Wesley Barton
Hi, I'm Wes! And this is the first post of the MD Car Culture Automotive Group. Let's get some introductions out of the way first.
I'm 26 years old, and have been driving for over ten years now. I've been legally licensed for six years (yesterday!) In that time, I have owned ten cars! That's a lot of wheels for that short period of time. In addition to that, I've driven countless others. I've driven everything from FWD econoboxes to full-size luxury cars, SUVs, pickup trucks, and even classic American cars.
Originally from Ohio, I moved to Maryland at a young age, somewhere around 1992. I learned to get an eye for cars sometime between the late 90s to early 2000s. The moment that stands out as paramount for igniting the automotive flame within my soul was a powerful one. I was going to yard sales with my family, and I hear the most demonic, intimidating noise that I could ever recall. I now know it as the deafening heartbeat of a 426 cubic inch eight cylinder engine with a hemispherical combustion chamber, AKA, a 426 HEMI V8.
What was this powerplant in? It was a bright green 1970 Plymouth Barracuda. The roar of the exhaust as it drove by, it just did something to me. It was that green. It was that black vinyl flowing forward from the rear quarters. Having grown up riding around in old Tauruses (Taurii) and minivans, I had no clue these existed. These were cars? Like those who documented the existence of Cthulhu, I went mad from the revelation.
But, it was the best kind of mad. Madly in love with old American muscle, that is.
My enthusiasm grew and grew. It started out with strictly the old Detroit muscle, but it expanded to exotics. How, you may ask? Why didn't it start with exotics? A lot of people my age, and older, grew up with posters of the Lamborghini Countach, or the Ferrari 288 GTO. Not me. But as I said, it did grow to encompass those cars.
Back when I was in high school, there used to be an exotic car dealership and garage not far from where I lived. I remember walking by the one day, and seeing a Ferrari 328 GTS in the window for sale. It was a gorgeous
Corsa Rosso in color. In other words, that bright, breathtaking Ferrari red.
My God, I thought when I saw it. This was Italian beauty, and it transcended human appreciation for design. It was just perfect. I knocked on the dealership's door, asking if I could get a closer look. Much to my surprise, they let me, a 16 year old kid, in a t-shirt and jeans, ogle a Ferrari up close, and indeed I did. The spotless paint was bright, bold, so many superlatives, I can't even list them all. It had a tan leather interior, and a beautiful, metallic, gated manual gearbox. I just wanted to get in, start it up, and rev the engine. I wanted to row through the gears, and hear that satisfying clink as I went through the motions. Unfortunately, since this wasn't my car, as much as I wanted it to be, I couldn't. Not unless I were to pony up north of $50,000 for it. But I took lots of terrible flip-phone pictures. Unfortunately, those pictures no longer exist.
Much to my surprise, after I was done, a service tech volunteered to give me a tour of the whole dealership and garage. I was in a room with literally millions of dollars in steel, rubber, and oil, all formed together, to make some of the most famous and well known foreign machines ever built.
Some highlights included the aforementioned Ferrari, an Aston Martin V8 Vantage, other Astons, a Bentley Turbo R, other Bentleys, Rolls-Royces, AMG Mercedes-Benzes (including an S65 AMG with the V12!), a BMW Z8, BMW M coupe, Porsches, including at least two 356s, and several 911s of multiple vintages. I'd never seen anything quite like these before, nor have I come into such close contact with these types of cars since. The location has since closed down. It's such a shame I didn't back my pictures up, or that I didn't completely know what I was looking at.
Living where I do, there's not much of a market for those types of cars. There's a few outliers, but the general population consists of bro trucks, minivans, way too many SUVs, a lot of Hondas, even more Toyotas, and the most cheaply made cars the Big 3 ever had to offer. So, when I see something that stands out (like a blue Gallardo with a gated 6-speed manual I saw in May), I definitely notice it.
Even after the exotic car shop closed its door some years ago, my love for cars continued to expand. That was helped by the introduction of someone who came into my life, and would later be known as my stepfather.
I fully credit this man to causing my love for cars to grow to its greatest heights. He told me about all of his old Mopars, including the ones he still had, the main one being a 1971 Dodge Challenger convertible. He still has it, but it needs restored, but that will happen at some point. Anyways, he was (and still is) a Dodge man. This is a guy who's daily driver was previously a 2000 Ram 1500, in the most basic trim, and now is a 2012 Ram 3500 Dually with the Cummins Turbodiesel. He also got my mom into cars as well. Her DD went from a 1999 Oldsmobile Intrigue, to what is now a 1999 NB Miata with a 5-speed during the summer, and a 1999 Durango during the winter, and for true summer fun, a 1965 Pontiac Bonneville convertible.
So, now I live surrounded by all these cars, and I'm working hard to ingrain the same love for the automotive lifestyle into my daughter.She's three right now, and she's starting to take notice.
So, that's a bit of where I come from. Now, I bet you're asking what I drive. Well, that depends. Usually I just drive people crazy. But, you likely mean the vehicle I drive. Well, right now I own three.
My daily driver is a 2000 Infiniti I30 base model. It's my second Infiniti and I'm in love with it. It has almost 260,000 miles on it now, and it runs great. There's really something to be said about the VQ series of engines developed by Nissan. They run forever. I've heard of them going well past 300,000 without an issue.
My second vehicle is a 2002 Dodge Durango SLT, and it's currently being fixed up so I can get it tagged and on the road. While the body has 222,000 miles, the engine has somewhere in the 50,000 mile range. Probably a bit over, but less than 60k. It should be road ready in a few weeks.
Number 3? Well, it's for sale, but it's also a Durango! This one is a 2000 with a rebuilt title, that I bought last year, and put 20,000 miles on in less than a year. It hasn't really needed too much work, but now, it's starting to come apart here and there, and once the necessary parts are swapped to the 2002, what's left will be sold.
So, that's pretty much me. Future posts won't be focused so much on me, and will be instead focused on the industry, documenting car shows, possible interviews with collectors, and possibly even guest features. I'll also feature videos of different cars, and possibly videos of me just driving or riding around.
Until next time!
