OK, this goes back a lot of years but my dad drove what was the hottest car on the road back then. Hudson Hornets. But I was only about 6 years old. He passed way too soon at the age of 44 just a few months before I turned 8.
Growing up after that I was into models. Started out with airplanes and ships but then got into building model cars with an older cousin.
The one car that really hooked me was the McMullen '32 Ford HiBoy on the April '63 cover of Hot Rod Magazine. It was the very first car magazine I ever bought and it was because that flamed black roadster got me hook, line, and sinker.
I can even tell you where I bought the magazine. My mom and stepfather both worked for the school district and were off for Spring vacation that year. We drove up to Sequoia National Park for a few days to break in one of the new Drivers Education cars the school district had bought. I bought that Hot Rod Magazine at the store at Giant Forest in Sequoia. I was hooked from then on.
My first Mopar was a '69 340 Swinger I bought used in November 1969 from a guy that had just bought it a couple of months earlier but then decided to join the Navy. I loved that car. It's the reason I bought my 'new' '69 Dart a couple of years ago - I just had to have my Mopar back.