Why do you love cars so much?

[Taff]

"sighs"

 

I've got no idea. From where I am sat on my sofa, I can see 7 US licence plate, two hubcaps turned into clocks, fcuk knows how many parts catalogues. I have a Haynes manual for a E34 BMW 3 series on my bedside table & I don't even fuckin own a E34.

I have special towels for drying my hands when I have worked on the Galaxie. My ebay watchlist is full of cars I won't buy.

Here's a tester. I moved in here just after Christmas, and amongst the stuff I brought with me was a gearbox for a 1973 Corvette. I have never owned a Corvette, I don't even really like them, but I have a gearbox for one, just in case.

WTF is wrong with us?

[gordonbennet]

Brilliant Taff, only here could someone cherish a gearbox for a car they don't own or particularly like.

 

I love eccentrics, the more bonkers the better.

[Partridge]

The question you need to ask is: what's wrong with everyone else. There's people lining up and camping overnight for an iPhone, which is, stunningly, a phone. At least a car has some emotional value and is more useful than what Junkman would call "shiny shit from China".

[mat_the_cat]

Again, I've always been keen from an early age but don't really know why - none of my family were ever into cars. The only member I can think of was the first husband of an aunt of mine, who I remember always ran around in a battered but cool (to a 5 year old) Capri. Funnily enough, he was at my cousin's wedding a couple of years back and once I realised who he was I went over and re-introduced myself (as he'd last seen my 30 years ago). Had a great time chatting, and it's the one and only time I've ever been able to talk cars with anybody in the family

 

Things got even more serious/obsessed when I learnt to drive. Suddenly, I had freedom. I'd had a motorbike before I passed my car test, but this was different. You could give people lifts without the prior planning of carrying a spare helmet (which always looks a bit presumptuous when picking up girls), you could not only just get in and drive to the arse end of nowhere, but have a roof over your head when you did so. And as a mildly troubled teenager, running away from problems was always a tempting option. So for me, cars (and one in particular) represent that golden moment of freedom in life when you are old enough so be able to do things like just drive to Scotland on the spur of the moment, and young enough not to be burdened with life's responsibilities.

[gordonbennet]

For Christs sake don't remind us of those twats queuing for days on end to buy a bloody phone.

 

In more sensible times they'd have been collected by a couple of  blokes in white coats and taken to a place of safety.

[Sloth in a bowl]

Nobody in the family was into cars, I know a lot about steam railways from my dad and my teenage hobby was playing chess but F1 and Rallying was cool in the late 70's/early 80's so I will blame...

 

 

Carlos Reutemann in his Williams for my love of cars

[Taff]

Brilliant Taff, only here could someone cherish a gearbox for a car they don't own or particularly like.

 

I love eccentrics, the more bonkers the better.

 

it gets worse. I moved out and into this place following a marriage break-up, right? No huge deal, it happens.

Now, you all know I brought the '73 g/box with me, but I didn't have a toaster.

[r.welfare]

Been interested in 'em since I were a nipper. Liked Beetles first (soon grew out of that) but was scared of Mk4 Zephyrs.

 

No other interest in my family. Although my dad, in common with most blokes born just after the Second World War, is fascinated by planes in the same way I am by motors.

 

I can't really logically explain when my love of cars transitioned to a love of shite though - other than I have always been tight with money. But I'd much rather own a brown 924 automatic* than a 911 Turbo.

 

* a mate of mine owned such a car for a decade and offered it to me before he emigrated last year. If the autobox hadn't have been gubbed and the car not sat in his front garden for 3 years I would have jumped at it. As it was, the scrappers gave him £110 for it.

[Spiny Norman]

It's an affliction and addiction I've had since I was a wee.
My Dad used to come home with Autocar and Motor magazine and before I could read I used to look at the pictures. Then when I started to learn to read I read car magazines. I could recognise and say words like Renault and accelerator when I was about 2 apparently, and when I went to school and we started on Janet & John books I skimmed through them looking for something about a car in them.

 

Cheaper than a drug habit I guess, if slightly less socially acceptable...

[PiperCub]

For Christs sake don't remind us of those twats queuing for days on end to buy a bloody phone.

 

In more sensible times they'd have been collected by a couple of  blokes in white coats and taken to a place of safety.

