To All The Cars I've Loved Before: Classic Car Restoration, JDM, and Automotive History
The ultimate automotive history and classic car restoration podcast exploring the motoring memories behind iconic vehicles. Hosted by Carly, Doug and Dave, we trade technical specs for the unfiltered stories and family car history that reveal the soul of car culture. Join us every #TorqueTuesday for a deep dive into automotive nostalgia with restoration junkies and vintage vehicle enthusiasts. 🏎️🛠️
To All The Cars I've Loved Before: Classic Car Restoration, JDM, and Automotive History
DeLorean DMC-12 Restoration: Running a Specialist Shop for 13 DeLoreans 🏗️🏎️
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Click here to share your favorite car, car story or any automotive trivia!
DeLorean DMC-12 restoration and maintaining a collection of 13 stainless steel icons at DeLorean Midwest...
What happens when you open the door of a DeLorean DMC-12 that has been sealed shut for 40 years with only 977 miles on the odometer? You might just find a family of mice staring back at you. 🐭😲
In this episode, we sit down with Mike, the owner of DeLorean Midwest and the face behind the viral DeLorean NationYouTube channel. Mike shares the wild reality of running one of the premier DeLorean shops in the country (based in Crystal Lake, IL), where he once found himself owning 13 of the stainless steel icons personally because he couldn't say no to a good deal.
We dive deep into his most famous "Barn Find"—a time-capsule car that made international news—and the serendipitous story of a vintage Red Crown gas pump that connected him to his great-grandfather's history.
In this episode, you’ll hear:
- ⚡ The 977-Mile Time Capsule: The behind-the-scenes story of finding one of the lowest-mileage DeLoreans in existence and the "Tom and Jerry" mouse moment that went viral.
- ⛽ The Red Crown Connection: How buying a vintage gas pump revealed a surprising link to his great-grandfather's service station history.
- 🏎️ The Collection: Mike's love for his other classics, including a pair of Dodge Darts affectionately known as "The Twins" and a Buick Special.
- 🎬 DeLorean Nation: How a desire to document shop stories turned into a hit YouTube channel with his partner Kevin.
- 🔧 Shop Life: The reality of managing a shop that houses up to 30 DeLoreans at a time and the pressure of preserving automotive history.
Mike's favorite episode is no surprise, it's our Season 1 Finale with Kat DeLorean: https://buzzsprout.com/2316026/episodes/15009054
Whether you're a Back to the Future diehard, a fan of incredible barn finds, or just love a good story about automotive heritage, this episode is a stainless steel dream come true.
🔗 Links & Resources:
- Watch on YouTube: https://youtube.com/@deloreannation
- Visit the shop: https://deloreanmidwest.com/
- Find our 60+ episodes on LinkTree 🔗🌲 https://linktr.ee/carsloved
📢 Join the Conversation: What is your ultimate "Barn Find" dream car? A low-mileage DeLorean or something else? Let us know on Instagram @toallthecarsivelovedbefore
*** Your Favorite Podcast Automotive Nostalgia Podcast ***
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Welcome back to All the Cars I've Loved Before your podcast , where every car tells a story . We're at CarsLovecom CarsLovecom Remember to stick the S in there . It's plural CarsLovecom . I'm Christian , he's Doug . You can reach me at Christian at CarsLovecom , or Doug at CarsLovecom . Talk about life lesson through cars . We step into the way back . Talk about the first few cars that you owned and this has been more and more of a theme of the past few shows Doug , where a lot of time our guests will have hand-me-down cars , which is something I didn't have . But sometimes everybody , you know people scrape together enough money to go buy their first car . Or hey , this was grandma's car , which is be the theme of the last couple of shows . But hey , however it happens . Yeah , definitely so I see you . Even though we're separated by a thousand miles of asphalt , we are all here together through the magic of the internet .
Speaker 2How you doing , doing great , great to be back here with you . Hope , uh hope things are safe down in florida amen , amen .
