So I ran across this baby in some old images I had at an autoshow with my dad, Gotta love old pictures. So I hunted these down online and decided we needed to start a thread of our First Love Affair with Auto's!

Sound off on what was the first auto you saw that sent you on your way to just love Auto's.

AMX3 for me!

1970 American Motors AMX/3 Prototype Tucked into the corner of the Chicago Auto Show, this may be the greatest American sports car that never was. Seeking to keep pace with Italian and Detroit automakers exploring mid-engine designs, American Motors commissioned its own take in 1970. Six copies of the AMX/3 were built in Italy, using a layout similar to a DeTomaso Pantera, powered by a 340-hp version of AMC's 390 V-8. Financial troubles would kill the AMX/3, but the six prototypes survived, including this one restored by the family of designer Richard Teague.

Looking at these pictures again, it dawn's on me how the front end has clear Speed Racer Car input. Go Speed Racer GOOOOOO

Now that's one AMC I can say I really like! Don't get me wrong, AMC made some interesting autos... but I grew up with one neighbor owning a green Pacer (he refused to get rid of it until he won a '93 Chevy Blazer 4-door from his sales job!) and another neighborhood friend whose grandmother gave him her pumkin orange Gremlin as his first car in 1991 (that I rode to school in; here's one case where you have to question was it cooler to ride the school bus to school? )

Also, to remain with the topic, the love affair for me started with my grandfather's 1955 GMC 100 longbed pickup. He purchased it used in '56 or '57 from a co-worker that wanted a new truck. In the late '60s, my uncle took ownership and proceeded to "hot rod" it - I was told he installed a Corvette 327 V8 and an updated 4-speed manual (I have a picture of the chromed engine somewhere in my house, and painted it Atec Gold with a green metallic color for the interior (my uncle was not a drug user, but the color combo would make you think twice!). He blew that engine a couple of years later and I was told he put a 427 V8 in it (the original motor & trans long gone). My grandfather bought it back in the mid-'70s (I was born in '74) and used it around the yard for his garden and to purchase coal in Trenton for his coal buring stove. I remember playing in it in the driveway when I had to be about 4-5 years old and accidentially starting it up and one time riding in the front seat when my dad took it on a coal run (the memory also includes being stopped at a railway crossing and watching a long freight train pass by - possibly the start of my train love affair too?). By 1980 the engine my uncle had last put in died and my grandfather parked it alongside his shed, to "one day" replace the engine. From then on it became my playgorund and gave me many more years of fun. Spring of 1989 my township sent letters to all owners of abandoned or junk cars to fix them or face fines for having a personal junk yard. My grandfather had no intention of fixing the truck up, and neither my dad nor my uncle were interested in it either. He sold it to a junk yard and they send a towing company out to haul it away (took to late '70s Chevy C30 tow trucks to get it out of the ground!). Sad day watching it head off on a tow truck to a junkyard in Trenton. That same year my dad took me to Hershey for the AACA fall meet and there in one of the vendor fields was a restored 1955 GMC 100 pickup. I knew from then on I would want one of my own someday (sad to say I'm still wanting - 24 years later).

My bus used to pass an old garage in the small town I lived near, and under their carport were some dusty rides. I had no attraction to the Lotus Esprit, but that '58 Cadillac Series 75! now there was something different than the plastic-bumpered crap the roads were littered with. I never got around to inquiring on the S75 (I was always into performance, and that baby had to be HEAVY), but that era (late '50s thru mid 60s) has ever since been the most appealing to me, even tho I was too late to have grown up with them.

My first car; I lent my buddy $100 to buy this car on the condition he gave me first chance to buy it if he wanted out. 1964 Grand Prix. Still have it, tho I think it's time to let her go.

Edited February 23, 201313 yr by balthazar

I guess it was my parents' cars and my older brother's cars that got me interested in cars as a kid in the mid '70s...my folks' 3 '67-68 Cougars and '69 Mustang, my brother's various cars incl. a '65 GTO, '74 Firebird Formula 400, '68 Camaro SS 396, '65 Mustang, etc... and Matchbox and Hot Wheels did their part.

Mom and Dad's '66 Malibu SS 396 in Marina Blue. I was 2 years old. Mom's '69 Corvette in yellow. I was 5. Uncle's '66 F250 in red. Grandfather's '75 F-250 in green.

Edited February 23, 201313 yr by ocnblu

i do like it.

Anyone notice the Blue with White top Olds in the background or the Corvette?

That AMX/3 is beautiful.

I was into cars almost at birth, so I'm going to have to think about this.

No more elaboration is needed:

Anyone notice the Blue with White top Olds in the background or the Corvette?

I saw the Olds, as well as a Foxbody Mustang, an Original Mustang, a '57 T-Bird, a 70's Cadillac Eldorado, a Javelin/AMX, and an old Jag XK180. didn't find the Corvette.

Another AMX/3 fan here. 'course, I'm kinda partial to AMCs anyway...

When I was a little tyke, my dad brought home a 1956 Mercury Montclair 2-door hardtop. White over red. There was a fold down armrest in the center of the rear seat and that is where I perched whenever we went somewheres. I felt like King Sh!t whenever I rode like that. The car itself was gorgeous and I can still hear the burble of the 312 V8 exhaling through dual exhausts. My dad put curb feelers on it and at some point, glass pack mufflers. I'd dearly love to have another one like it.

We also had a '61 Chevy Parkwood wagon in fawn beige. It had dual exhausts and yeah, my dad glass packed it too. Riding in the way back was an exceptional auditory experience because you could actually feel the rumble of the exhaust at certain RPMs. Kinda like a low-tech bass kicker. Another car I'd love to find a clean example of.