Car enthusiast in real life?

Just curious to see how you guys got into being "car guys"?

Most of my family are gear heads. My dad was a mechanic most of his life. My uncle eat, sleeps and shits NASCAR/Indy/F1 and most notably NHRA. He use to take me to all kinds of races when I was a kid in SoCal. Pomona for the Winder Nationals and World Finals. California Speedway to the Indy and Nascar events when it opened. We had a yearly trips where we would go to Phoenix for the NHRA event after the Winter Nationals and then Sonoma and Seattle in the summer for the NHRA races. There was a weekend to kill in between so there use to be a classic drag event held in Medford Oregon we would go too. Can't forget the Long Beach grand prix either! I use to love going to the smaller tracks like Sagus, Paris, Ventura, Palmdale, Bakersfield and irwindale when it finally opened for dirt/circuit/drag racing. I still remember seeing Ron Hornaday Jr. in the 90s when he ran at Sagus on dirt. It was nice seeing him come up the ranks in person.

My older brother ended up getting into racing and after he left the marines he was given an opportunity as a pit member on a Busch Cup team. Since then he has been all over Nascar, Indy and now does off road racing and specializes in Tuning. He is the main reason I started working on cars. I became a suspension and brake mechanic when I was 15 and went as far as engine swapping/building for a performance shop specializing in Hondas when I was 20.(Yes, talk shit but I love Hondas). After, I joined the Military for 7 years and just recently got out so I have gotten away from it. I love cars and I look forward to getting back into the swing of things when I finish college and actually have some money to spend! To be honest since I started playing Forza I got the itch and I find myself browsing craigslist for cars... lol

Sorry for my novel of a story.

Whats your story?

*Raises Hand*

Gear Head here!

I do far less wrenching and much more research... I'm a student of all things that are propelled by some form of mechanical propulsion... Automotive, Aeronautic, Marine, and Aerospace... I subscribe to Car & Driver, Road & Track, Motortrend, Automobile and Cycle World. I've also been known to pick up a copy of Grassroots Motorsports here and there, as well as others....

I'm 40 now, but when I was a teenager, I had wall to wall car posters... Lamborghini Countach and Diablo (202mph with the Alpine on!), Ferrari Testarossa, Vector W8, and others... I also had a few Samantha Fox posters, but those were next to ones of cars!

I'm a huge WRC, GrandAm, and ALMS fan... I also love Baja 1000 style endurance off-raod racing.... I also starting to get back into Indy cars, and I also love watching Euro and Asian GT car racing... I don't car for Stock Car racing unless it's a road course....

My biggest problem is time... With two young kids, it's hard to find time let alone money to watch racing and get into the hobby I want... Racing... If I every become a member of the More Money than Brains club, I'll be spending it on cars (after the family of course)...

I am a total gearhead (I suppose top gear has really gotten to me because I wrote the word "petrolhead" twice before that...)

I am really big into a lot of motorcycle racing - AMA, World Superbike, MotoGP. I was actually named after this year's World Superbike champion (Max Biaggi). My room is completely littered with posters of everybody from Eric Bostrom (I actually have his autograph on it) to Valentino Rossi.

I'm also a big F1 fan. I really liked to watch Schumacher race when he was racing for ferrari, but Raikkonen is my favorite driver.

My dad just started teaching me how to fix things on the car a few months ago - so far he has taught me how to change a tire and the brake pads, but we are on a bit of a break now because of his shoulder surgery. I am really getting into this because at some point, I would like to restore a '68 chevelle with my dad (we had one that my dad bought for a dollar and restored back when I was about 2 years old, so it has always been one of my favorite cars)

That is awesome. I forgot to mention that I helped my brother restore a 70 Chevelle when I was a kid (He is 13 years older than me).

That is a great car to play with!

Lou- I feel you on the two kids thing. I hope to one day restore a car with my son. (He is 15 months old). My daughter actually plays Forza with me. She loves to crash... lol

2 years ago I couldn't care less about cars and I thought racing was silly. A friend talked me into trying Forza 4. I was reluctant until I saw the news that Best Buy oversold their Limited Editions. There was an opportunity to buy one so I did. I could always be a dick and resell it later.

Well, I opened it and tried it instead.

Rivals Mode was the greatest thing I'd ever seen. Asynchronous multiplayer that allowed an inner seed of competitiveness to blossom into a forest of beautiful douchebaggery plumes. I was an asshole on my own time, spouting filth at my friend's ghost as I did laps for hours. And hours. I hated my friend and he hated me. It was awesome.

Through this I learned that racing is actually really difficult. I began to appreciate it and then even reading about it. I started noticing other cars on the road. Then I started lusting after other cars on the road. Then I drove a Lamborghini. Then I bought a new car. Then I started watching Top Gear. Then I drove a Ferrari. Then I joined this car club. Then I realized how much I still had yet to learn.

