How much of a car dork were you as a kid?

[GeordieInExile]

I would say I was very much a car dork. I wasn't really into exotica, but I read Auto Express and Top Gear religiously, and I kept myself fully abreast of all the stuff the mass market manufacturers were putting out. I remember being amazed by the MK1 Focus as a 10 year old. I made a mental note of the new models I saw when out and about, and I played "spot the new reg" every year. 

Dorkier than that, though, I also drew cars in my spare time. A lot. Not real cars, ones I made up. And they were never supercars, they were humdrum family cars (albeit usually quite heavily influenced by real cars, even subconsciouly). I invented an entire history for the car company I created, with entire model lineups and families of engine. I can remember them all, even now.

... My parents never had me tested for autism as a child, but I can see why they considered it. 

[High Jetter]

I have a box file of brochures I requested, and received, by post. From the likes of Morgan, Aston Martin, Jaguar etc...

[artdjones]

My mother told me that I could identify the Cortina MK1 at the age of 3, probably because of the rear lights.

[loserone]

I have designs for a replacement for the discovery I.  

I read Car and Performance Bikes cover to cover every month I could get them, and subscribed to LRO for three years from age 8.  I subscribed to Evo for the first five years.

 

I thought everyone could recognise every car in the dark regardless of direction?

[High Jetter]

2 minutes ago, artdjones said:

My mother told me that I could identify the Cortina MK1 at the age of 3, probably because of the rear lights.

Aged 5 or 6, in bed. My ears could detect mini, herald, anglia. No contest if I could actually see them.

[hairnet]

still am

1993 3528 848 803 1725 1172 1071 970 1256 747 2144 875 659 425 602

[High Jetter]

Si si senor?

[fatharris]

Big car dork then, big car dork now.

Used to have a paper round and one of the customers would get Auto Express delivered weekly - they were always the second person to read it

[High Jetter]

Just now, fatharris said:

Big car dork then, big car dork now.

Used to have a paper round and one of the customers would get Auto Express delivered weekly - they were always the second person to read it

I remember when that was launched.

[Schaefft]

Never really were into reading auto magazines but was absolutely obsessed about certain cars, most likely because of the movies of the time. The question of "what's your favorite car?" is pretty hard to answer nowadays, back when I was 10 it would have been "'91 Chevy Caprice!" for many years to come, simply because of it being in pretty much every contemporary US production in one way or another. That and buying Matchbox probably permanently cemented what I'm into!

I also very much remember liking Astra F hatches lol.

[Shite Ron]

I also used to draw cars very often, I would dream of having a Cortina pedal car, played with matchbox and dinky cars and asked for toy Cortina’s. I wouldn’t talk to my Dad when he part exchanged his 1600E for a Viva. I think I have been obsessed with cars from the age of 4, possibly 3, certainly as long as I can remember. Ferrari’s and Porsche never interested me, my dream car has always been a Cortina and still is. I also collected brochures and read them thoroughly, I used to remember every colour and available option. For my computer studies O level I created a used car dealership stock database, for art O level several of my paintings included Cortina’s in street scenes or in the countryside. It is fair to say that I have always had an interest in the less exotic / show off car. I did a milk round from the age of 14 to save for a car and bought my first Cortina not long after turning 16 so that I could learn to drive before I was 17. Cars are what keep me sane… or insane depending on your outlook.

[Six-cylinder]

In the late 1960s, early 1970s my father would take my brother and I to the Earls court Motor Show and I would come home with at least 2 carrier bags stuffed with car brochures.

[Jazoli]

I could recognise 99% of cars by their headlights at night in the late 70's and early 80's.

I wouldn't have a clue now and don't look at them as they are too bright these days. 

[wuvvum]

24 minutes ago, GeordieInExile said:

I would say I was very much a car dork. I wasn't really into exotica, but I read Auto Express and Top Gear religiously, and I kept myself fully abreast of all the stuff the mass market manufacturers were putting out. I remember being amazed by the MK1 Focus as a 10 year old. I made a mental note of the new models I saw when out and about, and I played "spot the new reg" every year. 

Dorkier than that, though, I also drew cars in my spare time. A lot. Not real cars, ones I made up. And they were never supercars, they were humdrum family cars (albeit usually quite heavily influenced by real cars, even subconsciouly). I invented an entire history for the car company I created, with entire model lineups and families of engine. I can remember them all, even now.

... My parents never had me tested for autism as a child, but I can see why they considered it. 

Apart from the fact that I'm 10 years older than you, literally every word of this describes me exactly.