Speaker 1So our neighbors to the east as uh is hurricane helene we're moving through season three right now is you don't think about podcasts . You record it . Then it goes into post-production and if you have a show , like we do , where we try and stay to a publication cadence of every week or every other week , it'll take us a while for this to actually be published . So be thinking about my neighbors to the east of me . I'm in the panhandle of Florida . A little further east , we have the people in Big Bend , so thoughts and prayers are with you there . We have the people in Big Ben , so thoughts and prayers are with you there . Speaking of our neighbors , let's get into for a moment how people get to us . Just sort of platform update . We haven't done this for a while . 49% of our listeners reach us by way of Apple Podcasts , 14% by Spotify . That's kind of surprising . I think there were when you had us propagating across the web wasn't Spotify one of the last ones we came to ?
Speaker 2Or through your no , it's all done through Buzzsprout . But I actually thought I think we might be seeing a generation gap , because I think younger people use Spotify , so we've got to get the word out .
Speaker 1Wonderful , yeah , we do . 12% by way of browser carslovecom , and 6% this was surprising to me by way of Buzzsprout embed player Device breakdown . No surprise 64% . Apple iPhone 11% . Windows , 9% , android and then Apple machines . 6% . And then my favorite , the countries . Heard around the world the international sensation we're in the United States . 88% in the United States . 2% in Germany I'm sure that some German car executives are quaking in their boots for some reason 1% in Canada .
Speaker 2They're just some friends of mine who live in Germany , or that We'll take it .
Speaker 1Yeah , we'll take what we can get 1% Argentina , 1% Sweden , hmm , less than 1% New Zealand , norway , australia , the UK , el Salvador and , my favorite , the rooftop of the world , which is Nepal , nepal , nepal , yeah , I'm sure that you know , listening with rapt attention underneath the prayer flag . So , however you listen , please be part as our audience grows . Remember you can always be part of it . We have celebrities . We have people from all stripes and levels of notoriety , with family members , friends . If you want to be on the show , it's as simple as hitting us up on email christian at carslovecom , doug at carslovecom . Remember to please , uh , follow the show , download
Introduction: Cars and Their Stories
Speaker 1episodes and I think that's all I have .
Speaker 2yeah , oh , oh yeah .
Speaker 1Reviews are also helpful . We even like the bad ones .
Speaker 2So honestly , Vote on your favorite episode too . Carslovecom slash vote .
Speaker 1Absolutely New poll we have up , so please do check that out . So the calls to action , as always , get involved . Let us know what you think . Take the poll , email and , um , who knows , you could be on the show next week . Just give us a ring , follow the show and you may have a friend .
Speaker 2You may not be a car person , but you may have a friend that you would love to hear his story , or you want to have him share his story , his or her story , with the rest of us . So , um , put them on the spot , put in their contact info . We'll call them . We'll cold call them . We'll keep your name quiet , it's all fine .
Speaker 1Such a good point , such a good point . So please help us keep the inertia going . Tell friends about the show , forward to them . And we're getting that more and more . In fact , we have someone set to be on the show next week father and son tandem , who were a referral for my son . So let us know , and no further ado . Today's special guest has a personal tie-in to my co-host , doug , so if you can , I will hand it over . I'm very curious how Mike came into your life . Sure , sure .
Speaker 2So , without too much history , we were coming out of the end of COVID , I was having my garage built because I always wanted a garage but didn't have one . And I had a old 300ZX that was 1990 , that was sitting at a friend's place and I'm like you know , I'm going to bring it back , put it in my garage . You know , I've kind of lost interest in that car . What would be a better car to have ?
Speaker 2And somehow DeLorean came up and so one of our many friends of the show I met him via Facebook , a Facebook DeLorean group Brian Paone , excellent author and good friend , lives in Northern Virginia . He connected me with Mike and I don't want to take too much away , but Mike runs one of the few DeLorean shops in the US that has been around for quite some time and he's in Crystal Lake Illinois . So I want to say end of January 2022 , I did a boondoggle , flew out there all in one day and back , rented a Jeep , drove to it had snowed the day before , which delayed my flight . I looked at two DeLoreans and I drove away , leaving a check with Mike for one of them , and got it about a month or so later .
