How you got into the cars scene?

I wanna read the loooong novels of how you got into the car scene!

- how you were introduced to it
-when you knew you were hooked
- you first build blah blah blah
-people who have influenced you
-and what kind of effect it has had on your life


NOW POST THEM BARNES & NOBLE CLEARANCE NOVELS!!!!!!

excuse my bad grammar and spelling, English obliviously isn't my first language.

How I got into the car scene, The year was 1997 I was in 8th Grade getting ready for summer vacation. I have a subscription with PSM, "100% Unofficial Playstation magazine" in there I was reading about Gran Turismo 1. I was really fascinated by the graphic of Gran Turismo, and wanted to play it badly. As much as I wanted to play Gran Turismo, I could not for the life of me, afford a playstation 1. I apply for a summer work program at school called Summer Youth Employment. I went through the training, got the job working at the Social Service as a custodian. The job was hard but It was able to help me purchased a Nintendo 64 and a Playstation 1. Gran Turismo 1 was the first game I bought for the playstation 1. I jump right in after work, start playing day and day out getting the license and earning the cars. The more I play the game the more I got obsessive with it.

While play Gran Turismo I also remember Need for Speed III : Hot pursuit getting good reviews so I decide to purchased it and feel in loved it. The exotic cars drawn me into need for speed. I remember having a Lamborghini Countach poster in my bed room so playing need for speed III help me feel as if I'm driving the car in my poster.

I got into fixing cars in High school on my Junior year when my parents bought me my first car, a Red Automatic 1994 Integra RS. I'm the oldest in my family so I get the honor of have a free car from my parents. Mostly because they needed me to run errand with it. My dad is the only one the family that drives and I have like have 6 brothers and 2 sisters so it's too much driving for him.

First thing I did to my car was the ghetto way, I pay a friend $50 dollars to cut my springs, this was in 2001. I save money from working at my grand parents farm and bought the Altezza tail lights when it first came out. During this time the rice was strong in me. More things I bought is auto zone air intake. At the end of my senior year I bought a used body kit called Street Fighter II from a friend of mine who is a inspiration for me. His name was Bruce, he was all about going fast first before looks. His car is a 96 integra special edition. All he did was a 98 conversion on the front plus a full built B18B. From here I wanted to know more and more about cars such as what not to do and what to do in terms of the mechanic aspect and the cosmetic aspect. Altezza tails is a not to do.

The Fast and the Furious.



jk.



My cousins were into imports. I just got dragged in. I still drive an "import" but those cousins of mine now drive beamers and think highly of themselves.

started by racing bicycles when i was 12. i liked working on them. then to ATVs. same deal. then back to bicycles.i just always liked tinkering, modifying, and understanding how things worked.
during all this time my dad took me to dealerships to check out M3s, Grand Nationals, and Sentra SE-Rs. he always told me stories of the two Boss 302 Mustangs he had, back in the day. he also ALWAYS had every single car magazine delivered to his house.
while racing ATVs in bakersfield, we went out to a field and built a couple practice tracks. the beginning of all that was out drifting in the dirt in a baja bug to get the general shape of the track down and tear up the grass/weeds. man. that was fun. probably what hooked me. going fast and sideways. fun stuff for a kid. we also always went to races at Mesa Marin Raceway. it's there we used to hang out with Rick Mears before he got big. a friend of my dad's owned Bakersfield Muffler, home of sand rails that ran on alcohol and did wheelies down pismo beach. he also ran a super fast Karmann Ghia that owned the mini class at Mesa Marin.
i could never afford a REAL car until 2001, when i bought my '00 Mustang GT,. in installed my own NOS kit, drag radials, and took it to Famoso. i've spent every spare dime i have on cars, ever since.
i guess i can, more or less, blame my dad for all this. LOL.

oh.. i forgot that, even when i was in elementary school, i'd spend ALL day outside playing in the dirt with my Hot Wheels. i mean.. like after breakfast until it got too dark to see.


i'm a bonified "Car Guy".

