To All The Cars I've Loved Before: Your First Car Tells The Story
Thanks for tuning into To All The Cars I've Loved Before - the best podcast for car lovers all over the world. Whether you're a classic car fan, restoration junkie or just love a good car story - this is the place for you!
What we cover: From first cars and forgotten beaters to dream machines and road trip rides, we explore the storytelling of life's biggest moments through the vehicles that got us there.
Episode format: Each episode dives into personal stories from everyday drivers and enthusiasts. We talk about car history, hear from car restoration experts and multiple generations of car lovers about their passion.
Call to action: Going on a road trip? Pick your episode and hit the road - we will do the rest. Need more for your drive? New episodes air weekly on Torque Tuesday! #torquetuesday
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About us: We're Doug and Christian - two friends who love car culture and want to share the stories that your car can't tell. Send us your stories, refer a friend, and give us a review.
To All The Cars I've Loved Before: Your First Car Tells The Story
Back to the ’80s and Beyond: Jim’s Camaro Comebacks and DeLorean Dreams
Click here to share your favorite car, car story or any automotive trivia!
Jim Gravina invites us on a cross-country cruise through his life, filled with classic cars and a touch of magic. Growing up in the ’80s, Jim’s first love is his 1980 Camaro Z28 – a loud, proud muscle car that symbolized freedom on the streets of Syracuse. He then recounts a practical turn with a ’98 Chevy Cavalier and a modern 2014 Mazda 6 as career and family life evolved, proving you can balance car passion with daily responsibility. Yet Jim’s story has a show-stopper: his acquisition of a 1981 DeLorean (yes, complete with gull-wing doors and pop culture flair). He shares delightful details of performing “magic tricks” with the DeLorean at car shows and the car trivia that surrounds this legendary vehicle. Throughout the episode, Jim’s emotional connection to his cars shines – from rebuilding an engine with his dad to using his vehicles to bring joy to others (like surprising kids with rides in the “time machine”).
Jim loved the episode with Brian, "From Ford Tempo to Flux Capacitor – Brian’s High-Octane Car History" https://www.buzzsprout.com/2316026/episodes/15046730-ford-tempo-as-your-first-car-brian-s-unique-car-history
Listeners will come away smiling and inspired, having learned about car restoration and the power of car community, all while riding shotgun on Jim’s heartfelt, nostalgia-fueled journey.
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Welcome back to To all the cars I've loved before. As we barrel into season 2, next stop, season 3, and the mileposts along the way Be part of it. Carslovecom Check us out. I am at Christian at Carslovecom the guy who's the Pupp pulling the string behind the scenes. Hey, what's this thing hanging out of my back? It's Doug Doug at CarsLovecom. Morning Doug. How you doing, pal.
Speaker 2:Doing great, doing great Good. To be back with you.
Speaker 1:Amen. Good to see you. Good to see our guest Jim. How you doing this morning, Jim Good, how you. Good to see our guest, Jim. How are you doing this morning, Jim Good, how are you doing? Excellent, Excellent.
Speaker 1:Before we get into formal introduction, we'll just tell you where we stand Again. The tent continues to broaden around this planet and I think we have a few people listening in from Venus and Mars. I don't think we've gone as far as Jupiter and Saturn, but you know what? Hey, with Starlink, Elon Musk, Starlink satellite, lighten up the universe, who knows? I think anything is possible with low Earth orbit. So you'll want to check us out at carslovecom for pictures of guests, everything they've done, as well as ensure, please, that you're following the show on your podcast streaming platform of choice, as they say, and download the episodes. You know because you're following the show on your podcast streaming platform of choice, as they say, and download the episodes. You know because you're going to be somewhere without signal but you desperately want to hear the latest episode, joining thousands and millions of people who've never heard of us and if you have it downloaded, you know you don't need signal and you can just go into a cave, you know.
Speaker 1:and as long as you have enough battery, you'll be able to check us out. So that's sort of where we stand, and I'm going to bring in my partner to let us know. We always have some big time things going on. What's the latest Doug in our marketing and outreach strategies?
Speaker 2:Well, before I go into that, just for those who are listening and downloading, as Christian said, you know what better place to listen to a podcast about people in their cars than in your car? So if it's a holiday, if you're commuting to work, great time. Our episodes are 30 ish minutes, good for the average commute. If you're like me and you don't commute, you go on lots of walks Another great time.
Speaker 1:But yeah, I you know I like to visit caves very often and be like Mammoth Cave in Kentucky and I like to go into the bowels of the cave and turn, you know, get all the lights turned off and then listen to this podcast and if you download it, you know, and you have it locally on your machine, it's just, it's very helpful, I find sorry. Keep going, doug.
