I’m in my 40s and fully embracing my enthusiast relationship with Cars. This is something that I never fully explored before but it was always there. I feel like most people my age got into cars in their teens and 20s. It was there for me at those ages but I was a far cry from knowing anything about the machines I loved. I couldn’t talk intelligently with a schoolmate who wanted to dive deep into the differences between the 3000GT I was driving and the Acura Integra he had. I regretably didn’t know enough to fully recognize how cool his car was at the time but now have an appreciation for all types. As I check-off a visit to SEMA off my bucket list and the absolute sensory overload of trying to cram all of that experience in to a 24 hour span on 3 hours of sleep I have to look back at what gave me that spark of enjoying cars?

If I think back, my first thought of “whoa that’s a cool car” was probably from watching and rewatching Back to the Future to the point where the VHS tape wore out and I could no longer watch my favorite scene. Marty attempting to catch a lightning bolt charged wire with a metal hook at exactly 88mpg and leaving behind a firey trail of tire marks.

Or was it watching KITT in Knight Rider knowing my parents had a matching black 1983 firebird in the driveway that I shared a birthyear with? Or all the car related Saturday morning cartoons from Transformers, to M.A.S.K.?

It was probably all of it, setting off many years of begging for the next coolest hot wheel, lego sets that would let me build vehicle after vehicle. Sports cars to recreating my own time traveling train, or at least the best facsimile I could with pieces cobbled together from $5 lego sets.

Fast forward to my high school days and the glut of awesome 90’s sports cars and the beginning of the Fast and the Furious series…I’ve spent most of my life lusting after vehicles that could go fast because it was cool, yet always behind the 8-ball of coming up just shy of owning a great example of a “cool car”

Meanwhile, my parents had an ever-growing fleet of status-symbol cars that were pretty to look at but ultimately lacking under the hood. Besides the toys and media affect, my own parents had a love of sports cars and I spent most of my quality time with my mom during after-school pickups. I’ll always associate long relaxing rides in a sports car with the few short commute moments I could connect with her since she worked second shift.

As I moved on to establish my own life, my own career, and my own family I put the car enthusiasm on hold. Practicality was the rule of the roost and if anything this is when my appreciation of all sorts of different makes came in. Look at all these cool cars that I can’t afford, or just aren’t practical. My life became all about the family and I lost touch with friends. My only confidant was my wife and she jokingly refers to cars as boxes with wheels on them. She didn’t have the itch and couldn’t understand the desire.

We cycled through more than the average number of cars moving from econoboxes to kid carriers. Utilitarian SUVs and trucks for multiple moves. A downsize to a front wheel drive Kia Soul intended as a west coast car for a failed relocation. My first totaled car from a bad patch of slush and a stalled out flatbed truck on I-95 I was lucky to walk away from.

A return to solo life and kids getting to the age of sitting in the front seat. A small condo not requiring hauling home improvement supplies put me back into the market to rekindle that sports car itch. A chance encounter with a cheap project car and a way to experience mid-engine RWD driving experiences I picked up an MR2 to scratch that itch. Did I bite off more than I could handle? Yes. Was it a bad “value” at $2000 not really.

It was a cheap entry point back into Japanese sports cars after I’d been lusting after GR 86s and GR Supras. I had just watched Initial D well past when most had and I wanted to see what the tiny little 4AGE power plant would be capable of in a small light car.

Not even a year later, talking about sports cars and Toyotas with my parents and it was ironically my mom; my free-spirit connection with sports cars; who led me to the first car I can say I’m absolutely in love with, no feeling of FOMO for other cars. In what seemed like a side comment, my mom asked, “hey have you seen the new GR Corolla?”

I’m ashamed to say my initial response was “What are you talking about mom, I’ve never heard of a GR Corolla, there are only two GR cars do you mean the new GR Supra?” Leave it to my mom to be on to something and out-enthusiast me. Unfortunately, I will never get to share the fun of driving this car with her. She passed in January of 2023. Her passing hit me in ways I probably haven’t shared with many. She had a zeal for life and was a free spirit.