94RSIntegra: i have a lot of respect for you, dude. you seem very humble and worked your ass off for what you got. i feel ya. nothing ever given to us.

and, oh yes. Grand Tourismo. my car obsession has resulted in my spending hundreds (thousands?) of hours over the years on that game. i've owned them ALL.

It all started as a kid (around 5 or 6 years old) and my dad had owned a 69' Camaro Z/28. I would stay up late at night in the garage just helping him detail his car or just pass the wrench to him. He owned the Camaro since he was in High School and he would tell me all of his stories he had in his car. From racing down the strip to the crazy stuff him and his friends got into or my mom chasing him down at work in his car pissed off lol. I guess it all seemed intriguing to me at the time. We always went to the local car shows which mostly contained Pre 1970 cars and they were cool to look at with their flaming paint jobs, huge blown engines and their loudness. So I guess my dad and family for that matter had introduced me into cars at a young age but I wasn't quite interested in them yet.

Fast forward a couple years and I'm about 8 years old I'd say. This was when I was hooked on cars and my overall interest in them completely changed. It all started when I first laid eyes on a 1969 Ford GT40 and my mind was completely blown. Out side of Camaros, Corvettes, Mustangs etc. I didn't know cars like this existed. When I heard it fire up and the sound it created was just pure badassery and I knew at that moment that I wanted to know more about exotic cars. Surprisingly my library at my elementary school had some pretty cool books. I remember seeing a book about Lamborghini's and Ferrari's. So after reading the books multiple times I wanted to know more and more and more and more. Every time I went to the grocery store I went straight to the magazine rack and I'd pick up a DuPont Registry and I'd just flip through the pages and dream. Lol Then one day I was in a Hobby store and I saw Die Cast models of some of my favorite cars and then I started to collect Die Cast cars, Hot wheels, and Matchbox cars. To this day I still have some of my collection as a kid but my nephews taxed quite a bit of them though My collection ranged from a Lamborghini Muira to Ferrari F40's to LMP1 Cadillac to F1 cars. I had a wide assortment but I never owned any domestic vehicles I guess as time went by I slowly started to lose interest in domestic cars. Even though a lot of family members own muscle cars and are into them I just didn't care for them anymore.

Couple years later I wanted a Ferrari F40 but I knew it was beyond reason lol. So a car that really caught my eye was the Honda NSX and from then on I was obsessed with Japanese cars. Then I started gaining interest in Japanese cars and looking at Tuner mags and back then it was interesting to see the things people were doing to their cars. It would appear to be completely rice now but back then it was cool especially to a 10 year old kid lol. So I started seeing that these cars could be had at a reasonable price and still have a fun factor to them and of course the tuning, personalizing and etc. At this point I had lost all interest in domestic cars, Dreamed of the European Bulls and Pony's, and settled for the Little cars from the rising sun. So I was 10 years old and already shopping for my first car lol with no money but strangely I had a job and I was making some money. How you say? lol. Well I never had a weekend to myself that's because every weekend I was working with my dad pouring concrete. Every Saturday and some times Sunday my dad would wake me up at 4 AM and we would go out and bust our ass. I was getting paid $20.00 - $40.00 every weekend and I was making $100.00 - $160.00 every month I felt like Bill Gates at the time lol. Although other than cars I had a second addiction which was Video Games HAHAHA!

Fast forward years later and I had saved up my money since I was 12 years old and when I turned 16 I had about 1,500.00 saved up and I bought my very first car. It was a 1997 Mitsubish Eclipse GSX I was in high School and still working on the weekends with my dad doing concrete work but I was getting paid a little more but I was busting my ass a lot more too. So I was making enough money every month to pay the strokes on the car and have a little extra for school lunch or wasting time at the Nickel Arcade but I still didn't have my drivers License LOL!

