Can you pinpoint that single moment that defined your passion for an automobile or motorcycle? For most people it was a thin slice of time. They saw a car that was completely different than anything they had seen before. For others it was that first ride in a special automobile. And for the fortunate, it was a combination of experiences with a special person. No matter what it was for you, one thing is for sure.
It changed the way you felt.
We do things we like because of how they make us feel. This is the “why” that motivates us. So often we hear “do what you love”. For the automotive enthusiast who has discovered how to wrap their passion for cars in to their vocation the change in mindset is this.
Love what you do.
If we can fall in love with the automobile chances are we can fall in love with doing something that evolves around the automobile. In doing so what we do becomes far more important and so does the work.
When did you fall in love?
For me it was 1954 and getting a ride in my Father’s friend’s XK-120. Power blue, white top. dark blue interior. The speedometer was in kilometers!!
What a great memory Bill!
I was 10 years old and my parents took us to see Disney’s ” The Love Bug” with Dean Jones and Michelle Lee. There is a scene with the two of them in the showroom of an exotic car dealer, and I was amazed at all the beautiful cars on the showroom floor as the camera panned the room. Ferrari 275 GTB, Jaguars and the like. Then there was one shot of the two actors talking in front of a car that captured my attention and fascination, and has held it for 50 years!!! I had to know what this amazing stately car with a huge grill and hood ornament was…..It was a 1963-1965 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud III Drophead Coupe. Here is a link to the Internet Movie Car Data Base still of that scene. http://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_9375-Rolls-Royce-Silver-Cloud-III-Convertible-1963.html
I have been in love with that car ever since, and with Rolls-Royces in general. Thanks for peeking a great memory Mark…:-)
Tim
Racing? impossible not to get attracted to car racing in my native Argentina in the 50’s. We all breathed it!. Automobiles? watching those incredibly beautiful F1 racers of the era: Maserati 250F, MB silver arrows, etc etc. Shumifan
My first real taste of what a car could be – should be – happened when I was about eight years old. The event was a ride in the pint-sized back seat of a neighbor’s Austin Healey 3000 for a test drive to see if he was pleased with the results of a tune-up he had just completed. This so-called “Big Healey” was anything but big (at least in size) compared to my dad’s Chrysler that I was familiar with. The Healey did provide lots of big fun though: top down wind-in-the-crew-cut ambiance, road hugging moves, pungent Castrol-scented aroma, and a symphony of sound emanating from God’s own pipe organ of an exhaust system – alternately purring, roaring, burbling, blatting and popping. Wow! That ride, that day, in that Healey was the revelatory experience that turned me into a car guy.