I have been into anything mechanical since I was a wee lad.
Was it the neighbor tuning his Triumph hill climber in the alley behind our house in 1963 ?
The noise was like a magnet , and then to see the shiny paint and chrome and that vicious roar really set a hook in me.
Seeing friends older brothers working and beating on their cars always seemed so cool .......... one was serious about his craft to the point of open headers , slicks screwed to the rims and a gutted interior with a roll bar in his '65 GTO " street car ".
He raced on the streets for cash , which seemed like a very exciting way to pass the time.
One Saturday when he was working on the car , he put his little brother and me in the back and had us hold on to the roll bar......then tried to launch us into the trunk.

I was maybe 11 years old , but events like that left such a deep impression on me that there was no doubt I would engage in much of the same shenanigans when I got older.
The people I have met have been with very few exceptions , some of the nicest folks you could ever know.
But I have met nice people all over the place.
The machines really do it for me.
There is tremendous satisfaction in building a fast , safe car.
But I get just as big a kick out of seeing other cars too.
Not much cooler than an American two door coupe with a snotty V-8 to scare the neighbors.