To All The Cars I've Loved Before: Classic Car Restoration, JDM, and Automotive History Jul 23, 2024

Back to the ’80s and Beyond: Jim’s Camaro Comebacks and DeLorean Dreams

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Car

Chevrolet Camaro

The Z28 is a special version of the Chevrolet Camaro that is designed for better performance. The 1980 model is from a time when Camaros were known for their muscle car characteristics.

Term

salt on the road

In winter, salt is spread on roads to help cars drive safely on ice. However, this salt can hurt cars by causing rust and damage over time.

Car

Chevy Cavalier

The Chevy Cavalier is a small car made by Chevrolet, popular for being affordable and easy to drive. Many people bought it as their first car because it was reliable and practical.

Car

Hyundai Sonata

The Hyundai Sonata is a type of car that is known for being dependable and affordable. The 2005 version is spacious and has different engine choices, which makes it a good option for everyday use.

Car

Mazda 6

The Mazda 6 is a car that's good for everyday use. The 2014 version has a nice look and drives well, making it a favorite for many people.

Car

Mazda Miata

The Mazda Miata is a small, two-seat sports car that is very popular for being fun to drive. It’s light and has great handling, making it a favorite for many car lovers.

Car

Mazda Mx6

The Mazda MX-6 is a two-door car that was made in the 1990s. It’s sporty and fun to drive, similar to the Mazda 626 but with a cooler look.

Term

engine seals

Engine seals are parts that help keep oil and fluids inside the engine. If they wear out, it can cause leaks and other problems.

Car

The DeLorean is a unique car that was made in the early 1980s. It is famous for its shiny metal body and doors that open upwards, and it became really popular because of the movie 'Back to the Future.'

Car

Delorean DMC-12

The DeLorean DMC-12 is a unique car that looks different from most others because it has shiny metal sides and doors that open upwards. It became famous because it was used as a time machine in the 'Back to the Future' movies, making it a favorite among fans of the films.

Term

supercar

A supercar is a very fast and expensive car that is designed for high performance. They are often seen as the best of the best in the car world.

LIVE

Welcome back to, to all the cars I've loved, or as we barrel into season two, next stop, season

three.

In the milepost along the way, be part of it, carslove.com, check us out.

I am at christianatcarslove.com, the guy who's the puppet master pulling the strain

behind the scenes.

Hey, what's this thing hanging out about that?

It's Doug, Doug at carslove.com.

Morning, Doug, how you doing, pal?

Doing great, doing great.

Good to be back with you.

Hey, man, good to see you.

Good to see our guest, Jim.

How you doing this morning, Jim?

Good.

How you doing?

Excellent, excellent.

Before we get into formal introduction, we'll just tell you where we stand.

Again, the tent continues to broaden around this planet.

And I think we have a few people listening in from Venus and Mars.

I don't think we've gone as far as Jupiter and Saturn, but you know what, hey, with

Starlink, Elon Musk, Starlink satellite, lighten up the universe, who knows, I think

anything is possible with low Earth orbit.

So you'll want to check us out at carslove.com for pictures of guests, everything they've

done, as well as ensure, please, that you're following the show on your podcast

streaming platform of choice, as they say, and download the episodes, you know, because

you're going to be somewhere without signal, but you desperately want to hear the latest

episode joining thousands and millions of people who've never heard of us.

If you haven't downloaded, you know, you don't need signal and you can just go

into a cave, you know, and as long as you have enough battery, you'll be able

to check us out.

So that's sort of where we stand and I'm going to bring in my partner to

let us know.

I always have some big time things going on.

What's the latest, Doug, in our marketing and outreach strategies?

Well, before I go into that, just if for those who are listening and downloading,

as Christian said, you know, what better place to listen to a podcast about

people in their cars than in your car?

So if it's a holiday, if you're commuting to work, great time, our

episodes are 30-ish minutes good for the average commute.

If you're like me and you don't commute and you go on lots of walks, another great

time.

But yeah, I, you know, I like to visit caves very often and be like Mammoth Cave

in Kentucky.

And I like to go into the bowels of the cave and turn, you know, get all the

lights turned off and then listen to this podcast and if you download it,

you know, and you have it locally on your machine, it's just, it's very

helpful.

Sorry.

Keep going, Doug.

No, no, no.

That is good.

So depending on when you're hearing this episode, we are over 500 downloads.

Thank you to everyone.

500 downloads of the podcast from your preferred platforms.

Many more on the, on the website.

Yeah.

Many countries, cities across the world, really getting somewhere.

So we're super happy.

Very happy about season two.

We all survived and there's, there's a lot to come.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

Join the conversation.

You know, email us if you want to be there.

There's a form on the website.

