To All The Cars I've Loved Before: Your First Car Tells The Story

Storytime on Wheels: Michael's Journey from First Car to Children’s Author

• To All The Cars I've Loved Before • Season 3 • Episode 8

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Author Michael J. Myers joins us for a delightful ride through his personal car history and the creative road that led him to write car-themed children’s books. Michael starts by sharing humorous and relatable tales of his very first car – a beat-up old farm truck that he affectionately calls “Soft Shell Crab” because of how often pieces fell off (each loss sparking a new story, of course!). As he moved into adulthood, his cars got more reliable but his imagination only grew. Listeners will discover how Michael transformed his automotive adventures and misadventures into inspiring storylines for kids, blending car culture with life lessons. He gives us a peek into his hit book series where characters learn about teamwork by fixing up a broken-down hot rod, and about kindness via neighborhood car shows.

Check out Mike's favorite episode - “Classic Cars & Automotive Adventures: From Trabant to Tucker” - https://pod.link/1733902541/episode/a2d0f95592fd0bb64329a53b015f8bfe

Beyond the books, Michael also discusses founding a charity “Burnouts for Kids” that turns car shows and burnouts into fundraising fun, proving horsepower can have heart-power too. 

This episode is a charming mix of nostalgia and creativity – perfect for car lovers who want to share their passion with the next generation. Michael’s journey illustrates that our first cars and wildest car dreams can steer us toward our true calling in the most unexpected ways.

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Don't Forget to Rate & Review to keep the engines of automotive storytelling—and personal restoration—running strong.

Speaker 1:

Welcome back to All the Cars I've Loved Before. Hey, you know, pause here. We ran this before our marketing people. Doug, I don't know if you knew that. I said hey, we got to jazz it up a bit, they got to jazz it up a bit. How do you like? Welcome back to All the Cars I've Loved Before. The show that's balanced and rotated, but never aligned. Yeah, I like it.

Speaker 2:

No, I like it. I've loved before the show that's balanced and rotated, but never aligned.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I like it. No, I like it. Are there more choices? Ah, I haven't. They sent me a few. We have dozens and dozens of writers on staff. Um, let's see, often imitated, never irritated the show that's. Oh no, I already said that one. Oh, never a retread. How about this? Oh no, I already said that one. Oh, never a retread. How about this? Oh, I like it. What is this Retread? Whole grain, bread, grass, spit, that doesn't even make any sense All right, how about this one?

Speaker 1:

The show that's fuel-injected, warranty-protected, zombie-infected, self-directed? The show where every car tells a story. What do you think? I think we need to get one more in honor of our guests that I can't wait to get to. We're going to fire the marketing department. How about this? Okay, Welcome back to the show. This turbocharged, large and in charge Homer is married to Marge show where every car tells a story. What do you think Better?

Speaker 2:

You saved the best for last, Anyway let's roll with it. Listen to land.

Speaker 1:

Welcome back. Great to have you and let's see there's a. There's a lot to get into. Today I went to the neatest car, by the way. The Snowball Derby short track race is going to be held on December 5th. If anybody is into that, I will be there. If anybody wants to, you'll be there Okay.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I will, absolutely, we'll have our booth. Yeah, my buddy got tickets, we got invited. I might be taking one of my kids. It's four days of racing never ending super fantastic. But okay, on those grounds over the last weekend was the rare air air-cooled show where the vws from yesteryear, from way back when to now, real deal car shows so you got to vote for your favorite vw. They were all vws. There were people selling parts dashboards, hoods, fenders, dash assemblies, door. Yeah, it was so it one of these smaller shows outside. Thank goodness the weather was wonderful but really passionate people. I went, my buddy, kelly, uh, my two younger sons and we just got to geek out on the old west failures, the campers, the carmen guillas saw a uh, you know the rabbit is near and dear to my heart Saw a diesel rabbit Beautiful. There were cars with paint peeling that rusted in their original set outside.

Speaker 2:

Oh.

Speaker 1:

Pantino, there were yeah, absolutely there were cars where the, the insides had been ripped out, the camper in custom woodworking had been put in. Oh, by the by this is Doug sent a lot of this out on the is that the instagram, instagram and facebook uh, yeah, yeah, check out our posts. Y'all check out it, because we'll get to that. We'll get to that in a minute great, great, great pictures.

Speaker 2:

Hey, uh, sorry, real quick. Yeah, there was one. There was one other manufacturer there, right, if you will, america's air-cooled car. What was it? The Corvette.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, unsafe at any speed, it was there. It was there, the Chevy truck. No, the little truck was with. Yeah, there were two side-by-side that were basically America's answer.

