Where does your love of cars come from

[Implandy]

Like others on here, Dad used to do his own repairs, but don't remember being that interested, did have a big collection of matchbox, corgi and dinky toys , then matchbox race track (wanted scaletrix but never got one) I do remember when my brother was born mum and dad bought me a corgi ford mustang (silver and still got it !)Even remember writing down number plates from cars just to look up where they came from

mopeds and motorbikes , well that came from the group of lads at school and being one of the older one in the year group had to get a moped, then served an engineering apprenticeship where it seemed everyone had either a car or bike, although some of the lads parents didn't allow them to have bike ,

both cars and bike choice been pretty eclectic, MZ, BSA, Honda Yamaha and Suzuki, then cars Hillman Imps, MG, Lotus, Ford RS2000 and Mexico's, Avenger Tiger, Clan, Land Rovers, Audi,VW,BMW

But I can't pin point any individual or any life defining point that was the start of this expensive obsession with cars and bikes that see's me with enough projects to see me to retirement

[flyingphil]

My father had a variety of cars in the 50,s as he was a sales rep but then opened his own shop and lost the "company car". He bought a drop top Alvis (Grey Lady).....which I hated, as it had a "rag roof".
A bit later on I got into cars via the Beach Boys as I had bought their “Little Deuce Coupe” LP. I couldn’t understand the lyrics and had bought 3 American “Hot Rod” magazines to provide a glossary of terminology…...they had articles on dragsters and drag racing. My Vespa soon acquired a Flame paint job and custom exhaust pipes. I spectated at Santa Pod in the Summer months. I then bought my first car - Ford 107E, followed by a Frogeye Sprite.
I was hooked on drag racing and decided to race my Sprite when I had graduated.
Yes, I have been obsessed on cars with "Rag Roofs" ever since!

[darrenh]

dad and uncle mick (about 5 years before i was born) at the time of this photo mick had a mk1 cortina, they always worked on their own cars, both of them owned fords all their lives, cortinas, sierras, mondeos.

we also had a neighbour who worked on cars, had kids the same age as us, also had a bedford CF van and a class C mini which he used to rallycross, so we used to go to events. he also owned some legendary fast fords in his time next door to us, bright red xr4i and a saph cosworth to name two !

i think thats it in a nutshell !

[samta22]

The blame for my obsession/love/illness/affliction, however you want to term it, lies squarely with my uncle. When I was younger my dad used to work overseas a great deal and so my uncle was one of the key father figures in my life - something I owe him a great deal for and someone for whom I have a great deal of respect. Through his passion for cars the influence was soon passed on... and then multiplied

Given the above situation with my dad away, we used to spend a lot of time at my grandparents in Hertfordshire during school holidays. In the grounds was a fantastic quad garage (what I'd give to have something similar now...), anyway within that lay a few things of great interest to me, in particular a bare chassis and pieces of a 1935 MG PA awaiting restoration, something I took great delight in sitting on with a loose steering wheel in my hands and pretending I could drive it (the wire wheels alone were a great source of fascination to a wide-eyed 4 year old!), this was eventually restored and I was very generously allowed to drive it on a few occasions. No pictures of the actual car as that has now been sold, but think along the lines of:



Next to this was a car shared by my grandmother and uncle, sadly laid up when an auto gearbox fault meant it was taken off the road. Again this was eventually restored and I was lucky enough to drive it when it was used as my sisters wedding car - one of the smoothest cars I have ever driven. Now also sold.


Lastly, there is another rather special car that I have been on and pictured with from a very young age, it still comes out occasionally, but not as much as others for obvious reasons... it's rather tricky to drive in modern traffic!


As can be seen, the passing on of the affliction begins again once more with the next generation... (although to be fair he wasn't impressed with it at the time!) 

[dreadspeed]

Well my first car was a 1965 1725cc hillman minx bought in 1974 i was 17,took the bumpers of put some 51/2 j steel wheels on it, the water pump packed in got another from a breakers yard that was it i was hooked and couldnt afford to pay a garage so did stuff my self , also just up the road was a couple of older guys that were fitting a 3ltr essex v6 into a MK2 cortina i was very impressed with it

[strikey]

my grandfather was a jag man.... what better way to get into cars as a child than wafting around in a s1 xj?!

lousy picture but wonderful if not a little dim memories. it was along time ago!!


  and no , i don't still have the hat!!!