You can shoot up a flare gun and we'll either Doug or myself will probably

see it.

We'll, we'll track you down.

Make sure you're safe.

Number one, but then talk about how to get on the show.

Now also, you know, uh, uh, yeah, oh, back to you, Doug, you had something else to say.

No, no, I would say, Hey, if, and if you're at your local cars and coffee, feel free to

a mention our show to anybody.

But if you see somebody and they just have a cool car or they just so animating excited

about it.

Tell them about the show.

We'd love to have them on, which brings us back full circle to our awesome guest.

You got it.

Yeah.

So, uh, Jim and, uh, Jim, may we use your last name?

For Ken.

Yeah.

Hopefully I'll pronounce it right.

Jim Gravina.

Correct.

That's correct.

Originally from upstate New York, Syracuse.

Syracuse.

Now living in, in, uh, northern Virginia, but, um, so yeah, um, Christian, I know

you, you have a very good way of getting, getting to the meat of things.

So, uh, yeah, let's, um, find out more about Jim.

Yeah.

For sure.

Jim.

So, uh, let's start with, um, you want to tell us a little bit about yourself and

then let's step back in time as it were into our time machine and meet young Jim

and his motivations, his family, but let's, let's start with you and the here

and now.

Anything you'd like to share.

I'd say as anonymous as you'd like, this is important for any future guess.

We have a lot of people, uh, or we, we have had guests come on.

It's the, want to give us very little in winter and main anonymous.

And then there are people that want to, you know, put their, uh, credit reports

on our website.

So wherever you fall, Jim, take it away, pal.

Tell us a little about yourself.

Sure.

So I'm, um, about to have, uh, 41st birthday here in another two weeks.

So that's coming up.

Uh, Beaver.

Go ahead.

Backing up, uh, you know, to my younger years, I'm from Syracuse, New York,

uh, born and raised, um, my, uh, started getting into, um, you know, I was in

school, I got really into the computer design and computer editing, uh, as

early as I think middle school and that caused me to continue that into

college.

And I, I took, uh, went to the Art Institute of Pittsburgh where I took

classes in visual effects and motion graphics.

And the dream was to work for the movies, you know, and work on like

Transformers movies or Star Wars type movies and stuff like that.

But that didn't really exactly happen.

And after college, I, um, I had moved back home and I had worked at a local

TV news station.

So I took, I was still in the same world of design and editing.

I got hired as a promotions, um, it was called the Promotions

Art Director, where I was basically in charge of making the graphics for the

TV stations, the animations and all that for the local news stations.

It was a CBS affiliate in Syracuse.

And I worked there for about eight years or excuse me, eight months.

And what had happened was this is my first job out of college.

What happened was the TV station was about to go into what we called

a shared service agreement with another local station, which unfortunately

meant about 80% of the people at that TV station were going to lose

their jobs to people at the other station when they did the merge.

So I was still young.

I was only like 22, 23 years old, didn't affect me whatsoever.

Longer story short, my boss, who basically ended up laying me off,

told me about a job at a sister TV station, which was an NBC

affiliate in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

So he kind of pulled some strings and got me a job in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

So moved over there.

I was there for about two and a half years, which is where I met

my now wife, and then we caught wind of something very similar happening.

And I did the same type of work, just at a different TV station.

Something similar was coming down the lines where some people

might be losing their jobs and stuff.

So I caught wind of that awful quick.

And I went and did a similar move to Fresno, California, another TV station.

Now, all these TV stations were under the same umbrella.

They were all owned by the same company, just in different markets.

So I moved over there.

My wife ended up coming with me.

I was in Claire, something like that.

Yeah, yeah, she wasn't.

She she didn't, you know, we weren't married at the time, you know,

we're still dating, but she she moved with me to California

and there for about another three years or so.

And then again, I wanted something more.

So we left, we left there and we went to

to Miami's Lorda where Miami.

Yeah, then we did my goodness.

Then we did Miami and we were we were there

for about three and a half years.

And again, I worked at this was the first time

that I stepped away from the local TV stations

under the same company and worked for what we called an O and O,

which was an owned and operated NBC station in Miami.

So it was still the same kind of work.

It was a little bit more.

It was definitely a, you know, it was a pay raise.

It was a better TV station.

It was a better experience.

So you're moving up.

You got to do whatever it takes to move.

Yeah, I was moving up the ladder.

But this time it was a little bit more of a serious thing.

And so I was there for longer than three and a half years.

And then we left there

because I just didn't want to do news graphics anymore.

And we moved out of there to I took a new job

that landed me here in Alexandria, Virginia.

And I am now a senior motion designer

at a post production shop in Washington, DC.

So that's what I do now.

So interesting, very, very great now.

So I find it very interesting.

