You're in IT: the same way you got knowledgeable about computers and know how to fix a problem on a system you heard about two minutes ago.
The DIY and maintenance sections here will be the most applicable to getting your hands dirty on your machine. Drive Clean on youtube it probably the best introduction to keeping it shiny along with Wikipedia to explain general car technologies and history and model specific facts.
Car dynamics and technical introduction:
http://www.autozine.org/technical_sc...ech_index.html