Austarion

As the title says, what got you into cars?

For me, I grew up around all things auto.

I was two weeks old and allready here, my mum used to "crew" for bob shepherd and mr cowin lived 3 doors down from us.



Then throughout the late 80's/early 90's, my uncle owned this:







Grandma & Grandad were the only family in the Van club that a pool, so many an hour was spent with over 40 pano's parked in the driveway & up and down the street.

love the whole panel van era, seeing thats when i grew up. My dad was a mad car nut, mostly Jaguars, e-types, xk-140's a lot of old english stuff. He was a motor mechanic by trade and so he taught us a lot about working on our cars, I have basically been modifying, working on cars since before i could drive. Have always loved turbo's and had a sigma turbo in 1984. I can still remember very clearly the first time I drove one adn the way the turbo came on with such a rush, it was really an incredible thing in 1984.

i come from a very different background.. my father is a bookworm, and he wanted me to be one too.

I didn't grow up around cars. Never knew anything about modifying until a couple of years ago. It's funny that my first car was modified, and I didn't even know.

But i've always had a thing for speed.. fast cars and aircraft, I was always interested in. I remember the first time I ever saw a supra as a kid, I wanted one. Didn't know anything about turbos or mods or even how to drive. I used to live in Saudi Arabia back then.. and the way things were there, people buy cars at the motor show. You go to the motor show, and those latest model ferraris and lambos at the show were on the street the next day. These always caught my eye, but for some reason, I saw the supra, and I thought that's the car for me.. Almost a decade later did I realise the difference between a supra and a lambo LOL

Vulpes wrote:love the whole panel van era, seeing thats when i grew up. My dad was a mad car nut, mostly Jaguars, e-types, xk-140's a lot of old english stuff. He was a motor mechanic by trade and so he taught us a lot about working on our cars, I have basically been modifying, working on cars since before i could drive. Have always loved turbo's and had a sigma turbo in 1984. I can still remember very clearly the first time I drove one adn the way the turbo came on with such a rush, it was really an incredible thing in 1984.

Here is my old factory GH turbo









I did have all the factory motor etc, with matching body to block numbers etc, so when I sold it, she went back to full factory std.

I then re-did the 2.6, went bigger and put it into a factory back GK GSR and ran 10's with a manual.


I'm keen to findout if my uncles pano still exists, and buy it back if it does. All the old pano's are re-surfacing; XX308, Innervisions, Alley Kat, Cheque Mate etc

Well I just seemed drawn to them from a very early age and then one morning when I was about nine years old I woke up, turned on the telly and I saw this big red Falcon GTHO racing aroung Bathurst and was hooked since then. I attended my first car race at the age of 10 - when a mate's dad took him and me to Bathurst in 1970 to watch the Saturday practice.

Then when I was 14 I got a job after school at a local servo owned by a guy called Ray Kaleda who raced Mini Cooper S's and a Welsor Clubman very successfully in the 60's. In 72 & 73 he raced a Charger at Bathurst finishing 9th overall in 72 and then went on to race L34 and A9X Toranas. I was well and truly hooked into it all by then and even did Bathurst '76 as part of his pit crew. Awesome experience.

The car bug and more particularly racing and hi performance cars have been an integral part of my life ever since. My most enjoyable days are spent wandering around at Historic car race meets soaking up the cars and the atmosphere.

Historics are great as they aren't lookalike clones

Me and a few good mates at school started out modifying and 'cough' illegal drags at 1 in the morning when we were about 15.
Altho before speed, it was all about cruising town with 2 x 12" subs in the back of a prelude cranking bass mekanic at the top of the volume scale!
Guess it all just went from there - got my first starion at 19 yrs old and dont think ive been without a turbo car since in one form or another.
Oh and my first starion had 2 x 12" subs in the back and cranked 143db at a db soundoff which was pretty gd back then :)
Gd times ah my my how ive grown up!

My parents were always into cars and still are.

I hardly knew nothing about them when I brought my first car off my mum (86 Holden Piazza turbo) I didnt even know what A turbo was then.

Thats where the fun begun, 30 cars later, tens of thousands wasted on rice and at 24 years of age and my head screwed on a bit better im still goin!

Sorry to tell you robert but im exactly twice your age and it doesnt go away.

Lol I realise this. I find it hard to explain to people what it's like. They don't understand the addiction, everyone seems to think I'll grow out of it. YEAH RIGHT!

the boy racer culture here in chch got me into it...started cruising age 14 and aspired to having a big boy car

It's difficult for me to put my finger on exactly what got me into cars. I was very curious as a child and from before I was in school I knew a lot of the different makes & models. I used to like drawing them & had a thing for Meccano too. My father was an influence, he was a mechanical engineer & was into his Leyland Mini. It ramped up when Dad got a VC Commodore as a company car then later the same year we sat down together and watched Peter Brock tear up the mountain in that same car. I was in awe! Dad loved doing car stuff with me, he helped teach me to drive a manual ute at 15 so I had some idea when I went to DECA to do pre-driver ed with school. I remember being really chuffed when I accidentally did a chirpy. Dad didnt exactly discourage me either. Then days later at DECA my instructor put the car into a spin in gravel with me at the wheel & I got my first taste (literally dirt on my mouth) of sideways on a car. My lessons in car maintenance began once it was time to buy my first car at 17 (I couldn't drive the company cars due to restrictions on the insurance policies) and dad & I went to the auctions to buy my first car. A Gem Gem Gemini. My first mod was a tacho dash and to this day I still have the original cluster! After successfully bending the car, repairs became part of life too. I put myself through advanced driving courses, in part to obtain the skills that I had the foresight to know would save my bacon and in part to enjoy the opportunity to put in some laps on a racetrack. The more I did the more I loved it so it really evolved from there...

For me it started with a huge collection of matchbox cars which was given to me when I was about 4. My kids now play with them.
Then it was listening to my dad's stories of his Chargers etc.
Then hanging out with friends who would go and watch illegal drags. Then it was going to the drags at eastern creek.

TOMSUN wrote:For me it started with a huge collection of matchbox cars which was given to me when I was about 4.

I'm quite sure I had toy cars since I was born, I had over 200 by the time I was 4. I've just always been fascinated with all things cars. I remember when I was about 5, waiting in the truck (L200 US Spec, which is now mine) and started playing around pretending like I was driving. I eventually released the parking brake and coasted backwards as we were on an inclined driveway. I turned the wheel as if I was backing out, but the keys weren't in the ignition so the steering locked. And there I was blocking the road, until a car came along and honked... haha.

I loved to watch car chases in movies at that young age too, I loved seeing them slide around corners. I got a pedal powered plastic car thing, and I would be doing 180's all day long in that... until I bent the axle. I miss that thing.

-Robert

I don't really know what got me into cars... in my case I think it's genetic - my parents aren't into them at all, but my uncles are crazy car/bike mad.

I used to ask for a remote control car, or one of those little motorbikes every year for my b'day & xmas, but I never got either.

Perhaps I play with cars and bikes now to make up for this severe childhood trauma :P