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I’ve liked cars, the idea of cars, the design of cars, and the freedom of cars from my first memory in life on. When I’ve had a rough day, I want to go take the car out for a drive. There’s something that unites car lovers from all ends of the Earth, passion.
It doesn’t matter to me what kind of car it is, I can always find something I like. From bagged cars to lifted trucks, from rock crawlers to road racers, I love it all. The passion for all things automotive is what moves me. I literally get giddy when I see some car I’ve been longing to see for so long finally in front of me. My wife gets to hear me go on and on about project ideas in my head. Most of which never come to fruition, but the ideas never disappear. I’ll think back to what I wanted to do to this particular vehicle and think about how I could incorporate it into this next idea. It consumes me and my every day life, thinking about cars. I sometimes get upset if I see a car exactly like mine, I want my car to be uniquely mine.
Ultimately, that is what led to this idea, CAM, or Cars And Modifications. Several years earlier, myself, a good friend of my sister, and my brother-in-law all wanted to create a local print magazine about cars. We arranged some features, wrote some articles, but eventually the shoe-string(non-existent) budget constrained us and it never took off.
I’ve been friends with Mike since 2003 when we we’re Seniors in High School, both of us were in Auto Shop. He hated me at first, I wasn’t too fond of him either, but cars united us. We often disagree about what we like and dislike about certain cars, he often dismisses my ideas as crazy and vice versa.
I met Johnny a few years ago when we both worked at an exhaust manufacturer. Johnny is one of those guys who everyone seems to get along with because he has a great personality and can respect cars from all walks of life even though he tends to only drives Fords and Triumphs, which is needless to say, an odd combo. Every day, we’d talk cars in between phone calls. Despite our differences, in the end, we all have a passion for the automobile.
You can drive a unique and eclectic vehicle and make friends with random strangers who will come up and ask you about the car. On our great Viper road trip, I spoke with a gentleman for 30 minutes about his car and the only thing he knew about me was that I was driving a Dodge Viper. He didn’t know if it was mine, he didn’t care if I took it to the track or put it in shows. He just saw that I had to have liked cars and that broke down all barriers.
Often times I wave at people driving by who have similar cars, some think it’s stupid, some just ‘get it’ and acknowledge that they too have a passion for their car with a wave back. Passion is what drives the world today, whether it be cooking, photography, or engineering. If you have a passion for something, it’s hard to explain to someone who doesn’t share that same passion. I am fortunate to have met the people I have met, seen the cars I have seen, and am thankful that my passion lies in the great four-wheeled vessel known endearingly as the “car”. Now that CAM has been around for just over a year, I’ve fueled my dreams and I look forward to many more new adventures and friendships in the coming year.
-Trent Bray
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