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My grandparents started a repair shop in the 40's, which led to my dad and uncle growing up working there before doing their own things. They got into drag racing around 14/15 yrs old and by the time I was born, they had a set racing schedule, a couple cars, etc and I basically grew up in the race pits. My dad worked at a dealership (started sweeping floors in the parts dept) and wanted to be a parts salesman. Well, he stayed honest, and worked his butt off and 35 years later, has 20 stores (how's that for a feel good american dream story).
My uncle now owns and runs my late grandparents repair shop, still going strong. I started working summers there when I was 12, being around the repair side of things, when I turned 16 or 17 I started working away from family. My other uncle has a BMW store and like 30 amazing cars in the garage that I drool over, including a new ZL1 and GT500.
My dad never gave me a dime, a car, etc. I bought my first car for 400 bucks with money I worked for during the summers. A 1984 Z28, a real turd. Took me 1000 bucks in parts and my own highly skilled labor to make it start. Then I smoked out the mosquitoes for a while until we built a 350 for it. Still slow. But I waxed it every weekend and did one-tire burnouts every chance I got.
Now, 40 cars and 12 motorcycles later (not at the same time), cars is all I do. Tuning, selling, tinkering, buying, whatever. Cars are my whole life (except for my wife).
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