Speaker 2:No, no, no, that is good. So, depending on when you're hearing this episode, we are over 500 downloads. Thank you to everyone. 500 downloads of the podcast from your preferred platforms. Many more on the website. Yeah, thank you. Many, many countries, cities across the world um really getting somewhere. So we're super happy, um really happy about season two. We all survived and, uh, there's there's a lot more to come yeah, actually join the conversation.
Speaker 1:You know, email us if you want to be there. There's a form on the website. You can shoot up a flare gun and we'll either Doug or myself, will probably see it. We'll, we'll track you down. Make sure you're safe, number one. But then talk about how to get you on the show Now also, you know, yeah, oh, back to you, doug. Yeah, oh back to you, doug. You had something else to say no.
Speaker 2:No, I would say hey, and if you're at your local Cars and Coffee, feel free to A mention our show to anybody. But if you see somebody and they just have a cool car or they're just so animated and excited about it.
Speaker 2:Tell them about the show We'd love to have them on, which brings us uh back full circle to our awesome guest. You got it, yeah. So uh jim and uh jim, may we use your last name for can? Yeah? Yeah, hopefully I'll pronounce it right jim gravina, correct? That's correct. Originally from upstate new york, syracuse, syracuse, now living in northern Virginia. But so yeah, christian, I know you have a very good way of getting to the meat of things. So, yeah, let's find out more about Jim.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure, jim. So let's start with. You want to tell us a little bit about yourself, and then let's step back in time, as it were, into our time machine and meet young jim and his motivations, his family. But let's, let's start with you in the here and now. Anything you'd like to share. You may stay as anonymous as you'd like. This is important for any future guests. We have a lot of people, or we have had guests come on that want to give us very little and want to remain anonymous, and then there are people that want to, you know, put their credit reports on our website.
Speaker 1:So wherever you fall Jim take it away, pal. Tell us a little about yourself.
Speaker 3:Sure, so I'm about to have a 41st birthday here in another two weeks, so that's coming up.
Speaker 1:Happy birthday.
Speaker 3:Go ahead Backing up to my younger years. I'm from Syracuse, new York, born and raised. I started getting into when I was in school. I got really into the computer design and computer editing as early as, I think, middle school and that caused me to continue that into college and I went to the Art Institute of Pittsburgh where I took classes in visual effects and motion graphics and the dream was to work for the movies and on like Transformers movies or Star Wars type movies and stuff like that. But that didn't really exactly happen and after college I had moved back home and I had worked at a local TV news station. So I took I was still in the same world of design and editing I got hired as a promotions it was called a promotions art director where I was basically in charge of making the graphics for the TV stations, the animations and all that for the local news stations.
Speaker 3:It was a CBS affiliate in Syracuse and I worked there for about eight years or, excuse me, eight months, and what had happened was this is my first job out of college. What happened was the TV station was about to go into what we called a shared service agreement with another local station, which unfortunately meant about 80% of the people at that TV station were going to lose their jobs to the people at the other station when they did the merge. So I was still young, I was only like 22, 23 years old, didn't affect me whatsoever. Longer story short, my boss, who basically ended up laying me off, told me about a job at his sister TV station which was an NBC affiliate in Fort Wayne Indiana. So he kind of pulled some strings and got me a job in Fort Wayne Indiana so moved over there.
Speaker 3:I was there for about two and a half years, which is where I met my now wife, and then we caught wind of something very similar happening and I did the same type of work, just at a different TV station. Something similar was coming down the lines where some people might be losing their jobs and stuff. So I caught wind of that awful quick and I went and did a similar move to Fresno, california, another TV station. Now all these TV stations were under the same umbrella, they were all owned by the same company. Now all these TV stations were under the same umbrella, they were all owned by the same company, just in different markets. So I moved over there.
Speaker 1:My wife ended up coming with me A lot of Sinclair, something like that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, she wasn't, she didn't. You know, we weren't married at the time. You know we were still dating, but she moved with me to California and there for about another three years or so, and then again I wanted something more. So we left, uh, we left there and we went to um, to Miami, florida, where Miami.
Speaker 1:Yeah, then we did.
Speaker 3:Miami and we were uh, we were there for about three and a half years and again, I worked at. This was the first time that I stepped away from the local TV stations under the same company and worked for what we called an O&O, which was an owned and operated NBC station in Miami. So it was still the same kind of work, it was a little bit more. It was definitely a you know, it was a pay raise. It was a better TV station, it was a better experience.
Speaker 1:Sure, you're moving up. You've got to do whatever it takes to move up. Yeah, I was moving up the ladder, but this time it was a little bit more of a serious thing.
Speaker 3:I was there for longer. It was three and a half years. Then we left there because I just didn't want to do news graphics anymore. We moved out of there. I took a new job that landed me here in Alexandria, virginia, and I am now a senior motion designer at a post-production shop in Washington DC.
