March 4, 2025 • 37 mins
Click here to tell us about your favorite car, car story or automotive trivia !
Dive into “DeLorean Dreams: Mike’s Journey Through Automotive History,” where automotive enthusiasts travel back to the 1980s and beyond through the lens of a beloved DeLorean. Mike shares car memories of that stainless‑steel icon—its restoration stories, under‑the‑hood insights, and role in shaping his emotional journey through classic cars and vintage era favorites. Packed with automotive trivia, auto adventures, and an exploration of automobile culture, this episode celebrates the art of vehicle restoration, the evolution of automotive technology, and the broader automotive universe. Whether you’re a DeLorean aficionado or simply love cars, you’ll find yourself inspired by Mike’s passion and the timeless allure of automotive history.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome back to All the Cars I've Loved Before your
podcast, where every car tells astory.
We're at CarsLovecomCarsLovecom Remember to stick
the S in there.
It's plural CarsLovecom.
I'm Christian, he's Doug.
You can reach me at Christianat CarsLovecom, or Doug at
CarsLovecom.
(00:23):
Talk about life lesson throughcars.
We step into the way back.
Talk about the first few carsthat you owned and this has been
more and more of a theme of thepast few shows Doug, where a
lot of time our guests will havehand-me-down cars, which is
something I didn't have.
But sometimes everybody, youknow people scrape together
(00:45):
enough money to go buy theirfirst 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 bya thousand miles of asphalt, we
are all here together throughthe magic of the internet.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
How you doing, doing great, great to be back here
with you.
Hope, uh hope things are safedown in florida amen, amen.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
So our neighbors to the east as uh is hurricane
helene we're moving throughseason three right now is you
don't think about podcasts.
You record it.
Then it goes intopost-production and if you have
a show, like we do, where we tryand stay to a publication
cadence of every week or everyother week, it'll take us a
while for this to actually bepublished.
(01:33):
So be thinking about myneighbors to the east of me.
I'm in the panhandle of Florida.
A little further east, we havethe people in Big Bend, so
thoughts and prayers are withyou 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
(01:53):
people get to us.
Just sort of platform update.
We haven't done this for awhile.
49% of our listeners reach usby way of Apple Podcasts, 14% by
Spotify.
That's kind of surprising.
I think there were when you hadus propagating across the web
wasn't Spotify one of the lastones we came to?
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Or through your no, it's all done through Buzzsprout
.
But I actually thought I thinkwe might be seeing a generation
gap, because I think youngerpeople use Spotify, so we've got
to get the word out.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Wonderful, yeah, we do.
12% by way of browsercarslovecom, and 6% this was
surprising to me by way ofBuzzsprout embed player Device
breakdown.
No surprise 64%.
Apple iPhone 11%.
Windows, 9%, android and thenApple machines.
6%.
And then my favorite, thecountries.
(02:50):
Heard around the world theinternational sensation we're in
the United States.
88% in the United States.
2% in Germany I'm sure thatsome German car executives are
quaking in their boots for somereason 1% in Canada.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
They're just some friends of mine who live in
Germany, or that We'll take it.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Yeah, we'll take what we can get 1% Argentina, 1%
Sweden, hmm, less than 1% NewZealand, 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,
(03:29):
listening with rapt attentionunderneath the prayer flag.
So, however you listen, pleasebe part as our audience grows.
Remember you can always be partof it.
We have celebrities.
We have people from all stripesand levels of notoriety, with
family members, friends.
(03:49):
If you want to be on the show,it's as simple as hitting us up
on email christian atcarslovecom, doug at carslovecom
.
Remember to please, uh, followthe show, download episodes and
I think that's all I have.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
yeah, oh, oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Reviews are also helpful.
We even like the bad ones.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
So honestly, Vote on your favorite episode too.
Carslovecom slash vote.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Absolutely New poll we have up, so please do check
that out.
So the calls to action, asalways, 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 theshow and you may have a friend.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
You may not be a car person, but you may have a
friend that you would love tohear his story, or you want to
have him share his story, his orher 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 1 (04:49):
Such a good point, such a good point.
So please help us keep theinertia going.
Tell friends about the show,forward to them.
And we're getting that more andmore.
In fact, we have someone set tobe on the show next week father
and son tandem, who were areferral for my son.
So let us know, and no furtherado.
(05:12):
Today's special guest has apersonal tie-in to my co-host,
doug, so if you can, I will handit over.
I'm very curious how Mike cameinto your life.
Sure, sure.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
So, without too much history, we were coming out of
the end of COVID, I was havingmy garage built because I always
wanted a garage but didn't haveone.
And I had a old 300ZX that was1990, that was sitting at a
friend's place and I'm like youknow, I'm going to bring it back
, put it in my garage.
You know, I've kind of lostinterest in that car.
(05:54):
What would be a better car tohave?
And somehow DeLorean came up andso one of our many friends of
the show I met him via Facebook,a Facebook DeLorean group Brian
Paone, excellent author andgood friend, lives in Northern
(06:15):
Virginia.
He connected me with Mike and Idon't want to take too much
away, but Mike runs one of thefew DeLorean shops in the US
that has been around for quitesome time and he's in Crystal
Lake Illinois.
So I want to say end of January2022, I did a boondoggle, flew
(06:41):
out there all in one day andback, rented a Jeep, drove to it
had snowed the day before,which delayed my flight.
I looked at two DeLoreans and Idrove away, leaving a check
with Mike for one of them, andgot it about a month or so later
.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
Mike is all of that true?
Speaker 3 (07:02):
I can corroborate that story.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
I don't know about the show that stuff.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
But uh, yeah, we did.
I I don't remember all thedetails, so I'm glad you're
filling me in on dates and stuff, but I do definitely remember
remember meeting doug and hisenthusiasm about the cars was
just, you know, was awesome tofeed off of and as many as we're
around it's awesome to seepeople with that much passion
and love for the car.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Yeah, just walking in your lobby there are three cars
right on top of each other noton top, but like how you got
them in there, I don't know.
But and then the shop.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
Just there were probably 15 deloreans in there,
maybe more yeah, typically wecan house up to about 30, 32 if
we really have no place to walk.
Um, we built a little quonsethut out back where we can put
the rough cars kind of in thecold storage, but uh, but yeah,
typically 25 to 30, you'll seeat any given time, yeah yeah,
(07:59):
and so, um, you know mike has agreat story of how he got into
the DeLorean world and it's kindof been a it's turned into a
family business for him.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
But you know, we'll get there Kind of looking
through a couple of Mike's carsand family connection actually
to DeLorean via his brother.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
Yep, yep.
So yeah, if you want, I'll tellthe story about my brother.
My brother bought a deloreanwhen he was out of high school.
My parents had all given us youknow, like 5300 as a high
school present, uh, to gotowards a car.
That's what my oldest brothergot and kept it, even for
(08:42):
everyone.
Um, we went to a Mecham auctionwhen they were a very small
company, out at the Boone CountyFairgrounds in Belvedere,
illinois.
They would do a once a year carauction and that was really all
they did.
And it was also a car show.
My dad wanted to go to the carshow.
There was some celebrity16-cylinder Cadillac my dad
(09:04):
wanted to look at, so we made afamily day of it to go see the
car show.
There was some celebrity16-cylinder Cadillac my dad
wanted to look at, so we made afamily day of it to go see the
cars.
And we get there, checked outthe Cadillac and my brother, joe
, finds this DeLorean that'sgoing across the auction block
Car wound up going across theauction block, didn't meet the
reserve.