Speaker 2:

Like oh, vw's tapped into something. They absolutely were. Yep, they came in several configurations, including a truck, a van, a car, a convertible, a four-door, you name it, they had it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, they had right-hand drive. There was Karmann, ghia's bugs and on and on, and on. The car we voted for was this gorgeous carmen guia. Uh, the owner, trevor, I'm trying to get him on. He lives not far from me. Super fantastic guy, trevor, please call me, email me, let's make it happen, let's make it. Oh yeah, and a call back to freesia brothers, the episode that just dropped VW Specialists in Greenwich, connecticut, greenwich.

Speaker 2:

Connecticut, I want to say Stanford.

Speaker 1:

I know that's not right. Guinevere, a lovely human being, Can't wait to have her dad on the show, her and her dad back on the show, and so we're just continuing a VW theme here, which is lovely, but today we are going to pivot to well, let's talk. Doug, tell us a little bit about the Facebook and Instagram before we interview today's guest Mike.

Speaker 2:

The Facebook and Instagram.

Speaker 1:

Oh, just the post I want to tell you.

Speaker 2:

Well, I want to tell people about my weekend Is that all right.

Speaker 1:

Oh, okay, well, I'm sorry, how was your weekend?

Speaker 2:

You talk about facebook and instagram okay I had a wonderful weekend, car related as well. Um, through my uh with my delorean, I have done a few paid and unpaid events and a wonderful, wonderful young lady who was on the show, lisa, talking about her camaro and other vehicles. That's how we met her. She uh, hired, hired us to go to her 40th birthday party. Uh, have the delorean there. The big only stipulation really was she wanted me to pick her up at her house and drive were there and, uh, she and 150 of her friends.

Speaker 2:

She had a 80s awesome 80s um cover band called the new romance who I've I've seen before as well and, uh, they were fantastic, it was, it was all 80s, it was so wonderful and just you know people. I only got two questions about the flux capacitor, one question about the if the car goes 88 and the one guy, lots of great conversation on the phone and he's like what is this car?

Speaker 1:

what?

Speaker 2:

he, he had no clue. He's like is this?

Speaker 1:

a spaceship. Is this an amphicar? What is this?

Speaker 2:

yeah, one person asked me if it was a kit car, a DeLorean kit car, which I don't think anybody's gone through that effort. But it made me so happy to just see those people enjoying the car, taking pictures with it.

Speaker 2:

Lisa said it was a big hit as far as that basically went all all out and uh. Only other thing I'll say I went to cars and coffee the next day. Um didn't bring my car but uh met a great guy. Um trying to remember his name but uh, hopefully he'll be on the uh, hopefully it'll be on the podcast. But he uh had a green 1973 Saab 9-6. New car I'm not sure I've ever seen one before, but it has a V4. Little tiny engine, so two cylinders on each side in a V configuration, and it was fully restored. It was beautiful and I don't want to give it away. But he grew up with Saabs and he has some really great sob stories, can't wait Not.

Speaker 2:

S-O-B sob, sob, cry, cry.

Speaker 3:

S-O-B born from jets Swedish car yeah.

Speaker 2:

That's right. Born from jets Love that? Yeah, that was my weekend.

Speaker 1:

Love it, man. Yeah, so let me just toss in here before we introduce Mike Calls to action. You guys know the drill I sound like a broken record. Uh, younger people won't know what that means. Do follow the show, please, if you like it. Tell a friend and subscribe, uh. Or check us out on facebook and instagram. Doug post, he's clever, he's clever one. He's clever One man marketing department, which is a good thing. Check those out and in your podcast platform of choice.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, absolutely Goes without saying Lovely. Well, that's all I got. Please, doug, tell us how Mike has entered our virtual partner, so you get to know him.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so Mike and Mike, or Michael Myers is a well-known author and we're going to learn more about that.

Speaker 1:

Christian can't wait to talk to him about it.

Speaker 2:

I'm going to talk to him about his cars, but Mike came way of our great friend Andrew Blackwood. Who man, what a wonderful guy, paramedic, lifesaver. He's got a car problem.

Speaker 1:

Literally he started buying cars for his wife.

Speaker 2:

He recently posted on Facebook telling people to buy certain Trabants to save his marriage. So love the guy to death. He's been such a great friend of the show and he gave this introduction to death. He's been such a great friend of the show and he yeah, Introduction to to Mike. So with that, Mike, thanks for joining us. Yeah, Thanks for having me. Yeah.

Speaker 1:

And let's see, what did you want? Did you want to chat with him about the cars?

