2007. My flatmate's classmate was having a go on LFS during a lesson which got my flatmate hooked. He came home, downloaded LFS, showed me what it was all about and the rest is history.
Played on his laptop the the first time; drove out of pits in BL1 in the XFG (using kb, mind you), past turns 2/3 and by the time I was braking down the long straight I knew this is what I was waiting for all these years...
Keyboard to Logitech Momo to G25 to G27. 130,000+ Miles and still loving LFS.
Met hundreds (if not 1000s) of great people online over the years and had countless hours of fun.
Hallelujah for the devs/lfs-ers!