My brother and Sue's aconversation with the owner and,
(09:26):
to the amazement of the rest ofmy siblings, somehow Joe talks
my parents into buying this carstrikes up a deal with the
seller and we wind up drivinghome in our minivan with a
DeLorean Intel.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
Now, how did that happen?
My, my, I can't imagine myfolks uh, ever ending up with
what sort of car like that, witha car like this.
So was there any sort of um, um, any indication in your
parents' past, your father'spast, of of just just just
getting an outlandish car likethat?
Speaker 3 (10:07):
You know it really a conversation that happened
probably a couple of years afterthat is I.
You know my sister was sayingsomething about my youngest
brother, joe, like Joe isspoiled.
I said I don't really think Joeis spoiled, why do you say that
?
And she said Mike, mom and dadbought him a freaking DeLorean.
(10:27):
And I was like, well, when youput it that way, I guess none of
us ever were to get anythingthat exotic.
It was a relatively inexpensiveat the time, I believe the car
was.
He negotiated a price I thinkunder 12, maybe 11.5.
So quite a bit more than ourcars, but not what they are at
today by any means Good point Igot you.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
So let's step into the Wayback Machine, if we can,
and let's go back to where itall started for you and we were
chatting a bit before we startedrecording 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 3 (11:08):
Yeah.
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 laterwe were on a car lot looking for
what was available.
We were in probably MountProspect, illinois.
There was one of two dealers.
I think we went to two dealersand just looked at you know what
(11:28):
would be something I wasinterested 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
(11:49):
nice condition car.
I think the out the door priceon it was about $6,150.
So over the next year I had towork and pay my parents back for
that $850 balance there and,yeah, that was my first set of
wheels.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
Now was it two-tone?
I have to ask curious oh no,okay, all dark blue yep gotcha
gotcha.
And so what happened to thatcar?
Speaker 3 (12:17):
uh.
So that one I actually uhpulled, pulled out in front of
someone making a left uh on afour-lane highway and they wound
up hitting the back of it andspinning me out, and that was
the last I saw that car and thatwas the last of that gotcha,
okay, which brings us to thenext car, which I'm excited
about.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
This one, we, um, this is the pontiac right.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
Yep that was the one that you know got replaced.
Replaced the Cougar with theinsurance money from that you
know, totaling that one out.
So yeah that was an 88 ParniaGrand Prix SE.
It had a lot of digital dash,the first of their, you know, v6
, first of the front-wheel drivecars.
It had a great-sounding dualexhaust, had the spider tail
(13:04):
lights, a little luggagerack-ish type rear spoiler and
it was a pretty loaded car.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
So, interesting.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
Oh, go ahead.
Yeah, lumbar seats, fog lights,lots of buttons on the interior
.
It was a cool car, and one thatagain fit the mold of a
two-door car that I wanted, butsomething much more
age-appropriate for a young guyand a slick-looking car.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Too Funny that I read this now.
My next-door neighbor right nowthey're an older couple and she
was an executive with Mary Kayor she was somehow involved with
Mary Kay, and so they had livednext to him for about five
years and they had the.
(13:54):
It was a few years later thanI'm going to say, an early to
mid-'90s Pontiac Grand Prix, andboy it's a good-looking car
even now.
And boy it's a good looking careven now.
(14:23):
But um, oh, and it had the, theMary watch beautiful.
But I have not seen it forabout a month or two and I'm
just scared, yes, I'm scared togo over and ask.
I kind of don't want to know.
Um, so I don't know whathappened to it, but they got a
ton of miles out of that car andthat was his daily driver.
So some of these things willlast.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
And it was pink it had.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
well, it was silver, but it had this little pink.
It had this little pinkstenciling that said Mary Kay.
So it was really a sharp,sporty looking car and you had
to look very close for the MaryKay.
You could look at it severaltimes and not have seen that.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
But I hope it didn't.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Incognito, incognito.
Yes, exactly, I'm hoping itdidn't go the way of the Dodo,
but I will find out for you.
Sorry, mike, I didn't mean tointerrupt.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
So what happened to?
Speaker 1 (15:14):
the Grand Prix.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
So the Grand Prix actually I had for a really long
time.
I had replaced it with adifferent car and wound up
crashing that car and going backto the Grand Prix.
So I probably had that car forsix or eight years.
I think it had $60,000 on itwhen I bought it.
It probably had $130,000 pluson it when I sold it and
probably you know that you knowtime frame of first driving a
(15:39):
car.
I had that longer than anythingelse and you know that was me
for a long time yeah very nice,very nice, which leads us to the
, uh, the suburban.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
Is that next up in the in the lineup?
Speaker 3 (15:56):
oh man, it's hard to remember all of them.
I think the car that youreplaced the pontiac for a short
time, uh, was a a 1990 nissanmaxima se that the cool feature
about that was they had some ofthem had a five-speed manual
transmission, which the car had,a manual transmission, so that
(16:17):
was much more.
It was my grown-up guy's car.
I guess it felt like much moreof a, you know, a young dad car.
I guess, even though I didn'thave kids anywhere near having
kids back, that was a very cool,well-built car that I really
enjoyed driving, probably superquiet, no rattles, just really
(16:38):
smooth transmission.
And I forget, I think I wasshopping for a car because I was
starting to get a little bitbored of the Grand Prix and had
some money saved up for possiblyreplacing it and ran across
that in an ad and just I justhad to have it and it was it was
white, uh, I think with a darkblue cloth interior, um, and,
(16:59):
just like I said, very well-madecar.
I, I, really I, I drove that fora time when I was commuting,
probably 45 minutes plus eachway, put a lot of miles on that
car and I just I loved everyminute in that thing I know so,
yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
So, going from loving every minute to being
disappointed every other minute,let's talk about the dodge
shadow, the 94 dodge shadow, thedrag racing.
Speaker 3 (17:22):
Three liter 94 dodge shadow yeah, that was a car that
I kind of stumbled into.
I I had actually wrecked a carand didn't have the insurance
payout and I was going to schoolat the time for automotive and
the shop would have cars donatedand they sell them from time to
time.
They like to sell them tostudents or people they knew.
(17:42):
So they had this 94 DodgeShadow with a 3.0 liter in it.
I want to say it had like190,000 miles on it.
Condition was great.
No rust for our area is a hugeplus and the car ran pretty good
and I did like the car.
But it had one you know nastyfeature that I never was able to
(18:05):
shake or never repaired.
But they were known for havingleaky valve valve stem seals and
when you idle the car, if itwas more than about a three
minute idle, it would startburning oil and blowing you know
blue, black smoke out the backand it got kind of obnoxious and
uh.
So I remember if I ever sat inuh you know, a bank, uh teller
(18:27):
window too long or or or even adrive up, uh, you know, getting
fast food, I have to shut thecar off because of this
obnoxious smoke, a cloud of dustand a hearty high O silver.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
I know that feeling.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
Yeah, yep.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
Yep, so that was yeah , that was not likable about
that car.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
Yeah, and so if we uh , we move forward just a little
bit, um, there's a tie in withyour brother in the DeLorean and
your business, which is prettycool, and I love this story.
Mike, if you don't mind sharingwhat you're comfortable with,
yeah, no, no problem.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
So, yeah.
So my my brother, like I said,all of us were kind of shocked
that you know we're very middleclass family said all of us were
kind of shocked that you knowwe're a very middle-class family
.
They don't.
My dad never had cars otherthan his daily driver.
For us to come home with aDeLorean was very peculiar but
very cool memorable.
But you know, fast forward aboutseven years from that date and
(19:26):
I had gone to school forautomotive, got a two-year
associate's degree in appliedtechnology from the local
community college in automotiveand had about five years
experience working on cars in acouple of different shops.
