Whats your earliest memories of your petrolheadness
Discussion
Its winter and cold so i thought id warm the Gassing forum up with fond memories of when your earliest memories of what started your general car fascination.
My Nana used to tell me that when i was 4 or 5 i sat on her lap and used to tell her the make of the cars on the roads.
Aswell as that , every time we visited Cheam we used to go up to Belmont Garage in Banstead and i used hop into all the cars in there and flick through the gearbox.
My Nana used to tell me that when i was 4 or 5 i sat on her lap and used to tell her the make of the cars on the roads.
Aswell as that , every time we visited Cheam we used to go up to Belmont Garage in Banstead and i used hop into all the cars in there and flick through the gearbox.
The smell of burning methanol.
I remember encountering it at the age of three and asking my Mother where I had come across the delectable fume before. She was convinced that my only exposure to it prior was when I was still in the womb (The Daddy used to drag race a methanol burning bike).

I remember encountering it at the age of three and asking my Mother where I had come across the delectable fume before. She was convinced that my only exposure to it prior was when I was still in the womb (The Daddy used to drag race a methanol burning bike).
traffman said:
Its winter and cold so i thought id warm the Gassing forum up with fond memories of when your earliest memories of what started your general car fascination.
My Nana used to tell me that when i was 4 or 5 i sat on her lap and used to tell her the make of the cars on the roads.
Aswell as that , every time we visited Cheam we used to go up to Belmont Garage in Banstead and i used hop into all the cars in there and flick through the gearbox.
One of my earliest memories (ok, my second-oldest) was of me looking up at my daddy driving a car with a strange steering wheel, with me sitting in the passenger footwell. Dad says that was a blue Austin Allegro he got rid of in 1979, which would make me about 2 or 3 years old at the time.My Nana used to tell me that when i was 4 or 5 i sat on her lap and used to tell her the make of the cars on the roads.
Aswell as that , every time we visited Cheam we used to go up to Belmont Garage in Banstead and i used hop into all the cars in there and flick through the gearbox.
C
Always loved toy cars from being small, had my first RTA at the aged of 3 when I rolled my AA patrol car and ended up with a fractured wrist. Used to love any excuse to go out in a car, to play with bits of a car, and to look at new cars. I think the 1986 (or somewhere around then I was between 6 and 8) Birmingham motor show was the first proper petrol heady day out I ever had and I was hooked ever since.
Very early memory of being driven in a MkII XJ6 and stopping for petrol and being dead impressed with the dual fuel caps, I must have only been 3-4 years old. Also remember my dad having a lancia beta as a company car. My dad used to let me and my brother steer the car on the motorway.
I also used to love the 70's version of 'the saint' just because of the xjs! I even had the corgi toy version.
I also used to love the 70's version of 'the saint' just because of the xjs! I even had the corgi toy version.
My Dad used to sit me on his knee and let me ‘drive’ the car into the garage.
He started taking me to custom car shows when I was wee, which was great. I loved the shiny paint jobs and crazy hot rods.
Our local milkman (small village) had a red Morgan, which I worshipped from afar.
At the age of eleven or so, a regular in the pub my Mum worked at took me to York Dragway and let me have a go in his Marcos.
All fantastic memories, and I loved to drive from the day of my seventeenth birthday … but I didn’t really become a petrolhead until I bought my first Porsche at 29. Now I’m completely and utterly hooked.
He started taking me to custom car shows when I was wee, which was great. I loved the shiny paint jobs and crazy hot rods.
Our local milkman (small village) had a red Morgan, which I worshipped from afar.
At the age of eleven or so, a regular in the pub my Mum worked at took me to York Dragway and let me have a go in his Marcos.
All fantastic memories, and I loved to drive from the day of my seventeenth birthday … but I didn’t really become a petrolhead until I bought my first Porsche at 29. Now I’m completely and utterly hooked.
Isle of Man TT - Sitting in a pram/pushchair, Dad's ear defenders on, watching the bikes fly by, wow! Can still feel/hear the noise - and that of the rain on the hood of my pram, and the ear defenders smelled of petrol!
I'd guess around 1980, so 3yrs old, maybe earlier, no idea where on the course... somewhere near some camping, which really narrows it down I know. The camsite was beyond muddy and had a mangle to dry out your washing, recall that taking the buttons off the old man's shirts too!
I'd guess around 1980, so 3yrs old, maybe earlier, no idea where on the course... somewhere near some camping, which really narrows it down I know. The camsite was beyond muddy and had a mangle to dry out your washing, recall that taking the buttons off the old man's shirts too!
I dont remember this but as retold by my mum.. In 1972, when I was 3, my mum took me for one of those regular checkups. The nurse started of by holding up objects for me to indentify. Things like a ball, teddy bear, a cup, that sort of thing. At one point she held up a toy car. I looked at it, squinted a bit and started looking worried. "It's okay" said my mum "just tell her what it is". At this point I almost started crying "but I dont know mum" "yes you do" she said "just say it". "Well I fink um, I fink err, I fink it's a Mini Cooper S".
Age 6 being bought a 1/18 scale Bburago 911 in metallic blue....I didn't so much play with as hold it aloft to check out how it looked from different angles....from then I collected model Porsches, had a brief penpal relationship with the good Dr Porsche himself, although quite how he expected me to understand German at age 8 I don't know... later my petrol headed ness was sealed by being offered a ride in a brand new 924 Carrera GT, by a friendly chap, who it turned out owned Badger airbrushes.... random.
Sitting in the back of my parents car coming home from Wales one weekend and guessing the cars we were over taking from their rear lights in the distance.
Obvioulsy got loads wrong but got a worrying amount right too. I was so young I remember having to lift myself up off the seat to see the cars we were approaching. Guessing, I was probably 4-5 years old.
Obvioulsy got loads wrong but got a worrying amount right too. I was so young I remember having to lift myself up off the seat to see the cars we were approaching. Guessing, I was probably 4-5 years old.
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