Speaker 1Mike is all of that true ?
Speaker 3I can corroborate that story . Yeah .
Speaker 1I don't know about the show that stuff .
Speaker 3But uh , yeah , we did . I I don't remember all the details , so I'm glad you're filling me in on dates and stuff , but I do definitely remember remember meeting doug and his enthusiasm about the cars was just , you know , was awesome to feed off of and as many as we're around it's awesome to see people with that much passion and love for the car .
Speaker 2Yeah , just walking in your lobby there are three cars right on top of each other not on top , but like how you got them in there , I don't know . But and then the shop .
Speaker 3Just there were probably 15 deloreans in there , maybe more yeah , typically we can house up to about 30 , 32 if we really have no place to walk . Um , we built a little quonset hut out back where we can put the rough cars kind of in the cold storage , but uh , but yeah , typically 25 to 30 , you'll see at any given time , yeah yeah , and so , um , you know mike has a great story of how he got into the DeLorean world and it's kind of been a it's turned into a family business for him .
Speaker 2But you know , we'll get there Kind of looking through a couple of Mike's cars and family connection actually to DeLorean via his brother .
Speaker 3Yep , yep . So yeah , if you want , I'll tell the story about my brother . My brother bought a delorean when he was out of high school . My parents had all given us you know , like 5300 as a high school present , uh , to go towards a car . That's what my oldest brother got and kept it , even for everyone .
Speaker 3Um , we went to a Mecham auction when they were a very small company , out at the Boone County Fairgrounds in Belvedere , illinois . They would do a once a year car auction and that was really all they did . And it was also a car show . My dad wanted to go to the car show . There was some celebrity 16-cylinder Cadillac my dad wanted to look at , so we made a family day of it to go see the car show . There was some celebrity 16-cylinder Cadillac my dad wanted to look at , so we made a family day of it to go see the cars . And we get there , checked out the Cadillac and my brother , joe , finds this DeLorean that's going across the auction block Car wound up going across the auction block , didn't meet the reserve . My brother and Sue's a conversation with the owner and , to the amazement of the rest of my siblings , somehow Joe talks my parents into buying this car strikes up a deal with the seller and we wind up driving home in our minivan with a DeLorean Intel .
Speaker 1Now , how did that happen ? My , my , I can't imagine my folks uh , ever ending up with what sort of car like that , with a car like this . So was there any sort of um , um , any indication in your parents' past , your father's past , of of just just just getting an outlandish car like that ?
Speaker 3You know it really a conversation that happened probably a couple of years after that is I . You know my sister was saying something about my youngest brother , joe , like Joe is spoiled . I said I don't really think Joe is spoiled , why do you say that ? And she said Mike , mom and dad bought him a freaking DeLorean . And I was like , well , when you put it that way , I guess none of us ever were to get anything that exotic . It was a relatively inexpensive at the time , I believe the car was . He negotiated a price I think under 12 , maybe 11.5 . So quite a bit more than our cars , but not what they are at today by any means Good point I got you .
Speaker 1So let's step into the Wayback Machine , if we can , and let's go back to where it all started for you and we were chatting a bit before we started recording here , so let's take us back to your first car . What was it ? What did it mean to you ? How did you get it ?
Speaker 3Yeah . So you know , like we mentioned , it was most of the funds for that came from after I graduated , I turned 18 . And probably a few weeks later we were on a car lot looking for what was available . We were in probably Mount Prospect , illinois . There was one of two dealers . I think we went to two dealers and just looked at you know what would be something I was interested in that was in our price range . I really wanted a two-door car , uh , and we wound up with a really nice um 89 mercury cougar , uh , 3.8 liter LS . It was a dark blue metallic car , wood grain interior and a very nice condition car . I think the out the door price on it was about $6,150 .
Speaker 3So over the next year I had to work and pay my parents back for that $850 balance there and , yeah , that was my first set of wheels .
Speaker 1Now was it two-tone ? I have to ask curious oh no , okay , all dark blue yep gotcha gotcha . And so what happened to that car ?
