Author John Mahoney

John Mahoney

In November, 1958, 8-year-old John Mahoney was riding his bike home from a friend’s house when he stopped to look through the window of an Oldsmobile dealer.  “Wow!” he said, pressing his face against the large plate glass.  He had never seen cars so big and so beautiful!  New for 1959, the sign read.  It was though lightning had struck him, for it was at that moment that young John fell in love with cars.  Soon after that first encounter John began building model cars, then magazine collecting, then slot car racing, and John still has all the model cars he built as a youngster, plus every car magazine he ever bought.

            On his seventeenth birthday John bought his first car; a 1959 Pontiac for $200.  It got him to school and work, and little else.  But one year later, while working at a Ford Dealer, the purchase of a 1966 Mercury Comet with a 289 and a 4-speed got John involved in drag racing.  At this same time, a friend of John’s was racing on a circle track, and most guys spare time was working toward that end.  Unfortunately, for John and his friend, being out of school meant Uncle Sam was now breathing down their necks.  John’s friend went into the Air Force, while John joined the Army.

            When he returned home, John first worked at a gas station, then for a Volkswagen dealer.  After a couple of years John realized the Post Office had a better salary, and better benefits.  So there he went—for 31 years.

            For all these years John has remained faithful to his first love—the automobile.  His home office is filled with books and model cars, and behind his house a barn full of old cars reveal the true depth of his passion.   He is nuts about cars.  And John’s wife for the past 43 years, Valerie, must agree, for she has been heard to say, “He’s nuts alright.”