Speaker 2:

No, well, yeah, let's, let's kick it off. Mike is an author. Christian is going to get into that. His books are for kids, but they're about cars, and it's just phenomenal.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so he was changing out turbos at four years of age, so it made tremendous sense that he would write about his. So I'm sure the books are autographical, right Mike?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 1:

They're all based on real-life experiences and some situations we've gotten ourselves into Love it, but before we get in the book and before we get into these, this, just this, this brilliant writing, creative mind of Mike's. Mike, we got to step into the way back and I'm going to bring you back to the year 1995, when your Nissan 240 SX was brought into the world. You didn't buy it in 95, but tell us about that car.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, it was a. It was ake, uh, 240 SX. Uh, it came with a, an SR20, uh, turbocharged engine in it. Um, it was a real lightweight rear wheel drive, stick shift, fun car, um, and the whole point of it was to have fun. Uh, so we would. I was surrounded by a group of guys growing up then. Um, they all went to a school called UTI, which is a universal technical institute, which pretty much trained them to be mechanics. So that was like my core group of friends, and they were all in fun rear wheel drive cars, a couple 350Zs. One guy even got his hands on an old R32 Skyline back in the day, whoa yeah, which was actually registered as a 240, which you know.

Speaker 2:

That was before you could bring them over. Yeah, he made it happen.

Speaker 3:

I think, his claim to fame was driving in reverse through a drive-through, so he could be on the correct side. Well it's right-hand drive.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so that's a JDM only car.

Speaker 3:

that you can now import I was just trying to keep up with those guys, you know, and, uh, have some fun while doing it. Um, you know, I saved up some, some pennies and and purchased my uh, my 240, which was pennies on the dollar compared to what they're worth now.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely, especially, uh, uh, not modified, right, those are worth the most. But, um, you got one that somebody had put a turbo on. Yeah, they changed the engine out, actually entirely, and uh, this was a I I'm sure I've mentioned on the show before to others, but I had a 1989 240SX, non-turbo of course. So that was the first gen of the 240SX in the US. Yours was a second gen. Yeah, yep, so it was a notchback, not a hatchback, if I remember.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, so I know them from, like, the S chassis numbers. So I believe what you're referring to is yours was an S13. And I believe those came in the notch and the hatch, and then mine was the following model, the S14. And it was the Zenki refers to the front end, so it had they call them Zenki headlights. Oh, okay, yeah, so it's just a different facelift. When they went to the s15 um, they had a more aggressive headlight, um, and that was pretty much the same body style, um, but a little variance there gotcha, gotcha, yep, but same same great uh, formula front engine, rear wheel drive light.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, not, not a ton of power, but just enough enough. And uh, you know, anybody, anybody who's uh, anybody who knows about cars right, is going to know when we're say S 13, s 14, they, you know, they're going to have that background and know exactly what what Mike here is talking about. And uh, yeah, back in the day they, my day they didn't nobody talked about that. It was a Nissan 240 SX and it was just such a neat car and such such great memories. So what, what happened to that car, mike?

Speaker 3:

So I actually unfortunately and fortunately had to sell the car. That was right around the time I had written my first book.

Speaker 2:

For good reason.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, and I was right at a point where, you know, I had it illustrated and I needed a graphic designer to help me pretty much get all the borders, fonts and get it all into the proper sizing for the self-publication route that I was going to take and I didn't have the cash and it was a. It was a tough decision to make. I got hit with a pretty hefty bill but I knew that I needed to get this book out and I did what I had to do. I let go of a car that I do miss today. I wish it was sitting in my garage right now. It would be a very fun vehicle to own right now and I would be utilizing it for sure. But it was an investment and it published my first book.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, that's snowballed in to to where I'm at now. Can we pause for just a moment at how fantastic and how much a superstar Mike Myers is at this point? How many times on this show? Dozens and dozens of episodes. How? You know what? What happened to your first car? I wrapped it around a telephone pole, I put it into Lake Michigan, I drove it into a, you know the 40-year flood.

Speaker 2:

I drove it without oil Right. Oh change the oil.

Speaker 1:

I thought that was optional.

Speaker 2:

Check the oil.

Speaker 1:

So he, I can't get over this part of the story. This is the part of the flow chart that nobody saw coming where, where he's, he zags to the right and he to fund his business, startup all right, to fund his business, start startup business said his dream was a children's book. So before we move on to any of the subsequent cars, yeah, we talk a little bit about the inspiration, how the idea came to you. So, from being, you know, I think, opposite sides of the brain, you're very obvious, very tactile engineer, fixing things mechanical, but this creative strike hits you. Could you talk about how those two things came together, what that eureka moment was and when you knew you had to see it through?

Speaker 3:

Yeah. So you know, we talked a little bit off camera about the aha moment where I'd heard a turbo whistling in the distance and I said out loud to a friend of mine oh, that's a noisy snail. And, coincidentally enough, that became the title of my first book, the Noisy Snails. Incidentally enough, that became the title of my first book, the Noisy Snails. It's based around a twin turbocharger setup and it just hit me that you know I had these characters in my head and that they would fit very well for a children's book and I had mentioned I always wanted to make a product. I had a bunch of ideas, I had a whole book of all these different things. They all were tough to attain and not to say writing a children's book wasn't tough. But I knew, even if I had to go to Staples and glue pages together, I could physically make a book. I wouldn't need patents, I wouldn't need a crazy design team. It was more of a reachable goal to get a product out there.