Speaker 3uh . So that one I actually uh pulled , pulled out in front of someone making a left uh on a four-lane highway and they wound up hitting the back of it and spinning me out , and that was the last I saw that car and that was the last of that gotcha , okay , which brings us to the next car , which I'm excited about .
Speaker 1This one , we , um , this is the pontiac right .
Speaker 3Yep that was the one that you know got replaced . Replaced the Cougar with the insurance money from that you know , totaling that one out . So yeah that was an 88 Parnia Grand Prix SE . It had a lot of digital dash , the first of their , you know , v6 , first of the front-wheel drive cars . It had a great-sounding dual exhaust , had the spider tail lights , a little luggage rack-ish type rear spoiler and it was a pretty loaded car .
Speaker 1So , interesting .
Speaker 3Oh , go ahead . Yeah , lumbar seats , fog lights , lots of buttons on the interior . It was a cool car , and one that again fit the mold of a two-door car that I wanted , but something much more age-appropriate for a young guy and a slick-looking car .
Speaker 1Too Funny that I read this now . My next-door neighbor right now they're an older couple and she was an executive with Mary Kay or she was somehow involved with Mary Kay , and so they had lived next to him for about five years and they had the . It was a few years later than I'm going to say , an early to mid-'90s Pontiac Grand Prix , and boy it's a good-looking car even now . And boy it's a good looking car even now . But um , oh , and it had the , the Mary watch beautiful . But I have not seen it for about a month or two and I'm just scared , yes , I'm scared to go over and ask . I kind of don't want to know . Um , so I don't know what happened to it , but they got a ton of miles out of that car and that was his daily driver . So some of these things will last .
Speaker 2And it was pink it had .
Speaker 1well , it was silver , but it had this little pink . It had this little pink stenciling that said Mary Kay . So it was really a sharp , sporty looking car and you had to look very close for the Mary Kay . You could look at it several times and not have seen that .
Speaker 2But I hope it didn't .
Speaker 1Incognito , incognito . Yes , exactly , I'm hoping it didn't go the way of the Dodo , but I will find out for you . Sorry , mike , I didn't mean to interrupt .
Speaker 3So what happened to ?
Speaker 1the Grand Prix .
Speaker 3So the Grand Prix actually I had for a really long time . I had replaced it with a different car and wound up crashing that car and going back to the Grand Prix . So I probably had that car for six or eight years . I think it had $60,000 on it when I bought it . It probably had $130,000 plus on it when I sold it and probably you know that you know time frame of first driving a car . I had that longer than anything else and you know that was me for a long time yeah very nice , very nice , which leads us to the , uh , the suburban .
Speaker 1Is that next up in the in the lineup ?
Speaker 3oh man , it's hard to remember all of them . I think the car that you replaced the pontiac for a short time , uh , was a a 1990 nissan maxima se that the cool feature about that was they had some of them had a five-speed manual transmission , which the car had , a manual transmission , so that was much more . It was my grown-up guy's car . I guess it felt like much more of a , you know , a young dad car . I guess , even though I didn't have kids anywhere near having kids back , that was a very cool , well-built car that I really enjoyed driving , probably super quiet , no rattles , just really smooth transmission . And I forget , I think I was shopping for a car because I was starting to get a little bit bored of the Grand Prix and had some money saved up for possibly replacing it and ran across that in an ad and just I just had to have it and it was it was white , uh , I think with a dark blue cloth interior , um , and , just like I said , very well-made car .
Speaker 3I , I , really I , I drove that for a time when I was commuting , probably 45 minutes plus each way , put a lot of miles on that car and I just I loved every minute in that thing I know so , yeah .
Speaker 1So , going from loving every minute to being disappointed every other minute , let's talk about the dodge shadow , the 94 dodge shadow , the drag racing .
Speaker 3Three liter 94 dodge shadow yeah , that was a car that I kind of stumbled into . I I had actually wrecked a car and didn't have the insurance payout and I was going to school at the time for automotive and the shop would have cars donated and they sell them from time to time . They like to sell them to students or people they knew . So they had this 94 Dodge Shadow with a 3.0 liter in it . I want to say it had like 190,000 miles on it . Condition was great . No rust for our area is a huge plus and the car ran pretty good and I did like the car .
