Do you let your old engine warm up or just get in and drive?

Back in high school my brother and I both had 340 cars. His was a Dart Swinger, mine was a Duster. Both were 4 speeds. I always liked to let mine warm up a little before revving it up and taking off. As soon as his Dart would fire up, he would romp down hard on it three or four times and I was thinking to myself, "He's going to blow that thing up doing that every time." His engine never blew up though and ran like a scalded dog.