My reasoning for picking up the Eclipse was quite simple it was fairly cheap, AWD, Turbo and good condition. Plus a lot of my friends were obsessing over Honda Civics as their first car and I wanted to be different and go with something a little obscure I guess. So I picked up the car for $8,200.00 and with my $1,500.00 down payment it wasn't too bad of a buy IMO. Well it sat for a couple years because I didn't get my license till I was 18 years old and I started to learn how to drive manual and so forth. I graduated from High School and my dad had just started his own concrete business and I started working full time for him. So now I was getting ready to start this project of a car. Well I think some know the story about DSM's. They are a heap of shit I think my eclipse sat in the shop more then I spent driving it. I'd drive the car for a week then it would sit in the shop for a week. Then the end of the road of the Eclipse approached and it was when I needed a new clutch.

So my cousin had suggested this shop that he had heard from a friend. The name of the shop was JDM2 Performance. I didn't know much about the local car community or the local shops at the time so I was pretty blind back then. So I took my car there and they seemed like a cool bunch and they sounded like they knew what they were doing etc. but was I horribly wrong. It went in for a simple clutch job but it sat in their shop for 3 months!!!!!!!!!! I would drive by there almost every day and the shop would be closed about 80% of the time. It wasn't until I threatened to call the cops and send a tow truck there that they had finally decided to finish the car. Well weeks went by and the clutch felt like shit and one night my car just spilled all of its tranny fluid in a parking lot. Turns out they had stripped all the bolts on the transmission. Long story short car never drove the same after I had it fixed and I sold it for $6,800.


So I bought my neighbors 1988 blazer for $800 and drove that for half a year. Then saved every penny I had and dropped it on my 2007 Subaru STI. To be honest I wasn't even looking at Subaru's when I was shopping for a new car. I was mainly looking at NSX's and RX7's but after my nightmare with my Eclipse and the fact I still didn't know my way around an engine bay I played it safe and went with a new car. I don't regret my purchase I never had a real issue with my car and it is extremely fun to drive. The STI is my first true project car and it sure has turned into some big ass money pit project lol.

I guess I can blame my dad for getting me interested but I mostly blame myself for being some what obsessed LOL!


/The End.




Cliff Notes: DERP DERP DERP DERP DERP DERP DERP .. . . . . . . . HERP. Read it lazy asses LOL.

FnF really did it for me.

True story.

kaj wrote:

started by racing bicycles when i was 12. i liked working on them. then to ATVs. same deal. then back to bicycles.i just always liked tinkering, modifying, and understanding how things worked.

Thanks Jason and I'm a bicycle guy in the 90's too. GT Performer, Dyno, Mongoose just brings back those early years for me.

I was never able to afford those bikes but they were a pipe dream for me. All I had was a piece of garbage from the fle market which my dad bought it to me for $20.

Rickdaddy wrote:

FnF really did it for me.

True story.

LOL..Rick I'm sorry FnF had to do it for you.

94RSIntegra wrote:

kaj wrote:

started by racing bicycles when in was 12. i liked working on them. then to ATVs. same deal. then back to bicycles.i just always liked tinkering, modifying, and understanding how things worked.

Thanks Jason and I'm a bicycle guy in the 90's too. GT Performer, Dyno, Mongoose just brings back those early years for me.

I started with a performer. Turns out I sucked at freestyle so I took it to the dirt. Racing was fun. Traveling to State Qualifiers and Gold Cups. Eventually I found what I was really into was just riding trails for fun. I still hit up Woodward from time to time.

I started back in 2001 after my bro passed away. I was in 8th grade.
He left his 1992 Honda Accord EX (the one im driving now) behind.
My older sister starts dating and she dated a guy (later turns out to be my brother in law) who was running around the "RACING" Teams back then before FnF.
He was also driving a 1990 Honda Accord LX at the time (his older brother)
The 1990 Accord was lowered (almost slammed) with an exhaust.
The 1992 Accord had an eBay intake and some neuspeed sport lowering springs and a front strut bar.

One day he came over and started talking to me about my brothers car and how he wants to know if it can beat his brothers car.

We lined up one day in the neighborhood and gave it a run from first gear, a good 25ft, then we turned and went seperate ways.


