MY FASHION WITH CARS SINCE I WAS A YOUNG BOY

Submitted into Contest #158 in response to: Write a story about a character who is trying to become a better person.... view prompt

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Adventure Happy Inspirational

I always wondered what it would be like to drive my own car. I was always interested in mechanics and the way things work. I want to know how to build the engine, the proper daily maintenance, to upgrade the performance of the car and to know every single things about cars.

When I was a boy, I used to help in my friend's shop when they're fixing someone else or customer's car. They taught me everything that they knew about cars.

I started fixing cars at my young age. I first looked at the engine and everything about it, then I would start taking it apart. The first car I ever worked on was a honda civic a Japanese car. It had many problems, like the spark plug wires were broken off; the distributor was shot, the radiator, thermostat wasn't performing well comes with a bad water pump and the battery had died. After fixing those problems, we start the car and the cars run fine. We could drive it again and get it back on track.

That was my first accomplishment as a car guy. That's the goal. The feeling that you accomplished something with a hard work was so satisfying

When I got older, I started repairing cars on my own. I fix cars while im still in school and continued doing it after graduation. But then calling comes first. I didn't go to college. I go to the military right away. Serve for over 6 years in my life, then I retired. After I retired In the service, I decide to follow my dream. I take an automotive course in my hometown. I spend 36 weeks in the course before I finally finish and get my certificate.

After that, my journey as an automotive service technician started. My dream since I was a young boy finally came true. Find a job after finishing the course, luckily saskpolytech referred us right away to a shop where we can work and show apply our skills that we learned for 36 weeks along with my comrades whose newly graduates as me. My dream as a young boy came true.

I work in a shop. It was a busy every day. People come and go all the time greasy hand, dirty. clothes every day. I'm learning new skills and I'm so persevere to

New tactics that I'm seeing and learning from the journeymen in our shop. Not getting tired doing my job, not getting tired, and it doesn't mean that im not a getting tired, I get tired too taking a break and enjoy unwinding moments for a second. The thing is, doing the job that you love is the best feeling that cannot be exchanged and be paid by money or anything in this life. That's what I called work, my daily chore as a mechanic.

When I got off from work, I'm no were to be found. You can see me in my friend's house or in our backyard and garage fixing cars.

I do Jdm, Edm or any type of Japanese cars. I enjoy rebuilding the engine change a bit of pieces added to the platform, performance of my ride, Suspension drops the ride a bit includes all parts of the drive trains, drum brakes to disc brake conversion, 4 lugs to 5 lugs, changing tires new wheels just to add the handling performance, brake kits and more. The lasting that I like to do is the body works and changing all the fluids couple of maintenance thing.

My fashion was in a Japanese car. I love Honda; it was easy to build and I can find any car parts I need for a lower price in our town.

One day when I was in the city, while I’m driving down the road at night, I’ve noticed a group of cars parked in the middle of the road. Wondering what was going on, I thought it was weird, so I slowed down to see what was happening. As I approached them, they were drifting, tires burning, skid marks on the road. Their hood was wide open their showing up their engines to each other a lot of good looking cars. After that I look to the other side of the road and saw a bunch of people waiting for an action, like there's something is going to happen. Then two cars lined up side by side and a man in the middle. His both hands were up like he's being freeze by a sheriff, they are both revving their engines and then as the man put his hands down they proceeded to race each other down the street. It looks very exciting and furious but also kind of terrifying because they were doing it on a public road.

That was my first time that I’ve been and watched a real drug race in my whole life. My curiosity In the next morning in my work I ask my coworker a buddy of mine who also like working with a car if he knew about the drag race thing too and I'm surprised by what he said. He told me that he himself was a racer too. He told me that they race every Saturday and Friday in Rochdale's freeway in the city at 9-10pm. "one thing led to another.

He then invites me to pull down in Rochdale on Saturday, bring the honda that I build and race with the team for once. I say I might come, so I get the location and the time of the race will begin. After work, I mark the calendar to make sure I won't forget it.

It's Saturday. After work, I clock out, go to the garage, put a couple of performance parts in my car and check everything before leaving. I didn't even change my clothes. I start my car, wait a bit and hit the road straight to the location.

