Bit quiet on here tonight (fascinating AFR discussion aside 
) so share your earliest performance car memory.
For me I was 12 and and my mate’s Dad has a BMW 635CSi. He gave me a lift home and gave it full beans out of the roundabout between the A20/A205 in South East London. I can still remember being pushed back into the seat and the noise of the straight six…awesome 
When your Dad has a Vauxhall Victor estate it felt like a rocketship.
I still love BMW M-Cars.
Might not be the earliest memory, but earliest performance-related memory was coming sideways out of the street in my mates old E28 M5, and loving all the dash gauges and lights!
Not sure how old I was, probably about 12-13.
young teens,
girlfriend dropped at my place by her dad - I remember thinking gosh their mercedes exhaust sounds faulty, only to stick my head out the window and see daddy had brought her over in his Testarossa! 
I was downstairs like a shot!
Mine was around the early to mid 90’s when my dad bought this xpack capri with close to 300bhp at the time, fully stripped out with a roll cage it was scarey back then, infact still is!
Still owns it today.
Dads Merc 450SL. Green with Cream lol. Sweet, funny tho I’ve never looked twice at a Merc 
Being taken for a spin in DB4 in 1964, then a Jensen Interceptor a few years latter.
PS Mark - that Capri looks ace! I used to have a 3000E.
Daily Soap box racing, Ferrol Road, Gosport (down hill cul de sac of about half a mile, ages 5-11?). This was soon followed by Triumph Tiger Cub motor cycling over rough ground (ages 11-13?) and then rides in a Bond three-wheeler. Dad had an Austin A55 but my uncle the A105 Westminster - not really a performance car but fast enough after the A55. Things really took off for me when I regularly drove one of the Army’s rally minis in and around Aldershot (aged 18)including frequent, and totally illegal, blasts around Rushmoor Arena when nobody else was there, which was most of the time and almost a daily occurrence for me. I learnt a great deal and was very lucky not to crash it on several occasions. Not long after this, being driven around a rally stage by Bill Gwynne in a works spec Mk 1 Escort sealed the deal. It was cars for me but a full military career got in the way a bit.
I bought my first car when I was 16 (hillman Imp) , promptly removed the engine and rebuilt it all myself with big valve head, carbs, exhaust etc…
Turned 17 , passed my test and thought the car was ace…
Then a schoolmate (2 years older) who I used to fly R/C planes with turned up at my moms house with his new car … A TR7 with a souped up Rover V8 , holleys , cams etc.
After being scared shitless I got the bug for fast cars…
A lot family on my dads side worked at Ford. We were a big RS clan.
mexico,
RS2000
RS1600i
RS turbo S1
3 door cossie
RS turbo S2
RS 500 (uncle still has it I think)
XR4x4 estate
My dad came home one day with a maestro MG in beige though one day :lol
When I was a lad I used to help the chap up the road build up Elans and Europas from Lotus kits ( buyers saved the purchase tax if you diy’d them ) and this chap built them for folk. He paid me a fiver for a weekend’s graft 
But the highlight was every month he brought home one of TC Harrisons collections of classics (he was TCH’s personal mechanic) to work on at the weekend. Cars included a Le Mans winning GT40, Maserati Bora, Ferrari Daytona, 275GTB, etc - but highlight was one (TCH owned 2 then) of his GTO’s! Subsequently sold to Japan in 1989 for �10 million! - as a callow 16 year old I was impressed
[quote=Mr Pesky]Being taken for a spin in DB4 in 1964, then a Jensen Interceptor a few years latter.
PS Mark - that Capri looks ace! I used to have a 3000E. [/quote]
Thanks Pesky, my dad also had a mk1 3000e in yellow but i was too young to remember that one.
[quote=SimonE]When I was a lad I used to help the chap up the road build up Elans and Europas from Lotus kits ( buyers saved the purchase tax if you diy’d them ) and this chap built them for folk. He paid me a fiver for a weekend’s graft
But the highlight was every month he brought home one of TC Harrisons collections of classics (he was TCH’s personal mechanic) to work on at the weekend. Cars included a Le Mans winning GT40, Maserati Bora, Ferrari Daytona, 275GTB, etc - but highlight was one (TCH owned 2 then) of his GTO’s! Subsequently sold to Japan in 1989 for �10 million! - as a callow 16 year old I was impressed [/quote]
Impressive stuff Simon
Yup Simon wins so far…makes my 635CSi experience seem quite paltry.
[quote=Mr Pesky]Being taken for a spin in DB4 in 1964 for my 40’th birthday, then a Jensen Interceptor a few years latter.
[/quote]
EFA
My earliest car memory is a S2 Europa in 1969 when I was aged 8 years old. I used to push it along the living room carpet every day.
I only stopped after the engine gave up following some prolonged AFR issues.
[quote=tim_marra]My earliest car memory is a S2 Europa in 1969 when I was aged 8 years old. I used to push it along the living room carpet every day.
I only stopped after the engine gave up following some prolonged AFR issues. [/quote]
8? in 1969? now we know your telling fibs!
I was first member of my family to actually own a car - �25 850 mini reg 3197 R with 4 and a half inch J wheels and PECO exhaust - engine blew up in Newquay so I left it in Great Western Hotel car park and thumbed it home - wonder if its still there?
A neighbour down the road had a Lotus 7 with Cosworth 1340cc engine. Used to hill-climb it. Seemed quite quick.
Dad’s mate had a Mini-Cooper and let me drive it, aged abt 12, crashed it into porch of our house. Only slight damage to headlight( and lots to my pride).
Driving my dad’s Elan +2 from Tebay to Lancaster down motorway (uninsured).No accident, this time.
120mph down 30mph Conway Street in Birkenhead in Ford’s original roadgoing GT40 Mk111.Car often featured in mags to this day.
I was first member of my family to actually own a car - �25 850 mini reg 3197 R with 4 and a half inch J wheels and PECO exhaust - engine blew up in Newquay so I left it in Great Western Hotel car park and thumbed it home - wonder if its still there? [/quote]
LOL, its not there anymore, i know this hotel well my cousin lives round the corner from it.