And I sit down at work.
We'd start the day with a break.
That way if anybody came inlate he just said, well, you
(19:49):
didn't get paid for your breaktoday and he didn't have to get
on people for being a fewminutes late.
Anyways, I'm looking over theHelp Wanted ads in the Northwest
Herald and see a gentlemanwho's looking for a DeLorean
technician.
And my first thought where areyou going to find a DeLorean
technician?
You never see the cars and Ihad no clue where you would go
(20:12):
to have it serviced.
My brother didn't really drivethis car much.
We had remember we had fixed analternator for him and a
taillight issue.
But you know in this sevenyears ownership really didn't
drive it enough to do anyanything more than that to the
car.
It was a decent shape when hegot it.
But basically my connection tothe car and you know having one
in the family was in decentshape when he got it.
But basically my connection tothe car and, you know, having
(20:33):
one in the family was probablythe reason I made that phone
call.
I remember talking to mybrother 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.
I wound up being coming in foran interview.
I spoke with Dave and JulieSwingle.
They had not even started theshop yet.
They had picked out a facilityand were building out the
(20:56):
facility.
I got the lifts in.
They were, you know, doing somemodifications to the space and
didn't quite have occupancy fromthe village yet.
So just in that initial setupprocess, when I interviewed, I
wound up being the first guythey ever hired.
I worked for them as their leadtech and then shop manager for
(21:18):
nine years and then Dave reachedthe age he was ready to retire
and he sold the business tomyself and my wife, susie, in
January 2016.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Love that story, susie in January 2016.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
Love that story.
So I believe it was February of07 when we, when I first
started working for Dave andJewel- yeah, and it was just
thanks to your brother wanting aDeLorean right.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
It's just funny how things come together, right, and
here we are, 20 ish years later.
Speaker 3 (21:52):
Well, and we.
So in a moment you don't reallythink about it like right, you
know, like I think it's beenseveral years ago now.
But after my brother had ownedthis for 20 years, he said you
know what, I think it's time tosell the delorean.
And that's when I kind ofreflected upon if it wasn't for
him in that car I would be in adifferent you know, in a
different work environment forsure, yeah, kind of to look back
(22:12):
and be like, well, you know, ina different work environment
for sure, yeah, to look back andbe like, well, you know, this
is the reason I'm doing what I'mdoing.
I believe there was, you know,a divine reason.
He came home with that car andwe didn't know it at the time.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
But, yeah, I'm here, yeah, yeah, and I, you know, I
don't know the story.
How did Dave and his wife, whydid they choose to open a
DeLorean dealership or repairshop in Silver Lake, crystal
Lake, yep, yep.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
So that was kind of just a.
So Dave had owned a car and hebought one that was a bit of a
fixer upper that he took apartand uh kind of uh father and son
project with fixing it up,right when his son was, you know
, in high school and kind ofgetting interested in, you know,
getting his hands on cars andfiguring things out.
And uh, and then Dave, you know,got involved with the club,
(23:05):
became the club technicaldirector.
Was uh actually um doing somework on on club members cars and
uh actually um doing some workon on club members' cars and uh
was wound up having aconversation with Steven Wynn
about would you be interested inopening up a DeLorean motor
company location At the time?
I believe they've turned himdown because he had two kids in
(23:26):
college and said you know, I,you know I'm not going to step
away from his career withMotorola because with the kids
in college he's like it's notright.
Fast forward, I think, a coupleof years from there and he was
ready to make a move and reallyhe happened to live in Crystal
Lake Illinois, so he just founda shop to rent and off to the
(23:49):
races they went.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
Yep, yep, and he had some feeling there was the need,
there was a delorean communityand whatnot, and yep, yeah, it's
pretty awesome none of usreally knew about that.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
I mean, I think tony in florida had already set up
his location and was kind of thefirst example of a success
story, but he had not been inbusiness that long, maybe six
months to a year mark so itdefinitely was, you know, taking
a risk, but he was ready tomove on from his long.
I think he was at Motorola forlike 28 years and ready for a
change and it always been a carguy and so, yeah, it was just, I
(24:29):
guess, the right time for himto do it.
When I took the job, I reallythought this is going to be.
I was ready to move on fromwhere I was at.
Uh, yeah, that's a realopportunity.
I really thought six months toa year, uh, this will be a blip
on my resume because where'sthis guy going to find enough
DeLoreans to keep him busy for along time?
Speaker 1 (24:48):
And here we are pushing close to 18 years and
and I've got more cars than thanI 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 timein here and I knew this was
going to happen, but uh, could.
Could you just give us a minuteor two for uh two things
(25:11):
happening in your life right nowthe dipping your toe into the
dealer space, as well as yourshow on YouTube, which I just
love, delorean Nation?
Can you talk about either orboth of those two?
Speaker 3 (25:30):
Yeah, so they're kind of somewhat go hand in hand.
But probably right before COVIDwe decided we're doing some
DeLorean sales and we want to domore of that.
In order to really do thatproperly we had to become a
dealer.
So we went through thatprobably six month plus process
and all the hoops to become acar dealer in Illinois and then
we really just went after tryingto buy cars and we hit this
(25:55):
right.
You know, before COVID we wereprobably a dealer like about a
year before that happened, andso COVID kind of sparked a fire
in the classic car markets.
So, we were ready to takeadvantage of that.
There's a video we did early on.
One day I was running out ofspace in the shop, which we
(26:17):
always seem to be up against.
I just had bought cars here andthere for whatever reason.
If they were a decent deal, I'dbuy them.
Sometimes customers were justlike you know what, I don't
really want to put that muchmoney into them.
We would buy the car.
Or every once in a while they'dcall and say, hey, I got this
car I want to sell and it waspriced right, so we bought it.
(26:40):
I think I wound up with at onepoint 13 DeLoreans and I was a
little bit overwhelmed.
I'm like this is a problem.
My shop fits like 30 cars-ishand so we're approaching 50 of
the shop with owned vehicles andand you think about the dollar
amount that is in that and likethat's comfortable with and we
put out a youtube video thatsaid you know world's largest in
for it, because I think at thetime you couldn't see more than
(27:01):
five or so at anybody's place,so I believe it was the largest
for sale.
So I did just a quick here's an81 with this mileage, this
interior color and thistransmission and they're for
sale and put that video outthere.
It was at the time our mostwatched video and you know it
took a while, but probablysitting a year later I turned,
you know, 10 of those 13 carsand uh, and we've been kind of
(27:26):
doing that ever since, um.
So you know, with the dealer'slicense, I talked with you guys
a little bit pre-show about uhright 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 Iwanted to scratch and uh, we run
across something that's justsuper clean.
And I love the super clean carsbecause they're easy to sell,
(27:47):
because I say the, the guy tobuy the super clean cars is
going to be the first one tolook at it because, you know,
when there's that in thatcondition, um, you know there's
nothing to complain about withthe car.
Right, they know it will takeme forever to find one this nice
again and most likely it's aneasy sale as soon as somebody
(28:08):
comes along.
That's serious, they're gonna,they're gonna realize what they
see and buy the car, um, and soI've been able to scratch the
dish on a few.
Some were cars that I reallyhave always wanted, some were
just ones that I was like, man,this is a good condition car,
and and the condition of thevehicle, uh, is what made me
move forward.
So with a friend, anthony, Ibought an 87 Z28 Camaro with
(28:33):
9,000 miles on it.
We've owned that car forprobably nine months and really
had a lot of fun with it I betScratched an itch.