WHY Y0U MAD BRO wrote:I love Hondas

Wow, Seriously who let this guy in here? Marm, it was you wasn't it? You think this is funny? Some kind of sick joke? I mean honestly, who does this stuff?! That's it Marm. This week you're forced to race the pinto. It saddens me that it has to come to this.

Myself, I've been a car guy since I can remember. Helped restore my dad's 66 fairlane when I was 8 years old. After that it was anything with a motor. Went around the neighborhood at the age of 9 fixing people's lawnmowers and quads and such, with the help of my dad of course. Then I turned 15 and started fixing cars to buy my own. Had over 15 different cars by the time I was 18. Got married and bought a garage (it came with a house, the wife was happy) and bought me my second mx3. Autocrossed it for years and plan on taking her back out next year. Myself, I'm a huge Mazda fanatic.

Lowflyinmx3 wrote:

WHY Y0U MAD BRO wrote:I love Hondas

Wow, Seriously who let this guy in here? Marm, it was you wasn't it? You think this is funny? Some kind of sick joke? I mean honestly, who does this stuff?! That's it Marm. This week you're forced to race the pinto. It saddens me that it has to come to this.

Myself, I've been a car guy since I can remember. Helped restore my dad's 66 fairlane when I was 8 years old. After that it was anything with a motor. Went around the neighborhood at the age of 9 fixing people's lawnmowers and quads and such, with the help of my dad of course. Then I turned 15 and started fixing cars to buy my own. Had over 15 different cars by the time I was 18. Got married and bought a garage (it came with a house, the wife was happy) and bought me my second mx3. Autocrossed it for years and plan on taking her back out next year. Myself, I'm a huge Mazda fanatic.

LOL! I have always wanted to do an LS swapped Rx-7. One day, after I win the lotto this will happen.

I figured from your named you were a Hyundai fan....

Ouch! That stung a little bit

When I was a baby I apparently met Dale Jarrett. I dont remember obviously but my dad has a picture somewhere I believe. So, far back as i can remember, when my parents or whoever asked who my favorite driver was, what my favorite car was, favorite number etc. the answer was always Eighty-eight. I didnt know his name just his number. if it was a football player or some one else thats probably what i would be into but becuase he was a driver ive loved cars my whole life. Most of my enthusiasm stemed from NASCAR since ive met quite a few of them. Rusty Wallace signed my jacket once, I had Mike Skinner sign a replica car for me, had small talk with tony stewart, ate lunch with jaime mcmurray. (Theres a racing collectable shop near me and every once in awhile they would have someone come out to sign autographs and whatnot and my sister and mom worked there so afterwards or before i got to hang out with the drivers for a little.) They havent had anyone in quite a few years thanks to the economy though.

I also live roughly half an hour to Maple Grove so every year when i was in school my dad would sign a fake doctor, dentist, eye doctor slip so i could go to the drag races.

So thats where it started with me. I love basically any motorsports now. I think Gran turismo 1 can be blamed a little too since my brother and sister would always beat on me in that game. thats like all i played on ps1.

Not sure when it happened. My dad took me to a few drag races (saw the Little Red Wagon). My brother had a '67 GTO, '60s ? Austin Healey, a "60s Rally Volvo and a Desoto (push button transmission). All which could have inspired me. I was also in my teens during the Muscle Car era. I used to be able to id any car I saw but not anymore - a lot of them look alike now. I loved the sound and power of my '68 AMX - it just kind of got under my skin. I tried doing some body work and some mechanics but school and other stuff kind of took over. Now that my kids are out of the house and maybe after they graduate from college and my wife gets a good job and other stuff - I can get a nice car again. My body hurts to much to try and work on cars anymore so I'd like to stimulate the economy and support my local mechanic. My enthusiasm has rubbed off both of my sons. My oldest son (not mechanical) owns an over powered '86 S10 Blazer with a 355 CI, lowered with custom paint and my other son who fixes electronics on Air Forces planes is restoring a '80 Corvette (he is the mechanically inclined one). I call him Tron, when he was looking at motorcycles instead of showing pictures of the bike he would show pictures of the electrical diagram.

Me and my cousin have always been competitive agaisnt each other. I think it was our r/c cars. Now we've got our own cars and still at it.

Fear740 wrote:Me and my cousin have always been competitive agaisnt each other. I think it was our r/c cars. Now we've got our own cars and still at it.

well invite him to play forza and proceed to lay a smackdown upon him good sir

Well he doesnt have forza 4 we played a lot of forza 2 though and I do lay a smackdown on him everytime (edit) every other time he comes over