Do you have a car dad/mom?

Not everyone has parents that love or even know anything about cars and such. But I bet every car person has a car-dad or mom, right? My car dad is Dr. Corvairkian, a competitive SCCA road-racer, Corvair (and rotary and water-cooled VW) enthusiast. Sold me the swallowtail Rabbit, helped me build it, taught me to use a manual tire changer. I've known him almost 20 years now. I don't ask him as many questions as I used to or probably should, but he regularly comments on my facebook posts with his safety concerns about the electric burnout kart.  :)

dad

Yes, their name is Youtube

In reply to angusmf :

i know that dude!

Yep, my dad. He was drag racer (amatuer) growing up, and when I was little he had a '67 Fairlady that he raced at Hallett for years in the mid-late 80s. Helped me with some of the tasks on building my old '90 Track rat Miata years ago as well.

I've always told him coke and strippers would have been a cheaper habit to get me hooked on.

My friend, Chuck.  First person to really teach me how to use a wrench.  He lied about his age to join the Marines and fight in WWII. Also ended up in Korea, and once met Chesty while wearing the uniform of an Army Captain that had stolen his USMC uniform.

Worked on Italian and British exotics.

Passed away almost 15 years ago.  I miss him.

My mom was always into autocross and my dad was a motorcycle guy/crappy car/drug enthusiast. 

I got it honestly, no one tought me E36 M3 tho. 

Dad.  He grew up a farmer and his first job was at a gas station (back when gas stations were always shops as well)  He tells stories of how they towed an abandoned 56 Satellite to the shop and no one claimed it.  They would have fun on lunch breaks trying to break it by holding it WOT until the valves floated and then hitting D on the push button transmission.  After about a year of no one claiming it, they turned it into a race car and raced it at the local dirt oval.  He never kept up with it, but he still owns a farm and restores old tractors.  Between him and me, we have over a dozen tractors ranging from the 20s to today.

No.  My father has the mechanical aptitude of a turnip. My mother even less.  And nobody in my family that I was somewhat close to was into cars much either. So I'm entirely self-taught, and often that shows... 

That's my dad but he spent so many years rebuilding total E36 M3 boxes over night on gravel in E36 M3ty weather just to get to work in the morning that now that he's in a position to finally have the hot rod or muscle car he always wanted he's kind of shell shocked. Kind of bums me out but it was nice growing up with a guy who could fix damn near anything in any situation. 

My Dad was still racing on the dirt oval into his late 60's, so he was my inspiration

But I know he was a car Dad to a few of my friends whose parents were either not interested or mechanically challenged

Ian F (Forum Supporter) said:

No.  And nobody in my family that I was somewhat close to was into cars much either. So I'm entirely self-taught, and often that shows... 

Same boat here. Both parents were trained as engineers and mom had worked in the Auto Industry, but neither gave much of a rat's tail about cars. No clue where it came from, but it started young. Forums were a great place for me to start my learning, and YouTube/GRM has helped me much further.

Dad, but he was not even aware until I told him in his last few years.

He was always fixing whatever car he was driving cause we had no money. Same with lawnmowers. Or the house.  Never really paid much attention to the fact that I would be looking over his shoulder all the while. Pilfering his tools as  I got older and it suited my needs.

Taught me to drive a stick on country roads when I was about twelve, because he was from SD and in SD kids were shutting vehicles by that age and I had to learn.

He had a brief foray with 24 hour rally navigating when we lived in Puerto Rico; I think it appealed to his logical and mathematical mind. But he was never really a "Car Guy" in his mind, just a guy who drove cars.

Pete

Pete

Always thaught it was dad. Tinkered on cars with him but he never really enjoyed it. Fast forward and he is now gone and mom is fading. I took mom out for a ride in my CLS 550 and booted it a couple times to speeds that most likely get you arrested and she was giggling like a teenager.  Turned out mom loves cars especially fast ones. 
 

Only regret is I never took mom car racing back in the day. Just never knew she was a car person. 

Yup. My dad likes old Ford trucks. When I was a kid he had a two-tone brown '78 F150 and a rusty green and white '69 (F100 or F250 I forget) that he worked on and fixed up. Our garage barely had enough ceiling height for him to even jack them up, but he made it work.

I remember when the bed on the '69 was too rusty and he had 2 or 3 friends come over and help him lift it off and put a fresh junkyard bed onto it. Fresh meaning it was painted rustoleum red to keep the rust off it.

Before I was born he had various cool car adventures. I think he had some flavor of old Buick that caught fire under the dash. He once went into a junkyard with his brother, bought two old trucks, combined them into one running truck, and drove it out of there. He had a Maverick with a V8 that did legendary burnouts. Another truck of his started to roll when parked, rolled down a hill and totaled some lady's car and only had a dented bumper to show for it. And other wild stories I can't fully remember.

dean1484 said:

Always thaught it was dad. Tinkered on cars with him but he never really enjoyed it.

