Happy father day:: QOTD

"Ike" (untitledcarshow)
06/20/2015 at 10:03 • Filed to: Happy Father's Day

So Father’s Day is this tomorrow, this is my first Father’s Day as a dad. It’s a weird feeling having a child what with the stress, excitement, love, worry and fulfillment you go through day in and out.

One of the things I look forward to the most is being able to share my hobby with my child. I hope cars are still a thing in 16 years and that I can help my little girl appreciate them they way I do.

I though as a nice Father’s Day gift out there, you all could tell me a story of either

If you haven’t had children, a story of your dad/mom that’s car related.

If you are a parent, a story of you and your child bonding related to cars.

I have a brief story, my father was never a huge gear head; and he never pushed me in this direction. He always liked cars, and drove some nice ones when he was younger. (He’s from Italy yet drive a lifted bro truck when I was born, and I’m the middle child, before that a thunder bird).

So he traded his nice cars in for a conversion van, I remember driving long distance a lot with the whole family. (Looks like this one minus the roof addition)

One of the earliest memories I have is being in the van and driving from Chicago to Florida. It was late at night and for some reason my mother was in the way back ( where I normaly sat.) and I was up front with my dad, it was late I’m sure I should have been asleep, but I was up and talking with my dad, I remember thinking it was so cool, we could get in a van in Chicago where it was snowing and a day later, sunny Florida. We would drive in the van a lot to a from far away places. I always like the drive almost if not more then getting there. It felt like adventure. When I got older I would help navigate or sometimes just lay in the back and watch the world go by. I remember I cried when we got rid of the van. I had named it, (sadly the name escapes me so many years on).

My Dad told me not to be sad, the van had done its job well and we had treated well and it had a good life, and now it will go help someone else’s family. I always felt like cars/vans most everything has a energy or soul, to this day I still name cars, hell I named my roomba(Charlie).

There was also the time I helped him push a Toyota Camry when I was like 9, in rush hour cause the thing was a piece of shit.

As for my little girl, when she was born, still in the hospital late one night started to cry, I woke up to take care of her, I remember hearing infants like sounds like vacuums so I turned on a video of cars starting up, she smiled and looked up to me and slowly fell asleep in my arms listening to the cars.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=liqoMj…

Happy Father’s Day!

Ike is co-host of the Untitled Car Show ( !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ) he has owned 2 Dodge Challengers; a Volvo C30, a V70XC, a V70R, 740; and a Saturn Ion . He is a new father and loves driving and autocrossing. He can jerry rig with the best of them, and he wrote his bio in third person. He also has 2 dogs, 2 cats and is a crazy person some say!

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DISCUSSION (5)

Vimto > Ike
06/20/2015 at 10:16

I was born in England and grew up there. My father used to import Corvettes, Trans Ams, and other muscle cars, and then fix them up in the garage he shared with my uncle and sell them off to the English buying public. That ended when we moved to America but it became a dwindling business as fuel became so heinously expensive over there.

RallyWrench > Ike
06/20/2015 at 11:56

I’m taking my daughter to the Pismo Beach car show today!

Ike > RallyWrench
06/20/2015 at 11:59

Nice! Beach and cars can't beat that combo

desertdog5051 > Ike
06/20/2015 at 18:00

When my daughter was little she would come out to the garage and watch what I was doing. Once I gave her a screwdriver and an old Quadrajet carb and told her to take out as many screws as she could. I told her to keep track of where they went by putting them in tins. She had a blast. When she was done taking it apart and carefully putting the screws in their separate tins, she asked why I had her do that. I told her that now she had to put them all back in the place they came out of. A light turned on in that little head and I knew she was going to be competent as a car owner. She is. Before she ever had a license, she had learned how to do basic stuff like change an air filter, jack up a car, change a flat, check air pressure, change oil. (though she still will not do that) but she knows how.

Svart Smart, traded in his Smart > Ike
06/20/2015 at 23:06

My father’s not a very ‘Jalop’ kind of guy, but he’s a relentless cheapskate, and some of his ways may have rubbed off on me over the years.

Before I was born in 1987, and until we left Michigan in 1994, my father drove a rusty, light blue Super Beetle from the early 1970s. Most of the body panels had some degree of rust, the remaining paint had lost all its luster, the brakes squeaked terribly, the driver’s wing mirror was gone, the turn signal stalk didn’t always work (had to use the hazard lights), and the rear seatbelts — if they even existed — were buried somewhere under the seat. Looking back, I’m surprised at my parents’ disregard for passenger safety — I’m one of three boys — but somehow we managed to escape danger. I’m convinced my dad could have gotten something newer and safer if he wanted, but he kept that Beetle till the bitter end.

From 1994 to 2003, when we lived in Tennessee, my father went through three consecutive three-year leases on Saturn SL sedans, almost completely base models except for air conditioning. All were manuals. They were a considerable step up in comfort, safety, and reliability from the old Volkswagen, even though they didn’t have the nostalgic charm. My dad never changed his own oil or did a brake job or even showed me how to change a tire. He was cheap and liked his manual transmissions, but he never had much mechanical inclination or automotive enthusiasm at all.

I’m 28 now, a permitted or licensed driver since I was 15, and although I have yet to acquire my first set of wheels, I could certainly see myself getting something small and cheap with a manual when the time comes: Fiat 500, Ford Fiesta (SFE), Mazda 2, etc. Thanks, Dad.