[barefoot]

My mother (repeatedly) tells the tale of when as a small child I accompanied her, whilst my dad played cricket... I was pissing about, like kids do on the touchline with my Corgi toys, when a chap asked, "are you playing with your brum brums?" "That", I apparently replied, "is not a Brum Brum. It's a Mercedes Benz". I cheerfully hope that I was even more fucking irritating as a child than I am now.

Oh, and like others, as a kid I could readily identify cars by the sound of their engine/transmission - Wolsely1500/Viva/Zephyr/ADO16 etc...

[Wibble]

Yep, total car dork from about aged 3. A bit like @Shite Ron on the Cortina front. Went with my Dad to pick up his first company car, a facelift Mk3 1.6L auto. He looked at other makes every time it came up for renewal but always decided Cortinas were better, until they stopped production. Could identify most cars by sound as a kid. Not now, unless it’s a Transit of VAG diesel.

[High Jetter]

6 minutes ago, Jazoli said:

I could recognise 99% of cars by their headlights at night in the late 70's and early 80's.

I wouldn't have a clue now and don't look at them as they are too bright these days. 

Yeah, cos you also knew what the local cops used, spotted by  lights in the mirror?

Mebbe just me, then

[Split_Pin]

Somewhat to my parent's disdain, I lived and breathed cars from as soon as I became aware of what one was.

It was certainly fueled by my mum not having a driving licence until I was 4 so we walked everywhere. I enquired on what each and every car was as we walked past, but I was only interested in the old ones, especially if they were derelict in a driveway. My poor mum tried her best with all the names! This was the early 1980s so while everyone else was lusting after Ferraris, I was interested in Simcas, any 1960s or 70s European tat, MK1 Escorts and the Shelvoke Revopak bin lorries we got, with the huge rotating tines at the back. Mum said the Corgi model was too dear (of course I have one now). 

I was also obsessed with toy cars, again mainly old tatty ones representing the real bangers that survived at the time. 

I never really had any friends but was always happily immersed in vehicles.

Nothings changed except I have 4 1/1 cars to play with now!

 

[sheffcortinacentre]

From a very early age been obsessed by cars still am, can remember reading street machine & auto performance mags in class at school .

[brownnova]

1 hour ago, GeordieInExile said:

I read Auto Express and Top Gear religiously

Tick! Top Gear particularly. Loved anything spy shot related in Auto express and living near-ish to Gaydon growing up I was obsessed with spotting the camouflaged cars. I also read Practical Classics and car restorer in the mid 90s when a friend gave me a few copies. My Grandad used to buy me the daily express new car guide every year from 1994 through to about 2005 when he was really ill with Parkinson’s. It was the only Christmas present he bought himself! I spent HOURS poring over them. And still have some of them to this day. 

1 hour ago, GeordieInExile said:

and I played "spot the new reg" every year. 

Tick! We lived on a main road… on August the 1st my parents wouldn’t make plans for the morning as I was stood by the wall until I spotted my first new reg car! 

1 hour ago, GeordieInExile said:

I also drew cars in my spare time. A lot. Not real cars, ones I made up. And they were never supercars, they were humdrum family cars (albeit usually quite heavily influenced by real cars, even subconsciouly). I invented an entire history for the car company I created, with entire model lineups and families of engine. I can remember them all, even now.

Big tick… exactly all of this!

I always claimed that I designed a two seat city car in a rounded shape before Smart did and the small people carrier before the Renault Scenic. I had a full range from city car to luxury saloon… my mainstay was the family hatch, the Covina (which was a bit akin to the Toyota Carina). That went through several generations. And the Solar which was a two door coupe a bit like the first gen Hyundai Scoupe. I had specs written up based on making it competitive contemporary models… however… they were never class leading… always aimed for the middle 🤣

I also got my brothers to draw cars, but my company bought their’s up and made them a wing of my overarching conglomerate…

My mum always says that I could recognise cars before I could recognise colours, and had a really big collection of toy cars many of which I still have! Apparently some of my first words were Opel Manta as I had a yellow model Manta which I tried to show everyone.  I used to do comparison tests of the cars of the day based on their stats MPG, MPH, boot space etc and declare a winner of each type of car. I used to do this whilst my parents took us to church, but I was more interested in cars rather than Christ. But I’d get a lot of the old folks tax discs from their Metros in order to add to my tax discs collection… My grandad and Uncle were both massive petrol heads, they enabled me. My uncle used to take me to the car showrooms to pick up brochures and then one year to the holy grail… the 1997 NEC motor show. There I met Lightning from Gladiators… but frankly I was more excited that I got to sit in a Renault Safrane.