I drove it for three months orso.
He drove it for three months orso.
We've spent a couple of monthsprobably just taking it to the
next level, but it didn't need alot.
Great car.
But, yeah, I scratched anitchch.
I really have an appreciationfor that.
Third gen camaro now, um,learned a lot about them and
(28:55):
made a little money turning thecar uh, so that's a great thing.
Uh, I've also done that with a.
Uh, I bought a 2017 corvettethat a customer of mine was
going to trade into a dealershipand said hey, are you
interested before I do that, hadprobably about a four-month
stint with that car Absolutelyloved it, was a thrill.
(29:16):
Really missed the car.
I don't think the time of lifeis right with three kids at home
for me to be three kids and alarge dog Right and all the
kids' bikes and all that in thegarage.
It's not really the right timeof life for a 17 Grand Sport.
But there will be another C7 inmy future, probably Thrilled
(29:37):
with that car.
And then we currently just hada customer a few months ago
Video will probably be comingout on this at some point that
had a DeLorean Nice car.
We went out there to look at thecar and she had a 93 Cadillac
Elante with 8,984 miles and justlooked every bit.
(29:58):
You'd expect an 8,000 mile carto look and we came home with
that.
That's the one we're kind oftooling around with, that 80s or
90s time capsule right now.
Cheap car, inexpensive, so notas worried about it as you would
be like the Grand Sport, butthat one's kind of the current
thrill.
My wife and my brand new16-year-old driver, my daughter,
(30:21):
those ladies look great in thatconvertible Elante and so we're
having fun with that one aswell as DeLoreans right now.
Oh, man.
Yeah, well, if we got a fewminutes 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 wewent to pick up a couple of
(30:44):
DeLoreans in Indiana and thestory with that was a gentleman
who owned three of them.
Two of them he was ready tosell and I wound up going out
beforehand.
I was in his area and stoppedby and we kind of looked over.
I looked over the cars, kind ofmade a price with the guy you
know, agreed we'd probably tryto come back in a few weeks and
(31:06):
purchase them.
And my way down his driveway Ihappened to say, hey, I really
like your gas pump that's in.
And he said, well, you, youknow, you want to buy it, make
me an offer.
And I said, well, I, I wasn'texpecting him to be offered to
sell it.
So I said, well, we agreed thathe'd kind of give me a price
when I came back and I, you know, see if we threw it in with the
(31:27):
deal whatever made another sidedeal on that.
So anyways, fast forward two orthree 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 Istep onto his driveway is do
you want to buy the gas pump?
And I hadn't really thoughtabout that, I was focused on
(31:49):
getting these cars back to theshop in Crystal Lake, cars back
to the shop in Crystal Lake, andanyways, we wound up making a
deal on a gas pump, an old oiltank that goes along with it,
same colors, and they call it anair dinger or a tire filler.
Basically, this tire filler,when you fill a tire and it gets
(32:10):
close to the set pressure, itstarts dinging rapidly.
That's why they call it adinger.
It's like 1950s automobilia, youknow, 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 wewere kind of wrapping that up
and got the cars all loaded.
(32:30):
I said to kevin, I would loveto record these stories and, you
know, maybe have a youtubechannel for this and uh, and I'd
always thought about this, butI wasn't really the guy to do
the videos and the editing, Ijust had kind of cool content
story I wanted to share andkevin said let's do it.
And so, uh, you know.
We said, well, you know, nexttime there's a story like this,
(32:51):
let's, let's try to get someequipment, make, make a video.
And he agreed to do the editingand so that was kind of the plan
.
So I finished that the storyoff of that day.
We get back to the shop, we get, uh, the cars unloaded, we get
the gas pump out of a pickuptruck and another memorabilia
that we bought and, uh, Iremember that my
(33:14):
great-grandfather owned a coupleof service stations way back in
the day and my grandfatherworked there when he was in his
late teens and early 20s and Icalled my dad to say, um, you
know what station did you knowlike our great-grandfather owned
?
And he said it was a, you know,a red crown station.
Uh, and we were red crown gaspump and filler and tank and
(33:39):
stuff like that.
I didn't even know it at thetime.
But after that phone call, whenwe unloaded this stuff, it was
like I'm so glad, I said yes toit.
That stuff was meant to comehome with me and it's kind of a
bit of a story of our familyheritage, so it was so glad to
have it.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
Yeah, thanks for sharing.
I love that.
And do yourself a favor outthere in listener land, if you
have a few minutes and you willneed a few minutes because
you're going to love the littlevideos.
They're so clever and funny andfun Go to YouTube type in
DeLorean Nation and again, giveyourself some time, because
(34:18):
you're just going to just like Idid.
You're going to fall in arabbit hole and roll from one
into another.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
You'll see and hear Mike.
You'll see and hear Kevin.
There's some great productreviews and you know, christian,
to take the wind out of yoursails.
There's some great storiesabout mice in DeLoreans and Mike
actually made some nationwidenews.
I think he found the lowestmileage, delorean.
(34:47):
One of them, maybe the only one, like 917 miles, mike,
something like that.
Speaker 3 (34:53):
Yeah, 977 miles, something like that, yeah 977,
mark 77 okay and that story wentabsolutely viral and
international yeah, yeah, it's,it's awesome.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
So that story is out there.
It's a multi-part series andwhen mike and kevin opened the
uh opened the door after allthese years, a bunch of mice
scurried across and christianchristian was so impressed with
watching it.
Speaker 1 (35:15):
I love it, like it was on cue.
It 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 whenthey find mice in cars but then
use licorice for the insulationon the wires?
Why would they be interested inthat?
So anyway, but check him outthe wires.
(35:35):
Why would they be interested inthat?
So anyway, but check him out.
His day job isdeloreanmidwestcom.
Deloreanmidwestcom and mike, Ijust want to say, uh, I've heard
a lot about you and I've reallywanted to meet you for a for a
while.
Man, so appreciate you makingthe time today and dropping by
the studio and, um, I thanks,it's great meeting you, thank
(35:55):
you.
Speaker 2 (35:56):
Mike.
Speaker 3 (35:56):
It's been a great conversation.
I appreciate all the car loveand the effort you guys put in
the podcast and I love hearingall the stories of these old
cars.
Speaker 1 (36:07):
All right.
Well, yeah, anything for you,pal, good to meet you, and over
to you, Doug, anything inclosing.
Speaker 2 (36:14):
No, al, good to meet you and over to you, doug.
Anything in closing?
No, I think in closing, youknow we'd love to find some.
You know, in trying to expandthe podcast we'd love to find.
We're trying to get into othercar subcultures, if you will.
Subcultures, if you will,restomods are very popular these
(36:39):
days, but also JDM, the wholeJDM community, and Christian
could take a whole episode andtalk about this amazing place he
went to in Christiansburg,virginia, called Duncan.
Speaker 1 (36:47):
Imports.
Gosh I want to have them on.
Speaker 2 (36:50):
But they sell these JDM for everybody's knowledge.
If you don't know, japanesedomestic market cars that now
that they're over 25 years oldand they're some of the coolest
cars, all right hand drive butthat you've never seen, ever and
small and just quirky.
But I go to car shows and I'llsee some of those cars there
(37:15):
Honda Beat, suzuki, cappuccino,um, there's a really skinny um
and small pickup trucks, I meanlittle K cars for the Japanese
market.
Correct, Correct.
So, um, yeah, so we'd love toconnect with some folks that are
into that, uh, culture, if youwill, cultures, and, uh, just
hit us up.
(37:35):
Yeah, so we'd love to connectwith some folks that are into
that culture, if you willcultures, and just hit us up.