I go around places and BLACKSTONE with him and he would race other EJ1 civics and 4th generation accords.
I felt the adrenaline and wanted more.

I would tag along on friday nights and head out to the "track" and watch the races.

I still didnt know much about cars except intake, header and exhaust.

After FnF came out, the "scene" was more crowded and populated and i was more into it.
I was introduced to nitrous oxide systems and superchargers then.

I picked up a wrench one day while my brother in law was changing out his exhaust piping and gutting his CAT, and gave him a hand.
Little did i know, he was a druggie and would work on cars, just because he had to things while influenced.
I saw how hard he worked on his car, blood, sweat, tears, and more sweat and blood.
It gave me a natural motivation to work as hard as he did on the car.

So when high school came, i stopped hanging out with my brother in law as i lived across town. I took Auto class and started to learn more of the basics of a car, and went on to Auto 2.
With my little garage expeirience, it made Auto class easier as i knew lefty loosey from righty tighty already. I learned the basics of doing a brake job and oil change, then as Auto came, i was supposed to go into Suspension, but ended up changing schools that didnt have the Auto class available unless you were a Junior or Senior. I was only a Sophmore.

My junior and senior year comes around and my cousin buys a bone stock integra gsr.
i would ditch school and chill out their house everyday til school is out and have them take me home.
We join FSR then and find lots of civic and integra used parts that are bolt ons.
My cousin buys em, and have me install them (i loved to tear shit apart and put it back)
And plus, i cant stand watching someone do something easy and dont know what they are doing and might fuck shit up, so i do it just i can live at ease that a part was installed correctly.
I keep doing this and start chopping springs on 2 separate cars, and modding a toyota to make it stand out.

yadda yadda long story as it is enough, i thank you for reading this long, if you did.
Short summary after all the above, i picked up a point and shoot camera, stopped getting greasy n dirty, then upgraded camera, tuned nerd and went to computers, then turned back to cars and modded my accord..... and here i am now, car enthusiast + photographer etc etc etc

i made my post too long, dont wanna delete nor edit it. Enjoy.

i dont have a story to write I got a free year to super street in 99 and thats when i fell in love. game was over right then and there.

Dao wrote:

I started back in 2001 after my bro passed away. I was in 8th grade.
He left his 1992 Honda Accord EX (the one im driving now) behind.
My older sister starts dating and she dated a guy (later turns out to be my brother in law) who was running around the "RACING" Teams back then before FnF.
He was also driving a 1990 Honda Accord LX at the time (his older brother)
The 1990 Accord was lowered (almost slammed) with an exhaust.
The 1992 Accord had an eBay intake and some neuspeed sport lowering springs and a front strut bar.

One day he came over and started talking to me about my brothers car and how he wants to know if it can beat his brothers car.

We lined up one day in the neighborhood and gave it a run from first gear, a good 25ft, then we turned and went seperate ways.


I go around places and BLACKSTONE with him and he would race other EJ1 civics and 4th generation accords.
I felt the adrenaline and wanted more.

I would tag along on friday nights and head out to the "track" and watch the races.

I still didnt know much about cars except intake, header and exhaust.

After FnF came out, the "scene" was more crowded and populated and i was more into it.
I was introduced to nitrous oxide systems and superchargers then.

I picked up a wrench one day while my brother in law was changing out his exhaust piping and gutting his CAT, and gave him a hand.
Little did i know, he was a druggie and would work on cars, just because he had to things while influenced.
I saw how hard he worked on his car, blood, sweat, tears, and more sweat and blood.
It gave me a natural motivation to work as hard as he did on the car.

So when high school came, i stopped hanging out with my brother in law as i lived across town. I took Auto class and started to learn more of the basics of a car, and went on to Auto 2.
With my little garage expeirience, it made Auto class easier as i knew lefty loosey from righty tighty already. I learned the basics of doing a brake job and oil change, then as Auto came, i was supposed to go into Suspension, but ended up changing schools that didnt have the Auto class available unless you were a Junior or Senior. I was only a Sophmore.