I could go on… but I realise I’ve already said enough to make me realise I was slightly obsessed… still am. 

[Datsuncog]

15 hours ago, GeordieInExile said:

I also drew cars in my spare time. A lot. Not real cars, ones I made up. And they were never supercars, they were humdrum family cars (albeit usually quite heavily influenced by real cars, even subconsciouly). I invented an entire history for the car company I created, with entire model lineups and families of engine. I can remember them all, even now.

I did this also.

In my case, a fully realised yet incredibly dull-looking range of vehicles under the Eclipse monicker which, on reflection, looked rather like 1980s Hyundais... 

15 hours ago, Shite Ron said:

my dream car has always been a Cortina and still is [...] for art O level several of my paintings included Cortina’s [...] It is fair to say that I have always had an interest in the less exotic / show off car. I did a milk round from the age of 14 to save for a car and bought my first Cortina not long after turning 16 so that I could learn to drive before I was 17.

Spooky - I also gravitated towards Cortinas from a ludicrously early age (like, about two or three), probably fuelled by my much-loved Matchbox model of a MkIV Cortina (which I still have).

I was obsessed with scrapyards. And apparently could name nearly every car model on the road by the time I was at playgroup. I just loved cars; I was fascinated by them.

There was a rotten MkIV Cortina in Jupiter Red dumped on a piece of waste ground near my school, and I used to fantasize about getting hold of it and getting it running again. I was absolutely gutted when one day, it was gone - UKS249T, I'll never forget you.

I kept a list of numberplates of Cortinas I saw around town.

My GSCE art projects mainly involved Mk3 Cortinas.

I was mildly obsessed by Jalopy magazine when it came out in 1991, and (when it became annoyingly hard to get hold of) made it a mission to find all the back copies to get a complete run.

I won a writing award when I was eight and said I was going to save the cash prize (£100!) and buy a Cortina with it. I spent the next eight years or so circling every Cortina for sale in the local paper's classifieds ads, before eventually wearing my parents down enough for them to allow me to withdraw those savings and buy a deeply scruffy MkV 1.6L in Meadow Green, with which to lower the tone of the neighborhood.

Sadly it was too far gone to ever see the road again - but eleven years later I did spend rather more on a marginally less shit MkV 2.0 GL estate in Crystal Green, which I dailyed in the latter part of the 2000s.

I'm still very interested in toy cars - that hasn't changed. I was reading books about collectable Corgi, Dinky and Spot-On while I was still in primary school, and buying and selling diecast from jumble sales and school fêtes like a demented junior version of Bargain Hunt. I recently found a list of diecast cars I'd uncovered in a storeroom at school (used to demonstrate velocity, apparently), and offered to value.

I really was quite an odd child. It wasn't much of a surprise to people when I started working part-time in a model shop, when I turned 16.

And, if you ever dip into the Shite In Miniature thread, you'll see it's still models of the everyday street furniture stuff like Chrysler Alpines and Morris Marinas that I'm most interested in, not really supercars or racers.

Luckily, there's some top-notch shite being modelled these days, available for pocket change:

I really haven't changed all that much in forty years, tbh...

[Spiny Norman]

Extremely.
I learnt to read more from my Dad's Motor and Autocar magazines than anywhere else. When I started school I couldn't understand why there were no cars in the simple books they gave me to read.
I used to collect car & truck brochures and had boxes of them from the 60s and 70s. You could show me a minute detail pic of any car and I'd not only tell you what car it was but the exact cc of all the engines it came with and trim levels.
I was like that up to about 2004/5 when I lost interest in all the tractor engines and SUVs.

2 hours ago, Jazoli said:

I could recognise 99% of cars by their headlights at night in the late 70's and early 80's.

I wouldn't have a clue now and don't look at them as they are too bright these days. 