Speaker 3:

I had grown up with no internet. I was right in the sweet spot. I grew up with no internet. We got dial up and then we had the cable internet. That was quick and I could reach the whole world. So that was kind of the reasoning behind wanting to create a product to sell to the whole world. And that was it the motivation came. I realized there was nothing out there like it. I say it all the time. There were car books and there was like the red race car and things like that. But I wanted to dive in deeper for and still no kids. But having no kids at the time, something for the motorhead like myself, if I was a father, what I would want to read to my kids. So it was definitely a book for the kids, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't write it for the parents.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, no, I love it. I was talking to Christian about this and, uh, and my girlfriend, I'm like man, I wish, I wish, uh, I had known about this book when my kids were little.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, maybe, maybe they wouldn't be so interested in video games but gotta yeah, but I I love it I love it man, I get it all the time, people saying, oh, I wish I had this as a kid. And always my response is me too. That's why I wrote it right yeah.

Speaker 1:

So if you got to check out his website, I'm gonna give you a couple of websites out there listener land. The first is mhgproductionscom.

Speaker 3:

Not to cut you off, but if you want to give a more simple one, tisforturbocom will take you to the same place.

Speaker 1:

So much better, so much better. Yeah, so T is for Turbo and these books are just so clever. I just say the names of the books and I can't get the smile off my face the sprocket rocket about a motorcycle, the noisy snails, as he alluded to, the whiny supercharger Brocky, the brave little race truck. And T is for turbo. Okay, so it's a. And the great thing if you've had kids, you can get these, I think, in, yeah, in, in Doug's chat and me. We'll get all these in in the show notes. So if you're at the show, if you're at the point of listening on any of these platforms, all of these URLs, these web addresses, will be in the show notes here.

Speaker 3:

I think you missed one the sideways sliders, which Doug will appreciate. That actually has my 240 on the front cover, Nice.

Speaker 1:

I see that.

Speaker 3:

It's immortalized, absolutely, it had to be, and then the S13 to the right of it, which was a, a buddy of mine's car. So I, I threw him in there as well. He's actually the one I, uh, I dedicated the book to. Uh, he was, he was a good friend of mine. Um, he, he ended up getting, you know, he was always sliding around cars but he had a, uh, a Barbados blue GTO and, uh, that was one of the, if not the first car I experienced drifting and burnouts and you know, having fun with a vehicle and and uh, unfortunately, we lost him to brain cancer a few years ago. Um, but I, uh, I dedicated the book to him even when he was still around, because it went in remission and you know, I just thought it would have been a nice tribute to him. It was.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, beautiful tribute.

Speaker 3:

And unfortunately we did lose him a few years later. But again he's also immortalized in my book, along with in my brain, with my creativity and inspiration. You know, he kind of showed me the ropes on what a car can do. And he was a fun guy to be around.

Speaker 1:

Are you? Are you sometimes surprised at the themes that come up in these books? You sometimes surprised at what gets kind of what, what inspires you, what memories come up and what, what stimuli around you make you want to write what you write.

Speaker 3:

I don't know if I would say surprised, because I have. I mean, I have a whole notebook filled of books. So, you know, like I had mentioned, I had grown up surrounded, like I said, my core group of friends. They were all car guys. Every day, every weekend, no matter what we were doing, it was going to involve cars or motorcycles. So I have, you know, all these memories and I, you know, like I said, I like to write about things that I've experienced. So I already have a long list of things that I, you know, pretty much a queue in my head of the next books coming out. So, and it still goes on today, these books have brought me all over the country. I have a friends group that literally stretches from here to to the other side of the country.

Speaker 3:

Um, pretty much just because of the traveling and things that I've done, I've got a really good group of guys in ohio with some really crazy cars. He's got this exo cart bmw. It's got no roof, no doors, no hood, roof, no doors, no hood, and it's pushing 2000 horsepower and it's. It's an unreal experience of driving that and he's one of my best friends at this point and I met him through my books. He was a Facebook friend. It's funny, I think even to this day T is for turbo is on his cover photo on Facebook with his child as an infant, like one of their you know, one of their first baby pictures.

Speaker 3:

Yeah Right, and uh, he, he opened. It, opened the door for me to get into one of these events. I couldn't get ahold of a guy. Um, I wanted to do the Cletus McFarland events and he said, dude, just come, you can sell your books out of my tent. So I I made up a little. I made up a little banner that had my logo on it. His logo showed up and it was a pretty funny experience because I got into the event that I wanted to get into. A week later I get a phone call from the guy who runs the events and I quote him. He says we don't like what you did, but we like what you do, and then he offered me a spot in the events. So I've been, I've been pretty much doing the events for him ever since. So, yeah, all thanks to Carl for just opening his doors to me and, like I said, he's he's one of my best friends at this point.