Three, these are three long haul stretches

kind of come from Syracuse to a stop in between.

I understand what we named the end of two to Fresno

and then down to Miami.

May I ask how a Syracuse guy

where I think it's knows more than just about anywhere

fair in Miami, because it is hot down there.

I live in the Panhandle, Florida.

And that heat down there is another level

of what I experience here,

which is orders of magnitude worse

than what people experience in Syracuse.

So just a minute or two of you can

on living those two places for years.

Yeah, so it was, you know,

that was actually part of the reason why we left

was because of the heat and the humidity.

And my wife's the same way.

She prefers seasons.

She's, you know, lived in Indiana for a long time.

So she was used to the seasons and we,

again, the whole reason why I went there

was because of work.

So you have to do what you have to do.

But after three and a half, four years

of the same kind of weather, it just got to be enough.

I mean, there was more factors than just the weather,

but there was stuff at work going on

that I wanted to kind of just move on.

But yeah, we did not care for the weather.

It just got too hot, too humid, too much at the time.

And so we just said, you know what,

this isn't for us, landed in Virginia

and we think it's perfect.

Back to the seasons.

We get the change of seasons,

but we also don't get the snow

that I used to get in Syracuse.

So that's a nice little trade-off.

You get the winter,

but you don't get all that snow that I used to get.

So it's been very lovely.

And my folks are still home.

They're still in Syracuse.

So I still go up for holidays and stuff.

So they're still there.

Love that.

Well, thank you for sharing that with us.

And now, if we could,

let's step into the way back machine, as it were.

Way, way back.

Let's get, let's, yeah.

Way, way back.

Oh, you guys want to go way back.

We go way back.

Well, I mean, well, not to the diaper stage.

You look past.

And let's see what, let's talk about aspirations

as a young man and what was the first time

you slid behind a steering wheel

and feel free to include any family history

if that's appropriate as well.

Yeah, of course.

So I'm, it's me and my parents, Paul and Wynne.

I also have two twin sisters.

They're twins of each other, not of me.

They're four years younger.

Jillian and Lisa.

And yeah, growing up, we lived in,

like I said, in a little suburb of Syracuse, New York.

And, you know, my first experience driving was

our family owned a lake house on Cross Lake.

It was something that, you know,

we had ever since I was born,

it was something my grandparents had built in the 70s.

And growing up as little as I can remember,

it was only about 25 minute drive from our house,

this lake house.

And it was, I mean, my dream place.

I mean, I loved it there.

I'd go fishing.

I mean, it was just the place to be.

I mean, there would be days even after school,

we would go up there for a couple hours

because it was so close.

But I mentioned this because there's a dirt road,

what we call the fire road.

It's just a dirt road that takes you down

to where our lake house is.

And it's about a mile and a half road or so.

And that road is where my first experience driving was.

I was probably 12 years old,

sitting on my grandfather's lap in his pickup truck.

Oh, I love that.

He would let me steer the wheel

as he, you know, as we would go down.

And then, you know, I did that for several years

or whatever it was.

And then it got to the point even under the age of 16,

he would let me actually drive.

I mean, he would, because it was a private road.

It was not a public road.

It was very private.

So people do that kind of stuff all the time

with the kids driving stuff.

So yeah, he would let me drive his pickup truck

up and down that dirt road at our lake house.

Nice, nice.

And so it was my first experience driving.

And then one thing I want to mention

is my father has a 1980 Z28 Camaro.

And he bought that brand new on leap year day actually in 1980.

And he bought that, he still has his original owner,

but he bought that in 1980.

He bought it before he married my mother

and before he had me and my sisters.

And it's a funny story that I'm going to get to in a second.

But after he had, excuse me, started having children,

the car kind of had to end up becoming a daily driver

because money was tight.

They couldn't really afford another car

to keep the Camaro garage.

So he had to start driving it.

And in the Syracuse winter months

with all the salt on the road,

it just started to deteriorate.

And it got so bad that he just parked it

in the corner of the garage

and it just sat there for 15, 20 years

or something like that.

But then life goes on and we got older,

we moved out of the house

and it got to a point where my dad

started to want to restore the car.

So he ended up doing a full restoration

on it about 10 years ago.

But that kind of inkling of restoring the car

and seeing his passion for that

led me to kind of pursue my passion,

which, you know, when I was,

you know, when I was a kid growing up,

you know, one of my,

I don't know if we want to get into this just yet,

but one of my favorite movies is back to the future.

I've always wanted a DeLorean.

We get that a lot.

Yep.

I think that.

Yeah.

But unfortunately, my first car was not a DeLorean.

My first car was a 1998 Chevy Cavalier.

That was my very first car.

Close.

They're very similar, I find.

