Even though my Dad wasn't a 'car guy' I think it was inevitable for me. My Mom's birthday is 3/18 and my parents conceived me in the back of a '62(?) Plymouth Wagon...

But what really pushed me over the edge was back about '78 when I was 10 or 11. We lived in an apt in NW CT. One neighbor had a 'hot rod' '67 Camaro (primer black, jacked up with 50's out back) and another neighbor who owned a '70 Challenger R/T convertible (plum crazy, black top and interior, NO stripes or spoilers, 440, stone stock down to the mag style wheel covers). The owner was a Woman who had gotten the car in a divorce settlement. She only drove the car on nice days and usually with the top down. Never saw her beat on the car, just drove it normally, rumbling around town. I had eyes for the Camaro, and my young self thought the Challenger color was a little weird.....

Then it happened.

I was out by the street in front of the apts riding my bicycle one day when I heard the Challenger fire up. It caught my attention because this time the lady winged the throttle a few times rather than just leaving it idle for a moment. I stopped and watched her come down the driveway, and as soon as she got on the street she hammered it, going past me with smoke just POURING off the back tires and the 440 wailing at full song........

I sat there on my bike for a few moments engulfed in tire smoke, my mind blown, trying to process what I had just witnessed. It was a lot like discovering girls, just a lot less embarrassing.

I promptly went home and took all the Camaro pictures off my bedroom walls.

I don't remember the exact length of time, but not too long after she did the burnout, the Challenger disappeared, first replaced by a VW squareback, then soon after, a brand new Pinto.

I later found out through my parents that the smoke show had actually scared the heck out of the lady. She had gotten into a fight with her boyfriend and took it out on the car not expecting it to do that. If that is true, she was too scared to let up as she went well over 200 ft, smoke rolling, car cocked sideways.

Much, MUCH later, I think the car may have crossed my path twice with other owners (as a gutted shell) but I would have no way to prove it.

For how much of an impact that car had on me, I've never owned a '70 Challenger.