I was once driving to Inveraray at night with a couple of mates in the car and one of them pointed out there was someone behind us.
'It's an XR3' I said.
'How the fuck can you tell that?' came the response.
'Well, it's an Escort Mk3 and it's sitting a bit lower than a standard one so...' VROOOOOM! and he whipped past me.
'Yup, told you'...😛

[big_al_granvia]

was more of a bus and train nut, having a bus garage at the bottom of the garden and dozens of leyland leopards with alexander y-type bodies, volvo b10m's etc, the noise of those leyland 680's firing on a frosty morning. Granny stayed next to the railway so it was sulzer and english electrics on the coal and ore trains. 

one time grandfather took me to a miniature railway in my pushchair and whilst he had a pint a spark from the steam loco landed i my buggy setting it on fire, grandfather and co realising i was on fire poured their beer over me and buggy to put me out, so my earliest memory of steam is coupled to my earliest memory of ale. I have enjoyed both all my life. mum and gran went tonto at the state of me when we got home

[Metal Guru]

4 hours ago, Six-cylinder said:

In the late 1960s, early 1970s my father would take my brother and I to the Earls court Motor Show and I would come home with at least 2 carrier bags stuffed with car brochures.

My Dad took me to that in 1968 I think. I remember the Jaguar XJ6 was launched that year and I was a Jaguar fan so spent ages sitting in all the cars on their stand.

The E type was my favourite obviously but I also  really liked the huge Mk10.

Other cars from that era I particularly liked were Ford Zodiac (Mk4), MGBs, and Rover P6 (V8 esp), 

[riek]

I once told the woman in the taxi office you couldn't 'put the turbo on' because it worked off the exhaust. I was probably 9.

[adw1977]

8 hours ago, High Jetter said:

I remember when that was launched.

I remember Auto Express being launched.  I was very interested in cars as a kid, especially the Mini for some reason, and moved from buying comics to buying Autocar.  But Autocar made a big dent in my pocket money, so when Auto Express started it gave me a much cheaper way of keeping up with the motoring news.

All my parents' cars were Vauxhalls and every time one of them was at the dealer for servicing my Dad would bring back a load of brochures, so I always knew the Vauxhall range inside out.

Although I had a bit of a thing for Ferraris, I was mostly interested in the ordinary cars that I actually saw every day.

[Stinkwheel]

Yes, I wasnt exactly obsessed but i knew virtually every car or bike i saw and a lot by sound as well. The headlights were always a giveaway.

My mum and dad were interested in cars, we went to santa pod, billing american car shows, lots of museums for cars and bikes when we were on holiday, vintage bike club meets (VMCC). I had subscriptions to performance bikes and my dad had subscriptions to classic bike and the classic motorcyle and also bike magazine for a while. I had been gifted a ton of custom car magazine and street machine (the whole run of both from about 1984 to 1988 ish) I also had a load of late 60's car magazines that id been gifted.

I modified my Scalextric cars and raced them with a mate next door. I had only a few friends around but the ones that were, were also into cars and we would play the 'fantasy dads company car game. All their dads had cavaliers, sierras and one an astra. My dad had things like Citroen CX's and audi 90 quattros as he was his own boss.

[ProgRocker]

9 hours ago, GeordieInExile said:

... My parents never had me tested for autism as a child, but I can see why they considered it. 

Similar for me.

I'm not too sure where my interest in cars started from, just liked cars. Developed an interest in the family car: a white R reg Granada 2000 L from around the age of 3. Other mark 1 Granadas I used to see outside walking would have the chrome T shifter automatic transmission whereas very few had the manual 4 speed like my parents'. I think my dad must have explained the differences to me. I also used no note the noise made by Vauxhall Vivas and Chevettes (the transmission whine). Similar with Minis and Metros. 

My dad used to take me to the annual Motor Show in Great Yarmouth (!) during the 1980s and I used to collect sales brochures. I had every issue of What Car? magazine from July 1987 to around 2003. Developed an interest in reading the data section and discovering the price difference between Rolls Royces vs Mercedes-Benzs vs Fords and Vauxhalls. My Brother-In-Law at the time (16 years older than me) owned a few Eastern Bloc cars so I became interested in that niche.

[Jazoli]

I also just remembered I spotted the soon to be released Alfa 164 in disguise in Morocco of all places when I was on holiday at 12 years old, I managed to get a pic of it with my dad’s camera and sent it to Autocar! A month later a small pic appeared in said magazine with the usual ‘scoop’ tagline, I kept that issue for many years.

Many years later whilst living in Almeria I regularly spotted new Porsches and BMW’s all camouflaged up as they did a lot of pre production testing in the area, it was always fun taking pics when the drivers were having lunch in a nearby hotel, Autocar never published any of those pics though unfortunately.

[JJ0063]

Obsessed but it was always current cars, I didn’t particularly have an interest in older stuff as a kid. 
 

My parents were always amazed that I could identify cars in the dark by the shape of the lights in the dark and things like that.

Id be buying Redline, max power and fast car mags as a young gun. Father JJ would buy himself Autotrader every week and I’d spend hours looking through it.