My uncle Jim, (the one that taught me how to curse, drink whiskey and play the fiddle) was always wrenching on some old car so that he would have daily transportation. He never was much good at holding a "real job", so was chronicaly short of money.---and as a result, he was great at breathing life back into cars that others had given up on. I thought he was a rather fascinating fellow (great role model stuff), and tagged along with him. I think my "mechanical gene" came directly thru my mothers side of the family from her brother Jim. Then when I was 19, I went to the city to start engineering, and one of the very first people I met was Larry Sommerfeldt---who was building a model a drag coupe with a nailhead Buick in it---and the rest is history.---Brian