Speaker 1:So that's what I do now. So interesting, very, very great Now. So I find it very interesting. Three, these are three long haul stretches kind of from Syracuse to a stop in between. I understand we need to get to Fresno and then down to Miami. Long haul stretches kind of come from Syracuse to a stop in between. I understand what we're named. Again, a two to Fresno and then down to Miami. May I ask how a Syracuse guy, where I think it's knows more than just about anywhere, buried in Miami because it is hot down there I live in the panhandle of Florida and that heat down there is another level of what I experience here which is orders of magnitude worse than what people experience in syracuse.
Speaker 3:So just a minute or two, if you can, on on living those two places for for yeah, so it was, um, you know, I I that was actually part of the reason why we left was because of the heat and the humidity, and my wife's the same way. She prefers seasons. She's, you know, we lived in indiana for a long time, so she was used of the heat and the humidity, and my wife's the same way. She prefers seasons. She's, you know, we lived in Indiana for a long time, so she was used to the seasons, and we again.
Speaker 3:The whole reason why I went there was because of work. So you have to do what you have to do, but after three and a half, four years of the same kind of weather, it just got to be enough. I mean, there was more factors than just the weather, but there was stuff at work going on that I wanted to kind of just move on. But yeah, we did not care for the weather. It just got too hot, too humid, too much at the time. And so we just said you know what this isn't for us, landed in Virginia, and we think it's perfect. Back to the seasons. We get the change of seasons, but we also don't get the snow that I used to get in Syracuse, so that's a nice little trade-off.
Speaker 3:You get the winter, but you don't get all that snow that I used to get. So it's been very lovely and my folks are still home. They're still in Syracuse so I still go up for holidays and stuff. So they're still there. Love that.
Speaker 1:Love that. Well, thank you for sharing that with us. And now, if we could, let's step into the way back machine, as it were. Way way back, yeah, way way back.
Speaker 3:Oh, you guys want to go way back.
Speaker 1:We could go way back I mean well, not to the diaper stage. It was fast and let's see. Let's talk about aspirations as a young man, and when was the first time you slid behind a steering wheel? And feel free to include any family history, if that's appropriate as well.
Speaker 3:Yeah, of course. So it's me and my parents, paul and Wynne. So it's me and my parents, paul and Wyn. I also have two twin sisters. They're twins of each other, not of me. They're four years younger, jillian and Lisa.
Speaker 3:And yeah, growing up we lived in, like I said, in a little suburb of Syracuse, new York, and my first experience driving was our family owned a lake house on Cross Lake. It was something that we had ever since I was born. It was something my grandparents had built in the 70s and growing up, as little as I can remember, it was only about a 25-minute drive from our house, this lake house, and it was, I mean, my dream place. I mean I loved it there. I'd go fishing, I mean it was just the place to be. I mean there would be days, even after school, we would go up there for a couple hours because it was so close. But I mentioned this because there's a dirt road, what we call the fire road. It's just a dirt road that takes you down to where our lake house is, and it's about a mile and a half road or so, and that road is where my first experience driving was. I was probably 12 years old, sitting on my grandfather's lap in his pickup truck.
Speaker 3:He would let me steer the wheel as we would go down and then I did that for several years or whatever it was, and then it got to the point even under the age of 16, he would let me actually drive. I mean, because it was a private road, it was not a public road, it was very private. So people do that kind of stuff all the time with the kids drive and stuff. So yeah, he would let me drive his pickup truck up and down that dirt road at our lake house.
Speaker 2:Nice yeah.
Speaker 3:And so it was my first experience driving. And then one thing I want to mention is my father has a 1980 Z28 Camaro and he bought that brand new on leap year day actually in 1980. And he bought that. He still has his original owner, but he bought that in 1980. He bought it before he married my mother and before he had me and my sisters, and it's a funny story that I'm going to get to in a second. But after he had started having children, the car kind of had to end up becoming a daily driver because money was tight. They couldn't really afford another car to keep the Camaro garage, so he had to start driving it and in the Syracuse winter months, with all the salt on the road, it just started to deteriorate and it got so bad that he just parked it in the corner of the garage and it just sat there for 15, 20 years or something like that.
Speaker 3:But then you know life goes on and, you know, we got older, we moved out of the house and it got to a point where my dad started to want to restore the car. So he ended up doing a full restoration on it about 10 years ago. But that that kind of inkling of restoring the car and seeing his passion for that led me to kind of pursue my passion, which you know when I was, um, you know when I was a kid growing up. You know one of my I don't know if we want to get into this just yet, but one of my favorite movies is Back to the Future. I've always wanted a DeLorean. We get that a lot. Yep, I've heard that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but unfortunately my first car was not a DeLorean.
Speaker 3:My first car was a 1998 Chevy Cavalier. That was my very first car. Close, they're very similar, I find.