Speaker 2:

Yep, and, and his kid's first word was turbo.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, yeah, I believe it, and he was able to make all the turbo sounds as well.

Speaker 1:

Excellent. I love that. And one thing that struck me as we were doing show prep was now I have three sons. They're a little older now but anything that we can do to get young boys reading, I think is fantastic. To engage, you know, and this, I'm sure this has been a theme, because when you go on, when you go on your website, it's you and families, it's you and kids, it's what you've done that brings joy and kind of inspires. Reading is such a crucial skill for children, especially little boys, and and whatever you can do to to foster that, to foster that, I think, is I think it's fantastic. So I think you're doing good in so many ways.

Speaker 3:

You know, I appreciate that and I was that kid. You know I enjoy reading, but if I'm not involved or invested in the topic, I'll read the words on the page and they just don't register in my head. So you know I do have families come up to me and tell me that you know how much their kids love the book and I can't even express how that makes me feel, but I know it's because it's something they enjoy. You know their dads are bringing them to these car shows. Their dads have, and moms too they have the show car vehicle in the garage and they they like to see their dad or mom working on it. And it's, it's I used to say, I still say, um, it's a way to share the passion at the earliest age possible. So it's, it's literally it's like that story and it's we're all passionate about these cars. And it's it's a quick way to just immediately get your child involved as well. And it it works, it really does.

Speaker 1:

I like that, I like that. And before we uh leave, this detour where we're talking about where your life really took, took a turn here. Can I ask about your illustrator, cause in looking at the books I noticed that the same person, uh illustrates. So could you talk a little bit? And I I more and more interest in the idea of collaboration. You know, doug and I doing this show. How is your uh, could you talk about him a little bit, the creative process between you two and, and how you've navigated collaborating with them?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, absolutely so I'll. I'll take it back to where I first uh encountered Rich. Uh, believe it or not, it was a Craigslist ad I had. You know, I had these ideas in my head and I wanted to bring them to life. I was looking for an artist and I was browsing on Craigslist, you know, after probably shopping some motorcycles, and I found somebody who said he specialized in children's book art along with some other things. And you know he's not a he might be a little bit now, but he was not a car guy when I met him, so he didn't know anything about cars.

Speaker 3:

I had to kind of kind of hold his hand a little bit and just to for him to get me the image that I wanted. There were, there were a couple of things that you know we just had to work out, but his skill is is unbelievable. It is the first image he ever sent me. Is the cover to the noisy snails? Um, the only thing we changed was the O on the turbocharger. I turned it up so it didn't look like an A and um got it.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, yeah, and it was. I mean, it was, it was exactly what I wanted and it brought my book to life. And I I remember that moment of getting that first image and the inspiration and the um, the motivation that it gave me was just. It just set me on the path, like, okay, now I see it and you know it's done. To this date, I actually have not met rich in person.

Speaker 3:

I really yeah, we have had a virtual friendship for a while and I've I've tried a couple of times. He was going to come out. One time I had a um, a little author meeting at our local dealership in Cherry Hill and, uh, he was going to come out and I was real excited and I forget why he didn't make it out. Um, but he didn't end up coming out there. But I don't do a lot of events in delaware, that's where he's from, but if I am out there, I I owe him, uh, you know, a nice dinner and, uh, you know, some, some catching up, because he's man, yeah, he's a great guy and he's yeah you know we we feel like friends at this point.

Speaker 3:

You know we do chat um via text message, facebook, whatnot um, but yeah, he's um. I've watched his skill grow over the years. I've been doing this for 11 years and he's been doing it even longer than me. He was an artist before I was an author and I've watched. If you look from my first book to my last book, he's great throughout all of them, but the detail just gets even better and better after each book.

Speaker 1:

He's maturing as an artist.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, he's just, yeah and just building his skills, constantly learning new ways to do things. And yeah, just just like anybody with any, any craft, you know, the longer you do it, the better you get good point, good point.

Speaker 1:

Well, thank you for sharing all that, and I could talk to you about this uh for so much longer, but doug is I. I know doug wants to uh to climb into your next couple of rides.

Speaker 2:

So give it back to you, partner yeah, no, thank you, and uh, uh, it would be silly of me to not point out. There's a theme in all your cars um, at least the uh, the early ones front engine, rear wheel, drive right yeah, actually.

Speaker 3:

Uh, now that you mentioned it, yeah, it does. It does seem to be the thing, yeah I mean, that is uh that is my bread and butter in a vehicle, yes ditto, ditto.

Speaker 2:

Yep, that's, that's the way to do it. Um, so your your second, your second car after the book got published right, and was out, there was a 2004 Lexus IS300. Correct Also in a manual transmission? Yeah, also in a manual. That's right, save the manuals. Yeah, and it was alabaster metallic yeah.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, it's an interesting color. It's kind of like an off-white, it's kind of like a pearl.

