Why do you do this?

In the beginning, I really enjoyed driving an alternative car to the norm, making loud noises, and suffering through stiff suspension to have a car that felt more connected. I've never really latched onto track days, but did some autox. Really though, most of it was the fun of driving a car that felt unique, was "fun", and spending time with friends working on those cars. Another piece was just experiencing different vehicles, how they behaved and how it was to work on them, some more fun than others. 

As I've gotten older, hobbies and interests changed, and to be honest, a lot of my interest is in driving a car that mostly makes the right noises, looks cool as hell, is occasionally fun to roll into the throttle, and provides me a relatively comfortable space to transport my family.

I recently had a discussion with my wife after selling my Passat that this is who I am. I won't be stuffing my son into a gutted 80's Toyota with ITB's, but I also don't really want to drive an appliance. I care very little if anyone at the school pickup appreciates me showing up in a 300k+ LX470, but maintaining the 100 series gives me a lot of pride, but it's work. Blessing on one hand, curse on the other. So I got to thinking, why do you folks keep wrenching, buying and selling, etc.? 

What is it that draws you to the sport or hobby? 

I've never cared about impressing other people or trying to drive something different just because it's different.

I like cars that do a good job at what they're trying to do. That might be providing lots of feedback and quick responses, or an effortless highway cruise, or getting somewhere most others can't. I wrench to make the cars keep working, to allow me to afford them, and to make them better at doing what I want them to do. And I have multiple cars because some of those things I ask them to do are at direct odds with each other.

It's one thing I am passionate about and the passion sets me free and lets me be me.

That's really it.

I can't fathom being dispassionate about things like so many people seem to be. I really pity people without passion, excitement, and intensity in their lives. 

Always been a car guy. Comes from my dad, there are pictures of me at Hallett when I was maybe 6 wiping off the Datsun Fairlady race car he had. 

He also had a turbo Thunderbird and my "uncle" (my dad's best friend since high school so he's always been around) had an '86 SVO Mustang both had these cars at the same time I was growing up. Then my dad had a really clean '85 Mustang GT. By the time I got to college, my dad no longer had fun cars, but my uncle had an '03 Terminator he used to take to the track. 

I'm still a big car fan, but I'm over the project and track car things at this point. Been there, done that. Now I just enjoy having a nice, fun car to drive and enjoy. The time/money commitment for track/project cars is just something I don't want to mess with anymore.

I dunno man.  Something happens when I sit behind the wheel of a Mazda Rotary or an old Toyota 4x4 that makes me feel like I could take on the entire berking world.  Both are flawed to a fault, but I think that's what I love about them.

I've owned and enjoyed other cars, better cars, and newer cars, but those are the two I keep going back to.  Without even one of them, my driveway feels empty and my automotive ADD goes to work.

I like it when I see other people who obviously feel the same way about their cars.  Not fanboys mind you, but someone who know's that there's "better" out there but nothing else they'd rather be in.  One guy runs in the fastest run group at our trackdays in a naturally aspirated k-swapped 3rd or 4th gen civic.  The dude has obviously explored every square inch of that chassis and effortlessly outpaces "faster" cars in his group (KTM Crossbows, formula looking jobs, everything).  Damn shame we speak two different languages (German vs English).  I bet that's a guy I could spend a lot of time talking cars with.

Why?

Because when I was 5, in attempt to be like my older brother and cousin, I declared I wanted to be a race car driver (note my brother & cousin never did go racing).

When I was 9 I saw the movie On Any Sunday; beyond sparking a life long love of motorcycles it brought home the realization that racing could be a serious pursuit and there was a whole community of people doing this. Once I saw that movie there was no stopping me.

It took 18 years of waiting to get on track; the desire to do this never wavered, I thought about racing everyday. I ran my first motorcycle road race 37 years ago and my first autocross 34 years ago and my first SCCA club race 32 years ago. In my mind I'm still making up for two decades of waiting and so I won't be giving it up anytime soon.

It also happens that racers are good people and you meet some great characters in this sport. There are so many raconteurs with such a great sense of fun that I feel instantly at home.  If a meteor comes blazing out of the universe and vaporizes the planet tomorrow, I'll be able to say I had way more fun than the average person has a right to. 

In the meantime I'm having way to much fun to stop now.    

I wake up in the morning and choose to drive a silly little, fun car that brings me joy

Some folks wake up in the morning and decide to go into debt on a Nissan Murano

Those folks don't understand me and I certainly don't understand them.

I wrench because I have to in order to be able to afford to be fast. If I could run though cars like gt3s, lotus', etc I would happily trade around fast appliances and spend my free time elsewhere or on tinkering with upgrades instead of cursing rebuilds.

But I have to instead spend countless hours and thousands of dollars on a thoroughly abused racecar of a shell just so I can beat the E36 M3 out of a 5-6lb per hp track car for a fraction of the price as the above dream cars.

I also have owned some of the dream cars but can't handle that much of my NW in something I really don't enjoy driving at boring speeds in straight lines on the street. It brings me no enjoyment whatsoever to get stares from passerbys while I putz around at street legalish speeds. My old jeep with the top down is all the excitement I need when cruising the beach roads.

If I won the lottery tomorrow, I would be on autotrader tomorrow night though and that Evora would be in my garage the night after.

Really the same reason I have a 2004 Sea Hunt that I spend entirely too much time wrenching on as well.

Not a driver. I am in it for the build challenge.

 I know that the OEM guys will take care of the DD car  design/build so that I can build fun freaks in the shop.