Speaker 2:yes, yes, yes, it's the stainless, it's the stainless steel finish on both of those cars is what does it tell it? Tell us, uh, tell us about that um, first part actually, if you don't mind rewinding. So your dad did the um, your dad did the restoration. Did he do any of the work himself or he farmed it out?
Speaker 3:so he a little bit of both. And I say that because my sister's now husband, his father, is a car mechanic and that's what he does. So my dad is not a mechanic. I mean he knows his way around the toolbox, but he was not a mechanic. So you know, he was lucky and it was. It was my sister's husband's father, his name's Todd. It was because of him that he even decided to take the leap to get it restored, you know, because my dad knew he had the help that he would need. So, yeah, he did what he could. He turned some wrenches and turned some screwdrivers, but you know he wasn't.
Speaker 3:he wasn't in there boring out cylinder heads or anything like that, but he did what he could, but he kind of left the rest of it up to the professionals you know.
Speaker 2:And your dad plans to keep this car till.
Speaker 3:Yeah, he restored it. It was his baby.
Speaker 2:It was the only thing that he can say he still owns prior.
Speaker 3:To being married and having children. And it's funny because my mother's name is Lynn and his license plate is B4 Lynn, nice.
Speaker 2:So that's the license plate on this car, because it's the one thing my mom, my mom loves it.
Speaker 3:She gets a kick out of it every time, but it's. It really is. The one thing he can say is his own. Prior to being married and having kids.
Speaker 2:Nice.
Speaker 3:Love that.
Speaker 2:And uh, have you ever driven this car, Jim?
Speaker 3:I've never driven it. No, I've I've. I mean, you know, growing up I was just too young and then, since it's been restored, I just I honestly just really haven't had the time and I just I don't know, I'm a little nervous, I've it's. Yeah, might come to a shock to some people, but I've actually never driven a manual car and I'm just kind of nervous to do so on his.
Speaker 2:So oh, it's a manual. Okay, that's a manual and that just. But it's his baby. He takes it out on weekends. Yeah, he does cars and coffee.
Speaker 3:It's not a daily driver anymore, thankfully, finally, and he just keeps it nice and just takes it to car shows and cars and coffees. Yep, nice.
Speaker 2:Nice, so yeah, so of course there's a good parallel that we'll talk about in the Back to the Future. And your dad had his dream car before lynn and your car, but, um, your first car being this 1998.
Speaker 3:Um, chevy cavalier, high school, high school yeah, it was actually just after high school. I never had it in high school, okay. But after I graduated high school, my dad said look, you know, and even growing up through high school he says look, whatever you save for a car, I'll match it. Okay, so I kind of put money away. I would do some odd jobs. I'd mow lawns, shovel driveways, keep all the money from the grandparents at holidays, you know. So I would keep all that.
Speaker 3:And I ended up having and numbers. I don't know if I remember exactly the number, but I think I had like 3,500 bucks saved up to get a car. And my dad says okay, well, here's another 3,500, as I promised. So you have 7,000 to go buy a car. And I think that was the number I don't remember. So this would have been in 2001, because that's when I graduated. So I think it was that summer is when I got the car and we went down to the local dealers around town, started looking around and out of the corner of my eye I saw this blue Cavalier. I didn't realize it was a Cavalier at the time. I just saw this blue car that I liked, so I took it for a test drive and we actually ended up buying it on the spot and it was a great car.
Speaker 1:Can I hop in here one second? I think that's a bit this. I don't know if work ethic is lost on the younger generation, but I gotta pause and rewind for just a second here because I say to my kids you know I say the same thing, children, if you save a certain amount of money, father will match it. And you know my kids say, no thanks dad. Well, I think we'll just walk and it.
Speaker 1:You know, it's this, it's this matching principle that I think is so key, and I don't think when they when they go out in the real world and and see that the old man is willing to match absolutely zero of what you want to spend on. So, hey, I'm going to say kudos to your pops, which sounds like a great guy, but to you too, for meeting that challenge. Anyway, I had to squeeze that in there. Please continue, Sorry.
Speaker 2:Any redeeming quality about the car. You got to pick it right. It wasn't a hand-me-down or anything. No, no.
Speaker 3:I got to choose it. I mean, as long as it fit in my budget. My dad said I can have whatever I wanted. You know, and I don't know, something just drew me to it. I don't know. I honestly just think it was the color and it was a two-door. It was a two-door coupe. It was a coupe I always thought they were sharp-looking cars.
Speaker 1:Honestly, I thought they were sharp-looking. And I know that blue you're talking about. It's that GM electric blue? I know that car exactly. It's eye-catching for sure.
Speaker 2:Not to be confused with the song Electric Blue.
