I usually deal with them to a certain extent because, even though they are clueless, they may know where some cool cars are. I bought my one owner 73 Volvo 142 because a fast and furious type offhandedly mentioned his grandfather "had a volvo he was going to scrap". The car has low miles, 4 speed, etc, but needs paint and I got it for $400, so sometimes it can be painful to listen, but it can be totally worth it.
Before I started at my current location, the car guy here was a guy who watched nascar and drove an Acura TL which he referred to as his midlife crisis car. I try to completely avoid any car talk with him. We also have a guy who admits to not being a car guy who just bought a twin turbo v12 2004 cl600 because his cooper s was too expensive to maintain. I tried really hard to warn him.
aussiesmg wrote: "Warning danger to manifold"
lol I have this as the background on the upper radio display in the civic. If some new co-worker of mine happens to get in my car to go to lunch and they get this then I at least know they are halfway decent car people. If they gasp and go "OMG what's wrong with your car, omg" then I know I shouldn't associate myself with them unless they are really funny or into football.
there are a few "car guys" where i work, but only a few... one of them thinks that the way to fast car heaven is to throw lots of dollars at Cavaliers and Neons in the form of wings, ground effects, dorky noses, and mismatched turbo kits that do nothing but cause pistons to decide that they want to have holes in the middle of them... i asked him if he had any spare stock Neon parts laying around that he wanted to get rid of for my 95 Neon Chumpcar/ice racer- things like spindles, stock sway bars and springs, that kind of stuff- and he said that he had a wing and an aftermarket nose that would make it faster..
You guy do realize that we are the weird ones right? Miata? Really? Not to mention the rest of the weird crap we think is cool.
(Lol-I had to fix my post because autocorrect replaced "crap" with cheap. They were more right than they knew :) )
There is a guy on my floor who is a Mustang guy. Not really a car guy. The car is always broken, will never be raced, but once it is fixed I'm sure it will have some huge horsepower numbers. But I get annoyed talking to him because he won't take it to any kind of race, whether it be drag, autocross, road race, anything... "I would, but man I just gotta fix (insert whatever)"
Then we have another guy who doesn't race (although I think he has been to the strip a time or two), but he daily drives his GTR. Before that it was his Viper. And before that it was his super (or turbo? I honestly have no idea) charged Civic. I'd call him a car guy.
EDIT: Please note, I like Mustangs and will probably own one some day.
MrJoshua wrote: You guy do realize that we are the weird ones right? Miata? Really? Not to mention the rest of the weird crap we think is cool. (Lol-I had to fix my post because autocorrect replaced "crap" with cheap. They were more right than they knew :) )
Yeah, I think a lot of people immediately tune out when I tell them I autocross a Miata (I say race, because it is easier to explain than autocross).
mtn wrote:MrJoshua wrote: You guy do realize that we are the weird ones right? Miata? Really? Not to mention the rest of the weird crap we think is cool. (Lol-I had to fix my post because autocorrect replaced "crap" with cheap. They were more right than they knew :) )Yeah, I think a lot of people immediately tune out when I tell them I autocross a Miata (I say race, because it is easier to explain than autocross).
you drive around orange cones in a parking lot?
novaderrik wrote:mtn wrote:you drive around orange cones in a parking lot?MrJoshua wrote: You guy do realize that we are the weird ones right? Miata? Really? Not to mention the rest of the weird crap we think is cool. (Lol-I had to fix my post because autocorrect replaced "crap" with cheap. They were more right than they knew :) )Yeah, I think a lot of people immediately tune out when I tell them I autocross a Miata (I say race, because it is easier to explain than autocross).
I drive around orange cones in a dirt field. My wife doesn't talk about me to her coworkers much. 
Years ago when I was doing club DE, I went to the company corporate xmas party and the few people that knew of my car guy stuff came up to me saying: You gotta meet someone that's into cars like you. Of'course, I was thinking I don't want to spend all night talking to this guy who thinks the defintion of a car guy is someone that painted his dash to match his exterior and put nitrgen in his tires. Boy, was I surprised when I'm introduced to this drop dead grogeous girl that starts asking me what racetracks i've been on and what modifications I made on my car. I almost forgot I came there with my girl friend. Let's just say when we got home the best part of my night was behind me.
This has happened to me more times than I can count.
BUT......
IT has also happened to me in reverse. Nothing like feeling smug having had 13 Miatas, Turbo Bricks, muscle cars etc, and never done more than AutoX or run the Dragon eleventy-billion times. Hell I even co-owned a Hot Rod shop for 5 years. Only to discover new co-worker tracks his home brew formula car 51 weekends a year, and trounces million dollar rigs. Drives some uber-rare unobtanium 80s wundercar every day. Even in the snow. He also has a tow rig worth more than your house that he traded up for starting with a go-cart and a weed eater. Non-running. And his super cool wife is hot to boot.
