Classic Cars : Classic Nation

My First

Lurking in the memories of every classic car nut, there lies a vehicle that ‘did’ it. A car that changed our mind about cars. A ride that started the chain reaction that inevitably ended in obsession.

As a younger member of the classic car enthusiast crowd, I didn’t have the privilege of growing up beside the cars I now hold dear. In fact, my ‘first’ was already a classic when it became my first. That never mattered to me though. After all, it was love at first sight.

When I was nine, we took a family road trip to my mom’s hometown- Jamestown, North Dakota. It is in Jamestown where a souped-up 1968 Oldsmobile 442 sits in my uncle’s garage. I remember every detail of my first encounter with that car. I was intrigued by the massive rear end and the tiny tail lights. I stared intently at the hood tach and peered in the car, wondering what it would feel like to throw that Hurst shifter into gear and roar out of the garage. I must have made twenty or thirty trips out to his shop that week- all just to sit in and stare at that car.

One day I was lucky enough to ride shotgun in the 500hp animal. Needless to say, the first time I was physically unable to peel my head from a car seat was a life-changing event.

The attraction between man and machine is a strange one indeed. That Oldsmobile was only the beginning for me. Within a year I had become a regular at the local car shows and I found myself with a strange passion for junkyards. Car Craft and Hot Rod were my first magazine subscriptions and my tool box slowly began to fill in quiet preparation for what was to come. What began as an infatuation has become a way of life.

And so, as I cross over into classic car adolescence from infancy, I can only hope that my current expansion into the hobby (now with the purchase of my first rad ride- a ‘69 Firebird) can spark that same passion in another young, wandering soul.

Do you remember your first?