Speaker 3But it had one you know nasty feature that I never was able to shake or never repaired . But they were known for having leaky valve valve stem seals and when you idle the car , if it was more than about a three minute idle , it would start burning oil and blowing you know blue , black smoke out the back and it got kind of obnoxious and uh . So I remember if I ever sat in uh you know , a bank , uh teller window too long or or or even a drive up , uh , you know , getting fast food , I have to shut the car off because of this obnoxious smoke , a cloud of dust and a hearty high O silver .
Speaker 1I know that feeling .
Speaker 2Yeah , yep .
Speaker 3Yep , so that was yeah , that was not likable about that car .
Speaker 2Yeah , and so if we uh , we move forward just a little bit , um , there's a tie in with your brother in the DeLorean and your business , which is pretty cool , and I love this story . Mike , if you don't mind sharing what you're comfortable with , yeah , no , no problem .
Speaker 3So , yeah . So my my brother , like I said , all of us were kind of shocked that you know we're very middle class family said all of us were kind of shocked that you know we're a very middle-class family . They don't . My dad never had cars other than his daily driver . For us to come home with a DeLorean was very peculiar but very cool memorable .
Speaker 3But you know , fast forward about seven years from that date and I had gone to school for automotive , got a two-year associate's degree in applied technology from the local community college in automotive and had about five years experience working on cars in a couple of different shops . And I sit down at work . We'd start the day with a break . That way if anybody came in late he just said , well , you didn't get paid for your break today and he didn't have to get on people for being a few minutes late . Anyways , I'm looking over the Help Wanted ads in the Northwest Herald and see a gentleman who's looking for a DeLorean technician . And my first thought where are you going to find a DeLorean technician ? You never see the cars and I had no clue where you would go to have it serviced .
Speaker 3My brother didn't really drive this car much . We had remember we had fixed an alternator for him and a taillight issue . But you know in this seven years ownership really didn't drive it enough to do any anything more than that to the car . It was a decent shape when he got it . But basically my connection to the car and you know having one in the family was in decent shape when he got it . But basically my connection to the car and , you know , having one in the family was probably the reason I made that phone call . I remember talking to my brother beforehand and he said , yeah , you got to make the call . You know , give him a call . What worse they can say is no . And so I made the phone call .
Speaker 3I wound up being coming in for an interview . I spoke with Dave and Julie Swingle . They had not even started the shop yet . They had picked out a facility and were building out the facility . I got the lifts in . They were , you know , doing some modifications to the space and didn't quite have occupancy from the village yet . So just in that initial setup process , when I interviewed , I wound up being the first guy they ever hired . I worked for them as their lead tech and then shop manager for nine years and then Dave reached the age he was ready to retire and he sold the business to myself and my wife , susie , in January 2016 .
Speaker 1Love that story , susie in January 2016 .
Speaker 3Love that story . So I believe it was February of 07 when we , when I first started working for Dave and Jewel- yeah , and it was just thanks to your brother wanting a DeLorean right .
Speaker 2It's just funny how things come together , right , and here we are , 20 ish years later .
Speaker 3Well , and we . So in a moment you don't really think about it like right , you know , like I think it's been several years ago now . But after my brother had owned this for 20 years , he said you know what , I think it's time to sell the delorean .
Speaker 3And that's when I kind of reflected upon if it wasn't for him in that car I would be in a different you know , in a different work environment for sure , yeah , kind of to look back and be like , well , you know , in a different work environment for sure , yeah , to look back and be like , well , you know , this is the reason I'm doing what I'm doing . I believe there was , you know , a divine reason . He came home with that car and we didn't know it at the time .
Speaker 2But , yeah , I'm here , yeah , yeah , and I , you know , I don't know the story . How did Dave and his wife , why did they choose to open a DeLorean dealership or repair shop in Silver Lake , crystal Lake , yep , yep .
Speaker 3So that was kind of just a .