Speaker 3:

Oh, but yeah it was a beautiful car. There's actually a funny story about that which you just kind of sparked my memory. I bought that car and limped it onto a trailer the previous owner before me, I think. He hit a curb. It had two cracked wheels and a busted steering rack and I didn't care. I was searching. The production on manuals on those vehicles was pretty low, they were hard to find and this one hit all the boxes and I could have cared less that I couldn't drive it right away. So I, real quick, my boss at the time had an enclosed trailer. We went over and, like I said, I mean I limped this thing onto the trailer. It barely made it up the trailer and, uh, I drove that thing home with us, or I rode that thing home with a smile on my face yeah, no and uh, if memory serves.

Speaker 2:

So that was lexus's kind of first small car, four-door toyota overseas right, uh, it had a gated manual, all right, which is it wasn't gated no it wasn't, it was traditional manual.

Speaker 3:

Okay, my bad, but it was uh. It was their first attempt to go for, like, uh, the tuner group. Like they went, they had uh, and I'm not a huge fan of the taillights, but they had, um, they had some tuner taillights on it yeah it was definitely out of the norm of what lexus was used to doing.

Speaker 3:

They're used to doing like their big body, um, their big sedans and and whatnot, uh, but it is actually the same chassis as the toyota altezza, so that had been around for a couple years. So they took the toyota altezza and they they put it's actually got the 2j in it, uh, the 2jz engine in it.

Speaker 2:

So it is the inline three liter, inline six right correct.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, which was also in the supra depending on what generation? Yeah yep, yep, yep that is part of my plan. One day I will turbo that 2J engine in there and I'm not sure what I'll put that in. I believe the IS right now is lined up for a V8. Okay.

Speaker 2:

That'll be perfect yeah. That'll be perfect for drifting. Yeah, so kind of on that note, since this is our format. So it sounds like you still have the Lexus. Yeah, but it's maybe inoperative right now. It's on hiatus it's about.

Speaker 3:

It's almost like when I first bought it.

Speaker 2:

Okay.

Speaker 3:

No, so I was at a, so I had pretty much prepped it for a couple of years. Actually, I, I, I had a dream to to do some road racing. I had, I had done a little bit um in in vehicles that were not my own and I got a little taste for a road course and I fell in love with it. Um, so I had spent two years I did um full suspension on it, coilovers Uh, I actually upgraded the front brakes. I figured, before adding power, I might as well add some brakes to it.

Speaker 2:

and you, know, make good stops.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, so there was a nice conversion for the LS400 brakes. Somebody makes a kit so I was able to put the bigger piston brake kit on there. So I did that, I did sway bars, I did an intake and uh, pretty much just other than that, just full maintenance, got all fluids dialed, put some nice tires on it and I took it out for my first road course trip in my own vehicle and thank God I didn't crash anyone else's vehicles, um, but I did crash my own. Um, I hit it. There's a, there's a turn, it's actually turn one. It comes after a straightaway which is, I think it's pretty much a hundred miles an hour into the turn into.

Speaker 3:

You know you, you come obviously down to a slow turn and I, uh, I went off a little bit. I actually bumped on the inside curbing and I think that's what threw me off and I, one tire hit the dirt and from there I'd lost control of it and it was a downhill. I slid all the way down and around and I I wound up in the tire wall driver's side and uh, yeah, I pretty much have dents from the front fender, uh, all the way to the rear quarter and uh, the steering is definitely uh off I'm having been able to pinpoint exactly what's going on with it, but it drove me home, so I mean that's a test, made it home.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, it's the reliability of the Toyota Lexus brand.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, mike couldn't break it. He tried his best yeah.

Speaker 3:

So she's got a new path now, because she was very pretty before that and now she's a little bit more thrashed and I think that'll just be the life she lives from now on, but only on one side right.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah Still wild and crazy on the other side.

Speaker 3:

Well, you know what's funny? So I explained to you my buddy's car. He's got the full like XO cage cart thing. So I had an idea and I you know, I don't mind giving it away. If someone wants to do it, go ahead. But I had the idea of making it like a two face, so on one side it'll be completely, you know, XO cart and exposed, and then the other side is pretty.

Speaker 1:

Will you stop being a creative genius?

Speaker 2:

and leave some ideas. For the rest, Just knock it off dude, I can't stop my creativity.

Speaker 3:

And if I tried?

Speaker 1:

I love it. I absolutely love it, Andrew.

Speaker 2:

uh, our, our mutual friend, andrew, told me about speedy cop and we're hoping to have speedy cop on the show. I don't know if Andrew told me about speedy cop and we're hoping to have speedy cop on the show. Yeah, if you've ever seen what he's done with cars.