[disasterbus]

Mine came from my Grandad, who came to live with us before he died when I was a child. Earliest memories include him stripping and re-building an old bike which became my first bike around 1970. He was an engineer for Lockheed and worked on hydraulics systems in planes and even on the bridge laying version of the Chieftain Tank, which I remember being taken to see being tested on Salisbury Plain.

As a young man he was 'in service', working for a wealthy family nr Banbury. One day in the 1930's the lady of the house called for him and said "William, you can drive can't you?". He could drive a Tractor and ride a motorcycle so said "yes, Madam". "Good" she said, "Pop to Oxford for me and pick up my new Rolls Royce please".

After a few hasty instructions from the Rolls Royce salesman he drove it back to banbury - the first car he had ever driven, a brand new Roller!

[voodoo57]

Feb 18, 2017 14:06:30 GMT stefan1971 said:

Feb 18, 2017 14:00:33 GMT johnc74 said:

Great pictures by the way, you must have some great memories of your Dad!

I have plenty but sad to say that he hit the bottle and lost his business and everything with it so great times but very sad ending 

Have you ever thought about recreating one of these cars? That Moggy looks cool!

[rapidyellow]

my dad when I was a youth always had old cheap cars, they went wrong often so weekends were fixing and maintaining them, he had many cars they didnt seem to last very long.

and I was always roped into help him fix them, tool finding/holding, brake pressing, I had a good understanding of cars, the ins and outs interested me

and that stood me well as my first cars were toy ones, and they went wrong often too

and when I got lego, I could make my own

and when the lego advanced to lego technic, even better

Like the advert says, if you can mend a bike, you mend a car, so before I coudl drive my transport was pushbikes

and real car ownership, was just like my dad, cheap cars that went wrong, where possible I had to fix them myself if dad couldnt help

a love of driving helps

I still don't have good cars, but I love whatever I have, rarely if ever somebody else gets to fix them, its all me.

I like anything, I have recently started watching the Hub Nut channel on YT, old cars that people might not look twice at, yeah lovely.

so that my love of cars

[stefan1971]

Mar 5, 2019 19:42:21 GMT voodoo57 said:

Feb 18, 2017 14:06:30 GMT stefan1971 said:

I have plenty but sad to say that he hit the bottle and lost his business and everything with it so great times but very sad ending 

Have you ever thought about recreating one of these cars? That Moggy looks cool!

Would love to recreate the moggy; it’s my favourite. He won a few races in it and then sold it to his mate who super changed it but it kept blowing head gaskets. My mum also had a phone call from someone in the 1980s looking for my dad as a lot of parts on it were bespoke and he needed some help as it was still racing but my dad was in the pub and the bloke never called back. Gutted. Would of loved to know what happened to it. I also remember the scrap man collecting the Mini Cooper ,Don’t know what happened to the others. 

[stefan1971]

My sister has just sent me this picture of me in my dads moggy

[dikkehemaworst]

Feb 18, 2017 13:55:46 GMT stefan1971 said:

Just wandering where you get your love for cars from, mine comes from my late father who back in the 1950/60/70s had his own business, he was a designer engineer and was well known around Manchester and the motoring world. He raced saloon car and single seater and all his cars were home built, even the banded wheels.hope you enjoy the photos and would love to hear your stories.pictures include his mini,midget,minor,single seater, vw flatbed,, not sure of the tow car, think it's an Austin.the minor has a 3.8 jaguar engine ..



















Ps, remember playing in the mini as a kid until the scrap man picked it up, and note he was racing on the 12 th of June and I was born on the 15th. Passion first.

Man, my dad's a flippin florist...🤔

[carledo]

No Idea where my obsession came from, My dad was a weekend tinkerer as a lot of dads were in the 50s and 60s not from love, but lack of money! In any case his cars were a very uninspiring lot and he left our family when I was 8. My grandad could drive but didn't have a car, claining i'd never be rich if I had one (wise old guy, he was dead right! though there has almost never been a time when i've only had one)

My mum started learning before I was born, passed her test when I was 19 after I gave her lessons and was the worlds worst driver with several write offs to her credit and absolutely NO interest in cars as things to love.

