[jmg]

My dad brought home a Porsche 944 catalog one night. I obsessed over each page reading about all the features and options. Fantasizing about which color we would get, what it would be like to ride in it, never thinking we were getting one. I grew up poor, my parents were immigrants, we never had a nice car like that. I grew up in a Datsun Sentra. My dad was doubtful about getting one.

One night I remember hearing, what was to me at the time, deep growling sound come up the driveway. I couldn't believe it, but my dad drove home a new 944 Turbo. It was nothing like I had ever experienced at the time. Compared to our old rusty Buick Century, it was like a spaceship. Low to the ground, wide at the wheels, sounded like a sports car, and my ears popped when you closed the door. The fit and finish was phenomenal, the speed was mind-blowing. My dad might as well have brought home an X-Wing as far as I was concerned. I dreamt of taking over the car when I finally got my license. Unfortunately, I was years away from that, and it never came to be, but I made me a car lover at a very young age.