Nick had been watching the truck since he was 14 or 15. It was his dad’s second vehicle, usually sitting outside the house, and to a kid waiting for a driver’s license it had everything that mattered: a V8, Flowmaster exhaust, a double cab and blue felt interior.

The day he turned 16, Nick got his license. A few hours later, he got the truck.

Like any proper first car, it didn’t stay untouched. The stereo came together piece by piece. A subwoofer box took over the back seat. The amp lived loose on the floor. Everything ran through a single-DIN deck. It wasn’t elegant, but that wasn’t the point.

It had a lot of power, but it was not that fast. It made a lot of noise. That was the trade-off.

Would he buy another one? Probably not. But seeing one still brings the memories back. That truck was the beginning, and sometimes that is enough to make a car matter forever.