My Dad had the car knowledge but my Mom was the hoon.

TwinCharged - Is Now UK Opponaut > Brian Silvestro
05/23/2014 at 22:40

DAFUQ I S2G I DIDN'T.

KINJAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.

TwinCharged - Is Now UK Opponaut > Dsscats
05/23/2014 at 22:43

Brian Silvestro > TwinCharged - Is Now UK Opponaut
05/23/2014 at 22:43

Kinja'd!!!

wiffleballtony > Dsscats
05/24/2014 at 00:17

Probably the original Need For Speed game. Definitely wasnt my Dad, since he always took the bus.

Conan > Dsscats
05/24/2014 at 11:27

Kinja'd!!!

MTY85 > Dsscats
05/24/2014 at 11:33

I can't pin down when it "started" because it's always been there. As a kid, every Friday after he got home from work my Dad would take me to a convenience store down the road and buy me a Matchbox. I was on a creeper under cars as a little kid. It's like using a manual trans- I couldn't tell you when I learned, it seems like I've just always known.

Maddox Kay > Dsscats
05/24/2014 at 12:02

E39 Wagon with the M-sport pack? My mom had an electric red 540i M-sport! I went to the Beverly Hills Concours and LA Auto Show as well, but it was probably my uncle who got me hooked by always taking me for a Mulholland ride in the various awesome cars he owned throughout my childhood. I also got a ride I'll never forget from a family friend in a Pagani Zonda back near when they first came out. 5 year old me giggled the entire time and made me crazy for those G-forces haha

Bvnni > Dsscats
05/24/2014 at 12:58

Genetics? I think it was just a family thing. My mum, her dad, my dad, his parents, his siblings. One of the first memories I have is visiting family in Kentucky (don't judge) and getting to see a cousin's cousin's parent's (whatever) brand spanking new triple black C4 Corvette. That quickly led to being 3 or 4 and the owner of a red power wheels Corvette. I was five and had a Hot Wheels collection bigger than any boy's in the whole of South Tampa. Then there was the Diablo that a connected father of a schoolmate drove. Man 1st grade and seeing those big yellow doors go up. That was a game changer. Dad had muscle cars. We had our share of V8 powered wagons and luxury cars. Car shows, meets, auctions. Can't imagine them not being in my life. Girls hated cars. I hated girls. Boys liked cars. I didn't mind them. Bonus?

Goofnik > Dsscats
05/24/2014 at 18:47

Probably my father. I grew up in a house with a single television. Every Sunday, by hell or high-water, if you wanted to watch TV you had only one choice that afternoon: Motorweek. We went to the dinky little "auto shows" in New England (Boston and Providence) as well in the late 80s and early 90s. When bored on weekends, he would take me to car dealers to just kick tires and shoot the breeze with salesmen. Things we couldn't dream of affording. He would make sure I would know why certain cars were awesome.

My father never had anything awesome, because like hell if we could afford it (he worked for a landfill, and mom didn't work). The most powerful car we had during our childhood were mid-to-late 80s V6 Camrys, and we were damn lucky to have those. There was a point in my life where every family member aside from me drove a Toyota Corolla of varying vintage.

When I had to get a vehicle, he suggested either getting something dirt cheap to run and dead-reliable, or to get something worth a damn. Initially I got the first — a Ford F-150 XL with crank windows, bench seat, and A/C in an era where gas was $0.90/gallon. However a lifetime of weekly Motorweek set some sort of bug in me. I traded it in (for a profit) for a Mitsubishi Eclipse GS-T. Years later I bought a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VIII MR, and let my father drive it a few times. His comment was, " Jesus christ, how in the fuck can something like that be street legal? That thing is nuts. And awesome ". I've been tooling around in a MX-5 for a long while, and should have my Porsche Cayman GTS show up and be broken in for his birthday this year. Part of his present is he gets to take that for a spin.

Tony Dickson > KnowsAboutCars
05/24/2014 at 21:50

Me too, I have no memory of ever not being a car guy. My dad was an aerospace engineer, but he wasn't into cars by the time I came along, although as a young man he once owned a Vauxhall OE 30-98.

Buick Mackane > Dsscats
05/26/2014 at 03:36

It all started when my dad took us kids to see a movie on a Saturday afternoon in Detroit.

I was just starting to doze off when I heard the groovy jazz music just before the Dodge Charger dumping the clutch and leaving the Mustang behind.

I was hooked ever since.

Kinja'd!!!