Yes.

It's the stainless steel finish on both of those cars.

It's what does it?

Tell us about that first part.

Actually, if you don't mind rewinding.

So your dad did the restoration,

did he do any of the work himself

or he formed it out?

So he, a little bit of both.

I say that because my sister's now husband,

his father is a car mechanic and that's what he does.

So my dad was not a mechanic.

I mean, he knows his way around the toolbox,

but he was not a mechanic.

So, you know, he was lucky and it was,

it was my sister's husband's father, his name's Todd.

It was because of him that he even decided

to take the leap to get it restored,

you know, because my dad knew he had the help

that he would need.

So yeah, he did what he could.

He turned some wrenches and turned some screwdrivers,

but you know, he wasn't,

he wasn't in there boring outcylinder heads

or anything like that,

but he did what he could,

but he kind of left the rest of it up to the professionals,

you know.

And your dad plans to keep this car till?

Yeah, he restored it.

It was his baby.

It was the only thing that he can say he still owns

prior to being married and having children.

And it's funny because my mother's name is Lynn

and his license plate is B4 Lynn.

So that's the license plate on this car

because it's the one thing my mom loves it.

She gets a kick out on it every time,

but it really is the one thing he can say is his own

prior to being married and having kids.

Nice, nice.

And have you ever driven this car, Jim?

I've never driven it.

Nope, I've, I mean, you know,

growing up I was just too young.

And then since it's been restored,

I just, I honestly just really haven't had the time.

And I just, I don't know, I'm a little nervous.

I might come to a shock to some people,

but I've actually never driven a manual car.

And I'm just kind of nervous to do so on his.

So it's a little.

Oh, it's a manual.

Okay.

It's a manual.

But it's his baby, he takes it out on weekends.

Yeah, he does cars and coffee.

It's not a daily driver anymore, thankfully, finally.

And he just keeps it nice and just takes it

to car shows and cars and coffees, yep.

Nice, nice.

So yeah, so of course there's a good parallel

that we'll talk about in the back to the future.

And your dad had his dream car before Lynn

and you had your car,

but your first car being this 1998 Chevy Cavalier high school.

High school.

Yeah, it was actually just after high school.

I never had it in high school,

but after I graduated high school,

my dad said, look, you know,

and even growing up through high school,

he says, look, whatever you say for a car,

that's it.

Okay.

So I kind of put money away.

I would do some odd jobs.

I'd mow lawn, shovel driveways,

keep all the money from the grandparents at holidays,

you know, so I would keep all that.

And I ended up having numbers.

I don't know if I remember exactly the number,

but I think I had like 3,500 bucks saved up to get a car.

And my dad says, okay, well, here's another 3,500

as I promised.

So you have 7,000 to go buy a car.

And I think that was the number.

I don't remember.

This would have been in 2001,

because that's when I graduated.

So I think it was that summer is when I got the car.

And we went down to the local dealers around town,

started looking around and out of the corner of my eye,

I saw this blue Cavalier.

I didn't realize it was a Cavalier at the time.

I just saw this blue car that I liked.

So I took it for a test drive

and we actually ended up buying it on the spot.

And it was a great car.

Can I have it in here once again?

What is that?

I don't know if work ethic is lost on the younger generation,

but I got to pause and rewind for just a second here

because I say to my kids,

I say the same thing, children,

if you save a certain amount of money,

father will match it.

My kids say, no, thanks, dad, I think we'll just walk.

It's this matching principle that I think is so key.

And I don't think when they go out in the real world

and see that the old man is willing to match,

absolutely zero of what you want to spend on.

So, hey, I'm going to say kudos to your pops,

which sounds like a great guy,

but to you too for meeting that challenge anyway.

I had to squeeze that in there.

Please continue.

Sorry.

Any redeeming quality about the car,

you got to pick it, right?

It wasn't a hand me down or anything.

No, no, I got to choose it.

I mean, as long as it's fit in my budget,

my dad said I can have whatever I wanted, you know?

And I know something just drew me to it.

I don't know, I honestly just think it was the color

and it was a two door, it was a two door coupe.

It was a coupe.

I always thought there were sharp looking cars.

Honestly, when I thought they were sharp looking,

and I know that blue you're talking about,

it's that GM electric blue.

I know that car exactly.

It's eye catching for sure.

Yeah, not to be confused with the song electric blue.

Yeah, exactly.

Could be.

So I had that car for several years.

It went to college with me though.

I didn't go to my first year of college

because students were not allowed to have cars

on campus their first year.

But my second year of college,

it was on campus with me.

And then I even had it a few years after that

until it just got to the point where it just started

just breaking down.

It just wasn't worth the upkeep anymore.

Rustin' out.

Yep, exactly.

