Never been a car or convertible enthusiast per se however I have two memories that have stuck around for decades... first a convertible Triumph ride back in the '60s as a young boy. The openness felt like I was watching the world go by as we twisted through the nature lined country roads. Second being a Chevy dealership where they opened the hood on a '84 Corvette and the entire frontend was open. Seeing those wide tires fully exposed it looked like an open wheel race car and I instantly decided I'll own one. However I had to go to the other side of town to only pay sticker.

 

My earliest memories are watching Cooper F1 cars on the telly in black & white in the very early 60's but I've always been fascinated by tracks and race cars especially small scale ones.

 

Gosh, so many memories that sparked a love affair with cars. First, my grandfather's Hudson Hornet: sat in the back seat and wondered at the vast expanse (I was probably about 5 or so, and very small). Second, attending a regional sports car race at our local airport, with Jaguars and Healeys aplenty. But most of all, riding to school in my neighbor's TR-3, which made me wish I had one ever since. As far as slot cars go, my first Strombecker set with the D Jaguar and Testa Rossa cemented them as favorites ever since.

 

My Mom was a single Mom at the time... until I was 3-4 years old, I grew up living in my grandmother's house... Mom worked at a toy manufacturing plant... Guess what they made? That is where my passion for cars comes from. 50+ years later, I am still fascinated by cars and motorcycles... heck, anything with an engine...

 

Paddy Hopkirk's Monte winning Mini, 1964!

 

Paddy Hopkirk's Monte winning Mini, 1964

 

I didn't care much for cars until we got our first scalextric set - so C81 and C82 is what lit my love.

 

Yup. Two cars, both right at about the same time. Both have pointy front ends.

1976 Pontiac Grand Le Mans Safari

 

51 Ford ranch wagon, 62 Mk2 Zephyr, an E type diecast toy, Scalextric Lotus 16, and a book of 1965 automobiles of the world with pictures of Elva, Facel Vega, Bristol, Innocenti, Jensen, Bentley, Abarth, and others fired my desires and wants.

 

My dad had a very relaxed attitude to allowing his children to drive his cars, my mum positively encouraged us to, so the moment I was tall enough to see over the steering wheel and reach the foot pedals (9 or 10 years old?) I would drive their cars whenever we were anywhere that had a field or empty road nearby. No lessons other than an initial five minutes making sure I knew how to press the brake pedal, thereafter no parent in the car, just trial, error and a lot of graunched gear changes.

The first car I remember driving was Dad's 1600GT mk2 Ford Cortina, which introduced me to understeer and oversteer, first accidentally, but then deliberately induced. My mum had a Triumph Spitfire at the time, and I'd spend what seemed like hours churning up grass pretending I was a rally driver. I've never really been bothered what car I drive, just so long as it goes, stops and gets out of shape when provoked.

 

For whatever reason, just after I started this thread I decided to search google for images of 1/32 FC Holden not really expecting anything to pop up but to my surprise this did. While there I decided to have a look at his other listings and he has a 1/32 FJ Holden as well. In my late teens I bought a FJ off a workmate for $150 which I owned for about 4-5 yrs and to this day regretted selling it. Anyhow, he's going to let me know about shipping options so I see a black and red 1/32 FC and a powder blue FJ with a matt black bonnet in my future.

 

W25 Mercedes Benz GP car. My Dad had George Monkhouse's book Motoraces which was a photographic record of the 1934 Grand Prix season which he spent with the M-B team. When I was about seven years old I discovered it and was captivated by the images. I have been a motor sports fan ever since.

 

 

Dad had a taxi business as a kid, 1960 to 62 Standard ensigns, 63 and 64 Simca 1000s, 65 and 66 MK1 Cortinas and MK3 Zephyr 6.

First slot cars were a C59 red BRM and C63 yellow Lotus for Christmas 1963, 500 plus cars in the collection now, but a trip to Oulton Park 1964 Spring touring car meeting sparked the Motorsport interest, still remember the day vividly, especially Jack Sears in the Galaxie.

 

On Sundays as a nipper I used to bring my bucket around the posher end of town (door to door car washing) in north London and I used to be amazed at the fancy cars! Funnily enough I have more love for the clapped out Vauxhall Viva I went home to - despite being broken down more often than not I thought that car was the bees knees!