Doug at CarsLovecom, Christianat CarsLovecom, CarsLovecom, or
wherever you get your favoritepodcast.
Speaker 1 (37:49):
That's it, can't say it any better.
Thanks again, mike, it wasgreat, thank you, mike, see you
next time partner.
Speaker 3 (37:54):
Thank you, gentlemen.
Welcome back to All the Cars I've Loved Before your
podcast, where every car tells astory.
We're at CarsLovecomCarsLovecom Remember to stick
the S in there.
It's plural CarsLovecom.
I'm Christian, he's Doug.
You can reach me at Christianat CarsLovecom, or Doug at
CarsLovecom.
(00:23):
Talk about life lesson throughcars.
We step into the way back.
Talk about the first few carsthat you owned and this has been
more and more of a theme of thepast few shows Doug, where a
lot of time our guests will havehand-me-down cars, which is
something I didn't have.
But sometimes everybody, youknow people scrape together
(00:45):
enough money to go buy theirfirst 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 bya thousand miles of asphalt, we
are all here together throughthe magic of the internet.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
How you doing, doing great, great to be back here
with you.
Hope, uh hope things are safedown in florida amen, amen.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
So our neighbors to the east as uh is hurricane
helene we're moving throughseason three right now is you
don't think about podcasts.
You record it.
Then it goes intopost-production and if you have
a show, like we do, where we tryand stay to a publication
cadence of every week or everyother week, it'll take us a
while for this to actually bepublished.
(01:33):
So be thinking about myneighbors to the east of me.
I'm in the panhandle of Florida.
A little further east, we havethe people in Big Bend, so
thoughts and prayers are withyou 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
(01:53):
people get to us.
Just sort of platform update.
We haven't done this for awhile.
49% of our listeners reach usby way of Apple Podcasts, 14% by
Spotify.
That's kind of surprising.
I think there were when you hadus propagating across the web
wasn't Spotify one of the lastones we came to?
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Or through your no, it's all done through Buzzsprout
.
But I actually thought I thinkwe might be seeing a generation
gap, because I think youngerpeople use Spotify, so we've got
to get the word out.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Wonderful, yeah, we do.
12% by way of browsercarslovecom, and 6% this was
surprising to me by way ofBuzzsprout embed player Device
breakdown.
No surprise 64%.
Apple iPhone 11%.
Windows, 9%, android and thenApple machines.
6%.
And then my favorite, thecountries.
(02:50):
Heard around the world theinternational sensation we're in
the United States.
88% in the United States.
2% in Germany I'm sure thatsome German car executives are
quaking in their boots for somereason 1% in Canada.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
They're just some friends of mine who live in
Germany, or that We'll take it.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Yeah, we'll take what we can get 1% Argentina, 1%
Sweden, hmm, less than 1% NewZealand, 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,
(03:29):
listening with rapt attentionunderneath the prayer flag.
So, however you listen, pleasebe part as our audience grows.
Remember you can always be partof it.
We have celebrities.
We have people from all stripesand levels of notoriety, with
family members, friends.
(03:49):
If you want to be on the show,it's as simple as hitting us up
on email christian atcarslovecom, doug at carslovecom
.
Remember to please, uh, followthe show, download episodes and
I think that's all I have.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
yeah, oh, oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Reviews are also helpful.
We even like the bad ones.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
So honestly, Vote on your favorite episode too.
Carslovecom slash vote.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Absolutely New poll we have up, so please do check
that out.
So the calls to action, asalways, 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 theshow and you may have a friend.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
You may not be a car person, but you may have a
friend that you would love tohear his story, or you want to
have him share his story, his orher 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 1 (04:49):
Such a good point, such a good point.
So please help us keep theinertia going.
Tell friends about the show,forward to them.
And we're getting that more andmore.
In fact, we have someone set tobe on the show next week father
and son tandem, who were areferral for my son.
So let us know, and no furtherado.
(05:12):
Today's special guest has apersonal tie-in to my co-host,
doug, so if you can, I will handit over.
I'm very curious how Mike cameinto your life.
Sure, sure.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
So, without too much history, we were coming out of
the end of COVID, I was havingmy garage built because I always
wanted a garage but didn't haveone.
And I had a old 300ZX that was1990, that was sitting at a
friend's place and I'm like youknow, I'm going to bring it back
, put it in my garage.
You know, I've kind of lostinterest in that car.
(05:54):
What would be a better car tohave?
And somehow DeLorean came up andso one of our many friends of
the show I met him via Facebook,a Facebook DeLorean group Brian
Paone, excellent author andgood friend, lives in Northern
(06:15):
Virginia.
He connected me with Mike and Idon't want to take too much
away, but Mike runs one of thefew DeLorean shops in the US
that has been around for quitesome time and he's in Crystal
Lake Illinois.
So I want to say end of January2022, I did a boondoggle, flew
(06:41):
out there all in one day andback, rented a Jeep, drove to it
had snowed the day before,which delayed my flight.
I looked at two DeLoreans and Idrove away, leaving a check
with Mike for one of them, andgot it about a month or so later
.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
Mike is all of that true?
Speaker 3 (07:02):
I can corroborate that story.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
I don't know about the show that stuff.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
But uh, yeah, we did.
I I don't remember all thedetails, so I'm glad you're
filling me in on dates and stuff, but I do definitely remember
remember meeting doug and hisenthusiasm about the cars was
just, you know, was awesome tofeed off of and as many as we're
around it's awesome to seepeople with that much passion
and love for the car.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Yeah, just walking in your lobby there are three cars
right on top of each other noton top, but like how you got
them in there, I don't know.
But and then the shop.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
Just there were probably 15 deloreans in there,
maybe more yeah, typically wecan house up to about 30, 32 if
we really have no place to walk.
Um, we built a little quonsethut out back where we can put
the rough cars kind of in thecold storage, but uh, but yeah,
typically 25 to 30, you'll seeat any given time, yeah yeah,
(07:59):
and so, um, you know mike has agreat story of how he got into
the DeLorean world and it's kindof been a it's turned into a
family business for him.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
But you know, we'll get there Kind of looking
through a couple of Mike's carsand family connection actually
to DeLorean via his brother.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
Yep, yep.
So yeah, if you want, I'll tellthe story about my brother.
My brother bought a deloreanwhen he was out of high school.
My parents had all given us youknow, like 5300 as a high
school present, uh, to gotowards a car.
That's what my oldest brothergot and kept it, even for
(08:42):
everyone.
Um, we went to a Mecham auctionwhen they were a very small
company, out at the Boone CountyFairgrounds in Belvedere,
illinois.
They would do a once a year carauction and that was really all
they did.
And it was also a car show.
My dad wanted to go to the carshow.
There was some celebrity16-cylinder Cadillac my dad
(09:04):
wanted to look at, so we made afamily day of it to go see the
car show.
There was some celebrity16-cylinder Cadillac my dad
wanted to look at, so we made afamily day of it to go see the
cars.
And we get there, checked outthe Cadillac and my brother, joe
, finds this DeLorean that'sgoing across the auction block
Car wound up going across theauction block, didn't meet the
reserve.
My brother and Sue's aconversation with the owner and,
(09:26):
to the amazement of the rest ofmy siblings, somehow Joe talks
my parents into buying this carstrikes up a deal with the
seller and we wind up drivinghome in our minivan with a
DeLorean Intel.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
Now, how did that happen?
My, my, I can't imagine myfolks uh, ever ending up with
what sort of car like that, witha car like this.
