This is one of my favorite columns from 2007 and I thought I would post it here in our blog for some of our new readers from the merged title to read it for the first time. Feel free to comment on your favorite car memories in the blog.
All throughout your life you’ll have milestones to look back upon. When you get married; when you have kids; when you buy your first home, and so forth. All of these important life changing events are like points on the time line of your life. Of course, for us die-hard car types we have a whole different set of milestones that, dare I say, are even more memorable to us. It’s easy to rack them up when you are a car person. The first time you saw your dad’s friend peel rubber in front of the house. The day you got your learner’s permit would be another. And of course you can’t forget the day your parents let you take “the good car” on your first date with that special someone or to the prom perhaps.
These automotive enthusiast milestones rack up at a much more alarming rate than the general life milestones I believe. If I try to think back to the personal milestones in my life there’s probably a list of 20 or so, which I won’t bore you with (you can thank me later). But when I start to think about automotive milestones in my life the list just continues to grow with no end in site. Here’s a list of my top five (with apologies to Jay Leno, the king of Top 10 lists), though this list is bound to change as I continue to rack up automotive milestones.
#5: Passing my written exam at 15 with a 100-percent score
Here in Florida you can get your “restricted” license at age 15. The restricted is kind of a learner’s permit, allowing you to drive only during the day with a passenger in the front seat over 18 (like an older brother or parent, but usually a coworker so we could cruise for girls). When I went to the DMV to take the written exam I was nervous but I had been boning up on the rules of the road in advance. When I was called to the counter to get my results the DMV employee told me I had a perfect score on the written test and that she rarely sees that in adults, let alone 15 year olds. Score one for study hall.
#4: Driving my ’66 Mustang to high school for the first time
It was a warm September morning in 1984 as my best friend Robert Zambrano and I tooled into the parking lot at Hallandale High in Hallandale, FL in my ’66 Mustang that I had been working on all summer. Two 16-year olds in a classic Mustang with the ‘80s metal music full blast from the Kraco deck and Sparkomatic speakers purchased just days before (those were the days, huh?). It seems like it was yesterday.
#3: Taking my son for his first “go fast” ride
My son is 14 now and more interested in skate boards, his mp3 player, and girls than going cruising with his old man, but hopefully I can someday have more driving fun with him like I did when he was just six years old. I had a ’98 Cobra convertible on loan from the Ford PR fleet and I took him for a spirited drive with the top down, ending in a nice smoky burnout and a chirp of second gear. The smile on his face and him yelling “do it again daddy” will always be with me.
#2: Driving the Ford GT
Regular readers will know I’ve espoused in past columns about how much fun I had behind the wheel of Ford’s Supercar for a weekend back in 2005. Putting 260 miles on Ford’s most insanely fast (and insanely expensive) car ever built was something I hope to repeat again my lifetime, maybe even with my name on the registration (the Lord and the Florida Lotto willing). If you ever get a chance to even sit in one of these cars, do it, and be sure to make all of the appropriate motor and tire sounds while you wiggle the steering wheel.
#1: Restoring my ’66 Mustang
While not my original Mustang from high school, I restored this second car as a twin to my first car. It pays homage to those early years of driving to high school, my first job, dating, my first pass down the quarter mile at the long gone Moroso Hollywood drag strip, and all the other fun teen stuff. It’s my time machine. Every time I get into it and twist the key it’s 1985 again for me, and that’s something I could never do with any new car.
There’s literally dozens more, from hot lapping Sebring as a passenger with Steve Saleen and driving Legends series race cars at Roebling Road, to meeting many of my automotive heroes and building our Factory Five Cobra replica with my family. What’s some of your automotive milestones? Tell us about them with an email or letter and share your milestones with us won’t you?