My junior and senior year comes around and my cousin buys a bone stock integra gsr.
i would ditch school and chill out their house everyday til school is out and have them take me home.
We join FSR then and find lots of civic and integra used parts that are bolt ons.
My cousin buys em, and have me install them (i loved to tear shit apart and put it back)
And plus, i cant stand watching someone do something easy and dont know what they are doing and might fuck shit up, so i do it just i can live at ease that a part was installed correctly.
I keep doing this and start chopping springs on 2 separate cars, and modding a toyota to make it stand out.

yadda yadda long story as it is enough, i thank you for reading this long, if you did.
Short summary after all the above, i picked up a point and shoot camera, stopped getting greasy n dirty, then upgraded camera, tuned nerd and went to computers, then turned back to cars and modded my accord..... and here i am now, car enthusiast + photographer etc etc etc

i made my post too long, dont wanna delete nor edit it. Enjoy.

its pretty cool that you still have that accord after all those years.

who modifies and races an Accord?

blood and sweat. lots. literally.

Garrett wrote:

its pretty cool that you still have that accord after all those years.

It belonged to my older bro and its the only surviving memory/belonging of my older brother.

kaj wrote:

who modifies and races an Accord?

blood and sweat. lots. literally.

Back in the days before FnF, it was 88 CAMRYs, COROLLAs and ACCORDS, then the civics and tegs came into play.

Thats racing history right there.

And from my memory, the "racing teams" that existed before FnF:

Vengeance
No Limit Racing
Lyvv Racing
Dark Side Racers

Vengeance had their own website about decade+ ago that had an epic story of street racing with accords and camrys, i just cant find it.

i know one4one has been around for ever.

july 19, 1986
i was born

hmmm i'm not entirely sure, as far as I can remember I was interested in cars; first hotwheels / matchbox niggas! rc cars, etc. my dad bought my brother a mitsubishi mighty max pickup with a blown enging and they pulled the engine, and swapped in a starion engine after doing a port/polish & rebuild. I kinda watched a little here and there. And then we moved from the bay area over to here; Visalia, and my bro was switching cars a lot so we experimented with a bunch of different import platforms. Influencing came from the import magazines and Initial D lol, we got a sr-5 ae86 with 80k miles and it was rear ended 4 days later. :'(

after I turned 18, started looking for a car; originally loved the 02-03 WRX's and wanted one so bad, but my parents were helping me out with the car and it was too expensive. One day my brother texted me saying there was a kinda cool VW Jetta VR6 at a dealership by his work, I went over and checked it out, took it for a test drive; got on the gas and fell in love with the car. decided that was my first car. ended up modding it, giac chip, mounts, pulleys and finally threw in some Autotech 262 cams; and blew the engine somehow, it didnt run it's full potential, it went from running a 15sec 1/4 mile to mid 17's. So I traded it for my current Civic, and the rest is history.

super street and natasha yi.

bunz559 wrote:

super street and natasha yi.

suoerstreet and jeri lee for me. lol.

waiting for someone to say Fast and Furious.

"Doesn't matter is you win by an inch or a mile, winning's winning."

Back in the mid 90s when my bro in law had his EF civic si...but finally got me a Honda in 05...

Started hangin out with cousins and friends back in 00 but i was only in elementary. Cant tell which from which except know its gsr and has vtec lol. Always seeing them street racing infront of the school we chill at then as time go back i was hook. My uncle took me for a ride my first time in his DA and i liked it. After that i started hanging out with some new friends and turns out they all have a place for supra mk3. I used to hate them like shit but after coming home from the swap meet lol, we ran a gsr for fun. After that my mind changed forever and i love them supra. As time flew by, my dad bought me my uncles DA, cAr had few trouble, motor went bad, swap in a new one, learn alot. Honda after honda then now im settle in on my supra and hopefully another honda soon. Cant never take that honda pride away. Lol

In high school my brother had a gsr but i really got into the scene when i saw this video......