Speaker 3So Dave had owned a car and he bought one that was a bit of a fixer upper that he took apart and uh kind of uh father and son project with fixing it up , right when his son was , you know , in high school and kind of getting interested in , you know , getting his hands
Life Lessons from Personal Cars
Speaker 3on cars and figuring things out .
Speaker 3And uh , and then Dave , you know , got involved with the club , became the club technical director . Was uh actually um doing some work on on club members cars and uh actually um doing some work on on club members' cars and uh was wound up having a conversation with Steven Wynn about would you be interested in opening up a DeLorean motor company location At the time ? I believe they've turned him down because he had two kids in college and said you know , I , you know I'm not going to step away from his career with Motorola because with the kids in college he's like it's not right . Fast forward , I think , a couple of years from there and he was ready to make a move and really he happened to live in Crystal Lake Illinois , so he just found a shop to rent and off to the races they went .
Speaker 2Yep , yep , and he had some feeling there was the need , there was a delorean community and whatnot , and yep , yeah , it's pretty awesome none of us really knew about that .
Speaker 3I mean , I think tony in florida had already set up his location and was kind of the first example of a success story , but he had not been in business that long , maybe six months to a year mark so it definitely was , you know , taking a risk , but he was ready to move on from his long . I think he was at Motorola for like 28 years and ready for a change and it always been a car guy and so , yeah , it was just , I guess , the right time for him to do it .
Speaker 3When I took the job , I really thought this is going to be . I was ready to move on from where I was at . Uh , yeah , that's a real opportunity . I really thought six months to a year , uh , this will be a blip on my resume because where's this guy going to find enough DeLoreans to keep him busy for a long time ?
Speaker 1And here we are pushing close to 18 years and and I've got more cars than than I can handle as far as repair- yeah , thank you for sharing that , and I know that we're kind of kind of uh running low on time in here and I knew this was going to happen , but uh , could . Could you just give us a minute or two for uh two things happening in your life right now the dipping your toe into the dealer space , as well as your show on YouTube , which I just love , delorean Nation ? Can you talk about either or both of those two ?
Speaker 3Yeah , so they're kind of somewhat go hand in hand . But probably right before COVID we decided we're doing some DeLorean sales and we want to do more of that . In order to really do that properly we had to become a dealer . So we went through that probably six month plus process and all the hoops to become a car dealer in Illinois and then we really just went after trying to buy cars and we hit this right . You know , before COVID we were probably a dealer like about a year before that happened , and so COVID kind of sparked a fire in the classic car markets .
Speaker 3So , we were ready to take advantage of that . There's a video we did early on . One day I was running out of space in the shop , which we always seem to be up against . I just had bought cars here and there for whatever reason . If they were a decent deal , I'd buy them . Sometimes customers were just like you know what , I don't really want to put that much money into them . We would buy the car . Or every once in a while they'd call and say , hey , I got this car I want to sell and it was priced right , so we bought it .
Speaker 3I think I wound up with at one point 13 DeLoreans and I was a little bit overwhelmed . I'm like this is a problem . My shop fits like 30 cars-ish and so we're approaching 50 of the shop with owned vehicles and and you think about the dollar amount that is in that and like that's comfortable with and we put out a youtube video that said you know world's largest in for it , because I think at the time you couldn't see more than five or so at anybody's place , so I believe it was the largest for sale . So I did just a quick here's an 81 with this mileage , this interior color and this transmission and they're for sale and put that video out there . It was at the time our most watched video and you know it took a while , but probably sitting a year later I turned , you know , 10 of those 13 cars and uh , and we've been kind of doing that ever since , um .
Speaker 3So you know , with the dealer's license , I talked with you guys a little bit pre-show about uh right the great thing about it is , for me mostly it's deloreans , but every once in a while I'll buy a car that's uh , an itch I wanted to scratch and uh , we run across something that's just super clean . And I love the super clean cars because they're easy to sell , because I say the , the guy to buy the super clean cars is going to be the first one to look at it because , you know , when there's that in that condition , um , you know there's nothing to complain about with the car . Right , they know it will take me forever to find one this nice again and most likely it's an easy sale as soon as somebody comes along . That's serious , they're gonna , they're gonna realize what they see and buy the car , um , and so I've been able to scratch the dish on a few .