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly Could be. So, I had that car for several years. It went to college with me, though it didn't go to my first year of college because students were not allowed to have cars on campus their first year, but my second year of college, you know, it was on campus with me. And then I even had it a few years after that, um, until it just got to the point where it just started just breaking down. It just wasn't worth the upkeep anymore. Resting out, yeah, exactly yeah, gotcha.
Speaker 2:But um, yeah, so blue cavalier, great car. And um so what happened? What happened to that car? So I'm not in your dad's garage anymore, right, yeah, no it wasn't parked in the garage, I ended up selling it.
Speaker 3:A fun story about that car, though, which is what they really liked, is you know what a lot of people don't know is or a lot of people do know. That know me, of course, is I actually do sleight of hand magic. I'm a magician, and for a long time I actually had the word magic man plastered as a big decal on the back of that car. So that was one thing. That was a real takeaway for me with that car, because anytime I'd be driving around, my friends would stop me because they would know it was me driving because it said magic man on the back.
Speaker 3:And to this day, from what I heard, we sold it to somebody local in Syracuse, and I think just as early as maybe two years ago. My dad says he still sees the car driving around because the guy never took the magic man off the back. Whoa, yeah. So I don't know if that's true or not, if he's just saying that, but there's a good chance, because it was in good shape. It wasn't completely like out of its misery, but it was just time for it wasn't completely out of its misery, but it was just time for me to move on to something else.
Speaker 2:Something more responsible and reliable, and maybe it's still on the road because of that magic that you did. Maybe you put a spell on it.
Speaker 3:That's a very good point. It's going to be around forever? Very well could be.
Speaker 1:Let's not be too cavalier about the point of magic. So how serious were you into the magic scene? Was this just sort of a passing? No, at the time I was very serious.
Speaker 3:I mean I started doing magic in high school and you know I would learn from books and stuff about basic sleight of hand and you know I was not a stage magician. I don't do the stage illusions or any of that. I was just you. Give me a deck of cards and some coins and I can do a lot of sleight of hand for you. And a lot of people that know me now don't realize that I was actually pretty shy in high school and learning magic was a great icebreaker to really open up to people and meet new people, huge confidence booster.
Speaker 3:Exactly A big confidence booster. And when I realized that this magic thing was actually working, not only by just being able to fool people but to legit, you know, be a confidence booster.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:You know, and that was a big, that was a big help. Let me just pause.
Speaker 1:Now is this? No, please continue no. And then I was just going to say yeah, so it's it's.
Speaker 3:it was, you know, after high school and into college when I really it really started to take off. I would do local bar and restaurant magic, I would do corporate events and things like that. So, yeah, it really started taking off when I was in my college years.
Speaker 1:So what is your? What is your favorite trick?
Speaker 3:So my favorite trick is what it's actually a trick called could be. And it's basically an effect where it's a regular deck of cards and it's a fact where I keep showing somebody selects a card and I narrow it down to what could be four cards. That is their card. And those four cards actually all become their card, so it's all the same card. But then I can't tell you how.
Speaker 1:But then they all change the four aces at the end I am not at your level, but but but I know that trick, yeah, okay, yeah, that that is cool. So, so, slighted hands, uh, sliding in mostly cards. Are there other things that you do? You mentioned you're not an illusionist or a big stage man.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I don't even call myself an illusionist, yeah, but 80% of what I do is all card stuff. I don't use trick decks or trick cards, I focus on the pure sleight of hand. But coins, rubber bands, just anything kind of around the house, around the office.
Speaker 1:But yeah, I really don't do much outside of that because I want to always be on the ready.
Speaker 3:So if someone says, hey, can you do a trick? Being funny, I can actually do something. So, whether it's with silverware or a napkin, I mean, there's always something I can do.
Speaker 1:Fantastic. Yeah, there's always a deck of cards sitting at the ready. There's always a salt shaker exactly it's a napkin yeah, beautiful hey, thank you. That's very interesting. Thank you for sharing that. Yeah, it's been a big part of my life.
Speaker 3:I don't I don't perform as much as I used to. I mean, I used to do corporate shows and restaurants and bars, but over the years and now that I'm settling down to my my you, I just don't have the time as much as I used to.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the only magic now is trying to get a good night's sleep.
Speaker 3:Figure that out Exactly? Let me know, I'll let you know.
Speaker 1:What do you say, Doug? Should we move on to the next car in his luxury fleet?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. So we know the Chevy Cavalier may still be living to this day.
Speaker 1:Cabalier, if you're French, yeah but Jim got another car.
Speaker 2:Tell us about this.
Speaker 3:Yes, so after I got rid of the Cavalier, I needed a car, of course, because this would have been. I'm trying to remember this was before, this was between. It was between geez, some of the details are fuzzy because I've moved around so much and the years get get confused. But I believe it was when I was making my move to go to fort wayne, indiana, that I had gotten rid of the cavalier and actually acquired a hyundai sonata. It was a 2005 hyundai sonata and that was not a choice car.
