The car that started it all for me.

[MadRiver]

For me, it was my father's 1952 XK-120 coupe. When my dad bought the Jag to restore, he also got a parts car, which was a rusted old hulk. The car was only 20 years old at the time, and clearly had an unhappy life! When I was a kid in the mid-1970s, we used to let us play in the parts car. We'd sit on the floor boards (there was *no* interior left except for the steering wheel) and pretend that we were driving. A decade later, when I was in high school, I helped with the 120's restoration. I remember the first day we took it for a drive when it was complete. I'll never forget the sound of that XK engine roaring under the hood. What a machine. He eventually got AACA junior and senior firsts, and now it sits proudly in his collection between his Packard and his EMF. As an aside, the parts car sat in our field in Vermont for years, and then was purchased by a fellow in the UK. Not sure what has become of it.

Here's my dad in the 120 before restoration. Dig his 1970s mustache!

Here's the big cat after the frame-off restoration:

The other car that started it all for me was my mom's 1960 Austin Healey. I never had the pleasure of making the car's acquaintance, but I heard stories about it my entire life. My folks sold it in 1963 when mom was pregnant with my brother, and could no longer fit behind the wheel. In retrospect, I think they should have kept the car and waited to have children until *I* came along! Just kidding, of course.

My mom (rest her soul) was super-sassy back in the day:

I credit these two machines with my love of LBCs.

 

[Roger]

I don't know if this car started it for me, but here I am, 18 months old, at the wheel of a Morris 8.
March 1943

 

[vping]

Really cool. I wish I had some old shots like this but the first car I remember of my Moms was a 1970 Fury Wagon. Yellow with faux wooden sides. Maybe I should be glad I don't have any pics then

 

[rustbucket]

I talked a girl I had just met in high school into letting me drive her TR6. We cruised that car all evening one summer night. It was my first ride in a convertible. I drove that car like I stole it. It was only at the end of the evening that she found out I was only 15 and did not have my license yet! I have wanted a TR ever since.

A few years later my dad picked up a 1500 Midget from a neighbor who thought the transmission was broken. Turned out that the clutch disc was frozen to the flywheel from sitting. Dad made the mistake of letting me drive it to college. It's the only car I ever completely totaled. Flipped it over into a ditch out in the country late one night after one too many beers. I still don't know how I walked away from that wreck.