I could kill that guy.
novaderrik wrote: there are a few "car guys" where i work, but only a few... one of them thinks that the way to fast car heaven is to throw lots of dollars at Cavaliers and Neons in the form of wings, ground effects, dorky noses, and mismatched turbo kits that do nothing but cause pistons to decide that they want to have holes in the middle of them... i asked him if he had any spare stock Neon parts laying around that he wanted to get rid of for my 95 Neon Chumpcar/ice racer- things like spindles, stock sway bars and springs, that kind of stuff- and he said that he had a wing and an aftermarket nose that would make it faster..
It seems like these guys are on the decline in favor of subwoofer-in-the-trunk-TV-in-the-dash car guys. Most of the not really car guys I run into are the hardcore drifting people, who think that drifting is the fastest thing a car can ever do and deliberately mismatched body panels are the bees knees.
Every berkeleying time:
Some nozzle: "...Mustang... blower... horzpowez!"
My Wife: "Oh, this is my husband. He races cars."
Me: "Please... don't... "
Nozzle: "What kind of car?"
Wife: "BMWs"
Nozzle: "What like drag racing?
Nozzle:"How fast you gone?" and/or "We should race. My Mustang will kick your ass""
Me: "Unlikely. One sec... be right back (vanish faster than I've ever gone)""
I'm pleased to say this also happened in reverse for me. My wife decided we needed to go out for dinner with a co-worker and her husband. I was reluctant and her reassurance that it would be fine because they're "into racing" meant I would have plenty to talk about wither the husband. I braced myself for an evening of why Nascar is the greatest thing on earth but instead spent the evening listening to stories of a life spent racing sports cars like MGB's and various formula cars. When he said they rebuilt the engine for their MGA in their kitchen and had owned a real Lotus 7 I knew we'd be friends forever! This dinner turned into a great friendship which continues to this day despite the fact they moved half way across the country from us. He now races a Formula Ford...and I wish they still lived here!
Around here, if you know what color you car is under the layer of bugs and dirt, you must be "a car guy".
I tend to keep quiet about mine......preservation of brain cells and all that 
There are NO car guys where I work. Not even pretend ones. And I have NO interest in football or baseball or any of those other sports with over sexed, over paid, over privileged players (well, except F1). It's a lonely existence.
Riley_88 wrote: I'm pleased to say this also happened in reverse for me.
Once. One time in all the times... I bought some gravel from a guy who came to the house to deliver it when the garage door was open. He started in with "what kinda race car ya got in there?" which sent my hackles up... but we stood in the driveway looking at pics of his IT-A RX-7 which he kept in a fat, sweaty wallet (a true measure of a car guy).
Every other encounter has been a nozzle of some sort.
Carp. Apologies on the multi-post. Not sure how it happened or how to fix it.
Basil Exposition wrote: There are NO car guys where I work. Not even pretend ones. And I have NO interest in football or baseball or any of those other sports with over sexed, over paid, over privileged players (well, except F1). It's a lonely existence.
I sympathize with that....Not big on the usual sports, and never met anyone at work who knows what racing is outside of some idea of NASCAR.
In reply to belteshazzar:
I get that. People at work seem to think I'm lying or insane when I say that I don't care much about airplanes.
So being a mechanic I work with all of them, The Harley oxygen thief's, The lifted truck I'm compensating for lack of anything else dickbags, The "My (insert euro lux barge) beats any of your peasant vehicles" berkeleysticks, and to be honest the lesser of all the evils is a mustang guy who actually races but is numb to anything else out there, people.
So any time I say "rotary" or even "rally" I get the funny dog look, like this.......
Rant over
I had completely forgotten about the "Warning Danger to manifold" thing. I don't think I have seen that movie in 10 years or so.
On Topic:
I can't stand people like that and usually just try and get the hell away. If I have an ok relationship with them, we generally have a little talk and I use the power of my smart phone to bring some reality into their life. I can also employ my wife to set them straight. This is the best way to embarrass a dumbass is to have an attractive, well groomed, teacher lady straighten them out. 
I usually just don't tell people that I'm a car guy. Saves me time and frustration.
I get weird looks whenever i tell people i drive a datsun. Guess they assume i drive a weiner dog to class everyday.
I'm a mechanic, and one of the real young guys has a Mazdaspeed Miata and a Mazdaspeed6. I'm sure his parents paid for them, and he's trying to sell the MSM. I've told him before how I'd love to find a Miata in wholesale that I could drive around for a while, so we kind of have a Miata thing in common. He's one of those guys that spews random car stuff out and most of it's wrong or stuff he read on the interwebz. So after a Miata discussion the other week (I was working on one), he shows me a pic on his phone on break. It's a field of Spec Miatas on track (even says Spec Miata in the corner of the photo), and he proceeds to tell me how these cars make like 400 horsepower. I just smiled and nodded. 
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