Speaker 1:Uh, it was actually a hand-me-down Love, how you put it. Yeah, not a choice car, family heirloom we could call it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was a great car, but just not something I would have picked, but it was my grandfather's who had it. My parents bought it for him brand new, and he would only drive it to the store and to get gas and stuff. He did not really drive it much. But my grandfather, over the years, you know, he started becoming disabled and he just he couldn't drive anymore. So my parents as well, you know we paid for this car. We might as well see if Jim wants it. So long story short, I don't think they asked me for anything for it. They just they gave it to me and so I had that car and I believe I I don't remember if I drove it or traveled it to Indiana, but Indiana was when my first really that kind of came into my possession and I started using that as my daily driver.
Speaker 2:And how long did you keep the car for? Obviously it's a family car, maybe not your favorite, but it was yeah.
Speaker 3:So I had that all through indiana it also came to fresno california with me, and also made the move to miami, florida, with me.
Speaker 2:Uh, so I had it in all three of those states so how many, how many years would you say you had that, so that would have been about six or seven years.
Speaker 3:I had that yep and yeah. No, honestly, there's really no wow stories on that car. It was just a daily driver for me. It got me to and home from work and stuff, so but yeah, there was no, I didn't put Magic man on the back of that one or anything you know.
Speaker 2:Not magic worthy.
Speaker 3:No, no so, but it's still a great car and it really did help me through those years. But the only reason why I got rid of it is because I had a little mishap in the parking lot of the TV station that I worked at. Uh-oh, now, when these TV station people, when they have a breaking story, they bolt like a bat out of hell to get out of there and go to that story, I bet.
Speaker 3:So, I'm parked in the parking lot and I'm backing out. I'm a good driver, I look both ways. So, as I'm backing out out of nowhere, I just get hit in the back and the back passenger rear quarter panel.
Speaker 3:And I'm thinking where the hell did this guy come from? Because I did not see him. So I got hit. It made the trunk pop open. Luckily, the vehicle was still drivable, but it was just not something I wanted to worry about getting fixed or anything like that. So I ended up selling that car to CarMax. I think Some of these details are fuzzy, but I believe I sold it to CarMax and then, while still in Florida, I think just a few weeks later, I ended up buying my current daily driver, which is a red 2014 Mazda 6. That is just about to hit 100,000 miles.
Speaker 1:Nice, nice, I was going to ask yeah, you put some miles on that puppet, yeah, nice.
Speaker 2:Any redeeming quality? Obviously, I'm sure the family was sad to hear about the Hyundai, but any redeeming quality about the Mazda 6 and or the color and why you made that choice?
Speaker 3:So the Mazda 6 I have it was the first year of the current generation. So it was the first year of the current generation. So it was the first year of the current Gen 3 that they still have that generation out. It was the first year and I just loved the design because it was so different from their previous generation, and I got what they call Soul Red color.
Speaker 3:I've always wanted a red car. It's just a very, very beautiful red color. It's one of those colors that looks different in the night than when the sun's on it. You know, it just sparkles. It's just a really sharp color. And it was also the first brand new car I had ever bought. I had never bought a brand new car, so I bought it brand new.
Speaker 3:In, believe it or not, it was a 2014 model. I bought it brand new in February 2013. So they were out a whole almost a whole year earlier than when they would usually come out, and I did all sorts of research on how to wheel and deal with a car dealer and that stuff kind of gets me excited. I like trying to figure out these car guys and stuff and try to get the best deal. So I was after this car for I would say, about two months before I actually bought it. You know, I'd go in, I'd play their games, I'd pretend to be more interested than I was, and all this and all that and a little, a little sleight of hand yeah, that's actually a good way to put it.
Speaker 3:And eventually, after the magician after a couple weeks they cracked and I ended up getting what I originally wanted for it. So I was happy with uh with that purchase nice, nice.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'll say one thing I always wanted a red car and my second red car, I got two tickets in two weeks. I was like 20'm, like no more red cars ever again. Now being 50, I would probably get another one. But you know I'm a big fan of Mazdas. I think I've had about four Mazdas Mazda RX-7, mazda MX-6. Oh wow, two Miatas over the years. Mazda's a great car.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I've had it 100,000 miles. The only one thing I had were some of my seals on my engine were starting to go and needed new seals. But other than normal maintenance I've had zero issues with that car.
Speaker 2:Nice, nice, so you're. You touched on it a little bit earlier, right, so we have your daily driver. Obviously, your wife has a daily driver, she does yeah, what? What's your dream car? It's obviously not a. It's not a Chevy Camaro.
Speaker 1:I think maybe the dream car was his Cavalier out of the gate.
