In this space we will be running biographies of various Board Members and Council Members for your information. Our goal is to publicize the individuals who make up the Council and who without their involvement the Council would not exist. Take a moment and read about these folks!
Michelle Garcia—Council Board Member and President Land of Enchantment GTO Club
Hello, my name is Michelle Garcia I am the President of The Land of Enchantment GTO Car Club. Our Club was founded in 1977 here in Albuquerque, NM. A group of guys with Pontiac GTO'S as their high school muscle cars would ride the streets on Eubank Blvd drag race pick up chicks and take them to drive in movies. Today we are a club of 31 second generation owned 7 women owned. We welcome all Pontiac's from Lemons, Grand Prix, Trans Am Catalina and Firebird. We enjoy hanging out with one another attending car shows and cruises.
I am the second-generation owner of a 1967 GTO hard top post. My interest in the Pontiac GTO cars came with my childhood upbringing. My mother would but us kids in goat sit at a light and would be challenged for a race and believe me it was on. We were in braced by her right arm if she had to come to a hard stop otherwise hang on. Our family outings were cruises to the Doghouse, A & W Root beer, Rout 66 Drive in and White Sands Missel Range. I come from a large family of 7 uncles and 7 aunties and 63 first cousins many of my cousins were in to restoring cars each of them had a talent from body work, painting, mechanical and upholstery diamond tuck was the fashion then. I am proud to say I was the only female in the family that has spent endless hours in my garage restoring my high school car.
My first swap meet was held on the south parking lot at UNM moons ago. My son and I attended with some parts, and he set a booth on a cardboard box with some hot wheels and tonka trucks must have been about 8years old. I meet a couple of gentlemen there with some Pontiac stuff and discovered they were the Land of Enchantment GTO Club. The evening ended with my son going home with a wad of cash and a monkey bike. Lesson learned! In no time he was buying and swapping the whole time we were there. I must add teaching him math fractions was one of our struggles, so I handed him a set of standard and metric wrenches and said here take these to your teacher and show her what fractions are. Today he is a mechanical technician on enjoys building Subarus, welding, drifting and helping club members with their
Pontiacs.
I've been a member of the New Mexico Car Council for about 8yr now and have discovered that I'm not an outcast any more being around the car community and embracing the auto hobby brings much joy to me and my lady divas.
My next project is a 1940 Ford coupe custom deluxe family car. With the knowledge of car council, family and friends my intentions are to get that moon shine on the road again.
Hello, my name is Michelle Garcia I am the President of The Land of Enchantment GTO Car Club. Our Club was founded in 1977 here in Albuquerque, NM. A group of guys with Pontiac GTO'S as their high school muscle cars would ride the streets on Eubank Blvd drag race pick up chicks and take them to drive in movies. Today we are a club of 31 second generation owned 7 women owned. We welcome all Pontiac's from Lemons, Grand Prix, Trans Am Catalina and Firebird. We enjoy hanging out with one another attending car shows and cruises.
I am the second-generation owner of a 1967 GTO hard top post. My interest in the Pontiac GTO cars came with my childhood upbringing. My mother would but us kids in goat sit at a light and would be challenged for a race and believe me it was on. We were in braced by her right arm if she had to come to a hard stop otherwise hang on. Our family outings were cruises to the Doghouse, A & W Root beer, Rout 66 Drive in and White Sands Missel Range. I come from a large family of 7 uncles and 7 aunties and 63 first cousins many of my cousins were in to restoring cars each of them had a talent from body work, painting, mechanical and upholstery diamond tuck was the fashion then. I am proud to say I was the only female in the family that has spent endless hours in my garage restoring my high school car.
My first swap meet was held on the south parking lot at UNM moons ago. My son and I attended with some parts, and he set a booth on a cardboard box with some hot wheels and tonka trucks must have been about 8years old. I meet a couple of gentlemen there with some Pontiac stuff and discovered they were the Land of Enchantment GTO Club. The evening ended with my son going home with a wad of cash and a monkey bike. Lesson learned! In no time he was buying and swapping the whole time we were there. I must add teaching him math fractions was one of our struggles, so I handed him a set of standard and metric wrenches and said here take these to your teacher and show her what fractions are. Today he is a mechanical technician on enjoys building Subarus, welding, drifting and helping club members with their
Pontiacs.
I've been a member of the New Mexico Car Council for about 8yr now and have discovered that I'm not an outcast any more being around the car community and embracing the auto hobby brings much joy to me and my lady divas.
My next project is a 1940 Ford coupe custom deluxe family car. With the knowledge of car council, family and friends my intentions are to get that moon shine on the road again.