Yeah, gotcha.

But yeah, so blue Cavalier, great car.

And so what happened to that car?

So I ended up in your dad's garage anymore, right?

Yeah, no, it wasn't part of the garage.

I ended up selling it.

If I'm story about that car though,

which is what they're like,

is what a lot of people don't know is,

or a lot of people do know me, of course,

is I actually do slide ahead magic.

I'm a magician.

And for a long time,

I actually had the word magic man

blasted as a big decay on the back of that car.

So that was one thing that was a real takeaway

for me with that car,

because anytime I'd be driving around,

my friends would stop me

because they would know it was me driving

to the magic man on the back.

And to this day, from what I heard,

we sold it to somebody local in Syracuse.

And I think just as early as maybe two years ago,

my dad says he still sees the car driving around

because the guy never took the magic man off the back.

Whoa.

Yeah.

So I don't know if that's true or not.

If he's just saying that,

but there's a good chance

because it wasn't good shape.

It wasn't completely like out of its misery,

but it was just for time for me

to move on to something else, you know?

Something more responsible and reliable.

And maybe it's still on the road

because of that magic that you did.

Maybe you put a spell on it.

That's a very good point, very well.

Very well could be.

Let's not be too cavalier about the point of magic.

So how serious were you into

the magic scene?

Was this just sort of a passing?

No, at the time I was very serious.

I mean, I started doing magic in high school.

And I would learn from books and stuff

about basic sleight of hand.

And I was not a stage magician.

I don't do the stage illusions or any of that.

I was just, you give me a deck of cards and some coins

and I can do a lot of sleight of hand for you.

And a lot of people that know me now

don't realize that I was actually pretty shy in high school.

And learning magic was a great icebreaker

to really open up to people and meet new people.

Huge confidence booster.

Exactly, a big confidence booster.

And when I realized that this magic thing

was actually working not only by just being able

to fool people, but to legit

be a confidence booster.

Yeah, yeah.

And that was a big help.

Let me just pause something real quick.

Now is this...

No, please continue, please continue.

No, and then I was just gonna say, yeah.

So it was after high school and into college

when I really, it really started to take off.

I would do local bar and restaurant magic.

I would do corporate events and things like that.

So yeah, it really started taking off

and I was in my college years.

So what is your favorite trick?

So my favorite trick is,

it's actually a trick called could be.

And it's basically an effect where,

it's a regular deck of cards

and it's a fact where I keep showing,

somebody selects a card and I narrow it down

to what could be four cards that is their card

and those four cards actually all become their card.

So it's all of the same card.

But then, I can't tell you how,

but then they all change the four races at the end.

I am not at your level, but I know that trick.

Yeah, for sure.

Yeah, that is cool.

So, slide of hand mostly cards.

Are there other things that you do?

You mentioned you're not an illusionist

or a big stage manager.

Yeah, I don't even call myself an illusionist.

Yeah, but it's 80% of what I do is all card stuff.

I don't use deck or trick cards.

I focus on the pure sleight of hand,

but coins and rubber bands,

just anything kind of around the house, around the office.

But yeah, I really don't do much outside of that

because I want to always be on the ready.

So if someone says, hey, can you do a trick?

Being funny, I can actually do something.

So whether it's with silverware or a napkin,

I mean, there's always something I can do.

Fantastic, yeah.

There's always a deck of cards sitting at the ready.

There's always a salt shaker.

Exactly.

There's always a napkin.

Yeah, beautiful.

Hey, thank you.

That's very interesting.

Thank you for sharing that.

Yeah, it's been a big part of my life.

I don't perform as much as I used to.

I mean, I used to do corporate shows

and restaurants and bars,

but over the years and now that I'm settling down

to my regular career,

I just don't have the time as much as I used to.

Yeah, the only magic now

is trying to get a good night's sleep.

Figure that one out, please let me know.

I'll let you know.

What do you say, Doug?

Should we move on to the next car in his luxury fleet?

Yeah, yeah.

So we know that the Chevy Cavalier

may still be living to this day,

but Jim got another car.

Tell us about this.

Yes.

So after I got rid of the Cavalier,

I needed a car, of course,

because this would have been,

I'm trying to remember,

this was before,

this was between,

it was between,

geez, some of the details are fuzzy

because I've moved around so much

and the years get confused,

but I believe it was one that I was making my move

to go to Fort Wayne, Indiana,

that I had gotten rid of the Cavalier

and actually acquired a Hyundai Sonata.

It was a 2005 Hyundai Sonata.

And that was not a choice car.

It was actually a hand-me-down from-

Love how you put it.

Yeah, not a choice car.

Bambi heirloom we could buy.

