Who got married BECAUSE cars?

That other thread was depressing. I'm super happy in my marriage. I have a best friend for 13yrs now. Love her to death. She's super understanding. 
 

so let's spin some positivity around here. Did anyone find love of a human because of an automotive related thing? 

The little red Corvette my wife owned when I met her did nothing to discourage my pursuit.

My wife and I met on a blind date.  Set up by autocrossing friends.  Been married 23+ years and have two teenage daughters.  Racing is good!

My grandfather:  I'm here because my grandfather had a 1956 Fairlane (red and white) with "Hollywood mufflers".  My grandmother still talks about that car.

Me?  I think it was more that I had a passion than it was "cars", but Mrs. Hungary digs it.  Any time we take the 4-Runner or the RX-8 out for a drive, it's an "event" and it's exciting for all of us.

Good times

My wife was dragged along to a Flyin' Miata event by her sister, who was the friend of one of our mechanics. Janel saw my '66 Cadillac there and decided she wanted to meet the guy who owned that thing, so we were set up on a blind date.

While we were dating, she helped me paint the frame on my Locost. She was my navigator for the Targa Newfoundland before she got a real honeymoon. She wasn't a car person herself - not when we met - but we definitely met because of cars.

Not married because of cars, but my wife pushed me to buy my 2nd Miata because she saw how miserable I was driving an appliance, and when I sold it asked me numerous times if I was sure that I was OK with that decision.

Traded a girlfriend for my '69 Olds Delta 88 (I wrote a story about how the trade happened). Years later I picked up my wife for one of our early dates in said Oldsmobile. Used the Oldsmobile in our wedding. The car is currently sitting four feet in front of me as a type (garage office). Wife and car are both keepers.

My wife drove a manual two door Explorer when we met. I bought TWO Land Rovers before we moved in together. She wasn't a "car person" per se, but she found, and continues to find, my passion for the hobby endearing. If it counts, we were married in a running car at a drive through chapel. She's that cool. 

Didn't get married because cars, but pretty sure this car saved my marriage. Big road trip helped us recover/reconnect after a seriously rocky spell.

A black '68 Camaro came with my wife.  

Our first date was picking up a '49 Plymouth with my truck and trailer.  And then driving straight to a 5K that we ran in.  

Subsequent dates I picked her up in a green 2 door Volvo 122.  She named it "The Turtle".  

We took a '64 Corvair convertible to Key West where I proposed to her.  

Our "getaway car" for the wedding was a '67 Volvo 122 wagon.  And we took a 1980 Mercedes 450SL on our honeymoon.  

She's not into racing though- just cruising.  Compromises.  

The main adjustment for me getting married was not that there were any extra limitations on what cars I could bring home, just that I had to actually tell her I was buying said car, rather than simply showing up with it.  

In reply to JohnInKansas :

Im not gonna ask for any more details than you're willing to share, but that sounds like a cool story to hear. At least give us details on that bug!

In reply to _ :

Trip report. She and I both go back and read through the report now and again, good memories.

Bug was purchased nearly stock as a commuter. Sprang a major oil leak, spun the bearings. Decided it would be cheaper/easier/more fun to swap in a Subaru engine (NA 2.2l). Big power led to big tires, big tires led to no fenders. Is low and hard and noisy and twitchy, but no other vehicles put a smile on my (or her) face quite the same.

We met on the old BABE rally back in 2008 and hit it off.  We kept going with that for a few years and added Lemons and track days to the mix.  Lots of racing vacations, One Lap, and over 25 tracks together.  She helped pick the NSX instead of a DB9 or 911. She's almost as fast as me on track these days too.  I outkicked my coverage on this one. 

My wife isn't particularly into cars, but when we met, her daily driver had a manual transmission. That was a definite plus. She's also better at backing up trailers than I am.

I can guarantee you she didn't marry me for my Datsun 310GX.  
 

My wife did help me buy an Alfa before we got married...  And she's a heck of an enabler- to the point helping do a challenge car (like others on this board).

But IIRC, a pair of people MET because of the Challenge, and got married shortly after one.  This would be back in 2002-2005 range.  I seem to remember them being highlighted at one of those challenges.  Does anyone else recall that?  SVrX, AC, David, etc?