Speaker 3Some were cars that I really have always wanted , some were just ones that I was like , man , this is a good condition car , and and the condition of the vehicle , uh , is what made me move forward . So with a friend , anthony , I bought an 87 Z28 Camaro with 9,000 miles on it . We've owned that car for probably nine months and really had a lot of fun with it I bet Scratched an itch .
Speaker 3I drove it for three months or so . He drove it for three months or so . We've spent a couple of months probably just taking it to the next level , but it didn't need a lot . Great car . But , yeah , I scratched an itchch . I really have an appreciation for that . Third gen camaro now , um , learned a lot about them and made a little money turning the car uh , so that's a great thing . Uh , I've also done that with a . Uh , I bought a 2017 corvette that a customer of mine was going to trade into a dealership and said hey , are you interested before I do that , had probably about a four-month stint with that car Absolutely loved it , was a thrill .
Speaker 3Really missed the car . I don't think the time of life is right with three kids at home for me to be three kids and a large dog Right and all the kids' bikes and all that in the garage . It's not really the right time of life for a 17 Grand Sport . But there will be another C7 in my future , probably Thrilled with that car . And then we currently just had a customer a few months ago Video will probably be coming out on this at some point that had a DeLorean Nice car .
Speaker 3We went out there to look at the car and she had a 93 Cadillac Elante with 8,984 miles and just looked every bit . You'd expect an 8,000 mile car to look and we came home with that . That's the one we're kind of tooling around with , that 80s or 90s time capsule right now . Cheap car , inexpensive , so not as worried about it as you would be like the Grand Sport , but that one's kind of the current thrill . My wife and my brand new 16-year-old driver , my daughter , those ladies look great in that convertible Elante and so we're having fun with that one as well as DeLoreans right now . Oh , man .
Speaker 3Yeah , well , if we got a few minutes still on DeLorean Nation , I'd love to talk about that , please do . Yeah , so that's , you know me , kevin myself and Kevin Thomas . You know , quite a while ago we went to pick up a couple of DeLoreans in Indiana and the story with that was a gentleman who owned three of them . Two of them he was ready to sell and I wound up going out beforehand . I was in his area and stopped by and we kind of looked over . I looked over the cars , kind of made a price with the guy you know , agreed we'd probably try to come back in a few weeks and purchase them . And my way down his driveway I happened to say , hey , I really like your gas pump that's in . And he said , well , you , you know , you want to buy it , make me an offer . And I said , well , I , I wasn't expecting him to be offered to sell it . So I said , well , we agreed that he'd kind of give me a price when I came back and I , you know , see if we threw it in with the deal whatever made another side deal on that .
Speaker 3So anyways , fast forward two or three weeks , kevin and I made arrangements we get two trucks , we get two trailers in Indiana to pick up these cars . First thing the guy says when I step onto his driveway is do you want to buy the gas pump ? And I hadn't really thought about that , I was focused on getting these cars back to the shop in Crystal Lake , cars back to the shop in Crystal Lake , and anyways , we wound up making a deal on a gas pump , an old oil tank that goes along with it , same colors , and they call it an air dinger or a tire filler . Basically , this tire filler , when you fill a tire and it gets close to the set pressure , it starts dinging rapidly . That's why they call it a dinger .
Speaker 3It's like 1950s automobilia , you know , gas and oil , very cool car guy stuff . It's sitting in my showroom now , um , uh , but but anyways , two , two stories there . One was , you know , after we we were kind of wrapping that up and got the cars all loaded . I said to kevin , I would love to record these stories and , you know , maybe have a youtube channel for this and uh , and I'd always thought about this , but I wasn't really the guy to do the videos and the editing , I just had kind of cool content story I wanted to share and kevin said let's do it .
Speaker 3And so , uh , you know . We said , well , you know , next time there's a story like this , let's , let's try to get some equipment , make , make a video .
