For as long as I can remember, my life has been ruled by cars: my first words after "mom" and "dad" were probably "1968 Mustang Fastback". Back then, I was brought up around the idea of making memories with cars: when I was a baby, my dad and I would spend Sunday afternoons driving to shows in our 1984 Volkswagen Westfalia, where we would be surrounded by old cars and the unmistakable smell of high-octane fuel.
As I grew older, my affections turned to Japanese cars thanks to films such as The Fast and the Furious. Every penny from my $8-an-hour part-time job at McDonald's went towards my dream car: a Nissan 240SX. A few days after my 16th birthday, I rounded up all I my cash and bought one, but never got to drive it because the head gasket blew the day I got it - and that's before I discovered the Swiss-cheese frame rails and the non-existent brakes. Unfortunately, at that point my mechanical knowledge was virtually zero, but that would soon change.
You might think the purchase of the Nissan would be a lesson learned, but it only fuelled the fire and my next buy was a 'track modified' 1984 Volvo 240 - which essentially meant that it was unfit for the road. It was on the stiffest set of badly installed coil-overs you could find, and fitted with a tired, fuel-injected B21 engine making 100bhp on a good day, but I loved it.
It was almost always broken, but when it wasn't I was out cruising with friends or making another obnoxious modification. For a high-school student, it was perfect: loud, way too low, and rusty in all the right places. Unfortunately, as I prepared to leave for university I needed something more practical: out went the Volvo, and in came an automatic 2004 Honda Civic.
Esta historia es de la edición September 2022 de Classic & Sports Car.
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Esta historia es de la edición September 2022 de Classic & Sports Car.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
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Mick WALSH
'Had someone said that this worn-looking titan would win the most famous old-car event, we would have laughed'
ALFA ROMEO STELVIO QF
Rewriting the rulebook on what an SUV can do, and how it can make you feel
FLOATING INTO THE FUTURE
Citroën's DS-replacing CX was at a cutting edge so sharp it still looks fresh today, and it had the drive to match - as five superb survivors reveal
"It's a car for posing in really"
Broadcaster Michael Buerk reflects on more than three decades with his beloved Jaguar E-type S1 3.8 fixed-head coupé
HONDAS DECK THE HALL
The Japanese firm's Los Angeles collection is now on public display for the first time in two decades
ABSOLUTELY buzzing
Honda's Si Civics brought agile, cheap fun to motorists long before the Type R name got anywhere near a hatchback
THE FEMININE TOUCH
In 1955, General Motors styling guru Harley Earl brought 11 talented women into the male-dominated world of automotive design. What was their lasting impact?
Out on a limb
Panther's innovative Solo 2 was something completely different, both for its maker and the sports car market
Restyles with substance
Panther Westwinds blended a passion for pre-war designs with modern-era mechanical usability and remarkably fine coachbuilding
Dead ringers
The Maserati Kyalami and De Tomaso Longchamp share much, having emerged from the same stable, but are poles apart at heart