Taking a snowy sunset drive with her brother in the pink Barbie Mustang. Yes, I know, heresy for a Corvette enthusiast.

Taking a snowy sunset drive with her brother in the pink Barbie Mustang. Yes, I know, heresy for a Corvette enthusiast.

2-Year-Old Mackenzie Knows Ferraris, But Her Favorite Car is a Vette

This article appeared in Corvette Online in June 2012, and I’m saving it here for posterity. Thank you to Lindsey Fisher for writing this up about my little automotive enthusiast.

2-year-old Mackenzie spots a Ferrari 550 Maranello in the parking lot of our nearby train station.

For boys, eying cars at a young age comes as second nature, but that’s not usually the case for many young girls. However, there are exceptions to this truism, like little Mackenzie Reeves from the Washington, DC metro area. At just 2 years old, Mackenzie has an eye for cars that takes years for some people to develop, being able to identify makes of cars and even picking out a Ferrari in the train station parking lot near her home in the video above. And if you think that’s impressive, just wait till you hear what her favorite car is and why.

What’s your favorite kind of car, Mackenzie?

After finding the videos of Mackenzie picking out a Ferrari in a parking lot and stating that her favorite car is a Corvette “because their engine is really loud,” we got in touch with her father Tad to see where this tiny tot got her knack for naming cars.

As it turns out, Tad was a bit of a car nut himself as a child, asking his dad to take him to races by age 10 and spending free time at local car dealerships talking about the vehicles on the lot with the salesmen by age 11. Tad even told us that at age 12 he did a school project writing reviews on cars and starting his own car magazine. One of the most memorable car experiences he had as a kid? Going to the Bowling Green Corvette assembly plant, of all places, and being able to take a new Vette off the line and start it up for the first time.

With a gearhead dad, it’s no wonder that Mackenzie has taken notice to cars.

Mackenzie at 3, testing her 2yo brother on identifying car models with “car flash cards”

“My daughter Mackenzie first took an interest in cars when she was just months old, but it really took off when she was old enough to note the differences between one car and another – which was at about 19 months old,” Tad told us in an email conversation.

Two-year-old Mackenzie identifying virtually every single car in the used car lot. Except the Saab…she can be forgiven on that one.

“I told her that our car’s name was “Subaru”.  She FELL IN LOVE WITH THAT CAR.  After that point, it almost seemed like second nature for her to be able to determine when one car was different from another — and when it was not one she recognized, she’d ask. By the time she hit her second birthday, she already knew that we had a Subaru Outback, that grandma has a Prius, grandpa has a Miata and her other grandpa has a Santa Fe.  And she’d spot other ones on the road too.”

But that wasn’t where Mackenzie’s interest in cars stopped. She then picked up on identifying vehicle parts, like hoods, dashboards and shifters. Pretty soon, thanks to episodes like the one above, she started identifying cars by sound. We must point out, that racing videos with Corvettes was definitely a good choice!

Oh, and did we mention she also knows how to pull the wheel off of the family Subaru? Turns out flat tires will never be an issue for Mackenzie.

Mackenzie changing the tire on the Subaru

While cars have seemingly been in her blood all along, Tad told us that the real clincher came when she saw the Pixar movie Cars. Now anything and everything car-related is fair game for excitement.

“She can now sing ‘Life is a Highway’ and Sheryl Crowe’s ‘Real Gone’ almost entirely on her own,” Tad told us.  “And the fact that it starts with ‘I’m American-made, Bud Light, Chevrolet…’ has made any Chevrolet die-cast car she owns INFINITELY VALUABLE.  And yes, Corvettes are her favorite. One day, I’ll score her a ride in one.”

Two-year-old Mackenzie is absolutely adorable and so zealous about cars that it amazes us. Telling my parents at age 7 that I was going to own a Trans Am some day seemed young to me, but seeing a 2-year-old so engrossed by the automotive world already is just downright impressive. Who knows; a few years down the line, we may just see our youngest Corvette pro driver in the world!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

CommentLuv badge

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

%d bloggers like this: