$500 Skoda to Multiple Miatas: Driving Instructor's Car Evolution

Three days before his 16th birthday—days before he could finally get his license—Nigel Tunnacliffe's brother totaled his first car. The Skoda 135 GLi he'd saved $500 to buy. Gone.

Most people would give up. Nigel bought a Mark 1 Toyota MR2 and proceeded to blow through FIVE engines. Yes, five. The first one ran out of oil. The engines from Japan had ticking valves. The Suzuki Forsa track car with the Subaru turbo? Blew two turbos—the compressor wheels snapped off and ended up in the muffler (he called it "twin turbine exhaust").

But somewhere between the MR2 disasters and owning all 4 generations of Miata, Nigel discovered something: he loved teaching people to drive.

Today, he runs Coastline Academy—a coast-to-coast driving school on a mission to eradicate car crashes by modernizing how teens learn to drive.

In this episode, Nigel reveals:
- The exact moment he realized his Skoda was gone (and his brother's role in it)
- Why he swapped a Chevy 2.4L Ecotec engine into his NB Miata—twice
- Building a 500 ft-lb turbo monster that he drove at Laguna Seca
- Working on cars in a San Francisco storage container (his workshop when living in the city)
- High school shop class memories: welding without guardrails
- Why modern teens are more nervous about driving than previous generations
- The hardware startup pivot that became a national driving school
- What it's like owning all 4 Miata generations (NA, NB, NC, ND)

There's one detail about that Suzuki Forsa that Nigel says he'd never let his driving students replicate. For good reason.

🚗 **Learn more:** coastlineacademy.com | YouTube: @CoastlineAcademy

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Chapters

• 0:00 Warm Welcome & Global Shoutouts
• 3:00 Community Photos, Reviews, And Site Updates
• 4:45 Meet Nigel Tunnecliffe Of Coastline Academy
• 7:30 A New Model For Driver Education
• 11:20 Pivot Story: From Hardware To Driving School
• 17:25 Bite-Size Video Lessons That Calm Nerves
• 21:20 Parenting, Safety, And First-Accident Advice
• 23:45 Time Machine: Nigel’s First Skoda
• 29:10 Jetta GLI Daily And MR2 Obsession
• 32:40 The Wild Suzuki Track Build
• 36:10 Miatas, Autocross, And Track Addiction

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:02

Welcome back to All the Cards I've Loved Before, your authoritative podcast on automotive nostalgia. Where our guests are unique, each auto has an era, and every car tells a story. So you know, you know what's up to. Time to plug in, get little briefs under the nails, and slip on that favorite car themed t-shirt, hat, or jacket. And hey, you know what? We won't judge. If you've been wearing the same car themed t-shirt for a week, I don't have a problem with it. I can't see you. Uh it's gonna be wonderful. Hey, welcome back to our listeners all over the world. You ready, Doug? This is my favorite part of the show here. Do it. Um, welcome back, our listeners in Lafayette, Louisiana. You know, uh, I'm originally from Louisiana, and we we we did a South Louisiana world tour. I'm gonna say a couple of spring breaks ago and went that just went all through South Louisiana, an alligator tour uh in the swamps, and went to the where they make Tabasco and New Iberia, uh, Louisiana. Total trip, lots of fun. And um, hey, you've got to pass through Lafayette to get there. So uh let's see, a couple couple of places in Europe. Lundaburg in Lower Saxony. Uh try not to ma uh master this. Gottenberg, Vasta Gutten County, St. Michael's, Maryland, a little closer to home. Canyon Country, California. Erstwile in Bern, and maybe the the city of the day here is Cardiff. Cardiff in Cardiff. Why why is Cardiff fitting for the show? Well, the first three letters. First three letters say it all. Cars loved, Cardiff. Now, if that you know how sometimes they rename cities? You know, if Cardiff ever wanted to become Cars Love for a day, I wouldn't mind. I wouldn't want to be against it. So at this point in time, let's bring in Doug. How you doing, partner? Doing on there today.

SPEAKER_02: 2:02

Doing great? Crazy. Love the shirt.

SPEAKER_00: 2:04

Another Mazda shirt.

SPEAKER_02: 2:06

Yeah, I'm running out of Mazda RX7 shirts, so I'll have to get some more.

SPEAKER_00: 2:10

Yeah, you ever go to a dealership and you go right in, and there are all the nice cars here, and then there's a glass case in the back with all the you know, the hats and shirts embroidered with the with the automotive, you know, emblem and that sort of thing. Does anybody buy that ever? Have you ever bought anything from there like that? Negative. I'm not saying it's not great merchandise. I think it is, but always go back there, make note of it, and then I get you know busy sidetracked looking at something else. So I don't know. If you have ever bought anything from a dealership in that way, under that glass case, let us know. Firing off an email. Okay, so it's Christian at carslove.com, Doug at Carslove.com. But I've been told that info at carslove.com works just as good. Is that correct? It is. Who is this guy info? And when did he hire when did we hire him? Uh don't don't pay. Does he make more than sign the check? Sign the check. Sign the check. That's it. All right. And oh, wanted to mention the website. We got something new going on there through the the magic of Doug. Uh okay. So we have you can send us photos of you and your favorite car, and we'll put them on our site. And we have a bunch of photos there already. It's really neat. Yeah, we had the site redone a little while ago, and it's it's a carousel, right? So that's that's the tech term. So uh uh picture is that you'll see a picture of Doug and me, or several pictures, Doug. But how about the pictures of you and that old Jeep? Are they up there? No, no, I gotta find those. Um I'm gonna send them again.

SPEAKER_02: 3:46

I did put a couple pictures up of um some track uh 914s from Dirk. Ooh, as well as uh uh Legend guest Timothy dressed uh dressed as a cone while he was uh managing the hot pit at a Porsche track event.

SPEAKER_00: 4:06

He is literally dressed as a cone. Nobody will be. Fantastic. Can't wait to see it. Can't wait to see it. So, yeah, all right. Carslove.com, check it out, especially the photo carousel. Hey, if you want some uh some of your photos turn up there, just email them along. We'll get them there. Also, if you like what you hear, please tell a friend it helps us grow. Uh, and leave a review wherever you get your podcast. We sure would appreciate it. So I think that's all of the pre-flight stuff. Did I miss anything, Doug? Or is it time to talk about how today's guest yeah, how did today's guest pull into our virtual garage?

SPEAKER_02: 4:45

Yeah. So today's guest named Nigel Tunacliff. Tonnecliff. Tonnecliffe, yeah. Tunnecliffe. Uh he came to us uh uh via uh I guess I would say his PR person. Um yeah, you know, the great thing is as the show's picked up and uh we've had more guests and we've gotten better circulation, if you will, more downloads. We've had people coming to us. We're not always begging.

SPEAKER_00: 5:17

In fact, so yeah, lovely. So, Nigel, welcome to the show. How are you today? Doing awesome. Thanks for having me on. Absolutely. So, where where are you these days? Where where geographically are you on this on this planet?

SPEAKER_03: 5:32

Uh I'm on an island outside of uh Seattle uh called Bainbridge Island, Washington.

SPEAKER_00: 5:37

Love it. So, okay, so this might be the first show where we have East Coast, we have West Coast, and we have Gulf Coast. So thrilling, fantastic, thank you. Welcome. And w what is your project these days? What what are you up to?

SPEAKER_03: 5:53

Yeah, I run a driving school called Coastline Academy, and uh it is a whole lot of fun. Uh, I started as a driving instructor, and uh we built the business to be coast to coast. We're not in the Gulf Coast yet, but uh we're we're we're coming.

SPEAKER_00: 6:10

Well, I I got a 15-year-old, so I need you here ASAP, man. And you know what? My 17-year-old, my 18-year-old, my 20-year-old could use it too. So um, yeah, you definitely have some repeat business here. And we were talking a little bit during the pre-show that and that's one of the things I like about this show is it really unlocks memories and just transports people back in time. I, in in checking out your content, and yeah, definitely check them out on it. We'll get to his coordinates in a minute. Um but if you go to uh the the the his YouTube channel, there's a lot of really great content. And I was just transported back into high school in the basement of a building, watching all these videos of you know what you should do during driving, what you shouldn't. I can't remember if I went out with a driving instructor, but I I didn't feel very repaired and uh prepared for when I went and took my driving test. But when I think about what your company does, it's it's really kind of the model of standardized, modernize, evangelize. So you're taking all of these great teachings, it's at and I think this is brilliant, it's tailored per state. And you have these driving instructors that come out, pick somebody up, and it's not in this old hoopty, it's not in this car from way back when it's a late model car, all the technology, second break in the car so that the instructor is involved, uh, cameras. It's such a different experience. Can you talk about why that's important now?

SPEAKER_03: 7:43

Yeah, you know, I I think um I mean learning to drive has always been uh a big deal, right? It's uh it's it's challenging, it's dangerous. Um but I think more more often now, uh young people they they get really nervous about this, you know, like uh and so anything we can do that makes this process um something that's approachable, something they're comfortable with, providing that content on YouTube and TikTok and such like that to help uh you know get some get some comfort with with what they're about to to take on. And then showing up in a in a new Corolla with a super friendly instructor. Um, you know, all of these things are things that kind of break down the barriers for what it takes for a young person to kind of feel comfortable enough to just embark on this journey.

SPEAKER_00: 8:34

Fantastic. And how did the idea hit you that, all right, you said you were a driving instructor, and how did what what was the inception, the idea of I I have to do this on a bigger scale? And was that hard or easy?

SPEAKER_03: 8:49

Yeah, I mean, so uh I think uh Steve Jobs has this great quote about you can only connect the dots in reverse. So um, you know, what what actually happened was was my co-founder and I decided we're gonna start this business coastline, and our mission was to eradicate car crashes. Uh but the the business we we were planning to start was actually a hardware business. We were gonna make uh a hardware product for cars. Um and that was it was not working out. You know, we had a prototype, we were doing our go-to market, people weren't buying it. We're like, what are we gonna do? And um so we went back through all our user research and we're just like, what are we we gotta pivot to something? What's it gonna be? And there was this common thread through all of these families' experiences, families with new drivers in the household, that the learning to drive experience was just it was like a a casually provided service, you know, a guy with a car or a small business that you know you gotta bring cash when they, you know, when you go to their office, you know, all the all these kinds of things that a ton of variability.

SPEAKER_00: 9:58

And from variability, you inevitably get defects. Okay, that's and since driving is one of the most dangerous things you will ever do on a daily basis, especially for a younger person. Yeah, you sense that. Yeah, please continue. Great story.

SPEAKER_03: 10:10

And and and so um, you know, we thought, okay, maybe maybe we're gonna do this. And uh so it just happened that like I I grew up being an instructor, not a driving instructor. I I ran a sailing school, I um I drove on the track. Uh, you know, I like I had these like little bits of experiences. So when we decided, okay, you know, we we're actually gonna pivot and we're gonna build a driving school. I thought, all right, well, I guess step one is to get trained as a driving instructor and teach some young people how to drive. Um and so we started the business with just us as the instructors and built it up bit by bit. And uh it was actually an incredible experience, you know. I I love that. I I just I love that time with with these folks who were, you know, they're coming in, they're kind of nervous, you know, how's this gonna go? Like I I finally took the step of signing up and I don't know, and then we work them through bit by bit until they have that aha moment, and then they're off. And what's really awesome now is I get to sort of enable that experience for hundreds of thousands of kids. You know, it's like pretty cool. That that that is great.

SPEAKER_02: 11:20

Yeah, and I know Doug wants to parents love you guys because I could not wait to let somebody else teach my daughter how to drive.

SPEAKER_00: 11:30

Well, I mean, there's yeah, everybody brings a perspective, everybody brings a tip, everybody's got some some little nugget of knowledge, especially driving, that that can always move it forward. I know Doug wants to get into the discussion here, but I just want to uh for our listeners, you got to check out coastlineacademy.com, coastlineacademy.com. Great website, ton of information. But also go to YouTube at Coastline Academy, Coastline Academy. There's so many good videos here, and that you can and and when my son uh gets home tonight, my 15-year-old, we're gonna sit here and watch some of these videos together and spark that conversation. And yeah, we'll do a few laughs around the parking lot here until Nigel opens a school down here. But it all kind of great stuff here. So um, and it's oh, I don't know if I said this before, but a lot of these lessons and a lot of the content is tailored by state, which is really important because they're variations on a theme, but they're rules you need to know uh nonetheless. So one of the videos is entitled Winter Weather Driving Tips to Stay Safe This Went Winter Season. Good stuff. I live in Florida, I haven't driven in the snow, thank goodness, for years since I moved down from the mid-Atlantic. But now that my son is up there, we need to talk about this stuff. Another great video, don't panic, steps to take after a car crash. Really good stuff. Okay, I've been in a few wrecks, unfortunately, myself, but it it the video good job does a good job of saying, look, you might be shaken, but you gotta stop. You gotta keep your wits about you, you gotta communicate. Uh, if you're hurt, call the authorities, wait for a policeman. Uh, this is all good stuff. So how talk a bit, Nigel, about how the YouTube channel started and how you get content up here. I think it's just expertly done.

SPEAKER_03: 13:25

Yeah, you know, we we started producing a little bit of content in the very early days. You know, we we were experimenting, experimenting with different things. You know, we were okay, what if we put a 360 camera in the car and drove around? We got some drone footage and stuff like that. Um, and we thought, okay, this is gonna be great, everyone's gonna watch it. But you know what actually people care about is just someone explaining stuff. Yeah. So so as we went along and we got some of these just incredible instructors that um just are excellent communicators, really engaging. It's like, all right, let's just do like, you know, uh 20 seconds for TikTok or three minutes for YouTube. Just explain something that like that that's that's helpful. And so that's a lot of what we're doing now, is just like these little snippets of of something that's like, oh, how do you drive in the snow? Boom, like uh that kind of thing. And and it's it's I I think people uh it's resonating with folks.

SPEAKER_00: 14:18

Absolutely. And these aren't two hour videos, they're just a few minutes of pop, like Ninja was saying. And and so, you know, I can't wait to sit down with my son and we can just kind of watch it together, spark the conversation. What do you think about this? What do you think about that? And I guarantee you, when we're out on the road and this thing happens to us, we're both gonna be thinking the same thing because we kind of started from from here reading about it. What do you think, Doug?

SPEAKER_02: 15:16

I'm thinking I'm gonna drag my daughter in front of YouTube and uh have her see the video. What it's good stuff, it's all good stuff. Yeah, she's already had her first accident, but it wasn't her fault, but you know how it goes.

SPEAKER_03: 15:29

Well, have her it does it's you're your your fault or not, it's still it still shakes you, you know. Oh, she was crying.

SPEAKER_02: 15:36

She called me. I just happen to be nearby. But what do you do when you're away? Right? She's going off to college.

SPEAKER_00: 15:44

Absolutely. Yeah, good stuff, good stuff. So um I know Doug wanted to get in the conversation here, or really, or are we ready to hop back into the time machine? Your call, your play. Yeah, uh, time machine. We're gonna have some fun. And I'm sure the RX7, whose shirt you're wearing, has got a flux capacitor tucked deep somewhere inside of the car. So, Nigel, we're gonna put you in the way back, go 88 miles an hour. Let's talk about the first car you ever owned. What was it and where did it come from?

SPEAKER_03: 16:15

Yeah, my first car was a Skoda 135 GLI. Uh, it was a short-lived um model that uh uh it was um made in Czechoslovakia, uh where uh you know. Oh, was it so it was made? I know it was a Czech company, it was made there too. It was made there, yeah. Gotcha had more cardboard in in the dash and door cards than uh you know, the than other materials. It was it was uh it was made for the masses, um, but it was actually kind of a cool little car, you know. It's less than 100 horsepower, but uh mid-engine and uh just like super weird. Um and uh it was uh one of my neighbors had this and his parents had brought it from Europe, and so like uh they had this for a while and it was like they were getting rid of it. I bought it for 500 bucks, and I was so stoked. You know, I I saved this money myself. I was 15 years old. I was like, yeah, I got my first car. Uh, still about six months before I could get my license, and I was like, you know, needed some work. So I I brought it into uh the auto shop at my high school where I was taking shop class. Nice. Um, started tinkering with it and everything, and uh, and then just uh a few days before my 16th birthday, which was the my first opportunity to get a license in in British Columbia, Canada, uh, my brother totaled it.

SPEAKER_01: 17:50

So never quite got to dagger.

SPEAKER_00: 17:57

Oh I can I could just yeah, I can feel the historical frustration from here. But uh I got I know I know Doug wants to wants to geek out on the cars, but I gotta squeeze in on the Skoda.

unknown: 18:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 18:09

When when I learned that that was your first car, I got really excited because we went to Ireland last summer, and scotas were everywhere on the road. Um drove around the whole country. There, Renault's, Peugeot's, a lot of Skodas. Um no American cars, obviously, but very sharp, so still smaller cars. I'm sure more than 100 horsepower now. But and so we looked into it and and and now Skoda is owned by Volkswagen. And I thought it was curious that they their the the product line, Skoda, is second in profit margin only behind Porsche in the Volkswagen portfolio line of automobiles. So I thought that was I thought that was interesting. Doesn't help you at all for your heartbreak going back to the car being smashed up, man. That's a bummer. I we've never had a story like that.

SPEAKER_03: 19:04

This was definitely a pre-Volkswagen group Skoda built to serve the uh the um you know USSR uh with just cheap transportation.

SPEAKER_02: 19:17

Uh yeah. Yep. Yep. Did you did you ever dream about or have the have the thought to go buy one and relive that? Or a more modern one, as Christians said they still need it.

SPEAKER_03: 19:30

You know what? I totally and actually in in in trying to find pictures uh for this show, you know, it's going back through memory lane and thinking about this, like, oh man, that would be so cool. Like, what if I could get one of these, you know, mid-engine, put like a you know, K24 in there and like how fun would that be? Um, but they're they're exceedingly rare now. I don't think they were meant to last uh that long. Uh and actually though the even though it was uh damaged, you know, not like it wasn't like crumpled in half, it just uh it had enough damage that it it was not worth repairing a$500 car. Someone drove uh a thousand kilometers with a flatbed, picked it up, and towed it across the country uh because he was a collector. And so like people were into these, you know. Um there's still a there's still a few around, but it's it's it's pretty hard to track one down that's not full of rust.

SPEAKER_02: 20:20

Yeah, yeah. It just happened to be a neighbor, otherwise you never would have known about it, right? Versus this guy who's gonna travel that far to pick it up and do something with it, right? Yeah, make some good of it. Hopefully it's still on the road or yeah, lives on pieces of it have lived on in other scotas, right? Do the transplants. And uh speaking speaking of transplants, but I let's let's talk about your second car, which I you actually had two second cars concurrently. Tell tell us about them. And I think one of them did have mini transplants.

SPEAKER_03: 20:55

It did, yeah. So so the immediate replacement was a uh a Mark I Jetta GLI, which was a really cool car. Uh, I would love to get my hands on on one of those or a first uh a Mark I GTI. It was just like it had a lot of life to it, you know, not a crazy powerful, but it was light and small and like just it's just like a happy car. You get in, you you you you press the gas, and it just kind of jumps to life. Like um, and so that was like really the daily. And around that time, I also got a Mark I Toyota MR2, and that was like my enthusiast car. I was super into it. And uh that went through five engines under my ownership. Uh starting with the first one very soon after I bought it because it ran out of oil. Uh I want to say not my fault, but I feel like everything's your fault. If it's your own car, you know, if it's if it's leaking oil, that's that's not uh you got to own it. Um and then uh just you know, first and first engine swap I did was uh you know, a used engine from uh Japan, you know, they come into these big crates, and it had uh it had a like really loud ticking valves as soon as I turned it over, like, oh shoot, okay, I don't want to deal with this. I'm gonna just pull it back out, send it back, they give me another one, try it again. Um, and over the the over the life we we had to we had to do a lot of work on that car.

SPEAKER_02: 22:25

Wow, that that is uh that is something and yeah, guts, guts. And I guess the high school shop class probably helped you quite a bit.

SPEAKER_03: 22:35

Totally, yeah. And the MR2, uh Mark I MR2 is kind of cool because to swap the engine, the easiest way to do it is to support the engine from the bottom and then lift the car over up, uh just with like a like it use an engine lift, but you're lifting the chassis and it leaves the engine behind. It's like uh yeah, I mean, I didn't know any different then, um, but now that would be a pretty funny way to to do uh an engine swap.

SPEAKER_02: 23:02

Yep, and you and you didn't have to take the transaxle out to do it, just engine only.

SPEAKER_03: 23:07

Uh yeah, exactly. You know, and um it's it's kind of squeezed in there, but access wasn't terrible. Um and uh yeah, it it it came out pretty uh came out pretty easy.

SPEAKER_02: 23:17

Yeah, that's that's cool. Yeah, that's the thing about mid-engine cars, right? They can be difficult to work on. That's what's kept me from buying a uh Honda Beat. That part of availability. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But yeah, just just trying to work on it. Uh, I don't know how you how you do it. Um yeah, so uh you've had so many cars. You were telling us in the pre-show about your Suzuki when I asked you what was your most dangerous car and why. So if if you could regale us with that story, it's a great story.

SPEAKER_03: 23:55

So I got this Suzuki Forza, it was uh mid-80s, um, and it had been built as a full track car. So it was roll cage, Lexan windows. The three-cylinder engine had been bored out, uh um and uh just uh used Subaru turbo slapped on there, and it was this like man, it was raw, you know, no noise deadening, everything completely stripped, only one seat. Um and uh it was just such a hoot. Uh um, and if if I was uh uh I I would I would instruct my my students today that this is not like a really great way to uh do as I say, not as instructor does.

SPEAKER_00: 24:46

Yeah, and yes, your instructor has a past, but yes.

SPEAKER_03: 24:50

Um but it was just it was so it was so light, um, because it was completely stripped down. I I think we we figured it was probably around uh 1,500 pounds uh uh around there. And um, and I mean it was no end of problems, right? I mean, this is it was like way more power than this tiny little engine was supposed to supposed to take. Um I uh through cooling issues, I I um blew two turbos on there. And each time the compressor wheel would snap off and find its way into the like into the muffler. And so we used to joke it had a twin turbine exhaust.

SPEAKER_02: 25:29

Um made it all the made it all the way through. And you had that car in high school.

SPEAKER_03: 25:37

Uh that was uh very beginning of college, yeah. Okay, gotcha. Right around the end of high school, yeah. Gotcha. How how long did you keep that car for? Probably about a year. Um you know, long enough that I had a lot of fun in it and then realized that you know, every third time you drive it, you gotta fix something. It was like uh not not super reliable transportation.

SPEAKER_02: 25:58

Yeah. And and which which of your cars, and maybe it was the Suzuki, um, got you into the track.

SPEAKER_03: 26:06

Yeah, that was that was my first, no, my second Miata. Um I I did autocross um as a as a younger person, which uh which was super fun with the um I had uh an NC Miata um and a uh and the and the MR2s, you know, those I did autocross in, which was a lot of fun. Um but it was when I moved to California and got the NB Miata, um that I sort of discovered the whole world of track driving. And I that is addictive, you know. The the um just there's so much to learn, it's so intense. And uh uh yeah, I I just I just love it.

SPEAKER_02: 26:44

And and that NB Miata, which I think you told us you sold uh uh somewhat recently, about a year ago. Yeah, you did some work on that car too. Transplant from a totally other company, let alone built in the US, right? The engine. Can you can you tell us about that?

SPEAKER_03: 27:04

Sure, yeah. Well, so it started. Um it it it was a wrecked car. Uh uh, so it had been uh it had been written off, and I got it in its damaged state, towed it to my place. Um, I actually I did the work on it. Living in San Francisco, I rented a storage unit that was like one of these storage containers, and I put the car in there, and that was also my workshop, was like a like a you know, 20 storage container, uh-huh. Uh shipping container. Um, so fixed up all the damage, started driving it, started driving it on the track, started wanting more power. So first I turboed it. Uh then I did a um uh swap for uh this Chevy 2.4 liter EcoTec engine um with a just a tiny little turbo that was um that I added. Then I uh I I blew that engine, unfortunately, and then I did the same engine but fully built. Rods, pistons, fully port and polished head, like just the just the just threw everything at it, and uh slightly bigger turbo. And that was an absolute beast. It was like 2500 rpm, it was it was 500 foot pounds of torque. It was just a just a monster.

SPEAKER_02: 28:23

Yep.

SPEAKER_03: 28:24

Yep, for the track, right? For the track, yeah, exactly. So my my home track at the time was Laguna Seca, and you know, you got this uphill. Um, and so I was always just like, you know, I'm not that good of a driver, right? So, you know, you just think, oh, if I just had more power, then when I go up this hill, I'll be able to, you know, I won't have this like, you know, flat coming around the corner and then just thinking, come on, go faster as all the Porsches pass you. You know, it's like, no, I want to go fast up that hill.

SPEAKER_02: 28:52

And Laguna Seiko was owned by Mazda or still is? It was sponsored for many years.

SPEAKER_03: 28:59

Yeah. Now it's the Weather Tech uh raceway.

SPEAKER_02: 29:03

Gotcha. So it was good that the Miata was there and you got rid of it, and you're um but you're no stranger to Miata's. I own two. Sounds like you've owned at least two at this point.

SPEAKER_03: 29:16

I've had all four generations, actually.

SPEAKER_02: 29:18

All four. Yes. Yeah, and you're and you're currently on the ND, right? That's your current car. Yeah. And how how does that compare to the other generations?

SPEAKER_03: 29:30

You know, um, it is, I feel like they really perfected it with the ND. Uh especially the ND2, where you know, 180 brake horsepower, you know, it's not like this is not a super powerful car, but that engine is great. And it's um, it's just such a joy to drive. Everything is really in balance. Um, so I'm both tempted to start modifying it. And also, every time I get in that car, it just it just makes me smile. You know, it's it's it's not super stiff, it's not super powerful, but it's just really enjoyable to drive. And and where I live, uh the the highest speed speed limit is 35 miles an hour. So it's kind of like, you know, it's perfect.

SPEAKER_02: 30:14

Yeah, yeah. Well, top down, it always feels like you're going faster.

SPEAKER_03: 30:20

For sure. Wow.

unknown: 30:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 30:22

And this is the RF too. So when the top's up, it actually looks looks really nice and it's a bit more dry. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 30:29

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 30:29

The the the targa, right?

SPEAKER_02: 30:32

Yeah. The targo of the Us. Yeah. That's it. That's a neat car. We had um actually we had uh John Everett, who is a new product launch manager for Mazda USA, and he had a lot to do with the latest ND, like doing comparisons and working to launch that in the US. And he got to give some feedback back and he got to drive like the last ND versus this new one before it came out and did it back to back. Just and wow, I could just imagine doing that.

SPEAKER_03: 31:03

Great guy. It was so cool. I was listening to that episode when I was driving my ND in this twisty sort of mountain road, and I was just like, it was that was a joyous moment.

SPEAKER_02: 31:15

Comes together. It all comes together. For us to hear that story.

SPEAKER_00: 31:18

Yeah, yeah. That that guy really knew his stuff. And talk about uh just the dream job where all of this guy's passions just sort of came together, and he had a smile on his uh on his face the whole time we were interviewing. One one happy dude, Doug. He was one happy dude.

SPEAKER_02: 31:37

Yeah, yeah. So what what is your uh is the Miata your daily driver?

SPEAKER_03: 31:43

I have um I've got a Tesla Model 3 and I've got a Ford Maverick. And so uh because I've got a I've got a kid and you know we got stuff to move around, so yeah, I don't always get to drive the Miata. That's it's sort of like the car, the only car that doesn't have a real purpose in my uh family place. But uh, you know, I I whenever I'm driving by myself or just with my son, we always take the Miata.

SPEAKER_02: 32:06

Yep, awesome.

SPEAKER_00: 32:09

Good deal.

SPEAKER_02: 32:10

Good deal. All right, so um oh, let's see. Oh, oh, oh, oh did we talk about the Oldsmobile? How can we forget? No, we did, we did, we did.

SPEAKER_00: 32:22

Sorry, did we Yeah, no, that that's fine. Yeah, so as we as we okay, that actually is the perfect segue there. Um as we guide the podcast gently to the off-rant, Nigel. I have to ask you, speaking of, what do you have against Oldsmobiles, man?

SPEAKER_03: 32:41

You know, I am just I'm a small car guy. I just love the feeling of getting into it. Like I'm I'm 6'2, you know, I'm not like a small guy, but when I fold into a little car, and it's basically just like the car is just wrapped around me, and you drive, and it just feels like you know, just it just wants to jump when you hit go and it wants to stop when you hit stop and it turns sharply, all that kind of stuff. I love that. So um getting into this big, huge Oldsmobile where you just wasn't for you.

SPEAKER_00: 33:09

Just wasn't for you.

SPEAKER_03: 33:09

Yeah, like 15 degrees in each direction, and it's just going straight.

SPEAKER_00: 33:13

You know, it's like it was a boat. Yeah, those cars were just boats. Um okay, so seriously on the way out here, um you mentioned shop class, and we see less and uh or for some reason I'm seeing a lot, maybe because I have kids that are kind of moving towards after high school, what are we gonna do? And so I'm more aware of it. There's so much more focus these days on trades, on trade schools, on alternate ways. You know, college doesn't have to have to be you know the way to go. In other countries, in Europe, man, at 15, you were you were an apprentice, right? Make some skills, get a job like that. That's a way to go. So I would like to hear, if you can, your top three moments from shop class, if you have them. What did you make? What do you remember? Who was your teacher? Who were your friends? Because you just, you know, you're a tech executive, I get it, but you just like to do things with your hands.

SPEAKER_03: 34:15

Yeah, I I loved, I spent more time in shop class than anything else in high school. Oh, wow. I found my way in, uh, you know, because it was always open, which was cool. I found my way in there all the time, before school, lunchtime after school. Sometimes, if uh, you know, I just ended up ended up there instead of another class. Um, you know, learning to weld was a really cool experience. Fantastic. Um kind of the amazing thing was our our shop teacher, you know, yeah, he'd teach us how to do stuff, but there were it felt like there were no guardrails. And I'm sure that there were. But it was just like, okay, here's how you do it. Do to hold this, you know, shield your your face, blah, blah, blah. All right, now go. And I'm like holding this welder. I'm like, really? Like, I just get to do this now. Like, it's so cool. Um, that was that was a top experience for sure. Um, and uh, and then getting to work on my own cars, you know, being able to just like have tons of space in the shop. You're like, oh, great, you want to bring a car in? All right, roll it into the corner there. Like, you know, if it's gonna be more than two months, let me know. You know, it's gotta be out of here before summer. Uh just go for it. I was I like that.

SPEAKER_00: 35:27

Great memories, great memories. Thank you for sharing that. Well, we have come to the end of our time, Nigel, but I have to tell everybody very important mission. And uh, let's see, as as Nigel said it in the beginning, uh, let's eradicate car crashes. How do you do that? How do you do that? How do you do that? You get them out, you get them on the road with someone that knows what they're doing. And we just had a blast getting to know you, Nigel. Um, Coastal, oh, I'm sorry. The company is Coastline Academy. Check them out, CoastlineAcademy.com. He is Nigel Tunacliff. Nigel, it was a distinct pleasure to meet you and have you on the show. Thank you for your time, and we wish you the best of everything. Thank you, guys. Thank you. Fantastic. You have just heard the high revving, low mileage, late model heard, round the world authoritative podcast on automotive nostalgia. He's Doug, reach me at Doug at CarsLove.com. I'm Christian. Reach me at Christian at CarsLove.com. He's Nigel Tunaclip. Check him out. And if you like what you're hearing, please follow and telephone. Helps us grow. Check us out at carslove.com. I am sure we'll see you at the next local car show, showroom, race trip, car museum, or concorse. We appreciate your taking a laugh with us, and we will see you next time.