Why I’m a car enthusiast
I’ve been a car enthusiast for about 20 years now. I was never really into cars all that much until I was in my early teens, around the turn of the millennium. I didn’t grow up with pictures of cars on my wall or working on cars with my dad. Once I discovered cars it not only became one of my interests but ultimately became part of my identity. I became a car enthusiast.
My parents just weren’t car people, or at least they didn’t share their interest in cars with me very much. I knew that they had had at least a couple of cool cars and also both had motorcycles in their youth. Growing up I knew that my mom had owned a 1972 Chevy Nova in the mid 70’s and that my parents had bought a brand new 1978 Chevy Camaro LT. My dad often told me stories about how fast, loud and awesome their Camaro was. You could hear the passion in his voice when we would talk about that car. My mom, whenever their Camaro comes up in conversation, always reminds us that it was white with a baby blue interior. It must have been a pretty awesome colour combination back then. After that they got family vehicles for raising us and never looked back for nearly 2 decades. After we all left home my parents have gone back to driving vehicles that they want to drive. While they may not drive muscle cars anymore, their SUVs are luxurious and what they like. And driving something that makes you feel good is what being a car enthusiast is all about.
Quite a few of the friends I had made in high school were into cars. Like REALLY into cars. At first I wasn’t really sure what the big deal was because I hadn’t grown up thinking anything about cars and trucks other than as a way to get around – our family car growing up was a 1985 Suburban and then a 1995 Chevy Astro van. I was one of the only ones in my group of friends that didn’t take the auto mechanics class in high school, though admittedly at the time I wasn’t really into taking an engine apart.
When The Fast and the Furious came out in 2001 I went from pretty into cars to I AM OBSESSED! I think this happened to a lot of people because of that movie, but for me and my friends it almost became a religion. I remember often quoting the scene from the movie where they are saying grace before a meal but instead of talking about Jesus they’re saying thanks for ball bearing turbos and titanium valve springs. I remember wanting to just learn as much as humanly possible about engines and tuning. I bought a ton of books that talked about tuning engines, modifications to do to cars
When I was 16 I decied that it was time to buy myself a car of my own. I had been working for a little while and had saved up some money and decided that I wanted to buy a Camaro. I wanted a Camaro because it was what my parents had owned and it was what I thought was a cool car. I scoured the classified ads in the newspaper for weeks looking for a Camaro in my price range. Eventually I bought myself a 1984 Chevy Camaro. All I could afford was a base model and so I got one in grey with a V6 for $2400. It was totally gutless and had almost no power – it only had 107 hp when new and probably made a lot less than that in 2001! Since the tuner scene was getting pretty big because of The Fast and The Furious I, of course, modified my Camaro and put a stereo and sub woofers in it. I held off putting underglow on, but I thought about it many times.
One of my friends in high school, David Craig, had a series of cool cars that I lusted over. He had a Sentra SER, which was really cool at the time. He also had a Nissan 200sx that had the powertrain from a Nissan 300zx swapped into it – it was an awesome sleeper because it was crazy fast but looked like any other mid 80’s sports coupe. He also had a slew of other cool cars like several tuned Honda Civic del sol’s. And then he bought this insane 1989 Nissan 300ZX that had been imported from Japan (which was big at the time) and had been part of the Midnight Club. I was in love. It was his baby. His Pride and joy. To me, he embodied what it meant to be a car enthusiast. It had a widebody kit and something like 500 hp. I had never seen a widebody kit on a car before, nor had I ever experienced that kind of power. The ONE TIME I was even allowed to go for a ride in it I was hooked and it took my obsession with cars to another level. It consumed me.
Being a car enthusiast was not something that started from when I was really young. It was something that grew over time and really wasn’t a thing for me until I was in high school. That’s when I met other car people, got into watching Formula 1 racing and generally started to get interested in cars. Eventually this grew into what it is today. While I haven’t always been able to own the cars I wanted, my passion for cars has never gone down.
I am a car enthusiast.
Why are you a car enthusiast? Let me know in the comments below!
