I guess I’m even older than you! My introduction to the Prince of Darkness was a 1959 MGA fixed head (coup in US auto language). I really loved that car. Drove it thru high school. Sold it when i joined the Navy in ‘69.
Always had a hankering for a TD, but fortunately poverty put the brakes on that, so I got the Spitfire (a rocket :) instead.
When it finally went tits up, the next car was a Beetle, and that sold me on German for the rest of the 20th century !
Significant mpg increase from not having to haul around a boot full of tools & spares ! LOL