My work had a resident "car guy". When I started everyone said I had to meet him and I would get along great since we where both "gearheads". I was like cool. Sounds great.
I found out he drove a 2004 Monte Carlo SS intimidator. This car represented the absolute Peak of automotive performance/style and grace. It's not like he had some classic muscle car also or anything. This car was it.
Has this happened to you?
Yep, right about the time my brother in law the Jag mechanic and all around car fan told me I needed to cam my ms3 before I did anything else.
More'n once. 
All the berking time. One of them was one of SWMBO's good friend's new husband. Supposedly had some monster insane Shelby Mustang. It was a S197 V6 with vinyl stripes.
we had one at the Lambo dealership, though he called himself "the resident carguy". More like a read-all-the-stats-from-car-and-driver carguy.
Anywho, I was walking thru the showroom one Saturday, when it's nice and busy. I happen to walk by the "carguy" as he was talking with a client. Client says "yea, I really like those new 335i's" (new E92 at that moment). He concurs and goes further to the point of "Yea, with the new V6"
I stopped.
I turned.
I laughed.
In reply to DukeOfUndersteer:
Wh... Bu... "the resident carguy" at a Lamborghini dealership isn't at all?
You'd think he'd find a more suitable place to be a fake resident carguy. Like Staples or something.
My old boss raced an NC Miata in some IT class, Software Engineer next to me races an E36 M3 and is working on a 5.0 swap, another buddy at work has a MazdaSpeed Miata he auto-x's and a LeMons car, and I'm working on a Miata for NASA TT.
So, the gearheads at my work are actually gearheads. 
Unfortunately the general public's idea of what constitutes "car guys" and how we define ourselves as "car guys" are two totally different things. I usually try to just smile and nod, since I know they won't understand anyways.
nocones wrote: My work had a resident "car guy". When I started everyone said I had to meet him and I would get along great since we where both "gearheads". I was like cool. Sounds great. I found out he drove a 2004 Monte Carlo SS intimidator. This car represented the absolute Peak of automotive performance/style and grace. It's not like he had some classic muscle car also or anything. This car was it. Has this happened to you?
hey, those Intimidators are badass... they have the special embroidery on the headrests and everything.
I usually stop talking about cars instantly and try to change the subject to avoid stupid arguments.
Yes that happened at my civilian job. "Oh come meet Bryan he's into cars and stuff you'll really get along."
Me: Nice to meet you, I hear you are into cars? Bryan: Yea i have three acuras. Me: Integras? RSX? Do you race them at all - you know like real racing not Fast and Furious style? Bryan: Na, I just have three Acura TLs, older ones, I like to put systems and crap into them. Me: Face palm
The only time I've ever worked somewhere that generally had real car peoples was at a Honda dealership. People with 10.5 drag cars, people with autox cars, people with fast and clean street cars. When I worked at GM - no car guys, just dingleberries with jacked up trucks that might have needed pedo bear stickers.
ransom wrote: In reply to DukeOfUndersteer: Wh... Bu... "the resident carguy" *at a Lamborghini dealership* isn't at all? You'd think he'd find a more suitable place to be a fake resident carguy. Like Staples or something.
He didn't say which Lambo division it is - maybe they sold farm equipment.
fidelity101 wrote: I usually stop talking about cars instantly and try to change the subject to avoid stupid arguments.
I always give them a chance. Never would have had the opportunity to race in a 2004 GTO Bonneville record holder or a 500ci Cadillac-powered 87 Thunderbird if I had just brushed all the car guys off.
Seem to be a lot of real car guys at work here. It's possibly above the national per-capita average.
We have a few here, too. Supposedly there's a guy in our art department who is just gaga for MR2s. I gotta meet him.
I was at a little get-together last weekend, and my friend made a big deal about me meeting one of her other car-guy friends. He showed up after much buildup of this guy. Weapon of choice? PT Cruiser. Not ironic. "Trust me, it's probably one of the fastest cars made, you have no idea how fast that turbo goes." Completely stock, not even the HO, so maybe 140whp in a 3200 lb sack of purple E36 M3. Oh people...
MadScientistMatt wrote:ransom wrote: In reply to DukeOfUndersteer: Wh... Bu... "the resident carguy" *at a Lamborghini dealership* isn't at all? You'd think he'd find a more suitable place to be a fake resident carguy. Like Staples or something.He didn't say which Lambo division it is - maybe they sold farm equipment.
I'd still be surprised. Hell, I might be extra-surprised...
I get that a lot at parties. people come up and ask what I do. I tell them, so they then go "ya, I like cars" and start rambling about crap that they read on facebook or something. I pretty much just started telling people I don't work. lol. its a sad day when you have to hide that your a mechanic. at least the FNGs at work try to know something before they show up.
At my job, there is one older manager who claims his 350z (with a header) is pretty much the fastest car on the planet and scoffs that it could get beaten by (insert any fast car that is not an "exotic" here) in any kind of race. He's the same guy who told me he got some new "performance wheels and tires".....when I go out there the car has some RE-92 and some never-heard-of-it tuner wheel with the wrong offset (sitting about 6" IN from the fenders and probably narrower than stock).
I just say "yeah, that looks great, cool....yeah" and let him have his enjoyment.
That said, in my immediate department, most are not car people (though they like nice cars, they don't try to pretend to know about them). I am the "resident car guy" I guess since at least once a week I have someone coming over to ask me "is this a good car" or "which of these cars should I buy" or "any idea what's wrong with my car."
Oddly, most of them take my advice, and I've also fixed two managers' cars on the parking deck at work.
And my non-car friends on facebook think I'm some kind of professional racecar driver, since a rallycross e30 with stickers, and a beat-up Chump e30 with stripes and stickers both apparently look pretty similar to some highlight they saw of some NASCAR race or something. I was once asked if the "rally car" have over 500 horsepower or not. It had an M10 in it at the time (101hp on a good day).
I usually let them keep thinkin that 
"Warning danger to manifold"
Driven5 wrote: I usually try to just smile and nod, since I know they won't understand anyways.
this
ive mostly just held jobs that were in the industry one way or another. its staggering how many non-car guys do cars for a living. particularly in sales. management, and in many cases owners, wouldnt know valvetronic from vanos.
That's not a surprise. I let the bag out I'm a car guy at work and that was a huge mistake. I can't go through a day without a car question. Sad thing is none of them own anything worth talking about. The most interesting car any one of them have is the mazda 6 I told my co-worker to buy. Other than that it's accords and trucks. My co-worker who was telling me how my MR2 reminds him of his wives old small cougar. I couldn't get off that conversation fast enough.
Reminds me of an older woman I worked with at State Farm who thought her '88 Autotragic 'Vette was super fast and there was no way my little "crotch rocket" was faster ('04 R6)
Finally one day I rode it to work and told her to follow me up the onramp on the way to lunch............she quit talking about it.
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