Yeah, it was a great car,

but just not something I would have picked,

but it was my grandfather's

who had it, my parents bought it for him brand new,

and he would only drive it to the store

and to get gas and stuff.

He did not really drive it much,

but my grandfather over the years,

he started becoming disabled

and he just, he couldn't drive anymore.

So my parents will,

we paid for this car,

we might as well see if Jim wants it.

So long story short,

I don't think they asked me for anything for it.

They just, they gave it to me.

And so I had that car

and I believe I don't remember if I drove it

or traveled it to Indiana,

Indiana was when my first really,

that kind of came into my possession

and I started using that as my daily driver.

And how long did you keep the car for?

Obviously it's a family car,

maybe not your favorite, but it was.

So I had that all through Indiana.

It also came to Fresno, California with me.

Also made the move to Miami, Florida with me.

So I had it in all three of those states.

So how many years would you say you had that one?

That would have been about six or seven years.

I had that, yep.

And then in, and yeah, no,

honestly there's really no wow stories on that car.

It was just a daily driver for me.

It just got me to home from work and stuff.

So I'd be, yeah, there was no,

I didn't put magic man on the back of that one

or anything, you know?

Not magic worthy.

No, no.

So, but it's still a great car

and it really did help me through those years.

But the only reason why I got rid of it

is because I had a little mishap in the parking lot

of the TV station that I worked at.

Uh-oh.

Now, when these TV station people,

when they have a breaking story,

they bolt like a bat out of hell to get out of there

and go to that story.

So I'm parked in the parking lot and I'm backing out.

I'm a good driver, I look both ways.

So as I'm backing out, out of nowhere,

I just get hit in the back

and the back passenger rear quarter panel.

And I'm thinking, where the hell did this guy come from?

Cause I did not see him.

So it hit, I got hit, it made the trunk pop open.

Luckily the vehicle was still drivable

but it was just not something I wanted to worry

about getting fixed or anything like that.

So I ended up selling that car to CarMax.

I think some of these details are fuzzy

but I believe I sold it to CarMax.

And then while still in Florida,

I think just a few weeks later,

I ended up buying my current daily driver

which is a red 2014 Mazda 6.

That is just about to hit 100,000 miles.

Nice, nice.

I was gonna ask, yeah, you put some miles on that pub in.

Yeah, nice.

And any redeeming quality,

obviously I'm sure the family was sad to hear

about the Hyundai,

but any redeeming quality about the Mazda 6

and or the color and why you made that choice.

So the Mazda 6 I have,

it was the first year of the current generation.

So it was the first year of the current gen three

that they still have that generation out.

It was the first year and I was just,

I just loved the design

because it was so different from their previous generation.

And I got what they call soul red color.

I've always wanted a red car.

It's just a very, very beautiful red color.

It's one of those colors that looks different in the night

than when the sun's on it, you know, it just sparkles.

It's just a really sharp color.

And it was also the first brand new car I had never bought.

I had never bought any brand new car.

So I bought a brand new in,

believe it or not, it was a 2014 model.

I bought it brand new in February, 2013.

So they were out almost a whole year earlier

than when they would usually come out.

And I did all sorts of research

on how to wheel and deal with a car dealer.

And that stuff kind of gets me excited.

I like trying to figure out these car guys and stuff

and try to get the best deal.

So I was after this car for,

I would say about two months before I actually bought it.

You know, I'd go in, I'd play their games.

I'd pretend to be more interested than I was

in all this and all that.

And a little sleight of hand.

Yeah, that's actually a good way to put it.

And eventually after a few months,

after a couple of weeks they cracked

and I ended up getting what I originally wanted for it.

So I was happy with that purchase.

Nice, nice.

Yeah, I'll say one thing.

I always wanted a red car and my second red car,

I got two tickets in two weeks.

I was like 20 and I'm like no more red cars ever again.

Now, being 50, I would probably get another one.

But you know, I'm a big fan of Mazda's.

I think I've had about four Mazda's,

Mazda RX7, Mazda MX6, two Miata's over the years.

Mazda's a great car.

Yeah, I've had it 100,000 miles.

The only one thing I had were my,

some of my seals on my engine were starting to go

and needed new seals.

But other than normal maintenance,

I've had zero issues with that car.

Nice, nice.

So you touched on it a little bit earlier, right?

So we have your daily driver.

Obviously your wife has a daily driver.

She does, yeah.

What's your dream car?

It's obviously not a, it's not a Chevy car.

I think maybe the dream car was this Cavalier

out of the gate.

What's your next dream car?

It's his dream.

Okay, dream achieve Chevy Cavalier.

Can't, can't go beyond that.

But I keep all my dreams very low and achievable.

I don't dream big.

I dream extra small.