Her eHarmony profile pic was of Porsche Parade. She had done a couple HPDEs and my friend was her instructor years before I met her. We were married at the Ford Piquette Avenue Plant where Model Ts were first built. So, yeah, we met because of cars.  

When Bianca and I had just started seeing each other I got a text while I was at work that she was at my house waiting for me. She lived 120 miles to the north and was apparently going to stay the weekend. I told her to dress up for a date night and picked her up in a 59 Alfa Romeo Guilia sprint 1600 I was finishing up.  It was perfect because her idea of "dressing up" made her look like she just walked off the set of mad men.

After a lovely meal and walking back to the Alfa she asked if she could drive it. I handed her the keys and while I was buckling up I was trying to explain that the 2nd gear synchro was touchy and sometimes needed a fair bit of force. I got the "don't mansplain to me" look  and she stuffed it into first, dumped the clutch and peeled out onto the road. She wound it out and had grabbed 2nd then third pretty aggressively and was well above the posted speed limit before turning to me and saying "it's ok, I know how to drive old cars" with a wink.

It was amazing.  

She loves my toy cars and doesn't begrudge the time and money I spend in them.

Iet swmbo in 7th grade. Neither of us had cars. However, we spent a ton of time together throughout hs- she was also one of the few people I knew that could drive stick. All these years later she likes going to challenge, so there is that. 

alfadriver said:

But IIRC, a pair of people MET because of the Challenge, and got married shortly after one.  This would be back in 2002-2005 range.  I seem to remember them being highlighted at one of those challenges.  Does anyone else recall that?  SVrX, AC, David, etc?

Was that Sean Korb?

A group of my friends from high school days lived in a different school district and hung out with a group of girls my wife knew.   My wife always loved cars, and in that group of friends, I was known as THE CAR GUY, but for some odd reason, they never once mentioned that fact to her.  In fact, it is almost like they kept almost all information about me from her over the years, aside from my fight with cancer, and subsequent divorce.  (They kept in contact with her and one of her friends through the decades to go out to concerts and birthdays "as friends" while I was usually known to her as "John who hates me" due to some stories they decided to tell about her to me when we were in our early '20s- see where this is going?)

Well, about ten years ago, she found out I was out of work due to the recession and complications from the treatments for my aforementioned cancer, and asked if it was okay if she could get my number to contact me to do some electrical work her house needed.  I never do side jobs, but I was about to lose my house, and getting a bit desperate.


Long story short, we both learned how much we had in common, and were married within two years.  And those mutual friends?   They stopped contacting her to "hang out" as soon as they heard that we were dating.  



In the past decade,  we have been on more Epic Road Trips, laughed more, cried more, grieved more, laughed more, lived more, and loved more than either of Us have dreamed possible in the 4 decades prior.  

It's been an incredible trip, and I can't wait to see where it takes Us next.

Didn't get married because of cars, but its finally a positive aspect in our marriage.  I dragged my wife out to a rallycross at Panthera to see what she thought, so now she's hooked and was bugging me about getting a car.  I didn't have the cash for one just yet ( I pay 99% of the bills, she makes the play money ), so she foot the bill for our own rally car.

One an early date with The Dancer, I drove the DMC to the restaurant we were meeting at- she still remembers the conversation after dinner when she first found out about it and if nothing else it was something the made me stand out from the crowd.

She's nowhere near as interested in cars as I am, but thankfully both her dad and step-dad were car guys and she at least appreciates and supports my enthusiasm for them as long as it's within reason even if she doesn't understand it.

Sonic said:

We met on the old BABE rally back in 2008 and hit it off.  We kept going with that for a few years and added Lemons and track days to the mix.  Lots of racing vacations, One Lap, and over 25 tracks together.  She helped pick the NSX instead of a DB9 or 911. She's almost as fast as me on track these days too.  I outkicked my coverage on this one.

I didn't know you guys met at the BABE '08! I think that was the one I had the Astro van on. Awesome.

The first time we had relations was somewhere very  uncomfortable.

Does that count? (And that wasn't my ex-wife, just the person who makes me very happy who I'm happy to have as a part of my life, who is nearly the same level of enablerz especially regarding crapcans or E36 M3boxes as she affectionately calls them).