Reader and subscriber Andrew Christopher recently shared the story of his son Maxx and Maxx?s 1971 Opel GT on My Hemmings, and we thought it worth reposting here.
A boy?s love affair with cars
I am writing this story with sorrow and with joy, to tell the story of my son Maxx Christopher?s love affair with cars from the time he was crawling, pushing Hot Wheels and Johnny Lighting cars across the floor. Maxx has always loved cars, car movies, car shows, working on cars and just talking about cars. When Maxx was four years old, I bought a 1971 Pontiac GTO (a driving restoration project). As I began the restoration, Maxx started helping me in the garage by first holding the light and handing me wrenches and sockets, so at an early age Maxx got to know his way around a toolbox.
Maxx watched and participated in transforming my Goat into a show-winning car, but this was the first of several show cars that Maxx worked on with me over the years: There was a 1972 Olds Vista Cruiser, a 1968 Mercury XR7 GT 390 Cougar, a 1972 Olds Cutlass S, and a 1974 Triumph TR6. Maxx had become quite knowledgeable about classic cars.
When Maxx was 13, he saw a picture in a car magazine of an Opel GT and fell in love with it. He told me someday he was going to get an Opel GT, and my answer to him was, ?You never see those cars.? But, as fate would have it, the next week one popped up in the local want ads. Maxx and I went to look at the Opel GT and it was a complete car but all apart in boxes. I bought the car for Maxx for $1,000 and loaded the car onto my trailer, along with all the boxes of parts.
Maxx, after all those years helping me restore my projects, finally got a project of his own, and I thought this is going to be fun spending time with my teenage son wrenching on his car in the garage. I told Maxx I wouldn?t work on the Opel unless he was alongside me, so he participated on every aspect of the restoration. The next three years are cherished memories for me, spending time with Maxx restoring his Opel GT. This time we spent together was filled with car talk as well as what happened in school that day and life lessons not only for Maxx but for me also.
By the time Maxx, turned 16 his Opel was complete, wearing stunning bright orange paint. Maxx drove his Opel GT to show off his car at its first car show a month later and took two trophies (best sports car and best high school car). He was so proud and I was so proud of him. Maxx continued to drive his Opel GT to high school and car shows, taking home trophies until he left for the Job Corps Urban Forestry program on the Oregon Coast in October 2009 to begin training to become an arborist. The Opel GT stayed in my garage until Maxx completed the 13 months of training.
When Maxx returned to Southern Oregon, he loved being able to drive his Opel GT on the mountain roads again. With the economy being slow, Maxx had a hard time finding steady employment as an arborist, but he didn?t give up. He then found an arborist job on the other side of the world, in New Zealand, applied for a work visa, and he was off to New Zealand at 18 years old, leaving his Opel GT behind again. After five months, Maxx missing America, and work coming to an end, Maxx returned only to find a still bad economy with scarce employment opportunities. Maxx decided to join the military and serve his country in December 2011; then in January 2012, he passed his armed forces test and his physical. But two days before he was to be sworn in and get his military ID, on February 4, 2012, he lost his life at the hands of a drunk driver. He had climbed into the back seat of his friend?s car, never knowing the driver had just consumed half a bottle of rum and was five times over the legal limit.
The Opel GT today sits in my garage and is a part of our family. Maxx is gone, but I feel him riding along with me when I drive his car. I have so many cherished memories of the days Maxx and I spent wrenching and talking about cars in the garage. Maxx was an accomplished mechanic at 19 years old, with a passion for classic cars.
The driver of the car, 18-year-old Rachel Kelly Greentree, was arrested the next day on charges of manslaughter, reckless driving, driving under the influence, assault, and recklessly endangering another person. A week later she pled not guilty to the charges. According to Andrew Christopher, the case will go to trial June 25.
Source: http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2013/02/11/maxx-and-his-opel-gt/
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