Speaker 3:

but I did Andrew and I talked about it and he passed me on his contact information. I shot him a text message and coincidentally he's. He's going to be at the burnout competition crown Vic race that I'm doing in November, so I'll get a chance to meet him.

Speaker 2:

I can put in a good word for you That'd, so I'll get a chance to meet him. I can put in a good word for you. That'd be great much appreciated. For anybody who hasn't seen it Speedy Cop on YouTube. He does some amazing things with cars cuts them in half airplanes become cars. He's got a crazy mind for sure. I know Christian has some more questions and we want to hear about your. Um, I think we're gonna. I think we're gonna say, uh, let's do it so real quick. What's your daily driver?

Speaker 3:

that's also rear-wheel drive and a manual well, I wouldn't quite call it the daily, but I think you're referring to the uh, the cadillac, atsv the caddy the caddy, the caddy that sings.

Speaker 3:

yes, she is, uh, she's a pretty car. Um. So I'd be lying if I said, you know, half of the reason for writing these books, uh, was to purchase a dream car. One day I had that mindset. I kind of, I kind of incepted it into the world and manifested it. And yeah, so my books took off, power of the internet. They went absolutely completely viral. I was selling books to Australia at night and then every other country during the day. Yeah, jeez, yeah. It was a wild ride. I collected enough cash to be able to fund a car that I never really expected to be able to afford.

Speaker 3:

I wasn't 100% sure on what I wanted. I wanted the recipe right, like we just talked about. I wanted rear wheel drive, I wanted a manual transmission and I wanted something that came out of the box with some power. So that was kind of my three prereqs for what I was looking for. And the funny story is I had done a little bit of shopping, just bouncing through dealerships, taking a look at some things, test driving some things. I took my brother with me and my brother's my absolute best friend he's. He's a car guy as well. He's a Volkswagen guy. We're also a Volkswagen family, he drives.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I, just to throw that in there I heard you guys talking about Volkswagens. Yeah, so I take him with me. We go to Lexus, bmw, audi. He didn't get out of the car, he just there wasn't anything there that was, you know, going to speak to him. Bmw was right. Next it was BMW, lexus and Cadillac dealerships, all within the same quarter mile of each other, so we had done the first two. We go to cadillac and there's the car sitting right out front and he jumps up out of his seat and he goes. That's the one. And then he he's like wait, wait, hold on, jumps out of the car, runs over to it, peeks into the window, sees it's a manual transmission, turns back to me yep, that's the one. We bought it that night, dang no hesitation no, and it was uh, well, there was.

Speaker 3:

So maybe we didn't buy it that night. We, we were. No, it was closed, it was closed. Okay, now I'm remembering we bought it the next day, but I went home and I tried to find one used, because I've never bought a used car or I've never bought a new car and I wasn't planning on it and then we found out that it was the pedestal edition.

Speaker 3:

The only other one I found in the country was in California and it was an automatic. So I just I had no choice but but to buy it. And it was a first new car, first and only new car I've ever bought. And, yeah, it was a staple to to the books being successful and, yeah, fueling the passion for it.

Speaker 2:

And that car has a turbo or two in it, right?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, it's a twin turbo. It's the V6. A lot of people get it confused with the CTS. Not many people are familiar with the ATS. The CTS is an awesome car as well and I originally thought I'd wanted one of those. They actually believe it or not had two pedestals at that time.

Speaker 3:

The CTS. The downfall was, I believe, you couldn't get it in a manual. I could be wrong there Either way. The one they had was an automatic and then I was looking at it and it was huge, like it. It was just such a big car and obviously it's got more power and that's awesome, um, but the ATS was just a nice compact. It's a coupe and it um, it just spoke to me a little bit more and it was uh, it, it, it's awesome. So they uh, the cool thing that they did being that I bought it new.

Speaker 3:

They gave me a three-day race school out in Las Vegas, so I had to buy a plane ticket and I went out and they let me stay. My condo was on a racetrack. I woke up sipping a cup of coffee to the new C8s racetrack and they put me in a manual ATSV the same thing that I bought, just someone else's and they taught me how to race it, and that car was built for a road course, so it's got. You know, all these different track modes that are are designed for a road course. So not to go crazy into it, but like each, each mode you put in is like traction control for how much it lets the rear end kind of go out around a turn. So it's, um, it was awesome to learn about the capabilities of my car, um, and it was probably three of the best days of my life.

Speaker 2:

I bet Somebody else's car too. Yeah, yeah, go back to yours.

Speaker 3:

Someone else's tires. Exactly Nothing, nothing to worry about, although you know there was a little fear there, I think I I passed on purchasing the insurance and in hindsight I probably should Don't do that again. Yeah, oh man, they worked. It was we were all on like an intercom system, so like there was nobody in my car, and it was right when covid was going on, so that was probably part of the reason but there was nobody in my car except the.