So was there any sort of um, um, any indication in your
parents' past, your father'spast, of of just just just
getting an outlandish car likethat?
Speaker 3 (10:07):
You know it really a conversation that happened
probably a couple of years afterthat is I.
You know my sister was sayingsomething about my youngest
brother, joe, like Joe isspoiled.
I said I don't really think Joeis spoiled, why do you say that
?
And she said Mike, mom and dadbought him a freaking DeLorean.
(10:27):
And I was like, well, when youput it that way, I guess none of
us ever were to get anythingthat exotic.
It was a relatively inexpensiveat the time, I believe the car
was.
He negotiated a price I thinkunder 12, maybe 11.5.
So quite a bit more than ourcars, but not what they are at
today by any means Good point Igot you.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
So let's step into the Wayback Machine, if we can,
and let's go back to where itall started for you and we were
chatting a bit before we startedrecording 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 3 (11:08):
Yeah.
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 laterwe were on a car lot looking for
what was available.
We were in probably MountProspect, illinois.
There was one of two dealers.
I think we went to two dealersand just looked at you know what
(11:28):
would be something I wasinterested 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
(11:49):
nice condition car.
I think the out the door priceon it was about $6,150.
So over the next year I had towork and pay my parents back for
that $850 balance there and,yeah, that was my first set of
wheels.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
Now was it two-tone?
I have to ask curious oh no,okay, all dark blue yep gotcha
gotcha.
And so what happened to thatcar?
Speaker 3 (12:17):
uh.
So that one I actually uhpulled, pulled out in front of
someone making a left uh on afour-lane highway and they wound
up hitting the back of it andspinning me out, and that was
the last I saw that car and thatwas the last of that gotcha,
okay, which brings us to thenext car, which I'm excited
about.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
This one, we, um, this is the pontiac right.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
Yep that was the one that you know got replaced.
Replaced the Cougar with theinsurance money from that you
know, totaling that one out.
So yeah that was an 88 ParniaGrand Prix SE.
It had a lot of digital dash,the first of their, you know, v6
, first of the front-wheel drivecars.
It had a great-sounding dualexhaust, had the spider tail
(13:04):
lights, a little luggagerack-ish type rear spoiler and
it was a pretty loaded car.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
So, interesting.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
Oh, go ahead.
Yeah, lumbar seats, fog lights,lots of buttons on the interior
.
It was a cool car, and one thatagain fit the mold of a
two-door car that I wanted, butsomething much more
age-appropriate for a young guyand a slick-looking car.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Too Funny that I read this now.
My next-door neighbor right nowthey're an older couple and she
was an executive with Mary Kayor she was somehow involved with
Mary Kay, and so they had livednext to him for about five
years and they had the.
(13:54):
It was a few years later thanI'm going to say, an early to
mid-'90s Pontiac Grand Prix, andboy it's a good-looking car
even now.
And boy it's a good looking careven now.
(14:23):
But um, oh, and it had the, theMary watch beautiful.
But I have not seen it forabout a month or two and I'm
just scared, yes, I'm scared togo over and ask.
I kind of don't want to know.
Um, so I don't know whathappened to it, but they got a
ton of miles out of that car andthat was his daily driver.
So some of these things willlast.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
And it was pink it had.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
well, it was silver, but it had this little pink.
It had this little pinkstenciling that said Mary Kay.
So it was really a sharp,sporty looking car and you had
to look very close for the MaryKay.
You could look at it severaltimes and not have seen that.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
But I hope it didn't.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Incognito, incognito.
Yes, exactly, I'm hoping itdidn't go the way of the Dodo,
but I will find out for you.
Sorry, mike, I didn't mean tointerrupt.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
So what happened to?
Speaker 1 (15:14):
the Grand Prix.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
So the Grand Prix actually I had for a really long
time.
I had replaced it with adifferent car and wound up
crashing that car and going backto the Grand Prix.
So I probably had that car forsix or eight years.
I think it had $60,000 on itwhen I bought it.
It probably had $130,000 pluson it when I sold it and
probably you know that you knowtime frame of first driving a
(15:39):
car.
I had that longer than anythingelse and you know that was me
for a long time yeah very nice,very nice, which leads us to the
, uh, the suburban.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
Is that next up in the in the lineup?
Speaker 3 (15:56):
oh man, it's hard to remember all of them.
I think the car that youreplaced the pontiac for a short
time, uh, was a a 1990 nissanmaxima se that the cool feature
about that was they had some ofthem had a five-speed manual
transmission, which the car had,a manual transmission, so that
(16:17):
was much more.
It was my grown-up guy's car.
I guess it felt like much moreof a, you know, a young dad car.
I guess, even though I didn'thave kids anywhere near having
kids back, that was a very cool,well-built car that I really
enjoyed driving, probably superquiet, no rattles, just really
(16:38):
smooth transmission.
And I forget, I think I wasshopping for a car because I was
starting to get a little bitbored of the Grand Prix and had
some money saved up for possiblyreplacing it and ran across
that in an ad and just I justhad to have it and it was it was
white, uh, I think with a darkblue cloth interior, um, and,
(16:59):
just like I said, very well-madecar.
I, I, really I, I drove that fora time when I was commuting,
probably 45 minutes plus eachway, put a lot of miles on that
car and I just I loved everyminute in that thing I know so,
yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
So, going from loving every minute to being
disappointed every other minute,let's talk about the dodge
shadow, the 94 dodge shadow, thedrag racing.
Speaker 3 (17:22):
Three liter 94 dodge shadow yeah, that was a car that
I kind of stumbled into.
I I had actually wrecked a carand didn't have the insurance
payout and I was going to schoolat the time for automotive and
the shop would have cars donatedand they sell them from time to
time.
They like to sell them tostudents or people they knew.
(17:42):
So they had this 94 DodgeShadow with a 3.0 liter in it.
I want to say it had like190,000 miles on it.
Condition was great.
No rust for our area is a hugeplus and the car ran pretty good
and I did like the car.
But it had one you know nastyfeature that I never was able to
(18:05):
shake or never repaired.
But they were known for havingleaky valve valve stem seals and
when you idle the car, if itwas more than about a three
minute idle, it would startburning oil and blowing you know
blue, black smoke out the backand it got kind of obnoxious and
uh.
So I remember if I ever sat inuh you know, a bank, uh teller
(18:27):
window too long or or or even adrive up, uh, you know, getting
fast food, I have to shut thecar off because of this
obnoxious smoke, a cloud of dustand a hearty high O silver.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
I know that feeling.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
Yeah, yep.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
Yep, so that was yeah , that was not likable about
that car.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
Yeah, and so if we uh , we move forward just a little
bit, um, there's a tie in withyour brother in the DeLorean and
your business, which is prettycool, and I love this story.
Mike, if you don't mind sharingwhat you're comfortable with,
yeah, no, no problem.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
So, yeah.
So my my brother, like I said,all of us were kind of shocked
that you know we're very middleclass family said all of us were
kind of shocked that you knowwe're a very middle-class family
.
They don't.
My dad never had cars otherthan his daily driver.
For us to come home with aDeLorean was very peculiar but
very cool memorable.
But you know, fast forward aboutseven years from that date and
(19:26):
I had gone to school forautomotive, got a two-year
associate's degree in appliedtechnology from the local
community college in automotiveand had about five years
experience working on cars in acouple of different shops.
And I sit down at work.
We'd start the day with a break.
That way if anybody came inlate he just said, well, you
(19:49):
didn't get paid for your breaktoday and he didn't have to get
on people for being a fewminutes late.
Anyways, I'm looking over theHelp Wanted ads in the Northwest
Herald and see a gentlemanwho's looking for a DeLorean
technician.
