Hi all. I've been lurking around the forums for a while now, and finally decided to join in. I've been a fan of the '40 since I was a little 'un, and can still recall the first time I saw one. That was when I was about 4 years old.
Somebody turned up at a neighbours house with a mk111 in silver. My Dad was the one who spotted it, and he actually dragged me out of the house to go see it, then spent a good 20-30 minutes telling me about how the GT40 had won LeMans, etc, etc... As I was just getting over the flu at the time, I wasn't massively interested, until the owner came back to the car.
My dad basically grovelled to him, asking if he'd let us sit in it, which he did. The owner then went one better, and fired up the engine. THAT caught my attention!!!!:shocked::stunned::shocked:
So there I was, sat on my dad's lap, engulfed in this NOISE!!!, barely able to think, but aware that this was something special, something I'd never experienced before...
Then the owner turned to my dad (who was acting like the proverbial schoolkid), and said "shut the door and we'll go for a spin 'round the block if you want". So dad shut the door (nearly scalping me in the process), and off we went. 2 miles later, I was in love.
Okay, the car was noisy, it rattled and squeaked, it was uncomfortable, too small, and (frankly) it smelt kinda funny, but my God, did it GO. We lived on a hill, and the access road to the end of our street was a quarter mile straight that was at around a 1 in 4 slope. I'd never been in a car that could do more than around 25mph up that road. When we turned onto that road, the owner decided to give it some welly. We went from around 20mph up to 100mph and back down to 20ish before we turned onto our street, in an explosion of noise and sheer visceral acceleration.
As a 4 year old, it was the most intense experience I had ever had. Now, some 30-odd years later, it's still one of the top 5.
Two days later dad gave me a Matchbox toy car, a silver GT40. I've still got it. At present, that little toy is probably as close as I'll get to owning one, but at least I've got the memories of that day so long ago...
... G
Somebody turned up at a neighbours house with a mk111 in silver. My Dad was the one who spotted it, and he actually dragged me out of the house to go see it, then spent a good 20-30 minutes telling me about how the GT40 had won LeMans, etc, etc... As I was just getting over the flu at the time, I wasn't massively interested, until the owner came back to the car.
My dad basically grovelled to him, asking if he'd let us sit in it, which he did. The owner then went one better, and fired up the engine. THAT caught my attention!!!!:shocked::stunned::shocked:
So there I was, sat on my dad's lap, engulfed in this NOISE!!!, barely able to think, but aware that this was something special, something I'd never experienced before...
Then the owner turned to my dad (who was acting like the proverbial schoolkid), and said "shut the door and we'll go for a spin 'round the block if you want". So dad shut the door (nearly scalping me in the process), and off we went. 2 miles later, I was in love.
Okay, the car was noisy, it rattled and squeaked, it was uncomfortable, too small, and (frankly) it smelt kinda funny, but my God, did it GO. We lived on a hill, and the access road to the end of our street was a quarter mile straight that was at around a 1 in 4 slope. I'd never been in a car that could do more than around 25mph up that road. When we turned onto that road, the owner decided to give it some welly. We went from around 20mph up to 100mph and back down to 20ish before we turned onto our street, in an explosion of noise and sheer visceral acceleration.
As a 4 year old, it was the most intense experience I had ever had. Now, some 30-odd years later, it's still one of the top 5.
Two days later dad gave me a Matchbox toy car, a silver GT40. I've still got it. At present, that little toy is probably as close as I'll get to owning one, but at least I've got the memories of that day so long ago...
... G
