I’ve watched the video a hundred times, my first birthday. I look like I want to get out of there more than anything. My cousin is trying to steal the glory, my grandma and aunts are way too excited and then finally I am saved by my dad as he swoops me up and we head out to the garage.
On my first birthday my father decided it would be a good idea to buy me a 1970 Chevy Nova with a big block in it, talk about a present. But this was only the beginning. I was still shitting in diapers the first time I was exposed to street racing. I can’t say that I personally recall the situations but my dad sure loves telling me the stories countless times. If you haven’t guessed already I grew up in a culture soaked in high octane gasoline. I went everywhere that involved cars with my dad. The junk yard, swap meets, car shows. My dad was and is a devoted car enthusiast.
My dad is the proud owner of ten different muscle cars, ranging from empty shells to national show winning garage queens featured in national magazines. All throughout my childhood my days involved eating, sleeping, and living cars. And thats before I could even drive. But it is the day that I could drive that I remember most vividly. While my friends were learning how to drive for the first time in commuter cars and family four doors, I was gifted with another option.
”Wanna drive the corvette?” Those were the words that voiced my dad’s solution to teaching me how to drive a manual transmission. It was on this day that my dad set in stone my future addiction to high speed, high performance vehicles. Since that day I have owned a whole stable of cars, some shitty some cool, but regardless of there physical ability I have beaten and driven every single one of them to its limit, sometimes resulting in its death. Regardless of the car I love the feeling of driving cars, the sense of freedom it gives me is unmatched by anything else. I don’t mean driving to the grocery store and back, but a passionate drive; driving as one with the car. It is the one activity I love doing more than anything and it is these events in my past that have sealed my fate as a motorhead.