And my first thought where areyou going to find a DeLorean
technician?
You never see the cars and Ihad no clue where you would go
(20:12):
to have it serviced.
My brother didn't really drivethis car much.
We had remember we had fixed analternator for him and a
taillight issue.
But you know in this sevenyears ownership really didn't
drive it enough to do anyanything more than that to the
car.
It was a decent shape when hegot it.
But basically my connection tothe car and you know having one
in the family was in decentshape when he got it.
But basically my connection tothe car and, you know, having
(20:33):
one in the family was probablythe reason I made that phone
call.
I remember talking to mybrother 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.
I wound up being coming in foran interview.
I spoke with Dave and JulieSwingle.
They had not even started theshop yet.
They had picked out a facilityand were building out the
(20:56):
facility.
I got the lifts in.
They were, you know, doing somemodifications to the space and
didn't quite have occupancy fromthe village yet.
So just in that initial setupprocess, when I interviewed, I
wound up being the first guythey ever hired.
I worked for them as their leadtech and then shop manager for
(21:18):
nine years and then Dave reachedthe age he was ready to retire
and he sold the business tomyself and my wife, susie, in
January 2016.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Love that story, susie in January 2016.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
Love that story.
So I believe it was February of07 when we, when I first
started working for Dave andJewel- yeah, and it was just
thanks to your brother wanting aDeLorean right.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
It's just funny how things come together, right, and
here we are, 20 ish years later.
Speaker 3 (21:52):
Well, and we.
So in a moment you don't reallythink about it like right, you
know, like I think it's beenseveral years ago now.
But after my brother had ownedthis for 20 years, he said you
know what, I think it's time tosell the delorean.
And that's when I kind ofreflected upon if it wasn't for
him in that car I would be in adifferent you know, in a
different work environment forsure, yeah, kind of to look back
(22:12):
and be like, well, you know, ina different work environment
for sure, yeah, to look back andbe like, well, you know, this
is the reason I'm doing what I'mdoing.
I believe there was, you know,a divine reason.
He came home with that car andwe didn't know it at the time.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
But, yeah, I'm here, yeah, yeah, and I, you know, I
don't know the story.
How did Dave and his wife, whydid they choose to open a
DeLorean dealership or repairshop in Silver Lake, crystal
Lake, yep, yep.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
So that was kind of just a.
So Dave had owned a car and hebought one that was a bit of a
fixer upper that he took apartand uh kind of uh father and son
project with fixing it up,right when his son was, you know
, in high school and kind ofgetting interested in, you know,
getting his hands on cars andfiguring things out.
And uh, and then Dave, you know,got involved with the club,
(23:05):
became the club technicaldirector.
Was uh actually um doing somework on on club members cars and
uh actually um doing some workon on club members' cars and uh
was wound up having aconversation with Steven Wynn
about would you be interested inopening up a DeLorean motor
company location At the time?
I believe they've turned himdown because he had two kids in
(23:26):
college and said you know, I,you know I'm not going to step
away from his career withMotorola because with the kids
in college he's like it's notright.
Fast forward, I think, a coupleof years from there and he was
ready to make a move and reallyhe happened to live in Crystal
Lake Illinois, so he just founda shop to rent and off to the
(23:49):
races they went.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
Yep, yep, and he had some feeling there was the need,
there was a delorean communityand whatnot, and yep, yeah, it's
pretty awesome none of usreally knew about that.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
I mean, I think tony in florida had already set up
his location and was kind of thefirst example of a success
story, but he had not been inbusiness that long, maybe six
months to a year mark so itdefinitely was, you know, taking
a risk, but he was ready tomove on from his long.
I think he was at Motorola forlike 28 years and ready for a
change and it always been a carguy and so, yeah, it was just, I
(24:29):
guess, the right time for himto do it.
When I took the job, I reallythought this is going to be.
I was ready to move on fromwhere I was at.
Uh, yeah, that's a realopportunity.
I really thought six months toa year, uh, this will be a blip
on my resume because where'sthis guy going to find enough
DeLoreans to keep him busy for along time?
Speaker 1 (24:48):
And here we are pushing close to 18 years and
and I've got more cars than thanI 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 timein here and I knew this was
going to happen, but uh, could.
Could you just give us a minuteor two for uh two things
(25:11):
happening in your life right nowthe dipping your toe into the
dealer space, as well as yourshow on YouTube, which I just
love, delorean Nation?
Can you talk about either orboth of those two?
Speaker 3 (25:30):
Yeah, so they're kind of somewhat go hand in hand.
But probably right before COVIDwe decided we're doing some
DeLorean sales and we want to domore of that.
In order to really do thatproperly we had to become a
dealer.
So we went through thatprobably six month plus process
and all the hoops to become acar dealer in Illinois and then
we really just went after tryingto buy cars and we hit this
(25:55):
right.
You know, before COVID we wereprobably a dealer like about a
year before that happened, andso COVID kind of sparked a fire
in the classic car markets.
So, we were ready to takeadvantage of that.
There's a video we did early on.
One day I was running out ofspace in the shop, which we
(26:17):
always seem to be up against.
I just had bought cars here andthere for whatever reason.
If they were a decent deal, I'dbuy them.
Sometimes customers were justlike you know what, I don't
really want to put that muchmoney into them.
We would buy the car.
Or every once in a while they'dcall and say, hey, I got this
car I want to sell and it waspriced right, so we bought it.
(26:40):
I think I wound up with at onepoint 13 DeLoreans and I was a
little bit overwhelmed.
I'm like this is a problem.
My shop fits like 30 cars-ishand so we're approaching 50 of
the shop with owned vehicles andand you think about the dollar
amount that is in that and likethat's comfortable with and we
put out a youtube video thatsaid you know world's largest in
for it, because I think at thetime you couldn't see more than
(27:01):
five or so at anybody's place,so I believe it was the largest
for sale.
So I did just a quick here's an81 with this mileage, this
interior color and thistransmission and they're for
sale and put that video outthere.
It was at the time our mostwatched video and you know it
took a while, but probablysitting a year later I turned,
you know, 10 of those 13 carsand uh, and we've been kind of
(27:26):
doing that ever since, um.
So you know, with the dealer'slicense, I talked with you guys
a little bit pre-show about uhright 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 Iwanted to scratch and uh, we run
across something that's justsuper clean.
And I love the super clean carsbecause they're easy to sell,
(27:47):
because I say the, the guy tobuy the super clean cars is
going to be the first one tolook at it because, you know,
when there's that in thatcondition, um, you know there's
nothing to complain about withthe car.
Right, they know it will takeme forever to find one this nice
again and most likely it's aneasy sale as soon as somebody
(28:08):
comes along.
That's serious, they're gonna,they're gonna realize what they
see and buy the car, um, and soI've been able to scratch the
dish on a few.
Some were cars that I reallyhave always wanted, some were
just ones that I was like, man,this is a good condition car,
and and the condition of thevehicle, uh, is what made me
move forward.
So with a friend, anthony, Ibought an 87 Z28 Camaro with
(28:33):
9,000 miles on it.
We've owned that car forprobably nine months and really
had a lot of fun with it I betScratched an itch.
I drove it for three months orso.
He drove it for three months orso.
We've spent a couple of monthsprobably just taking it to the
next level, but it didn't need alot.
Great car.
But, yeah, I scratched anitchch.
I really have an appreciationfor that.
Third gen camaro now, um,learned a lot about them and
(28:55):
made a little money turning thecar uh, so that's a great thing.
Uh, I've also done that with a.