 

Be careful GB - that's heresy, you can expect a hord of steve jobs disciples to descend upon your house and talk ceaselessly about why apple is so much better than microsoft in a monotonic way until you are bored into agreeing with them.

[PiperCub]

For me, it was model cars as a nipper, then books and mags. Not just cars but trucks, motorbikes and aeroplanes, really anything mechanical I have an affinity for.

 

I think it was bought out by a magazine called Speed & Power which was published 1974/5 (for 87 issues - I have them all, sad or what) which had all the above & more, I doubt anyone remembers this brilliant publication. 

 

That's it really, dad fairly keen on cars and bikes, taught me quite a bit but he wasn't a petrolhead as such, just transport that needed fixing as money was tight. No-one else in my family is really into machinery so no connection there.

 

The only other trigger was watching saloon car racing, rallying and even better - rallycross on TV, I don't follow motorsport anymore as such (way too money orientated) but still love rallycross.

[gordonbennet]

Be careful GB - that's heresy, you can expect a hord of steve jobs disciples to descend upon your house and talk ceaselessly about why apple is so much better than microsoft in a monotonic way until you are bored into agreeing with them.

 

Thats fine by me, i won't have the foggiest bloody idea what they're pontificating about anyway, if they bring some librarian style (wearing glasses and seamed stockings phwoar) posh totty with 'em i can leer at it'll pass the time pleasurably, might get me annual semi.

 

My phone's steam powered, takes me an age to respond to a text and i hate every second of that, it's a brick of a phone though and the battery lasts a month on standy and about 2 days solid gobbing off.

 

Nope i reckon they'd give me up as a luddite (correct) and bugger off.

[PiperCub]

Yup, same here, I love winding up the resident anorak gadget freak simpletons with my 11 year old Nokia. It makes and receives phone calls you know and the battery lasts a week between recharging too. No, it hasn't got a satnav but then again, I can read, interpret and navigate using something called a map (if they look blank, I tell them it's a satnav made out of a tree).

 

Plus I claim it's actually an iPhone 9 - a super trendy retro edition that they aren't cool or clever enough to own........

 

 

With you on the librarian though! Sadly most geek-chicks aren't too attractive in my experience.

[Bobthebeard]

Yup, same here, I love winding up the resident anorak gadget freak simpletons with my 11 year old Nokia. It makes and receives phone calls you know and the battery lasts a week between recharging too. No, it hasn't got a satnav but then again, I can read, interpret and navigate using something called a map (if they look blank, I tell them it's a satnav made out of a tree).

 

Plus I claim it's actually an iPhone 9 - a super trendy retro edition that they aren't cool or clever enough to own........

 

 

With you on the librarian though! Sadly most geek-chicks aren't too attractive in my experience.

I must have missed something here..... 11 year old Nokia. Why do you love cars.

[Lord Sterling]

I'm a bloke, I like cars and women.

 

I am aware of my obsession with Rover 800s and am actively seeking help.

[jakebullet]

You put gas in a car and you cruise.

 

That or we all have aspergers

[xtriple]

When I were a nipper, my favourite pastime was taking model cars apart on my Grans kitchen table. If I scratched them or couldn't get them back together, I used to bury them in the garden! I was still digging them back up twenty years later...

 

My best moment ever at junior school was winning something or other and getting a spotters guide to cars as a prize, I was soooo proud.

 

I could (apparently) name every car before I went to school (I could also read, write and do my 'sums' thanks to my Auntie who spent hours teaching me - I only wanted to know so I could read the badges on the back of cars, I spent ages, years, thinking next doors car was a Rover 3.5 'Comper'  the Coupe script had me well fazed!) and was well on my way to knowing all the different motorbikes as well.

 

When my uncle up the road got a new MK3 Cortina estate, quite a jazzy one (GXL?) I was ecstatic and couldn't wait to see/go in it. My Grandad had a Zephyr 4 that he'd had since the year dot and I used to go with him every Monday night just for the drive to my Aunties house (about 8 miles and the only time it ever came out of the garage!) and he used to regale me with stories of the tanks he drove in the war out in Africa. He drove the Ford like it was a bloody tank as well, no mechanical sympathy whatever!