Speaker 3And he agreed to do the editing and so that was kind of the plan . So I finished that the story off of that day . We get back to the shop , we get , uh , the cars unloaded , we get the gas pump out of a pickup truck and another memorabilia that we bought and , uh , I remember that my great-grandfather owned a couple of service stations way back in the day and my grandfather worked there when he was in his late teens and early 20s and I called my dad to say , um , you know what station did you know like our great-grandfather owned ? And he said it was a , you know , a red crown station . Uh , and we were red crown gas pump and filler and tank and stuff like that . I didn't even know it at the time . But after that phone call , when we unloaded this stuff , it was like I'm so glad , I said yes to it . That stuff was meant to come home with me and it's kind of a bit of a story of our family heritage , so it was so glad to have it .
Speaker 1Yeah , thanks for sharing . I love that . And do yourself a favor out there in listener land , if you have a few minutes and you will need a few minutes because you're going to love the little videos . They're so clever and funny and fun Go to YouTube type in DeLorean Nation and again , give yourself some time , because you're just going to just like I did . You're going to fall in a rabbit hole and roll from one into another .
Speaker 2You'll see and hear Mike . You'll see and hear Kevin . There's some great product reviews and you know , christian , to take the wind out of your sails . There's some great stories about mice in DeLoreans and Mike actually made some nationwide news . I think he found the lowest mileage , delorean . One of them , maybe the only one , like 917 miles , mike , something like that .
Speaker 3Yeah , 977 miles , something like that , yeah 977 , mark 77 okay and that story went absolutely viral and international yeah , yeah , it's , it's awesome .
Speaker 2So that story is out there . It's a multi-part series and when mike and kevin opened the uh opened the door after all these years , a bunch of mice scurried across and christian christian was so impressed with watching it .
Speaker 1I love it , like it was on cue .
Speaker 1It was . Yeah , how'd you get all those ? It must be Tom and Jerry mice . They follow directions so well . Why are they so surprised when they find mice in cars but then use licorice for the insulation on the wires ? Why would they be interested in that ? So anyway , but check him out the wires . Why would they be interested in that ? So anyway , but check him out . His day job is deloreanmidwestcom . Deloreanmidwestcom and mike , I just want to say , uh , I've heard a lot about you and I've really wanted to meet you for a for a while . Man , so appreciate you making the time today and dropping by the studio and , um , I thanks , it's great meeting you , thank you .
Speaker 2Mike .
Speaker 3It's been a great conversation . I appreciate all the car love and the effort you guys put in the podcast and I love hearing all the stories of these old cars .
Speaker 1All right . Well , yeah , anything for you , pal , good to meet you , and over to you , Doug , anything in closing .
Speaker 2No , al , good to meet you and over to you , doug . Anything in closing ? No , I think in closing , you know we'd love to find some . You know , in trying to expand the podcast we'd love to find . We're trying to get into other car subcultures , if you will . Subcultures , if you will , restomods are very popular these days , but also JDM , the whole JDM community , and Christian could take a whole episode and talk about this amazing place he went to in Christiansburg , virginia , called Duncan .
Speaker 1Imports . Gosh I want to have them on .
Speaker 2But they sell these JDM for everybody's knowledge . If you don't know , japanese domestic market cars that now that they're over 25 years old and they're some of the coolest cars , all right hand drive but that you've never seen , ever and small and just quirky . But I go to car shows and I'll see some of those cars there Honda Beat , suzuki , cappuccino , um , there's a really skinny um and small pickup trucks , I mean little K cars for the Japanese market .
Speaker 2Correct , Correct . So , um , yeah , so we'd love to connect with some folks that are into that , uh , culture , if you will , cultures , and , uh , just hit us up . Yeah , so we'd love to connect with some folks that are into that culture , if you will cultures , and just hit us up . Doug at CarsLovecom , Christian at CarsLovecom , CarsLovecom , or wherever you get your favorite podcast .
Speaker 1That's it , can't say it any better . Thanks again , mike , it was great , thank you , mike , see you next time partner .
Speaker 3Thank you , gentlemen .
