[masraum]

I'm pretty sure mine is genetic reinforced a bit by environment. My dad was a gearhead, and then when I was 15 we moved and the guy that was my best friend was a gearhead with a dad that was a gearhead. As a kid starting when I was 3 years old, my toys were always Matchbox cars or Hot Wheels.

My dad had had muscle cars when he was a teen, but was also into sports cars. He told me a story about rebuilding/hot rodding an engine when his parents went out of town when he was a teen. He'd had Corvairs, Bugs, Mustangs, Austin Healey 3000, MG Midget, etc.... He had bought broken cars, fixed them and flipped them for extra cash or fixed cars for people for extra cash at times. He taught me how to work on cars and how to drive.

I guess it just reinforced things that the guys that I hung out with when I was 15 were gear heads with a dad that was also into cars.

My first car when I was 16 in 1986 was a 1965 Chevy Impala 2dr with a 350 and 4spd, and my buddy got a 1970 El Camino with a 396/402.