I became a car guy out of necessity. My parents paid for my college, but had ZERO additional funds to help me get started in life. I got a job at the local Hess station while still in school, and made the money to buy a '69 Bug, this was 1986.
A year later, when the inevitable happened, (the exhaust valve on
#3 burned) my Uncle gave me a bug engine he had, and I did my first engine swap.
The rest, as they say, is history.