Uh, I bought a 2017 corvettethat a customer of mine was
going to trade into a dealershipand said hey, are you
interested before I do that, hadprobably about a four-month
stint with that car Absolutelyloved it, was a thrill.
(29:16):
Really missed the car.
I don't think the time of lifeis right with three kids at home
for me to be three kids and alarge dog Right and all the
kids' bikes and all that in thegarage.
It's not really the right timeof life for a 17 Grand Sport.
But there will be another C7 inmy future, probably Thrilled
(29:37):
with that car.
And then we currently just hada customer a few months ago
Video will probably be comingout on this at some point that
had a DeLorean Nice car.
We went out there to look at thecar and she had a 93 Cadillac
Elante with 8,984 miles and justlooked every bit.
(29:58):
You'd expect an 8,000 mile carto look and we came home with
that.
That's the one we're kind oftooling around with, that 80s or
90s time capsule right now.
Cheap car, inexpensive, so notas worried about it as you would
be like the Grand Sport, butthat one's kind of the current
thrill.
My wife and my brand new16-year-old driver, my daughter,
(30:21):
those ladies look great in thatconvertible Elante and so we're
having fun with that one aswell as DeLoreans right now.
Oh, man.
Yeah, well, if we got a fewminutes 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 wewent to pick up a couple of
(30:44):
DeLoreans in Indiana and thestory with that was a gentleman
who owned three of them.
Two of them he was ready tosell and I wound up going out
beforehand.
I was in his area and stoppedby and we kind of looked over.
I looked over the cars, kind ofmade a price with the guy you
know, agreed we'd probably tryto come back in a few weeks and
(31:06):
purchase them.
And my way down his driveway Ihappened to say, hey, I really
like your gas pump that's in.
And he said, well, you, youknow, you want to buy it, make
me an offer.
And I said, well, I, I wasn'texpecting him to be offered to
sell it.
So I said, well, we agreed thathe'd kind of give me a price
when I came back and I, you know, see if we threw it in with the
(31:27):
deal whatever made another sidedeal on that.
So anyways, fast forward two orthree 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 Istep onto his driveway is do
you want to buy the gas pump?
And I hadn't really thoughtabout that, I was focused on
(31:49):
getting these cars back to theshop in Crystal Lake, cars back
to the shop in Crystal Lake, andanyways, we wound up making a
deal on a gas pump, an old oiltank that goes along with it,
same colors, and they call it anair dinger or a tire filler.
Basically, this tire filler,when you fill a tire and it gets
(32:10):
close to the set pressure, itstarts dinging rapidly.
That's why they call it adinger.
It's like 1950s automobilia, youknow, 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 wewere kind of wrapping that up
and got the cars all loaded.
(32:30):
I said to kevin, I would loveto record these stories and, you
know, maybe have a youtubechannel for this and uh, and I'd
always thought about this, butI wasn't really the guy to do
the videos and the editing, Ijust had kind of cool content
story I wanted to share andkevin said let's do it.
And so, uh, you know.
We said, well, you know, nexttime there's a story like this,
(32:51):
let's, let's try to get someequipment, make, make a video.
And he agreed to do the editingand so that was kind of the plan
.
So I finished that the storyoff of that day.
We get back to the shop, we get, uh, the cars unloaded, we get
the gas pump out of a pickuptruck and another memorabilia
that we bought and, uh, Iremember that my
(33:14):
great-grandfather owned a coupleof service stations way back in
the day and my grandfatherworked there when he was in his
late teens and early 20s and Icalled my dad to say, um, you
know what station did you knowlike our great-grandfather owned
?
And he said it was a, you know,a red crown station.
Uh, and we were red crown gaspump and filler and tank and
(33:39):
stuff like that.
I didn't even know it at thetime.
But after that phone call, whenwe unloaded this stuff, it was
like I'm so glad, I said yes toit.
That stuff was meant to comehome with me and it's kind of a
bit of a story of our familyheritage, so it was so glad to
have it.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
Yeah, thanks for sharing.
I love that.
And do yourself a favor outthere in listener land, if you
have a few minutes and you willneed a few minutes because
you're going to love the littlevideos.
They're so clever and funny andfun Go to YouTube type in
DeLorean Nation and again, giveyourself some time, because
(34:18):
you're just going to just like Idid.
You're going to fall in arabbit hole and roll from one
into another.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
You'll see and hear Mike.
You'll see and hear Kevin.
There's some great productreviews and you know, christian,
to take the wind out of yoursails.
There's some great storiesabout mice in DeLoreans and Mike
actually made some nationwidenews.
I think he found the lowestmileage, delorean.
(34:47):
One of them, maybe the only one, like 917 miles, mike,
something like that.
Speaker 3 (34:53):
Yeah, 977 miles, something like that, yeah 977,
mark 77 okay and that story wentabsolutely viral and
international yeah, yeah, it's,it's awesome.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
So that story is out there.
It's a multi-part series andwhen mike and kevin opened the
uh opened the door after allthese years, a bunch of mice
scurried across and christianchristian was so impressed with
watching it.
Speaker 1 (35:15):
I love it, like it was on cue.
It 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 whenthey find mice in cars but then
use licorice for the insulationon the wires?
Why would they be interested inthat?
So anyway, but check him outthe wires.
(35:35):
Why would they be interested inthat?
So anyway, but check him out.
His day job isdeloreanmidwestcom.
Deloreanmidwestcom and mike, Ijust want to say, uh, I've heard
a lot about you and I've reallywanted to meet you for a for a
while.
Man, so appreciate you makingthe time today and dropping by
the studio and, um, I thanks,it's great meeting you, thank
(35:55):
you.
Speaker 2 (35:56):
Mike.
Speaker 3 (35:56):
It's been a great conversation.
I appreciate all the car loveand the effort you guys put in
the podcast and I love hearingall the stories of these old
cars.
Speaker 1 (36:07):
All right.
Well, yeah, anything for you,pal, good to meet you, and over
to you, Doug, anything inclosing.
Speaker 2 (36:14):
No, al, good to meet you and over to you, doug.
Anything in closing?
No, I think in closing, youknow we'd love to find some.
You know, in trying to expandthe podcast we'd love to find.
We're trying to get into othercar subcultures, if you will.
Subcultures, if you will,restomods are very popular these
(36:39):
days, but also JDM, the wholeJDM community, and Christian
could take a whole episode andtalk about this amazing place he
went to in Christiansburg,virginia, called Duncan.
Speaker 1 (36:47):
Imports.
Gosh I want to have them on.
Speaker 2 (36:50):
But they sell these JDM for everybody's knowledge.
If you don't know, japanesedomestic market cars that now
that they're over 25 years oldand they're some of the coolest
cars, all right hand drive butthat you've never seen, ever and
small and just quirky.
But I go to car shows and I'llsee some of those cars there
(37:15):
Honda Beat, suzuki, cappuccino,um, there's a really skinny um
and small pickup trucks, I meanlittle K cars for the Japanese
market.
Correct, Correct.
So, um, yeah, so we'd love toconnect with some folks that are
into that, uh, culture, if youwill, cultures, and, uh, just
hit us up.
(37:35):
Yeah, so we'd love to connectwith some folks that are into
that culture, if you willcultures, and just hit us up.
Doug at CarsLovecom, Christianat CarsLovecom, CarsLovecom, or
wherever you get your favoritepodcast.
Speaker 1 (37:49):
That's it, can't say it any better.
Thanks again, mike, it wasgreat, thank you, mike, see you
next time partner.
Speaker 3 (37:54):
Thank you, gentlemen.
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