 

Ome night coming back from Aunties, the bonnet blew up and both front wings came off, it was absolutely rotten. This was not long after all the shopping (the reason for the weekly visits - he had a corner shop and took her grub every week) fell out of the boot as we were driving along as the floor had gone! He parked it outside the local Ford dealers (no choice really, that's where it fell to bits!) and got a new Cortina from them the next day. All done over the phone and delivered a few days later. it was that bloody 'Silver Fox' that so many were and the paint all fell off the bonnet!

 

That Cortina, a base spec I think lasted him right up until he died and still had under ten thousand miles twenty years later!

 

By the age of six I was reading Car and car conversions as my monthly fodder and had to forego my weekly Beano and Dandy to be allowed it - I dreamed of having an Anglia with a 1500 pre crossflow with wide steel wheels and a small leather rimmed steering wheel. I never did own an Anglia and have been strangely devoid of Fords during my motoring life (Sierras, Grannies, Capris excepted!).  When I went back to living with my Mother (boo-hiss!) I spent ages trying to get her to buy a Reliant Scimitar SE4 (coupe) instead of the Jaguar 420 she bought. I quite like d the Jag in the end as it had spoked wire wheels and went well, I spent ages outside in the pouring rain cleaning the wheels with a toothbrush while hiding under a brolly... we were on holiday in Bournemouth at the time and I was bored!

 

No one in my family is or was, remotely interested in cars or bikes, so no idea where my devotion came from.

 

Now, I'm gutted that I have nowhere for another car or the physical ability to play with one - Karma? I must have been a proper arsehole in a previous life!

[dangerousdave]

I think for me it started when I was very young mum and dad taking me to car shows and custom shows and hearing v8,s start up helped considerably I also see it this way my dad has always liked cars and football my sister got into football doesn't like cars I got into cars cant stand football

[dangerousdave]

to add to my post I was the one at school when everyone else was taking a omic or football mag in to read mine was either street machine or the Haynes manual for whatever car dad had at the time

[cort1977]

I think I love the freedom of being able to go where you want, when you want - at least in theory.   I used to have to get the bus to school at the time when the Tories deregulated the buses.   It would regularly take two hours to go six miles with the bad service, changes and traffic.   As soon as I could I got a car to avoid having to wait for any more bloody buses.   I also enjoy fixing cars and especially the feeling of self reliance from successfully sorting something.   And I have to confess that I enjoy feeling a little smarter than people who buy a new car on finance and then pay main dealer rates for service

[Lord Sterling]

To be honest, I must get my car obsession from my Dad or summat as he is a bit of a car man himself but seems a little reserved to show it most of the time, though I know he is very much an enthusiast of cars as I am. I've always loved cars, they fascinate me greatly. I'd always played with cars as a kid and always took an unhealthy interest in the cars my parents owned.

 

The Mk1 Rover Sterling is a car that made such an impact on me that carries on until this day hence my sway towards them. Back in the day before the internet, I'd sometimes buy a copy of Autotrader just to look at the pictures of D, E and F-reg Rover 800s for sale. However, most other cars are still interesting to me in one way or another.

 

I've always described myself as a "car enthusiast" rather than a "petrol head" as to me personally I'm interested in the history of a particular car, it's social impact (as in, who was it's original target audience, what kind of people eventually bought them and how they went down the food chain) interior layout, ride comfort, body shape, how they move, what engines and specs were chosen and the differences in specs between the UK and elsewhere, why they depreciate, current prices, peoples attitudes towards certain marques etc...

 

Where as to me, personally, a petrol head is someone who interested in engines, speed, handling, bhp, rally/sporting history etc...

 

I have mostly models of very normal, everyday cars, I mean I have a 1/43 scale Mitsubishi Carisma ffs! All of the games I have own are often car themed.

 

I spent ages, years, thinking next doors car was a Rover 3.5 'Comper' the Coupe script had me well fazed!)

Similar thing happened to me when I was a kid. I remember thinking my Dad's car was a Rover Stenling rather a Sterling just because of the way the script was.

[fordperv]

I was obsessed with cars from an early age because my dad was a petrol head, my dad used to go for a drive to send me off to sleep when I was niggly as a baby (still to this day if I'm pissed off I jump in the car go for a short drive it calms me down) growing up he had me helping him work on motors, teaching me along the way how things worked. I love the sense of achievement I get from working on stuff

[Partridge]

Driving has a calming effect on me too. It's also a great way to get and escape for a bit when things get too much.