Speaker 3:

The instructor was on the intercom so I could talk to him and he could talk back. And uh, we were out with a group of probably about five or six cars, split between the cts and the ats, and then each person got a chance to go behind the instructor and I got a really nice. I take it as a compliment. But the instructor goes and like that's when you're full, go because there's nobody else in front of you. So I'm chasing the instructor around and he made the comment. Okay, mike, you made me work a little bit there. And this was a, you know, a professional race car driver, you know, saying that about me. And I this was a, you know, a professional race car driver, yeah, who's you know saying that about me? And I I just, you know, smiling from ear to ear after hearing that, yeah, and you you can.

Speaker 1:

You can tell when somebody's got the right car, because the moment you start thinking about it you get this. You know we're on zoom, but we do the video for the call. Here big smile comes on your face and that's when you know the car means a little bit extra. So yeah, love that as we guide the show gently toward the off ramp. I did want to mention here we talked about skids for kids, which is a cause that you're part of. Could you talk a little about that?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, so that's my buddy Andrew. He's friends with, so I met him through Carl who I mentioned. Carl, just to plug him, is Hidden Motorsports out in Ohio. They're European BMW specialists. They do everything that way. But I met Andrew through Carl.

Speaker 3:

He is the founder of Skids for Kids. He started it with his buddy Dalton. They've got an awesome group of guys. An honorable mention is this guy named seth. He's a a wild man. Yeah, he he's got a uh a crazy metro mite that he does burnouts in. But yeah, andrew started this um burnout group of guys um and he just he recruits them and they, they all get together and we we go around to these events and do burnouts.

Speaker 3:

And the beauty, beautiful thing about his organization is he collects donations via money and toys um for children in actively in the children's hospitals. Any child suffering with any kind of issue in the hospital. They bring a little bit of light to their day by we'll finish a competition and they load up trailers and pickup trucks full of toys and they go and pull right up to the front door and unload these toys to all these kids sitting there waiting, maybe not having the best day, stuck in a house. Pull right up to the front door and unload these toys. So all these kids sitting there waiting, you know, maybe not having the best day stuck in a house you know it's just.

Speaker 3:

I've watched it grow over the years and it's. It really is a beautiful thing what they do.

Speaker 2:

No, that's that's wonderful and you know, as a a father who my my son, when he was 18 months old, had a heart heart condition, got all resolved, fortunately, svt. He had to have a cardiac ablation, which at his age was not common, and so we were at Children's in DC and, yeah, anybody who walks through there you can see the kids are not having the best day, anything you can do to light up their day. And I just remember my daughter, who was a few years older, only four and a half years so he was so happy to see her. I mean, he was 18 months old but he was so happy to see her. He didn't know what was going on there but fortunately he's fine. But yeah, there are so many kids in need and so, man, I, I love this Great cause for kids.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, great cause, yeah, thank you for that Smiling ear to ear on it.

Speaker 1:

Well, yeah, so we just want to thank you, mike Myers, for taking time with us, and I just want to reach out to listener land and if you were having a bad day and you need a smile put on your face, go to. T is for turbocom, all one word. T is for turbocom. Also, on Amazon, you can look up the T is for turbo books. I think the whole suite is there Now. Mike Myers, do you prefer people to get the books from Amazon to contact you directly? Do you care?

Speaker 3:

I like when they come through my website, so I make this because I pretty much turned my upstairs into a warehouse at this point. But I like to sign each book I've found over the years that people like getting the signature.

Speaker 3:

I mean, it's not very often you get to buy a book direct from the author's hands. So any book that comes in on my website, I throw a quick little signature on there and I send it out. There's also a little note section when ordering. If they want to put their child's name, I can address the book directly to the child.

Speaker 1:

It just puts a nice little special touch on it that is wonderful. Yeah, and they would do that at. T is for turbo dot com.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, amazon, I don't. I don't see the books. They're handled through Amazon, but anything on my website, I'd be absolutely happy to do that.

Speaker 1:

I think that's great. Thank you for that. Well, mike, it was a real pleasure meeting you, real fine. Thank you so much for spending a little bit of time with us today, right back at you guys.

Speaker 3:

I appreciate the conversation and I hope to see you guys at a car event sometime soon.

Speaker 1:

Yeah absolutely Count on it, count on it.

Speaker 2:

So that was Mike Myers teesforturbocom.

Speaker 1:

Yes, stay in touch. If you are at a car show and you see a guy surrounded by kids and they're all. By the way, the board books are great because they're also chew toys for your kids, my kids would tease and just constantly gnaw on them. So really it's a two for one. And if he's going to sign it, you got to go to the website. T is for turbocom. That's it. We are going to wrap up here, move to the off ramp and we'll see you on the next episode of to all the cars I've loved before, the only podcast where every car tells a story. Have a great week. See you soon, thank you.

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Christian

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