Yeah, so I like to think of it as the Chevy Cavalier

was a first car.

The Hyundai Sonata was a needed car.

My Mazda 6 is a, yeah, I guess another needed car.

I mean, I was able to pick and choose that one,

but I picked and chose it for the long haul.

I'm usually not one to get a new car every couple of years

just to get a new car.

I mean, I only got new cars as my story goes

just because I needed to.

Cavalier was on its way out, needed to get the Sonata.

The Sonata got damaged, needed another car.

So the dream car actually has always been,

since I was about 10 years old,

the DeLorean from Back to the Future.

Yup, that has always been my dream car.

And I remember the day I saw the movie,

I was about 10 years old,

my folks and I were living at my grandparents house

because my house that I grew up in,

most of my life was being built.

And that's where my folks are now still in Syracuse.

I remember the movie coming on

and watching that iconic scene from Back to the Future

with that DeLorean coming out of the back of that van.

And I just said, oh, this is cool.

This is really cool.

So yeah, so that was one thing I said,

oh geez, I wish I could have one of these one day.

Now look, at 10 years old, you don't really think that.

You don't even really know what any of that means.

But over the years,

it's just something I've always, always wanted.

Nice, nice.

So there's probably a long story about it,

but how did your wife feel about it?

What drove you to finally make that leap into the DeLorean,

knowing that it wouldn't be your everyday car, right?

And it's an expense.

It's not super cheap, it's not Ferrari expensive,

but somewhere in the middle.

Yeah, it was at a point I had forgotten

about the DeLorean for a long time for several years.

I mean, even throughout high school,

something would pop up and it would make me think of it,

but I never really thought I would buy it

or get one or even wanna get one, you know?

So what had happened was I was home from college one day

and there was a gentleman outside of my neighborhood

growing up where my parents live.

And wouldn't you know, he was washing a DeLorean.

And it was the first DeLorean I had ever seen in real life.

And this was on my way home from college,

I think between my first and second years,

I was coming home for the summer.

And long story short, I took my buddy and we went right,

I literally walked there because it was so close.

And we walked to this guy washing his DeLorean.

And I'm like, oh my God, this is a real DeLorean.

This is not a joke, this is not a kick car.

I mean, I could tell it was a real DeLorean.

And I said, we just started talking to the guy,

oh, I've always wanted one of these, I can't believe it.

So that kind of sparked my,

I guess more serious interest in the car

being 18, 19, 20 years old, however old I was.

And a real funny story about it.

And I was still young and dumb, even at 22 years old

or whatever, I think I was like 22, 21, somewhere in there.

I asked the guy, he says, geez,

if you were ever to sell it, how much would you want for it?

And he says, geez, I wouldn't take anything less than 35.

So my stupid head thinks 3,500.

Oh dear.

Yeah, so I go home.

You obviously didn't major in math, Jim.

Yeah, I know.

My goodness, that you're an order of magnitude off, Val.

So my buddy and I are walking back to my dad's house

and I'm like, man, 3,500 bucks, that's really not that bad.

I'm sure my dad would lend me that kind of money, you know?

So long story short, my dad basically made me realize

he wanted 35 grand for the car.

So I just was embarrassed and then,

but over the, I mean, I was 20 and 40 now.

So this was about 20 years ago.

And anytime I had been home to visit for holidays

or whatever, I still looked to see

if that DeLorean was there.

And for 20 years, I saw nothing.

Well, wouldn't you know, last summer I was home.

I actually trailed my DeLorean.

I own a DeLorean now.

I guess we could get into that.

I kind of skipped ahead a little bit there.

Sorry about that.

That's okay.

But I now own a DeLorean, we can get into that.

But I was, I brought my DeLorean up to Syracuse, New York

for a huge annual car show.

And while I was there, wouldn't you know,

the time I am back in town with a DeLorean,

I saw that guy outside with his DeLorean.

After 20 years, he still has it.

And I, of course, brought my DeLorean up

to see his DeLorean and stuff like that.

So it was just quite the experience.

I'm sorry, I just kind of skipped ahead a little bit there.

I just realized that.

No, no, that's okay.

No, it's pretty cool, you know,

going about 20 years over time and-

Yeah.

And I finally picked one up about three years ago

and getting back to you, asking about my wife.

Yeah, my wife was 100% on board.

You know, she knew I had a passion for it.

She knew I was in a position to buy it

and she's been on board the whole time.

And she just loves that I have something that I love

and it's been great.

And she's like, yeah, 100%, you should buy it.

Nice, nice.

Exactly.

All right.

And Christian, if I may,

so you mentioned your very supportive wife.

What does your wife do?

My wife is in real estate.

She's a realtor.

Yep, yep, she's been doing real estate

for about three, going on four years now.