 

My fathers Alfa Romeo Giulia 1600 Ti 1967(?)

 

My uncle took my family to the 1962 Aintree 200 meeting in his ford anglia. Jim Clark raced in a lotus (24?) and a sportscar (lotus 19?) but the star was the Ferrari 156 ‘Shark Nose’, first slot car? An Airfix Ferrari 156, of course

 

Forgot my dad's friend's Jaguar XK-120! Always had a soft spot for that car...

 

Ford Anglia. My second car after an old style Hillman Minx. By the time I'd finished with the Anglia, it was very yellow, very low, very wide and very fast. Had the engine from a wrecked Lotus installed. I always compared new purchases with that car. Not many measured up but I ended up with a long stream of Alfas which, in spite of now driving a Audi, remain my favourite make of car.

 

For me it was a year more than a car. I was introduced to slot cars in 1964 and fell in love with all the sports and F1 cars of the era. Clark’s Lotus 25, Ferrari 250 GTO, Cobra 289, and of course the Chaparral ll. But I fell hard for a deep red Cobra 289 parked in front of a rich guy’s cool modern home. For an 11 year old to see a car like that in real life on a regular basis instead of just the magazines made me start my quest to own cool cars.

 

Not this exact car but...

 

Uncle Bonkers had a Land Rover since for ever. Sensibly, I still hate them.

 

I couldn't name a ‘first’ car but going to the the 1967 Car Show at (I think) Olympia sealed my fate.

 

My first...

 

My dad was a class drag racer of some repute/success (if success is measured by trophy count, which my mother hated) in the Mid-Atlantic region in the US. Routinely taking class wins at DelMar; Cecil County; York; Capital; Richmond and other tracks with his 1959 Chevy Biscayne. As a kid I would pit for him, learn to wrench between meets,and generally absorb his love of racing,

While that car, and the time spent with dad really primed my interest in cars, he didn’t quite know what to make of the 1970 Lotus Europa I bought and brought home to show him. Since then a total of 10 Lotus and a smattering of other sports and sporty cars.

 

,he didn’t quite know what to make of the 1970 Lotus Europa I bought and brought home to show him.

I bet he got it when you took him for a ride and hammered it around a bend . . .

I had a Ginetta G15 and on my wedding day it was snowed in on my father's sloping drive with the water pump frozen too. It was the coldest day of the year. I had to use his Ford Escort Mk !! to go away in for our honeymoon whilst he used the G15 to go to work in for a week. He absolutely loved it.

 

All I was interested in during my younger days were aeroplanes, not surprising as my Dad was in the RAF and we lived on RAF stations till I was 16 or so. But when we were at RAF Abingdon in the mid 50s my Dad's Flight Commander was posted overseas for a while, saying 'Look after the car while I'm gone, won't you Flight?'

The 'car' was a 1930 Minerva limo of VAST size, with a straight eight sleeve valve (!) engine and TWO fuel tanks. Not to mention the 2nd set of instruments in the back, and a speaking tube, so the passenger's wishes could be transmitted to the driver!

It also had a full set of tools in drawers under the driver's seat, and a full set of manuals (in Flemish....) under the front passenger's seat. Oh yes, and a set of sheer legs cross-wise behind the tools and manuals in case you needed to get the engine out en route!

Oddly it was right hand drive too, and I have no idea where Dad's boss got it from either.

Dad 'looked after it' for over a year, and during the period the clutch failed, but was replaced courtesy of the Belgian Air Force, and Belgian Railways as their railcars still used the same engine and had spares to hand. I helped Dad change the clutch and that triggered my interest in cars.

The Minerva looked like this one, almost the same shape and the same colour, and this one's a 1930 Model AL.

My first slot car was a pair of Scalex FJs, probably a Cooper and a Lotus, which lived in the large drawing drawer behind my board while I was in the Apprentice Tech Drawing School at Pressed Steel. Very enjoyable during tea and lunch breaks......

 

Not to mention the 2nd set of instruments in the back, and a speaking tube, so the passenger's wishes could be transmitted to the driver!

THAT is my worst nightmare. Under no circumstances must my wife read that!