Pete

I like to race.  I'm still a fast driver and usually set fast lap at most races I enter (lemons / wrl / champcar) on the way to a podium for the team.  However, I'm now more interested in hanging out with my racing family and could kinda give a E36 M3 less if I get in the car.

However, I built my swapped rx8 to take my 2 young daughters (5 and 7) on fun adventures.  Donuts in the mini golf parking lot (check), blazing speed on the way to school (check), helping me wrench on stuff (kinda check).

I'm taking my 7 year old to Amp for there young kids Karting school to see if she likes it.  If she does....  I'm selling my racecar and buying a couple of karts.

So, I dunno.

Last weekend I rode with my son in his Legacy GT.  Lowered suspension, adjustable coilovers turned to high, power mods. It's fast, powerful, and harsh.  Atlanta roads. He hit every pothole and bump. The car is squeaking and rattling like hell as the chassis rips itself apart trying to absorb all the bumps the suspension no longer can.

Then I rode with my other son who doesn't give a crap about fast or modified cars.  Bone stock Hyundai Elantra.

I liked the Elantra much better.

Because life is too short for boring cars. 

I'm neither a builder or a racer. I like cars. I like the friends that they have brought me. 

I'm all about the superman lunchbox.

You:  "what is the superman lunchbox?"

When you were in elementary school, your lunchbox was your status symbol.  If you were the nerd, it didn't matter if you had the coolest lunchbox, you got teased for it, but if you were the cool kid, you could have a goofy superman lunchbox and suddenly you're a trend-setter.  The superman lunchbox is something that is so uncool that it's cool.

My superman lunchboxes included a 73 AMC Hornet Wagon with 7400 miles, a 73 Impala wagon that was school bus yellow, a 74 Maverick, an 87 Cutlass, and a 78 P30 step van which I used as a daily driver so I always had free parking in L.A.

As I have aged and become an adult (dammit), I have less and less time for the hobby.  I take my van to the local shop for oil changes because I would rather pay him $40 than lay on my back in the driveway.  It makes me sad that I had ascended through the ranks to work for notable hot rodders like Wil Sakowski, Mercury Charlie, Jesse James, and turned down a job from Troy Ladd.  Now I'm stuck with all my crap stuffed into a 12x24 garage and no time or space to really do much.  I need a proper shop.

I like the sensation of driving at speed. Gaining ability and the feeling for car control is most satisfying. It'll probably never happen but I love trying to find that perfect lap.

I'm not a competitive person, so I just do trackdays.

In reply to j_tso :

When I put a helmet on I'm like a rabid badger on crack........I like this feeling; it's my happy place.

I like messing with stuff and have a hard time leaving well enough alone.  I also enjoy driving something with a decent performance envelope, even if it rarely gets pushed.  Compared to a total appliance, having lots of performance in reserve has definitely kept me out of at least 2 accidents that I can think of (1 in the Jeep, 1 in the BMW). 

That said, I'm not quite sure how I DD-ed the Jeep for as long as I did.  It's noisy, has some quirks, had a perpetual to-do list, drinks fuel, etc.  I'm not sure I minded it as much until I had the peace and quiet of the BMW. 

In one sense, going for the E38 as a DD was partly an attempt to find something that I wouldn't be too inclined to modify.  Of course, it hasn't stayed perfectly stock, but the list of mods is pretty short.  Unlike the Jeep, where it's almost easier to list things that are still stock than things that are modified. 

Tweaking and customizing just makes me a happy guy.  I love making random unexpected stuff fast.  I love finding the cool little OEM+ tweaks that really make it my creation.  I am a child that has no intention of growing up or ever stopping playing with cars.  I don't golf but have a few other passions that are similar, building competition firearms etc.  My wife knows it's my passion and supports it.  The kids dig riding in Daddy's fun cars.  For me it's a blend of adrenalin and the constant learning that takes place.  Finding my people aka GRM and the race community is really the cherry on top.

Because I have always loved cars. Over the years, I have found new insights for my love - there is a certain poetry in a rightly-operating machine, and a distinct beauty in a car designed for a definite end, hence my love of racecars and specialized or modified vehicles of all sorts. There is a certain zen that comes from focusing your mind on the singular task before you and nothing else, hence my love of driving and wrenching. 

But ultimately, all my feelings spring from the same root that caused me to crash my HotWheels cars with my grandma for hours when I was a toddler or daydream about them every day as a kid. They capture my imagination in a way no other material thing does, and they have a magic that pulls me in every time. Ultimately, I just love cars, and I don't think that's a part of myself that will ever change :)

I like cars. Especially 'special' cars.

What makes a car special to me is a little more abstract, it might be the way it drives, the way it looks, way it sounds, or more likely, the way it makes me feel when I look at it, hear it, or especially when I drive it.

Fast is cool.  Going fast in front of someone is cooler.  Going fast behind, then beside , and then ahead of someone is best of all.

Building a car to a set of rules and being the fastest in the class is an ego stroke for me that really can't be beaten. 

Even when I am flat broke I have less sense than money.

Once this thread makes it to 10 pages send it to a all responsible for creating the mechanical marvels that we bond with.

There is still hope for the future, if we do our part.

I like a well built tool and I get the giggles when the car gets squirmy. Few things beat a back road at 9/10s. 

Streetwiseguy said:

Building a car to a set of rules and being the fastest in the class is an ego stroke for me that really can't be beaten. 

There's nothing better. 

Pet peeve, it's those rule sets that keep me out of it. I swear they're written by people who have zero understanding of what it takes to put together a group of competitive cars. And don't get me started on crate engine classes.