But she used to tell me often, that I correctly identified my first car at the age of 3 and not a humble Moggy or similar, but a Borgward Isabella! I too had a massive collection of Dinky. Corgi and Matchbox cars, plus a few Spot-On ones for racing on the primary school playground, migrated to Scalextrix (though I had Airfix) at the age of 10 and by 12 was building my own slot cars with brass tube chassis, hi po motors, foam rubber slicks an inch wide and microlight bodies bodies in clear plastic that you painted from the inside.

At 15 I discovered girls and motorcycles at about the same time and it was all downhill from there on. I started with a BSA Bantam 150, rebuilt that to roadgoing condition, took my bike test on it at 16, bought a 650 BSA Rocket Goldstar (A10R amost the only vehicle i've owned that I didn't soup up myself) fell off it at 80+ a couple of weeks before my 17th birthday and (my mum, fearing for my life, insisting on no more bikes)bought my first car, a 56 ZA Magnette. In the meantime i'd started an apprenticeship in motor vehicle technology with a Triumph and Austin dealership and the die was irrevocably cast!

But where it all came from is a sweet mystery, I think I was just born with it!

Steve

[comfortablynumb]

Dad and grandad for me, as already stated most blokes fixed their own car when I was growing up, even when I didn't get on with my dad ( I do now) my grandad saw where things were going and kept me on the straight and narrow, petrol head to the end, even the fiat 500 he had got a 600 carb, to "make it smoother'(read faster).
I became a grandad myself 2 months ago, if I can do half the job my grandad did I won't do too bad, on that note grandson got a"my first scalextric" at 12 hours old!

[comfortablynumb]

And now I've done the sentimental bit......
OP YOU HAVE TO RECREATE THAT MINOR
ITS AWESOME!!!!

[martin42006]

Funnily enough I think it's my grandma's fault. She got a MK1 MR2 the year before I was born so I have always had that around and used to love going out in it, my dad used to tinker a bit with his range rover classic and took us offroading but unfortunately he sold it when I was still quite young and always had new cars after that. When I was 17 I got my the MR2 as my first car and i started having more of a car interest then as I had to keep it on the road.

[urbanaw]

Interesting thread.

It does look like I am not the only one who grew up in a family with very little to no interest in cars. My dad used to fix his Fiat when I was little but it was not labour of love for sure. I grew up on a massive farm and it was not cars that I was into in the first place but tractors and lorries. I used to ride in those as a passenger for as long as I can remember. I used to ride 2 stroke moped when I was little, way before it was legal for me to do so. Then one day dad's brother (1st officer and Chief engineer on cargo vessels) took me for a day out and we visited a ship. We spent half a day in the engine room. From then onward I was firmly hooked, if it had an internal combustion engine it was cool, I could relate to it.
Since those days I have gone through more cars than all my immediate family combined.

The story continuous...

Greg

[tristanh]

My Dad. Mentor, hero and friend.

[carledo]

Jul 11, 2019 7:24:05 GMT comfortablynumb said:

Dad and grandad for me, as already stated most blokes fixed their own car when I was growing up, even when I didn't get on with my dad ( I do now) my grandad saw where things were going and kept me on the straight and narrow, petrol head to the end, even the fiat 500 he had got a 600 carb, to "make it smoother'(read faster).
I became a grandad myself 2 months ago, if I can do half the job my grandad did I won't do too bad, on that note grandson got a"my first scalextric" at 12 hours old!

Snap! As soon as I learned of the birth of my twin grandsons, I started buying up Airfix track (it's more rigid than Scalextrix)  I now have enough to make a permanent layout 11'x5'6" that virtually covers the baseboard, separate transformers for each lane, fancy controllers and feedback braking. And half a dozen cars including these!

Dammit! Not including these, can't for some reasons add pics on a quoted post! Back in a tick!

Steve

[carledo]

Including these!







The matching porsches are for the boys to wreck, the Goat is in in memory of a multi record holding car with a similar body that I scratch built in the late 60s and the LeMans Spitfire is a kit because I love all things Triumph. The same kit maker also does a Dolomite Sprint which I really want, but is currently out of stock and doesn't know when the next batch will be made!

Steve