Always been into cars and anything automotive. At 5 I had a minibike and go-kart. Grew up around motors pretty much all my life. My dad, owning a shop used to get customers to bring in some of their more cherished go-fast cars. He'd bring them home and take me out for a ride in them. I can remember my mom's 1988 audi turbo quatro. decently quick for its time. I can remember very vividly the twin-turbo 300zx he brought home one night. Also, a nutty fellow who swapped a 350 SBC into a 79 porsche 911. The car looked and ran like crap, but went like stink!
Anyway, it came time for me to get a car, and I had my heart set on a TT 300zx, a single turbo 280zx or an old school mustang/289 maverick. I figured I could pick one up at an auction and repair it. He was insistant I get a volvo. I thought they were slow, ugly and handled poorly. It did. I hated that car. It broke more times than I would care to admit here, but taught me much. Fortune smiled upon me with an out of state driver rear-ending that slow POS of a tank at 65mph, and the resultant injuries to myself and the car awarded me with a relatively fat settlement check.
I used the cash to go to the auction and I was sure my nissan, or at the very least, mustang addled dreams would finally be realized. However, my dad insisted I buy another volvo. I was pretty pissed, as I HATED those cars, but in my research online, I stumbled upon a few volvo tuning sites and learned of the potential those cars had. I reluctantly agreed, but scouted the lot for a turbo car, and my quest began. I also purchased a 1990 dodge shelby daytona 2.5t from a friend, but after a short (30 day) stint of modding it, my dad wouldn't permit it on the property, so the car was towed and impounded (never to be seen again). It had intercooler, 50% injectors, intake, ****ty cherry-bomb exhaust, zenier diode and a few gauges.
He was dead set against me modding any car, so I had to work on the remaining car in complete secret. Whenever he would catch me modding, he'd yell at me. We butted heads many times. We nearly came to blows over it, and we didn't speak for months. During a camshaft install, he made me push the car outside the shop and left me and the car stranded, still partially assembled. I've called home frantically about being stranded due to a busted rod, or a bad starter only to hear "wow, that sucks. good luc----click".
Long story short, I mainly started modding the volvo to spite the old man. He used to say all the time "that old volvo is nice, slow and safe. You'll never make it fast.". I showed him pretty good lol. Anyway, he has now turned around big time to my volvo obsession. We are on good terms and he brags about me and my "fast volvo". It was a dark time in our relationship, but my car modding hobby weathered the storm.
The wierdest, most ironic part of all this is that my father is a mechanic owns a very successful shop that spans three buildings and 2 rental properties to other shops. What is even funnier is that I RARELY get to use any of the facilities in them.
I still think volvos are ugly and slow, but what is funny is that is the whole appeal behind modding a brick. They are ugly, fat and slow. Everyone almost always underestimates what you have under the hood, so when you hand someone their ass with your ugly, fat, slow grocery getter, the victory is that much sweeter; their embarassment that much greater.
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