Ask The Best And Brightest: How/When Did You Fall In Love With Cars?
Published: February 14th, 2011
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More by Edward Niedermeyer
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I first heard a noise which made my hair stand up on the back of my neck and I turned to see tire smoke billowing through the service tents set up in the paddock. I cut between two of them and up to the tire wall and as the noise stopped, a slight wind parted the smoke, revealing a blue coloured, two seater car of unimaginable beauty. I could finally see the face of the guy sitting in the drivers seat and the grin on his face would have put the Cheshire cat to shame. I was 11 years old and I had fallen in love with the AC (Shelby) Cobra.
I was never interested in cars, drove a Civic for 8+ years, ignorance was a bliss you could say. I was always the quiet one during any auto-discussion, and to me, cars were nothing more than a device to get from point A to B. Then late last year(around oct '10) started researching cars since the family needed a new car, found this site, have been lurking ever since, and now all I read about is cars cars cars. Got hooked on Gran Turismo 5, and started watching Top Gear and actually enjoying it. I've also probably watched every car review on youtube :)
It was the spring of 1973 and I was 7 and at a friends house on the other side of town. We were walking in the neighborhood to another friends house when I first laid eyes on it - a Lotus Europa Twin Cam. I walked around that car numerous times, to the point that my friends thought something was wrong with me. A few months later, I came upon an even more obscure automaker - TVR. With the same friends, we came across a 2500M in a store parking lot. Again I just kept walking around the car; studying it intensely. The final so called straw was my return to elementary school that September. My teacher shows up driving a Porsche 914, bright orange. I walked right past my teacher to her car. I studied it for what seemed like hours until class had to finally start. To this day, when I see one of those, it brings back great memories.
I'm pretty sure it was when daddy's sperm met mommy's egg.