A Brief Autobiography of John E. Aibel or How the Car Bug Hit

The author John (center) flanked by big brothers Roy (left) and Fred (right)

I was fortunate to have been born the third boy child (kid brother) in my family. My brothers were five and eight years my senior. Naturally I learned everything I know from them.

As a small child, before I could read, my brothers would read the very early issues of Hot Rod magazine to me as bed time stories. Their girlfriends would also read car magazines to me.  This was the beginning of a lifelong obsession with not only Hot Rods, but all things that move on their own.

My Mom was a good sport, and would do anything her sons wanted her to do. She drove my brothers and me out to Bridgehampton, Long Island, NY to watch the Sports Car racing held on county roads.

The cars I saw there were out of this world. In the general parking areas there were Allards, Isotta Franchini, Maserati, and even a street Ferrari. I took my hand-me-down Brownie box camera to record this wonderful experience. I was able to get a picture of Dave Garroway, the first Today Show host, standing behind a telephone pole after he spun out while driving his circa 1939 Jaguar SS-100 powered by a then modern day XK-120 engine.  The noise, the smell and the spectacle of that day lives with me to this day.

The author John racing his 1951 Crosley Le Mans car at the PVGP

The cars I saw racing that day included two cars that I was later in my life able to obtain. One was a Crosley that was a real American Sports Car that you could buy in a local hobby store. I was able to locate and buy a very special Crosley that was specially made for the 1951 LeMans 24hour race. The other car that raced that day was an English car called an Allard, powered by a Cadillac engine.

The other interesting things I saw that day was a group of enthusiasts including Henry Austin Clark and Briggs S. Cunningham driving their very old racing cars as a pre-race show. They seemed to be having so much fun driving these old monsters around the race track!  This had to be the very beginnings of the Vintage Sports Car movement in this country. This was in 1951, 52, 53 era.

During 1951 my oldest brother Roy was able to buy a brand new red MG sports car. Wow, I can remember to this day the time I came home from school, went into the garage and saw this beautiful car just sitting there. It was not long before the three of us would drive to some sort of racing event in that MG. Yes, you guessed it, I had to ride atop the emergency brake handle until Roy bought a third seat that fit into the small space between the two regular seats. I was almost as tall as my brothers due to the box I was sitting on!

The die was now cast for my future life as a car nut.

Stay tuned for the rest of my car life here at My Lifelong Automotive Passion!