Book Review: My First Car

My First Car - a book review
CONCORD, NC - RIS - What was your first car? Was it something mundane or something cool? Your grandmother's old car or a sports car? What great or not so great memories do you have of that car? Matt Stone's new book, My First Car, answers that question for readers' enjoyment and education, asking stars of racing, automotive industry and show business about their first cars - neat, drab and every shade in between.
What racer's first car was a 1936 Morgan 'trike?' How about a 1957 Chevy Bel Air? Dan Gurney's first car was a '33 Ford V8 roadster. "I did my first sliding in the dirt with it," recalls Gurney. "I threw it sideways and stomped on the gas, but I was going too fast and the car kept on going in the same direction as I flew by the turn, missing it completely…. It was one of my first lessons in car control. Or lack of it!" Gurney says.
Read what Danica Patrick thought of her first car - an SVT Mustang Cobra.
Ryan Newman, Chad Knaus, Tony Stewart, Lyn St. James, Gordon Murray and more racers relate the tales - amusing, sad and happy - of their first cars and the links those cars hold to family.
So do showbiz celebrities including Jay Leno, Guy Fieri, Dan Ackroyd, Gregg Allman, Morgan Freeman and even actor/racer Patrick Dempsey.
A few of the athletic first cars described belonged to wrestler Bill Goldberg, Arnold Palmer and John McEnroe.
"The Rest of the Pack" group includes automotive journalists, artists, authors, even an astronaut, all of them giving interesting and amusing anecdotes about their earliest days of car ownership.
How did Bob Lutz set his car on fire with the help of friends? No, it wasn't arson or a mechanical error, but you'll have to read the book to find out what happened.
"The just visible edge of our rear tire was a black blur on the grey edge of the road. Had it moved outward even an inch we would have been in the dirt. I looked up and realized the nose of the car was pointed slightly across the road and we were held there, suspended in a long drift just be the slippage of the tires and Nadeau's pressure on the throttle! That exact moment was a life changing incident." That's possibly one of the most telling stories in the book - it's by Peter Brock, designer, author, photographer and designer of the famed Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe. He's describing his experiences in rebuilding and driving an MG/TC and riding with a master mechanic and early road racer in California.
If you cherish your memories of your first car, wondering just how crazy you are; wonder no more: you're perfectly sane, just like the rest of us.
(Just so you won't have to ask: the first car I really remember - the one I learned how to turn wrenches on but never really drove, was a 1947 Oldsmobile coupe. The car had a huge flathead inline engine, four-speed Hydramatic transmission and only a heater and AM radio. Basic paint and bodywork, brake jobs, tuneups, even some upholstery lessons all came with helping my father work on that car. The first one I drove was a '61 Pontiac Tempest four-door. Four cylinder, the one with the four barrel carb, connected to a two-speed automatic transaxle with swing axle rear suspension. More automotive lessons ensued, especially bodywork - it was bought as a rollover and I got to help weld on a new roof and do the bodywork associated with that.)
My First Car is available at many bookstores or direct from the publisher: Motorbooks International.