Cars came much later....
Steve
Just been surfing through some hot rod sites, looking for rods I remember from the 70's, came across this
Image deleted by owner
It inspired me to build a V6 engined Consul Capri, also the totty draped over it Custom Car mag was quite nice too.
What are your early influences?
Yes I'm bored too, and Mr Whippy sort of gave me the idea.........
A huge ecclectic mix when I were a lad but the two that stand out are T-buckets and the Countach. I've been looking at a T-bucket kit from the states actually for my next money pit!
Honda TL125, then when old enough a 350LC
Cars came much later....
Steve
The one thing that influenced my early motoring was money......... or rather a lack of it!! 
Had a Countach poster on the wall for most of my teens. Then bought a Morris Minor (!) for £10 and a packet of cigs. The thing didn't go and I
was only 15 but loved taking it to bits and eventually driviing up and down the lane beside our house.
Swapped it for a Yamaha FS1E and never looked back!
Gary
Mk1 escort winning the RAC when i was 11
linky
I remember regularly raiding my money box at my nans and going to the newsagent at the end of the road and buying a copy of Custom Car (or something
similar titlewise). Full of Zephyrs, Consuls etc. New school stuff was based on Capris. The adverts were all for Wolfrace wheels, jack up kits and
side pipes.
Once I was old enough for a car I was obsessed by Escorts (still am a little bit). At one point I had a genuine Mk II RS1800 and no money whatsoever.
I wish I still had that today!
Hot Car Magazine
Used to spend my pocket money on Hot Car magazine (from 1969 onwards...)
Custom Car was frowned upon due to the semi-naked women sprawled over the cars 
[Edited on 3/2/09 by minitici]
quote:
Originally posted by Richard Quinn
At one point I had a genuine Mk II RS1800 and no money whatsoever. I wish I still had that today!
quote:
What are your early influences? Yes I'm bored too, and Mr Whippy sort of gave me the idea.........
quote:No, that's the one thing that hasn't changed!
Originally posted by Browser
quote:
Originally posted by Richard Quinn
At one point I had a genuine Mk II RS1800 and no money whatsoever. I wish I still had that today!
What, no money?
Really good thread r1_pete, just re-living some childhood memories !
Carla, he had a YZ 490, I had an YZ 80, otherwise no difference
Hakan 'Carla' Carlqvist
Carla
quote:
Originally posted by Shamrock GS
Had a Countach poster on the wall for most of my teens. Then bought a Morris Minor (!) for £10 and a packet of cigs. The thing didn't go and I was only 15 but loved taking it to bits and eventually driviing up and down the lane beside our house.
Swapped it for a Yamaha FS1E and never looked back!
Gary
Rust!
Description
Influences were mainly rallying/rallycross on the telly.
Mk 1 and 2 escorts (had both but not powerfull kind)
Chevette hs and hsr's driven by russel brooks and jimmy macrae
lotus sunbeams
JPS Lotus formula one cars
CCC Magazine when it was a real do it up yourself type of mag before high power out of your price range motors were featured.
Moto Cross here for we as well, started racing 1981 when i was 9, got into cars at around 14 ( still racing bikes every weekend though )
first and second cars where MK2 & MK1 Escorts.
Also still have a 1991 cr500 honda off road bike. ( but not allowed to ride it since i brike my leg on a mountain bike )
As a youngster I never had that pic of the female tennis player scratching her arse, but had this poster instead
Also help a miner feed his family during 1982 strike by buying one of these off him with all my pocket, odd job, newspaper round and birthday money.
The thing was an animal
[Edited on 3/2/09 by clanger]
i had an RM125 @16 altho most of my influence came from my dad's E Types.
My salary!
custom car mag & volksworld were the gulty party 
From the age of about 15, my bedroom walls were covered from top to bottom with hot rods and bugs, I still have some on the bedroom wall now (along
with r/c plane plans!) and missy keeps moaning it looks like a boys bedroom which it does. Wish I still had my huge white countach poster that was
superb
My dad always had bikes, tractors, landrovers and so on and there were always a few old cars around
but I guess it was the escort cossie's that had the biggest influence when I was about 10
then when I started driving it was money and I got one of these for free - and I loved it
(and that was a big influence - ever since I've never want to spend much on a tin-top)
but when I was finishing uni I got a good look at the kit cars they had (quantum 2+2 etc) and more importantly my dads mates 50's hill climb
special
that got me thinking and my dad's mate told me about dax
(I don't think this is it btw - but its the nearest I could find on google, but I haven't seen it since its rebuild)
[Edited on 3/2/09 by mcerd1]
My early car based life was influenced by minis, rallying and classic racing cars up at Silverstone. There is still nothing that reminds of being a
kid quite like the smell of a full grid of old race cars. Mostly my dad's fault. Although the pit girls when I worked at the circuit did help a
fair bit! 
Earliest memories are of Bedford CA utilabrakes with dodgy 4x2 sills, no brakes, a dead battery and a starting handle.
We also had among other crap, a Rover 75, Vauxhall Crestas, a MKII Cortina 1300 2 door and a beetle 6 volt that my old man got off my uncle as an MOT
failure. It was downhill all the way after that.
Teenage years led to street machine, Hot rod magazine, CCC, CAR magazine and an introduction to LJK Setright, Phillip Lewellyn, George Bishop, Russell
Bulgin, Art Markus etc. Then around 1983 or so my brother and I decided to go to the motor racing at Ingliston.
That was it.
My head was now full of Reynards, Van Deimens, RoTors, Sunbeam Lotii, Chevette HSRs, Visons, Mallocks, Plastic bodied GT cars, Hugh Chalmers, Roy Low,
Howard Fowler, Arena and Caravan bends at Ingliston, the old wooden stands, the pits in the cowsheds.
I could go on - I still have the programmes....
John Fyda in the Mallock 24/27 - that's a MK24 with MK27 bodywork. This was the car which had the engine which was mentioned in the kent cams
adverts of the time. 193bhp form a 1700xflow on webers.
I'm off again.....
Car and Car Conversions Magazine, Mk1 Racing Escorts, Renault R8 Gordinis driven by the likes of Jody (Sideways) Scheckter oh, and anything with Weber
sidedraughts, welded widened steel wheel, go faster stripes and chrome wheel trim and Miesner Cams and heads - Chevy Can Am and sundry Pirranas
(Cortinas and Capris). I owned a modded Escort, a rally R8 Gordini and a Capri 3 liter all before I was 22.
Money was never a problem in my youth as I got 10% of my mom's winnings at the races as pocket money - she made more off the horses than my dad
made as a Doctor - in fact my income reduced significantly once I qualified and started working at which point I learnt the real value of money and
how hard it was to get
[Edited on 3/2/09 by Ivan]