Speaker 2:What's your next dream car? Pay attention, it's his dream. Okay, are you? Saying it could be that Dream achieve Chevy Cavalier Can't go beyond that.
Speaker 1:I keep all my dreams very low and achievable. I don't dream big, I dream extra small.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I like to think of it as the chevy cavalier was a first car. The hyundai sonata was a needed car. My mazda 6 is a yeah, I guess, another needed car. I mean I was able to to pick and choose that one, but I picked and chose it for the long haul. I'm usually not one to, you know, get a new car over a couple of years just to get a new car. I mean I only got new cars as my story goes just because I needed to. You know, cavalier was on its way out, needed to get the Sonata, the Sonata got damaged, needed another car.
Speaker 3:So the dream car actually has always been, since I was about 10 years old, the DeLorean from Back to the Future. That has always been my dream car and I remember the day I saw the movie I was about 10 years old. My folks and I were living at my grandparents' house because my house that I grew up in most of my life was being built and that's where my folks are now still in Syracuse. I remember the movie coming on and watching that iconic scene from Back to the Future of that DeLorean coming out of the back of that van and I just said, oh, this is cool, this is really cool, so yeah, so that was one thing I said I wish I could have one of these one day. Now, look at 10 years old, you don't really think that you don't even really know what any of that means. You know.
Speaker 2:But over the years. It's just something I've always, always wanted, nice, nice. So there's probably a long story about it. But how did your wife feel about it? What drove you to finally make that leap into the DeLorean, knowing that it wouldn't be your everyday car and it's an expense. It's not super cheap, it's not Ferrari expensive, but somewhere in the middle.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was at a point I had forgotten about the DeLorean for a long time, for several years, I mean, even throughout high school. Something would pop up and it would make me think of it, but I never really thought I would buy it or get one, or even want to get one, you know. And so what had happened was I was home from college one day and there was a gentleman outside of my neighborhood growing up where my parents live, and wouldn't you know, he was washing a DeLorean and it was the first DeLorean I had ever seen in real life.
Speaker 3:And this was on my way home from college. I think, after my between my first and second years, I was coming home for the summer and, long story short, I took my buddy and we went right. We marched, I literally walked there because it was so close.
Speaker 3:And we walked to this guy washing his DeLorean and I'm like, oh my God, this is a real DeLorean, this is not a joke, this is not a car. I mean I could tell it was a real DeLorean. And I said I just we just started talking to the guy, oh, I've always wanted one of these, I can't believe it. So that kind of sparked my, I guess, more serious interest in the car, being 18, 19, 20 years old, however old I was, and a real funny story about it. And you know, I was still young and dumb even at 22 years old or whatever. I think I was like 22, 21, somewhere in there. I asked the guy I says, geez, you know, if you were able to sell it, how much would you want for it? And he says, geez, I, I wouldn't, I wouldn't take anything less than 35. So my stupid head thinks 3,500.
Speaker 1:Oh, dear yeah.
Speaker 3:So I go home.
Speaker 1:You obviously didn't major in math, Jim. My goodness, You're an order of magnitude off pal.
Speaker 3:So my buddy and I are walking back to my dad's house and I'm like man, 3,500 bucks, that's really not that bad. I'm sure my dad would lend me that kind of money. So, long story short, my dad basically made me realize he wanted 35 grand for the car. So I just was embarrassed.
Speaker 3:And then, but in over the, I mean I was 20, I'm 40 now, so this was about 20 years ago and anytime I had been home to visit, for holidays or whatever, I still looked to see if that DeLorean was there. And for 20 years I saw nothing. Well, wouldn't you know, last summer I was home. I actually trailered my DeLorean. I own a DeLorean now. I guess we could get into that. I kind of skipped ahead a little bit there. Sorry about that, that's okay, but I now own a DeLorean, we can get into that. But I brought my DeLorean up to Syracuse, new York, for a huge annual car show and while I was there, wouldn't you know the time I am back in town with a DeLorean I saw that guy outside with his DeLorean. After 20 years he still has it. And I of course brought my DeLorean up to see his DeLorean and stuff like that. So that was just, it was just quite the the experience. I'm sorry, I just kind of skipped ahead a little bit there. I just realized that.
Speaker 2:No, no, that's that, that's okay. No, it's pretty cool. You know, I'm going about 20 years over time and yeah.
Speaker 3:I finally picked one up about three years ago and getting back to you asking about my wife yeah, my wife was 100 percent on board. You know, she knew I had a passion for it. She, she knew I was in a position to buy it and she's been on board the whole time and she just loves that. I have something that I love and it's it's been great. And she's like, yeah, 100 percent, you should buy it.
Speaker 2:It's been great, and she's like, yeah, 100%, you should buy it. Nice, nice, exactly, all right, well, and Christian, if I may. So you mentioned your very supportive wife. What does your wife do?