Did it affect me making a knee-jerk purchase 3 months later as a reminder of her free spirit? Did her passing make me want to stop “waiting” until I’m too old to enjoy what I’ve always wanted? Was I sick of paying for gas guzzler truck fillups for my daily driver while my MR2 was not yet roadworthy? All of the above… Am I absolutely obsessed with finally owning a sports car that is both show and go? Yes. My coworkers and friends I’ve reconnected with are probably sick of me talking about my car, but it represents something I’ve wanted since I was a child. It represents something I felt I wasn’t allowed to have; something frivolous and impractical and immature to seek out. But it also represents a connection to my mom who is no longer with us. It represents that sometimes what looks like a high cost of ownership is worth it for the joy it can bring and the sentiments that come along with it.

Vehicles I’ve had a personal connection to in the Sao fleet:

OWned by	car	likes	dislikes	What I Lusted after instead
Parents	1983 Pontiac Firebird	It looked like the Knight Rider!	Not a trans am, small block, finicky startup	Trans Am
Parents	80’s Subaru Sedan and Wagon	precursors to the Impreza and Outback	Base models, smelt old	Wasn’t driving at this point
Parents	1993 Isuzu Rodeo	“my” first car	Nothing to write home about, but learned vehicle feel sliding around the rear end in the snow	Couldn’t complain
Parents	1994 Mitsubishi 3000GT Red	90’s JDM Glory!	Base Model Automatic – rebuilt transmission about 4 times before Rusting out	VR4
Parents	1985 Toyota Tacoma	I mean its a tacoma	Signs of age, very loose shifter	Marty’s version
Parents	1995 Mitsubishi 3000GT Black	Hey this ones a 5 speed	Assembled in North America, just not as good a build quality… and totaled in the driveway…also base model	VR4 or Evo or Eclipse GSX
Parents	1997 Mitsubishi 3000GT White	5 speed and Pearl White!	Another BASE MODEL! – and by this time, the SOHC engine from the Stealth as Mitsubishi started to collapse	VR4 or Evo or Eclipse GSX S2000
Parents	1977 Corvette	SharkBody!	Bright yellow, spent more time garaged than on the road, automatic, small block, rusted out floor	Stingray
Me	1997 Mercedes C280	first car purchase	Stupid financial decision financing this and the start of econoboxes and family cars	GTI? SLK?
Me	2008 Suzuki SX4	AWD and hey there was a WRC version	basically in the geo metro family?	Evo X/STI
Me	2010 Suzuki Kizashi	AWD Sedan Turbo and a decent Rockford Fosgate system	Still love this car but it wasn’t big enough for child seats	Evo X/STI
Me	2014 Subaru Crosstrek	first Subaru?	Not the WRX I really wanted	Evo X/STI
Me	2016 Ford Escape	eh…it has a turbo?	totalled 🙁	Evo X/STI/Focus ST
Me	2019 Kia Soul	Quirky gas sipper	But its a box	Stinger V6 TT
Me	2013 Nissan Frontier	Needed a Truck	Sucked down the gas	sports car of any kind at this point
Me	1987 Toyota MR2	mid-engine RWD AE86 DNA project car to finally get some mechanical chops on	It needs a lot of mechanical chops to get back on the road	GR 86
Me	2023 GR Corolla	FINALLY my rally style sports car	cost of parts 😛	nothing

Definitely a varied fleet from American muscle to JDM sports cars, Trucks and SUVs. There were a few other cars in the mix, ones my parents primarily drove or owned after I started my own life, or even vehicles that were my sister’s. Not to mention my parents’ what-ifs over the years.

But I finally am happy with the car I have, it’s got the horsepower of a sports car, if entry-level, the utility of a hatchback, and the new-england survivability of AWD with LSDs. Not to mention the crazy numbers the Aussies have achieved on the platform. It lacks nothing performance-wise from the top-trim Morizo spec and avoids all the “high maintenance” items (forged carbon body panel care) or compromises (no rear seats…I have two kids for crying out loud).