A Gearhead's Genesis

"Vizzini" (993Dave) 04/30/2015 at 14:19 • Filed to: First Love, Road & Track

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This magazine is why I became a car enthusiast:

[not my copy]

I saw this in the newsstand at the supermarket, and immediately went home to ask my Mom for the money to buy it. I read it so much I not only committed the most arcane information to memory, but also nearly destroyed the issue from overuse. I became a subscriber a couple of months later, my first magazine subscription that wasn’t of the Highlights/Ranger Rick variety.

The !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! is a classic of old R&T style, and an amusing time capsule of how far the automotive world has come. But I believe the old lessons remain true: if you want to get a kid started down the path of loving cars, put a red Ferrari and Lamborghini in front of him (or her).

McMike > Vizzini 04/30/2015 at 14:22

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I remember that issue.

I think I may still have it.

505Turbeaux > McMike 04/30/2015 at 14:29

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send it to him!

505Turbeaux > Vizzini 04/30/2015 at 14:31

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I was already pretty hooked on cars, but this particular one cemented it. Loved the article on the Turbo Trans Am. I also remember the Laforza and Amigo articles. Automotive loves that stay with me to today

Vizzini > McMike 04/30/2015 at 14:33

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I still have it somewhere in my collection of R&T and C/D issues that have traveled with me now for 30+ years. Thankfully my wife has given up trying to understand why I kept them.

Sn210 > Vizzini 04/30/2015 at 15:00

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Mine would have to be the 50th anniversary edition of motortrend. The silver lining of being dragged to my sister’s dance lessons was that they had a subscription. I read this issue so much, the director let me take it home. I got my own subscription to MT, C&D, and R&T shortly after. Of course, my dad always had Hemmings catalogs lying around too.

norskracer98-ExploringTheOutback > Vizzini 04/30/2015 at 15:26

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Going to vintage races at Watkins Glen when I was younger did it for me the first time, then interest waned for a few years. In 2011 going back to WG for a 6 hour race got me back into cars and deeper into motorsport than I’d been prior.

Color-Commentary > Vizzini 05/03/2015 at 13:23

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OMG I remember that article! It was just as important in my little-kid life as it was in yours. Growing up in the land of rust-perforated GM G-bodies and Ford Escorts, Paul Frere’s description of the Ferrari as being rock-steady on the banking at 150 had me wide-eyed.

Saf1 > Vizzini 05/05/2015 at 14:37

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If only I had access/knowledge to such mags as a kid...mine would’ve been this

Apparently Car did a test of the GT but cannot find any evidence of it apart from a forum post!