Speaker 3:My wife is in real estate.
Speaker 2:She's a realtor.
Speaker 3:Yep, yep, she's been doing real estate for about three, going on four years now.
Speaker 2:Nice, nice, and just in Northern Virginia, or Virginia, yeah, northern.
Speaker 3:Virginia, technically Virginia State, because that's where she's licensed. But yeah, she just focuses on the Northern Virginia area.
Speaker 2:Okay, wonderful. So yeah, for you guys listening Northern Virginia, We'll put in the show notes some details about Jim's wife. What's her name? Her name is Daniela Daniela Gray. So, yeah, be on the lookout.
Speaker 1:Love, that name is daniella, daniella green. So yeah, be on the lookout. Love that, yeah, thank you for sharing that. So, yeah, yeah, we, we are coming up and again we're only it happens more and more often with these great guests that we have. We, we close in on the half an hour mark and and we're just getting into it- so we're going to do something.
Speaker 1:I believe that, yeah, we've, even with all my babbling, we've even gone past the 30-minute mark, so somebody should really hit the mute button on me every so often. So let's do a couple of things here. We're going to do something we've never done before. We're going to have a two-parter where we're going to have Jim back, because we really haven't even gotten to some of the interesting things that we spoke about in Jim's pre-production, which was the fact that he has an Emmy sitting on his bookcase and we spied it and we had a zillion questions and I found we got into this fascinating discussion that we haven't even gotten into now. So we'd like to have him back. I would like to chat a little bit more about that. I would also like to go into a little more detail around the practical framework, or decision framework, that got him into the DeLorean First drive. When did he know what's it like owning one? Because it's a huge commitment. A supercar any car is a commitment, but a supercar is a next-level commitment.
Speaker 3:And that itself is part of the story too. And yeah, I kind of wanted to stop to save that for later, because, yeah's, that's a story in and of itself. Oh my god, you got it and um.
Speaker 2:So, if I may, christian, um, yeah, so, um, just a quick aside. Yeah, we'll definitely have you back to talk more about your. Uh, talk about the emmy and how you got there and the delorean and everything that's happened since then, absolutely and, uh, you know, for for what it's worth.
Speaker 2:Uh, we have, we have an episode with Kat DeLorean, uh, born Catherine DeLorean, but this is John DeLorean's only daughter and we were so privileged to have her on, so anybody who hasn't had a chance to listen, it's, uh, she's just a great lady. She's doing some really amazing things, but I won't give it all away, but it's some really amazing things, but I I won't give it all away, but it's, it's in the the last episode of uh season one.
Speaker 2:So, um, yeah and um, you know, we're, we're all, uh, we're all happy to talk about deloreans, right, and we actually spoke to a delorean which is pretty rare.
Speaker 3:Brian on once already, that's great yep, yep, exactly, exactly, exactly, exactly.
Speaker 1:Yeah, brian's one of our favorite episodes. We hear from a lot of the listenership on that. Kat Lorien was very generous with her time, wonderful guest and yeah. So, jim, can we do this again in maybe a?
Speaker 3:week or so? Absolutely, you, just, you just named a day in class. Was there a bad taste out of your mouth? Yeah, wonderful, yeah, absolutely. You just named a day in class. Was it got?
Speaker 1:the bad taste out of your mouth. Yeah, wonderful. Yeah, 100%, lovely, excellent, well, hey, yeah, it was great meeting you, jim, and thank you to my partner in crime, doug, here for another really fun episode. The neat thing about this show that means a lot to me is all the interesting people that I get to meet, and this has turned out to be a wonderful hobby. We got to thank Doug for the, for being the prime mover, the invisible hand, the man with a plan. So what do you say, doug? We'll have him, we'll have him back in a bit here. Any any parting words before I, before I pull into the parking lot, so to speak?
Speaker 2:No, no, just appreciate everybody's support and, um, you know, loved having Jim on, um love the idea of the uh two part episode, so, um, yeah, just really can't wait Um absolutely have Jim back.
Speaker 1:Yeah absolutely.
Speaker 1:Should be great. Well, Matt, well magic man, it was great to have you at the stick. No sleight of hand here. Everything we do is above board. Check us out carslovecom. Carslovecom To all the cars I've loved before. Check us out on your preferred podcast streaming platform of choice and email us. Let us know what you think. You can either use the form on the site. There's feedback. We post quotes If you like what you write. You don't have to use your last name. First name would be nice and, as always, reach out to us. I'm Christian at carslovecom, he is at Doug at carslovecom. Please join the conversation. This motor only runs because you are the gasoline. Please join the conversation. This motor only runs because you are the gasoline. Check us out, Give us some feedback, Get involved, Be a guest. Thanks for coming along with us on this journey. We'll see you next week. Talk to you soon. Thank y'all. Goodbye.