That describes my dad.  He would buy boring cars new (Vega, Pinto, Omni, 4 cylinder Celebrity, and so on)  and would do all the work to save money once the warranty was up.  I learned a little watching him, then got a job at a quick oil change place where someone always had a project going on after hours.

A funny thing happened though. In 1997, I bought an E36 M3 and let him drive it.  He must have been 53 or so.  It was as if I gave a blind man vision.  "I've never felt a car steer like this before" *whips wheel back and forth* "And these brakes."  *bends our necks*.   I didn't create a crazy enthusiast but he's always had something interesting in the 20+ years since.  Miata, new MNII, Z3, SLK320, Turbo MR2, SLK350, etc.  He dailied an E46 Touring for close to 15 years and now has a Volvo V60 that he flew to DC to pick up and drove back down to FL.  He keeps asking me about Z3Ms.  

Papasan is a car guy but not a mechanic. Nothing beyond basic maintenence. First car was an ex hwy patrol Plymouth, it went away when the torque strap broke and the engine ate the radiator. He had a 72 240z for a long long time but sold it a bit too soon.  Was SCCA national champ in class B TSD rally, I navvied for him a couple times as a kid.  He got hired to drive a 1914 Dodge and then a '36 Buick in the great american race, that coast to coast tsd rally, and won it in.. what... '85 I think? 

But I've had to learn elsewhere how to strip threads and break bolts and stuff.

My dad taught me most of what I know.  I don't really have a carparent otherwise.

Dad was a very good shade-tree mechanic (and plumber, electrician, handyman, etc) mostly because he was too cheap to pay someone else to do something he could figure out himself.

He liked cars but didn't really have much interest in competitive events, though.  He was more of an antique / classic guy.  My interest and participation in autocross and racing is all mine, and like IanF, it definitely shows.

My dad has owned (1) AWD vehicle (Mercedes ML), (1) 4WD vehicle (Tundra, extra car), and (2) FWD vehicles - GTI and SAAB 9-5. Literally everything else has been RWD - from the exciting (Firebird) to the boring (Crown Vic) to the fun (E30), and everything in between. 

I'll let you figure out what that means. 

My dad was into cars but not competition at all.  We always had car mags and books around the house, went to car shows and that kind of stuff.  My senior year in HS I was able to talk my parents into buying me a 64 Spitfire, this was 1989.  The day we brought it home I parked in my then girlfriends parents garage and her dad ( my FIL now) and I straightened it out enough to get it driving and stopping.  I got my love of cars from my dad and my mechanical knowledge from my FIL, worked out well.

Both of my parents are gear heads, my dad because he never had any money and HAD to fix his own stuff and my mom just loves driving. 
 

Nope. My dad liked cars that had a huge trunk for luggage and wanted two bench seats so that three couples could go out to dinner in one car. He liked Studebakers (bun never owned one) and Mercurys (owned four). 

My Dad and Granddad. I tell everyone that it is my Granddad's fault that I have made a living with a wrench in my hand for the last 41 years.  When I was 4 or 5, Granddad had a '50 Buick Super, that funky faded apple green color. Anyway he was working on it one time and I wanted to help, so he clamped a pair of visegrips to the front bumper and told me to hold it real tight till he was finished. I held it as tight as I could. He was always working on something. Once put a windshield wiper on my pedal car, even though it didn't have a windshield, just because I asked him to. He passed away when I was 11. Dad took me to the stock car races as far back as I can remember.  He didn't wrench much but had a string of "souped up " Cadillacs.  My favorite was a black over white '73 Coupe De Ville with red leather seats.  Had a 472 and turbo400. Was lowered about two inches.  I  wish I still had all three of them. 

Dad was an old-time SCCA member late 70s/early 80s, and did stage rally and TSD's.  I went on a few Sunday TSD's in his 74 Opel Manta as a kid, so I got the bug from him.  Then after high school graduation in '85 I decided he really was an shiny happy person for never offering to take me for weekends after the divorce and screwing mom over in child support.  Took him back to court for mom when I was 26 for that child support, he was quite surprised.

So I have him to thank for my car stuff, but never benefited from any real working knowledge or mechanical know-how.  His loss.  He'd love my MR2s and the Abarth, probably the Subarus as well.

My dad.  He did some showroom stock racing in a Fiat 124 Sport Coupe a couple times at Lime Rock when you drove your car to the track and didn't need any modifications.  He fixed up his daily drivers when I was growing up and we watched races on TV together. Then it went away for a while until I got my license and we did some track days together and it came back for him. Then I really got the bug and did FSAE in college and started racing SpecMiata when I graduated. He invented CG-Lock due to the track days and his non-supportive seats in his E39 540i and sliding into the door, but not being able to put a harness in the car due to needing it for driving clients around. I met my wife because her dating profile picture was of Porsches.  Now my 3 yr old daughter is turning into a gearhead. So either she's going to keep the bug or later be not even remotely interested in cars.