Since around 1967. There was a red Lotus Europa parked down the street. I loved walking to school that year.
Of course, that was also the peak of the muscle car era. Great cars were everywhere, even in the small town in NC where I grew up. There were Shelby's, a Superbird, one of those Daytona Chargers. lots of fast Camaros, Mustangs, and Corvettes, R/T Challengers, Novas everywhere, jacked up, dual rear high-performance coon tails on CB antennas and all. All the "other" cars you see in F&F. I'm sorry you guys missed all that.
Back then I had a 1968 6-cyl. AMC Javelin, but was too poor to do anything interesting with it. Then I got my Prelude, in 1998, and a few years later discovered track days, and I became that teenager again. Or rather, a responsible teenager who tears up the track, not the streets.