triggered the expansion to other cars? Was it cars connected with Shelby, race rivals of Shelby cars, or the golden aga of motor racing in general?

My 1/18th buying started with a model of a 1:1 I previously owned and stayed that way for a while. Sometime in the mid to late 1990s I started buying 1/18ths of cars I admired but thought I would never own in 1:1.

Not sure what set that off but I was into cars ever since I was a kid and built plastic models of them before I was driving age.