Got the "bug" so to speak back in the early 70's watching a couple of VW nuts down the street build kit cars...one was VW powered, the other, getting a Corvair engine. Learned that you could torque really big nuts with a long pipe over a breaker bar and a bathroom scale!

Anyway, my Dad carpooled with a guy owning a 68 VW, our next door neighbor had a 69 Squareback, and the VW wrenchers had a 72 VW Bus. Needless to say, my first car was also a VW (see my sig of still-owned car).

The VW air-cooled engine was the epitome of simplicity, devoid of cooling system components. A novice could do a rebuild in a weekend!

My Dad owned an MB during that era, and those of you old enough remember that the parts booklet that came with the owners portfolio had very detailed exploded drawings of every conceivable component on the MB model you owned. You could practically build an MB from the ground up just from looking at the diagrams!!

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2009 ML350 (106K) - Family vehicle
2001 CLK430 Cabriolet (80K) - Wife's car
2005 BMW 645CI (138K) - My daily driver
2016 Mustang (32K) - Daughter's car