Every father's dream?

Well, the latest Grassrootsmotorsports came in the mail today.... my 14 year old daughter tore open the plastic.. and I haven't seen it yet! What's it look like inside? LOL...

She walked off mumbling... "oohhh, I like the Mustang in the calendar (which is what she left me to "read"). Mental note.. must check insurance rates for V6 Mustang...

I guess it's my fault.. I took her to Pacific Raceways over the summer to try the carts there... although I could have run the track faster on my bicycle, the seeds of speed were born. How soon can I put her in the young driver programs at Skip Barber?

Just musing while I try to get my mag back....

Very cool! My 13 yo son wants nothing to do with my gearhead addiction, all sports & video games. Maybe some carting would change that.

Awesome.

But what if you're trying to go the other way and get your dad interested in this stuff? Seriously?

My 18 month old boy only wants to play with hotwheels cars. He'll play with them for hour on end.

Appleseed wrote: Awesome. But what if you're trying to go the other way and get your dad interested in this stuff? Seriously?

take him to an autocross. Make him drive.

Appleseed wrote: Awesome. But what if you're trying to go the other way and get your dad interested in this stuff? Seriously?

I did this, and it has been a alot of fun! Get him out to an autcross or karting - both cheap ways to try and get him to catch the bug!

mtn wrote:

Appleseed wrote: Awesome. But what if you're trying to go the other way and get your dad interested in this stuff? Seriously?

take him to an autocross. Make him drive.

I did this and within a year he turned my mr2 from stock to a supercharged XP car. :P

your results may vary.

After watching and crewing for me this summer, I got my 17-year-old daughter to drive her car in the last autocross event of the season last weekend. She went for it and did pretty well.

I have my 5 year old daughter drive our taxxes slash(RC truck) she loves it. and that little truck can take a beating.

jwdmotorsports wrote: My 18 month old boy only wants to play with hotwheels cars. He'll play with them for hour on end.

So do I.

hmm...why didn't mine come today??? Crap, hope my subscription didn't run out

My son will be 17 next month and he has a permit but has only driven twice. I leaned on him to buy a car together and over the summer fix it up so he could drive it. Not interested.

That said he is still an awesome kid......just not a car guy.

I know about "not being a 'car' girl"... she's really only recently been interested.. but in cars that I really wouldn't normally be. It seems she's been noticing late '70's iron (corvettes, camero / T.A's..), and modern muscle cars. Funny, p71 isn't one of her favorites (in fact, she screamed when I mentioned one as a first car). Same reaction when I showed her a Vovlo 240.. hmmm... Not even an Impreza... so she might be disappointed when I point to the cheaper end of cars for a first one...

As far as getting one's folks interested... good grades help I think just getting them out to the AX or carts and giving it a try... and don't leave out mom! My wife got hooked on carts when we joined a local racing league with indoor electric carts.

Anyway, I'm not pushing her, but I would like her to learn what a car does when at it's limits. Closed course racing and learning car dyamics will hopefully keep her safe on the street in a few years.

oops, where's my spell checker... I mean "camAro" and "Volvo"... sheesh!

The New Edge GT's are becoming pretty affordable and in a couple of years could be down right cheap. Why limit her to the "chick" car?

Time to put her in a TaG Jr. kart.

Since you know she enjoyed the karts, maybe find a place with some faster ones. Plenty of karting leagues out there. Certainly it can be more family oriented that an autocross weekend. Of course autox is also possible for her in a kart.

I'm really hoping my 10 month old will be in to cars. His favorite toys are a plastic hammer, wrench and a wooden car.....so I have hope. I won't push him towards it if he isn't interested, and I'll support what ever he's into, but boy I hope he's into cars and stuff. Nothing would make me happier than having him "help" me out with car stuff.

In the Philly SCCA region, there are two kids who regularly race FJC carts. A boy and a girl (not related). He usually beats her, but every now and then she gets a faster time. Because SCCA rules prevent any cars from moving in paddock/grid while the junior carts are running, they run in between heats usually right after the lunch break.

It's good fun watching them and if I ever have kids, they'll probably have a cart before they can walk...

zipty842 wrote:

mtn wrote:

Appleseed wrote: Awesome. But what if you're trying to go the other way and get your dad interested in this stuff? Seriously?

take him to an autocross. Make him drive.

I did this and within a year he turned my mr2 from stock to a supercharged XP car. :P your results may vary.

I tried to get my dad interested in my mk1 MR2 , and instead of letting me use his garage space to finish my 3sgte swap, he bought an all-original MGA.

Your results may vary lol.

My 8 y/o has recently started reading GRM on the crapper, not sure where he got that but just seems right I think that's what finally convinced him to want to ride along this Spring in the race car.

I was the only one out of my family and friends into cars growing up. I had to convince my parents not to use dish washing liquid as car wash and that the factory recommended maintenance schedule wasn't trying to run a ponzi scheme on them. I still haven't won the war over keeping proper tire pressures after 15 years.

Matt B wrote: I was the only one out of my family and friends into cars growing up. I had to convince my parents not to use dish washing liquid as car wash and that the factory recommended maintenance schedule wasn't trying to run a ponzi scheme on them. I still haven't won the war over keeping proper tire pressures after 15 years.

This is pretty much my story as well.

Ha! Glad to know I'm not the only one. I drove my friends batshiz crazy when I was shopping for my first car in high school. All I had to do was look at a car and they'd start groaning. Although, I guess I really can't blame them.

I had to learn everything by myself, armed only with el cheapo tools and a factory manual. Separating fact from fiction in the magazines was difficult in those heady days of youthful exuberance. When I finally found a copy of GRM, it was like, "FINALLY GOOD LORD THANK YOU!" (hello, my name is Matt and I admit to being a magazine whore)

VWguyBruce wrote: My 8 y/o has recently started reading GRM on the crapper, not sure where he got that but just seems right I think that's what finally convinced him to want to ride along this Spring in the race car.

It's only bad when your wife starts doing the same. Don't ask me how I know.

Matt B wrote: Ha! Glad to know I'm not the only one. I drove my friends batshiz crazy when I was shopping for my first car in high school. All I had to do was look at a car and they'd start groaning. Although, I guess I really can't blame them. I had to learn everything by myself, armed only with el cheapo tools and a factory manual. Separating fact from fiction in the magazines was difficult in those heady days of youthful exuberance. When I finally found a copy of GRM, it was like, "FINALLY GOOD LORD THANK YOU!" (hello, my name is Matt and I admit to being a magazine whore)

Bingo. Probably why i'm such a crappy wrench. Nobody ever taught me anything, and i've been lucky enough to have REALLY reliable cars, so when something does go wrong, i have no idea whatsoever what's going on.

Luckily, i started in Hondas, so that was easy. It's been steadily more masochistic since then.