[dave21478]

I have a specific memory of when it started.

 

My dad was and is a mechanical doofus - he knows nothing and has zero skills for cars or DIY or anything practical. 

As a small kid, I grew up properly poor - parents were separated for a while and my mother and I lived in a caravan. We had no car. My dad ran a series of Vauxhall Chevannes which were all hanging. When the family got back together he bought a Volvo 345GL with rubber band CVT gearbox. One day it shat its distributer. He didnt know this but someone diagnosed it for him. With much swearing we got one from a scrapyard and he fitted it and took it to a friend of his to get the timing set properly.

This guy worked at a tyre and exhaust place. This was the '80s so pop and rock music was blasting out of a home hifi sat in a corner and there were nekkid ladies on the wall calenders. The guys own car was a "cool" car to me. Thats all I knew - it looked cool. Looking back, I now know it was a Cortina estate painted bright orange, rear jacked up over massive wide alloys and the front lowered. It had a Confederate flag painted on the roof and a massive whip aerial on the wing that was bent over and fixed to the rear of the roof.

We spent a few hours there watching him work fitting tyres for people and at quiet moments fettling the Volvo. I suddenly knew that I wanted to be like that.

 

Not very modest, but I would say that I am a rather good mechanic - purely self taught. As a kid I played non-stop with Lego Technic, teaching myself about gears, driveshafts, universal joints, levers, fulcrums and so on. My bicycle was the cheapest, shittest one out of my group of friends, but it was always the best working one because I was constantly fettling with it, and when I bought my first car I simply had to learn how to fix it as I just didnt have the money to pay a garage. I was commuting 90 miles a day to and from university in a D-reg mini, and spent most free time in a scrapyard collecting bits to make mine better.

 

I have only once owned a brand new car. In 1999 I won a new Daewoo Matiz in a prize draw. I ran it for a fortnight and traded it in for a mkIII Astra, confirming my autoshite credentials.

[forddeliveryboy]

Why?

 

1/ I'm male and it's the last vestige of Man's property possesion, unless you're a landowner or farmer. Everything else is hers

2/ You roll on wheels (for 99.9% of the million or two years of Man, we've bounced up and down on legs). Roller bearings=three times the speed of a horse and we're only the fourth or fifth generation to experience the beauty of them. So we're still evolving to them and are only just beginning to take them for granted

3/ There are interesting mechanical bits working together in harmony

4/ There is fire, explosions and heat involved

5/ You can travel places at will with the power of more than 40 horses under your right foot

[jonny69]

I used to love cars, but I actually quite dislike them now and particularly hate driving. It's other people that cause this more than the actual cars.

[Skizzer]

Pathological compulsion.

[PiperCub]

I must have missed something here..... 11 year old Nokia. Why do you love cars.

You have - read the previous post by gordonbennett

[dugong]

I used to love cars, but I actually quite dislike them now and particularly hate driving. It's other people that cause this more than the actual cars.

I had two or three months like that. Walking away did wonders*

 

*Results may vary.

[New POD]

First Off, I've come to the conclusion that "One man's hobby is another man's mental illness"

 

It doesn't matter what it is. Fishing? Tennis? Golf? Football? Dinky Cars? Books about space? Climbing? Cycling? Whatever the hobby eventually MOST blokes start to become obsessive about it.

 

Some bloke I worked with spent Every Saturday travelling to the best rivers, and NOT spending anytime with his wife and kids. I remember him explaining how he'd just bought a new rod. £1000 FFS

 

When I was a kid, my best mate used to play golf. He dad's Bank (he was a manager) paid £2000 for him to be a member of Royal Birkdale and my mate had a junior membership which cost £500. So there he is aged 18 (in 1984) and unless he £2000 he can't continue playing. God knows how much it would cost now.

 

Last night I went to the ACE café in London, on the North Circular, as it's about 6 miles from where my son shares a flat.

 

There was a gathering of cars. Now I'm looking at a seriously modified skyline that is so low it touches the speed bumps on it's way in, and thinking "For that sort of money, you can buy a house up north"