Nate Strunk question  

I wasn't really involved with the car. I was a kid. They were far older than me and lived in a different town although his father and mine were close. When we visited I often walked down to the garage to see the car. 

It was just something about those old cars that grabbed you. It gave me an interest and a focus. So it was that my Saturday nights were spent on the third turn of the infield on the old track at Flemington watching the races from the back of my fathers pickup with family and friends. People actually came early to watch the warm ups and stayed to the end no matter how late that was. 

Sadly, the era of the back yard mechanic is over. It died with the introduction of purpose built race cars. They are faster, safer, and require more professionalism from the ones who race them. I won't say if they made racing better or worse, I still look foward to going to the track, but they don't have quite the same air of excitement about them that the old coupes and coaches did. Anyone who lived through that time knows what I'm talking about.