As I almost reach near the destination, I saw a bunch of people standing side by side of the road. Seems like they are waiting to check out the action

By the time I arrived at the location, there were so many cars lined up waiting in front. There must have been at least 20 cars lined up in front of me with their engines revving as they waited to enter the parking lot. It was a long wait till I could finally come in. As I proceed, every spot of the parking lot has different imports, good looking cars better and a lot more than the last time that I saw. There are imports R32, Lancer Evo, MR2, and Rx7 came from and they are coming from another city. The rest of us are from the local. They're all showing up what under their hoods. Different kinds of engines. A high performance engine there are Rb26, 4g63, K24 and Gs300. I felt like a real stranger seems like I'm just the only Honda owner there with an Eg Honda Civic supercharged b18-c type r engine.

As I approached another import Cars in the parking lot, my buddy's finally saw me and invite me to

join them where they park at. Saw some of my buddy's car was jack up, pulling the rear tires off and mounted the slicks ready for the night.

Its 10pm and the races had already started. A couple of small-block Chevy IIs, s2000 and R32 go at it. They raced here one way, then turned around and raced back. It was as flat as Phyllis Diller and had desert on both sides forever. After watching some more cars come through, my buddy's yelled, "Let's go,"they told me I was gonna represent the team for the night.

So I pulled out on the highway and cleaned the slicks off the surface of the road. I pulled up alongside the guy in the boosted dc2 type s, He’s not from local. He came from another city. A guy with a flashlight flagged us off. The Dc2 immediately got a jump out of the hole. I counted on the top-end power of my Eg. I grabbed the gears at 8000 rpm, got excellent. Second, I shift the red line all the way to third. In third gear, he miss shifted and blew by him about 200 feet from the finish line. A loud noise from the local cheering me up for winning the race from the outsider along with my buddy's rejoicing in the starting line. We pulled over and this guy was pissed. He demanded a rerace. He really didn't want to admit that and accept that he was lost with an Eg, which I understand because that was really a mist shift. Pull up myself and once again we pulled up to the line and a guy with the flashlight flagged us off. The Dc2 went up right away. I was going to beat him off the line! I grabbed Second, and suddenly, here came the highway patrol, their lights flashing and a lot of them covering the road. I hit the brakes, spun around, and headed back to my buddy's. As soon as I saw my buddy's their already in their ride ready to bag out. I looked the other way up the road and a single car with lights flashing was coming. As a retired Army, it was a disgrace to get caught up in this, so I turned onto the other side of the road, look for a freeway and took off. After driving about a mile, I switched off the lights and went on to an unknown side of the road and stay there for a couple of minutes. Waited, and while I’m waiting on the freeway, I could still see the highway patrol off in the distance rounded up a bunch of the people. After waiting for so long when the road was clearing out, I eased back and went home.

From that day on now and then I learned my lesson. I still fix cars and race, but now it's on the racetrack.

It's so good to be free. It’s fun, yes it is, but don’t exchange the freedom of you to be able to drive. I love cruising around with my car, and going out of town. It's a great way to see the sights and get some fresh air. I love being able to go where I want, when I want! Rolling down the window all the way, feeling of having the wind in my face listening to music and singing along while I drive. It is the freedom of driving. In life, you'll realize that there is a purpose for every person you meet. Some are there to test you, some will use you, some will teach you, and some will bring out the best of you.

Mine, I find mine it push me to go with It. I learned a lot It is my fashion with cars when I was young a boy.

August 11, 2022 18:25

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3 comments

Andrew Sweet
21:25 Aug 23, 2022

Roy, this story made me reminisce about working on cars with my friends back in Texas when I was a young boy. I enjoyed the nostalgic aspect of it, though I want to make a couple of recommendations (just suggestions, take them for what they are and *please keep writing*). The first 6-7 paragraphs of this are backstory, and I'm not sure they're completely necessary. Also, I encourage you to consider Checkhov's gun with regards to your writing (https://www.masterclass.com/articles/writing-101-what-is-chekhovs-gun-learn-how-to-use-chekhovs-g...

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Tommy Goround
04:55 Aug 17, 2022

Salut Monsieur Flores... The details in the story are very good. You can break every English language rule in the world once you have the storytelling down. Decide if you are the watcher or the protagonist. You can be both. How many car movies have we seen where the mechanic is simply a static character? If you say that the car only runs because the mechanic loves it: then that is a beautiful thing. If you said your head and your sweat and your love goes into this machine and then someone else touches it improperly, the driver... That w...

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Carl Tengstrom
12:56 Aug 15, 2022

This is an interesting story, with a vivid language. The author shifts between pesent tense and imperfect hullabaloo, wich makes it hard read and also is wrong according the grammatical rules. Even if the story is fascinating it renders a low rating.

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