Re: How did you get into cars?
Posted: Tue Nov 17, 2020 8:59 am
My dad liked cars enough to buy a yellow mk1 Scirocco in 1975 when I was 2. He'd changed his Spitfire for a Maxi when I was on the way, so I'm lucky I don't remember the Maxi. He took me to the NEC motor shows from 1978 (and the Earls Court ones too when I was a bit older). We also went to Sutton Park to see the RAC Rally from around the same time, and went to Shelsley Walsh once (though my main memories of motorsport back then were of being cold and walking a lot with only the occasional car). He bought me a couple of car mags at motor show time because they listed the models on sale (though I coloured in the black and white pictures at that age).
Probably one of the more pivotal moments in my life was when we went to the newsagents one Saturday in early 1983 (when I was 9) and rather than asking for Whizzer & Chips I spotted Car Magazine with the Porsche 944, Mitsubishi Station and Lotus Eclat Excel on the cover:
I persuaded him to buy me that, read it over and over, but only later in 1983 started to get more mags (at that time I was at a fee-paying school which included Saturday school so didn't get to go to the newsagents often). For some reason I started buying magazines monthly with What Car in November 1983; I filled in my 1983/84 back catalogue of Car from one of my stepfather's doctor colleagues who otherwise just donated his issues to the GP waiting room. Reading Car was amazing; it was pure chance that I stumbled upon probably the best era and best mag in the history of car journalism. That must have had a large influence on me as I changed from reading childish comics to grown-up magazines.
The thing is, my dad liked cars a bit less than he liked sailing so if it was just parental influence, I'd be a sailor not a car nut. I've been lucky to have had a wide variety of cars in my life from both my father's and stepfather's sides (and had a real comparison of my dad, mainly buying German, and my stepfather being more out there, buying things like a Citroen GSA and Renault 21). And their friends always had interesting stuff which I got to nose around; the GP mentioned above once turned up for dinner in a mk1 Golf GTI on ATS Cup wheels, later a Dimma-bodied 205 GTI and a Porsche 944.
Of course, I liked cars as a kid but was only able to help my father and stepfather choose theirs. But the knowledge from the 80s magazines came in very handy when I started to buy cars for myself after passing my driving test in 1990. Just wish I'd been a bit less hasty in buying my first car, a Metro from an old couple down the road. I had more interesting stuff after that; my shortlist for a ~£1000 car in 1996 when I lived in London was Scirocco, Audi 100 and Citroen BX GTI based purely on the old car magazine reviews, and I got as much fun then as any purchase I've made.
Probably one of the more pivotal moments in my life was when we went to the newsagents one Saturday in early 1983 (when I was 9) and rather than asking for Whizzer & Chips I spotted Car Magazine with the Porsche 944, Mitsubishi Station and Lotus Eclat Excel on the cover:
I persuaded him to buy me that, read it over and over, but only later in 1983 started to get more mags (at that time I was at a fee-paying school which included Saturday school so didn't get to go to the newsagents often). For some reason I started buying magazines monthly with What Car in November 1983; I filled in my 1983/84 back catalogue of Car from one of my stepfather's doctor colleagues who otherwise just donated his issues to the GP waiting room. Reading Car was amazing; it was pure chance that I stumbled upon probably the best era and best mag in the history of car journalism. That must have had a large influence on me as I changed from reading childish comics to grown-up magazines.
The thing is, my dad liked cars a bit less than he liked sailing so if it was just parental influence, I'd be a sailor not a car nut. I've been lucky to have had a wide variety of cars in my life from both my father's and stepfather's sides (and had a real comparison of my dad, mainly buying German, and my stepfather being more out there, buying things like a Citroen GSA and Renault 21). And their friends always had interesting stuff which I got to nose around; the GP mentioned above once turned up for dinner in a mk1 Golf GTI on ATS Cup wheels, later a Dimma-bodied 205 GTI and a Porsche 944.
Of course, I liked cars as a kid but was only able to help my father and stepfather choose theirs. But the knowledge from the 80s magazines came in very handy when I started to buy cars for myself after passing my driving test in 1990. Just wish I'd been a bit less hasty in buying my first car, a Metro from an old couple down the road. I had more interesting stuff after that; my shortlist for a ~£1000 car in 1996 when I lived in London was Scirocco, Audi 100 and Citroen BX GTI based purely on the old car magazine reviews, and I got as much fun then as any purchase I've made.
