Well for me i was born into it.My dad was racing stockcar in the sixties and seventies.I have photos of me perched on the bonnet of an mg magnet at foxhall stadium way back in 67.So i suppose petrol was in the blood from a very early age.When my dad wasn,t racing he was mending them.I can remember him laying out on the drive in the middle of winter changing a clutch on a cortina 1600e.More to the point at 64 he,s still fixing them.We always had jags when i was young and my dad always told me that if he couldn,t fix them himself we would never have afforded one!!He still has a jag now,so when your surrounded by cars your entire life i suppose it kinda rubs off.....
When I was about 8 or 9 whilst walking my dog I passed a car breakers shop. Lined up outside were three huge black cars. I was too young to take in the makers names, but they sure left a big impression. The body lines, the huge chrome and their bullnoses imprinted themselves on me. It's only recently I've realised it's the reason why it was attracted to my '50 Buick.
It didn't help also when my oldest mate Duncan (known him since I was five) dragged me to Santa Pod in the early '70's.
Not long after I passed my test I met Si (Mr Popular) in Italy and we decided to do Run to the Sun. THis was back in the good old day 20 years ago this year!!! That was my first real insight into the custom car/rodding scene and have never really looked back. Unfortunately due to lack of work and so money I have had to have pretty boring cars for the last few years but hopefully now I have a garage and a proper job I will be looking to get a suitable car again soon. SO basically what I am saying is it is all Simons fault. I promise I will one day post some stories of events past and what Si and me got up to.
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It's 106 miles to Chicago we've got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes it's dark and we're wearing sunglasses.
not sure the stories are a good idea ian!!! Ihave enough problems with Jo telling stories!!!
I have always been car mad. according to my mother i could name makes and models before i could hold a conversation. To me it was just a natural progresssion from scooters!!
My Dad grow up in the 50s and he loved American cars, when he was 15 it was either an engineering company or the local garage, he decided the garage and was working on 1930&1940s Cadillacs and Buicks etc, so had the chance to buy them very cheaply.When I was born the first thing my dad did was to buy me a toy car, so really it was in the blood. We lived in Colchester and there was a lot of American serviceman around where we lived and we would drive onto the Air bases and buy the cars from GI returning back to the USA, I also went into car repairs (bodywork) as a panel beater sprayer and made some extra money by buying, painting and selling on for a small profit, We also got very friendly with breakers yards called Mills near Woodbridge and would get a call when new cars arrived. I use to work for BMW and had M3, 330 sport coupes, 6-series as company cars but would rather drive an old American car any day of the week. I think the best thing has been E-bay because when I restored my 49 Cadillac I found everything I need over 5 years of searching.
I used to sit in my dads vauxhall victor 101 parked up in the driveway and pretend to race. sitting on the big bench seat at the front with column change it was a great old motor. Make a great gasser now! I saw an advert in 1978 for drag racing american style on the tv and ask mum and dad to take me. August bank holiday '78 and I was hooked with the likes of bootsie herridge driving aligator and the Stones team with tender trap hemi hunter etc. we also saw Al's gasser roll and total the car. a track side whip round from the crowd help Al to rebuild the car. Years later i was lucky enough to buy my camaro on american ebay whilst recovering from open heart surgery. Once on the road the people I have met in at the car clubs and meets have only reassured me this is where I want to be. long live the V8
well said shrek, when i was a boy i used to stand on the electric house in ipswich and watch all the yanks go by and said to myself i'm gonna have one of those cars one day. i've had a few but not the one i want. (one day).
My uncle Jim took me Down the M1 from Luton to Watford in his Purple Viva GT ! Was modified heavily but looked almost stock ! Lovely Purple Metallic with Satin black Bonnet Fast as Fook i was only 6 ! He scared the crap out of me and my dad ! LOL He had loads of modified cars and bikes . He owned a Ducatti Dealership & Classic Norton BSA specialist ! So he always had some thing cool to ride in or on. I was hooked !
wow what a subject, had to really think! i cant remember cars not being in my life, from the time i could pass my mum a spanner, i was always looking under a bonnet watching my mum try and bodge bits together, or push starting on a cold morning, me and my nan pushing a purple ford anglia [hand painted by me and mum!], or the triumph vitesse that had a fuel leak so mum used a duckhams can and had a pipe into it, did a grand job for as long as that ran!. i painted my metal pedal car at 5 years old. At 7 years old i wanted my own `greased lightning`, grease was my first awareness of american cars, followed by american grafitti. at 12 i had flamed my dm boots, at 14 i had a stepthrou [honda c70 could wheelie in every gear] for a field bike it was mat black flamed and a leopardskin seat cover... first car was an old jag , my mum had me on her insurance, then i had a triumph vitesse,more jags, cortinas, had at least 2 cars at a time [only one tax disc thou!] herald [purple and very low with a roll cage in] i spent my youth talking `cars` at various burger vans and hang outs... i wouldn`t buy a modern car by choice, never had a modern one until we were given one, and fly uses that for work, i love the smell of an old car, theres something about travelling in a musty, leaky, chilly, steamed up piece of history that i love, and if i have to wear longjohns all winter then so be it. x
Oh my god! How could I forget how powerful the film Grease was!! I was only 4 when I saw that at the ABC in the Buttermarket Ipswich, with my parents and aunt & uncle and me too was taken in by these big American cars.
But then all I wanted was to be a Sandy and wear one of those circle skirts and have blonde hair like hers...........
The one image that got me hot under the collar was when i was a kid on a family holiday in the states...i was about 6-7ish and being a kid, I did what kids do, I used to kneel on the back seat of the car and look out the rear window....I remember watching this shinney black speck in the heat hazed distance very quickly grow until I could make out this black deuce with a huge supercharger and hilbourn scoop and open headers pull right up the back of my dads rental...In a swift movement, it pulled out at which point he gunned it...it lit the fires in my soul and I always swore that one day i would have a deuce.....and now I do!!!!
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I never make Mistakes!!... I thought I did once, but I was Mistaken!
I was born into a family that looked after, serviced and repaired their own cars. I was basically hooked the first time i was old enough to look in the engine bay.
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FECK
I am the willing Led by the unknowing Doing the impossibe For the ungrateful.
SOMEDAY SON ALL THIS WILL BE MINE!!
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