Thread: What Was The First Car To Inspire You To Hot Rod

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Rick Dobbertin's J-2000

Erik,

I saw that car in Omaha in '86 when first started showing it. Great craftsmanship, but totally undrivable. I think Dobbertin WAS from another planet. He was never concerned about practicality.

http://www.supercars.net/garages/ChevyRocks/32v2.html

the first one that got me hooked on cars when i was around 5 was my dads 67 chevelle, i loved riding in that while he roared through the gears

the one that got me hooked on old 50's style cars, was my friends brothers powder blue 55 t-bird with the removable hard top, i remember thinking it was the most unique car i had ever seen, he would cruz us around in it every now and then, but i asked everytime i was there , i was probably 10 or so, and its been all down hill from there....

Not a car But Jungle Pam got me hooked on cars. Well jungle jim too.

Originally Posted by IDLZRUF

Not a car But Jungle Pam got me hooked on cars. Well jungle jim too.

You might have been looking at her headlights.

when i was 12 years old, i seen the movie american graffiti. that's what got hooked on hotrods. when i turned 14 back in 1989 my dad bought me my first classic ride... a 1955 chevy belair 2dr post which need alot of work. the car was only 900.00 without the motor and transmission.i keep the car up until dec 2006. that's when i fount my dream car. a 1964 ford galaxie 500 xl 2dr fastback this beauty came from texas. at 16 i also purchased a 1956 chevy pickup.which i still own. about 7 years ago i bought my wife a 1965 mustang.we still have it. i've owned alot of classic cars but sold all but 3. sometimes i wish i would have keep them all. they are getting very hard to find these days and when you buy one this day in time it cost you dearly.

i actually cant remember when i caught the fever there were hot rod mags layin around the house all the time , mom and pops were motorheads from the 50s and my dad has had his share over the years couple of 55 chevys
and a 40 willys coupe , my uncles had some cool rides as well and growin up in the 60s with guys was a blast for me but if i had to name a car it would be my dads 55 chevy gasser sittin in the grass in front of the house with the straight axle blingin..

My dad was always into hotrods/customs, he was in 'The Ignitors' hotrod club (Brown Deer, WI) in the late 50's early 60's so he had a few car buddies. The home I grew up in was an old farm with the barn he converted into a shop, so many a "neat thing" came thru the yard like a'43 jeep 2wd with a hemi crammed in it, same guy built a badass '63 Rambler American wagon ,331 sbc with a crossram under a Chrysler 6-pack scoop all painted up in 'heavy' metalflake gold. Other notables of the time were my dad's '48 Willy's S/D with a stroked 440/727, his buddies '35 olds coupe and there's one more I never hear the end of: was a '35 Ford coupe with a 354 hemi my dad was building but stored in the shed and I made him proud by breaking the windows out of it. No, I don't know why (I think I was like 5 or 6 ). Wish I had that one back. I had many friends thru school with "inspiring" cars too. Hope there's enough punctuation in here to make sense, cuz my mind was movin'pretty good there.

My dad used to take me to US 30 Dragstrip in Gary, Ind when I was young (4 or 5, 1970-71) and I remember going there till about '74 (went to the Funny Car Nats that year!!!) when the drugs and stuff started getting bad... But at the same time he had a 50 Chevy pick-up. Old beater, but I LOVED to ride in that thing!!!! He had sold his 57 Bel-air convert when I was only 1yr old (gee, THAT sounds familiar...) Guess the strip and the ol' pickup got me started.

I can,t remember when i didn,t think about speed. I guess the first thing that got my attention was horses,then a friend had a go cart with twin Mc,Coughla(can,t spell that word) chainsaw engines on it. That thang ran about 70 and felt like 150 to a young kid. When i grew a little older it was a 49chevy 327&4speed that i got to ride in just once. After that others that fed my speed craving were a friends brothers 56 chevy 327, 4speed with underdrive trans and a older cousins 64 Impala SS 327 4 speed plus my dad started taking me to the local dirt track races where i met some of the local racers. I guess all this just started my motor revving.

Originally Posted by erik erikson

In about 1983 I was done in KC and the Pro street craze had just started.
There was a bright red 66 GTO that had been "back-halfed" and had a very large set of M/T just about touching in the middle.
At first the guy was an a$$ but then when he knew we really wanted to know about the car he let us go to his shop and see a bunch of pictures from the build up.
I still look for the car but have not seen it over 20 years.
Sure there where the magazine cars like Rick Dobbertin's J-2000 but that car was so wild at the time it might as well been from another planet.

was the guys name PAT i

the first car that did it for me was may dads 66GTO still have it and they can throw it in the hole when i die just not going to sell that car.dad had more engines in that car small blocks and big blocks still remember the sound of a very loose 427 he had in it i had 7 engine in it from 396.402.462.468.548.572. 632

My Dad's 40 Ford Convertible. It was the first car he bought when he got home from WWII. I sort of remember riding in it, one of my sister's has a pic of me sitting on the fender of it when I was about 4. About '56 or so, Dad put it in storage, didn't get it out again until 1975 when he and his pal Roy did the resto work to it.... I guess raising 7 kids with 3 of us boys involved in one form of racing for another caused the delay in the project. It was his pride and joy when he and Roy completed it. What I remember most about the car was when Dad would uncover it to clean it and check things over while it was in storage all those years and he'd tell us all about the things he was going to do to it....when he had the time and money. While he was restoring it, sure was easy for all us kids to buy him Birthday and Christmas presents!!!!!!!

My dads 57 chevy,it had a 383,dual 4's and a rockcrusher!he put a straight axle in it and gassed it around the town awsome!

Im not sure when it happened, the most influential one i can think of was the zztop eliminator. My uncle was a custom painter in socal, and my dad knew some shady guys that had hot rods, so it was always around, but the eliminator stands out the most. plus i loved 57 chevies as a kid, my neighbor had a red one sitting out back for years, i always wanted it, but i had no money or knowledge of how to fix it.

I grew up in Wauseon Ohio, a small town in the northwest corner of the state. There was a guy named George Becker, he had possibly still has a 70 LS6 Chevelle that he bought new. I love that car, and the rides I had in it. He also had Willy's wagon street rod I'm talking the Jeep style, it had a chopped top, and a blown 454. Hard to imagine it being cool, but it was.

I was just a kid, but he was alway's treated me good, and helped me with my mini-bike every now and then. Sometimes it's not the cars, but the car people you come in contact with.

Ron