Nice, nice.

And just in Northern Virginia or-

Yeah, Northern Virginia.

Technically, Virginia State,

because that's where she's licensed,

but yeah, she just focuses on the Northern Virginia area.

Okay, wonderful.

So yeah, for you guys listening, Northern Virginia,

we'll put in the show notes.

Yeah, that'd be great.

So Daniel's about a Jim's wife.

What's her name?

Her name's Daniela.

Daniela Grimhina.

So yeah, be on the lookout.

Love that.

Yeah, thank you for sharing that.

So yeah, we are coming up and again,

we're only, it happens more and more often

with these great guests that we have.

We close in on the half an hour mark

and we're just getting into it.

So we're gonna do something.

I believe that yeah, with all my babbling,

we've even gone past the 30 minute mark.

So somebody should really hit the mute button

on me every so often.

So let's do a couple of things here.

We're gonna do something we've never done before.

We're gonna have a two-parter

where we're gonna have Jim back

because we really haven't even gotten

to some of the interesting things

that we spoke about in Jim's pre-production,

which was the fact that he has an Emmy

sitting on his bookcase and we spied it

and we had a zillion questions.

And I found, we got into this fascinating discussion

that we haven't even gotten into now.

So we'd like to have him back.

I would like to chat a little bit more about that.

I would also like to go into a little more detail

around the practical framework

or decision framework that got him into the DeLorean.

First drive, when did he know?

What's it like owning one?

Because it's a huge, a super car.

Any car is a commitment,

but a super car is a next level commitment.

And that itself is quite the story too.

And yeah, I just wanted to stop to save that for later

because yeah, that's a story in itself.

I like on it.

You got it.

If I may, Christian.

Yeah, so just a quick aside, yeah,

we'll definitely have you back to talk more about your,

talk about the Emmy and how you got there

and the DeLorean and everything that's happened since then.

Absolutely.

And for what it's worth,

we have an episode with Kat DeLorean,

born Catherine DeLorean,

but this is John DeLorean's only daughter

and we were so privileged to have her on.

So anybody who hasn't had a chance to listen,

she's just a great lady.

She's doing some really amazing things,

but I won't give it all away,

but it's in the last episode of season one.

So yeah, and we're all happy to talk about DeLoreans, right?

And we actually spoke to a DeLorean.

Which is pretty rare.

Brian on once already, that's great.

Yep, yep, exactly.

Exactly.

Yeah, Brian's one of our favorite episodes.

We hear from a lot of the listenership on that.

Kat DeLorean was very generous with her time.

Wonderful guest.

And yeah, so Jim, Jim,

can we do this again in maybe a week or so?

Yeah, absolutely.

You just, you just named the day in class.

What you got the bad taste out of your mouth?

Yeah, wonderful.

Yeah, 100%.

Lovely.

Well, hey, yeah, it was great meeting you, Jim.

And thank you to my partner in crime,

Doug here for another really fun episode.

The neat thing about this show that means a lot to me

is all the interesting people that I get to meet.

And this has turned out to be a wonderful hobby.

We got to thank Doug for being the prime mover,

the invisible hand, the man with the plan.

So what do you say, Doug?

We'll have him back in a bit here.

Any parting words before I pull into the parking lot,

so to speak?

No, no, just appreciate everybody's support

and loved having Jim on.

Love the idea of the two-part episode.

So yeah, just really can't wait to have Jim back.

Yeah, absolutely.

Should be great.

Well, magic man, it was great to have you stick.

No sleight of hand here.

Everything we do is above board.

Check us out, carslove.com.

Carslove.com.

To all the cars I've loved before,

check us out on your preferred podcast,

straining platform of choice.

And email us, let us know what you think.

You can either use form on the site,

there's feedback, we post quotes,

if you like what you write.

Well, you don't have to use your last name,

first name would be nice.

And as always, reach out to us.

I'm Christian at carslove.com.

He is at Doug at carslove.com.

Please join the conversation.

This motor only runs because you are the gasoline.

Check us out, give us some feedback,

get involved, be a guest.

Thanks for coming along with us on this journey.

We'll see you next week.

Talk to you soon.

Thank y'all, goodbye.

About this episode

Jim Gravina shares his journey from a young car enthusiast in Syracuse, New York, to a proud owner of a DeLorean. He recounts his early experiences driving with his grandfather and the influence of his father's 1980 Camaro, which was restored after years of neglect. Jim discusses his first cars, including a Chevy Cavalier and a Hyundai Sonata, before finally acquiring his dream car, the DeLorean, after years of longing. The episode highlights his passion for cars, the magic of his past, and the support of his wife, Daniela, as they navigate life together.

engine seals salt on the road supercar

Chevrolet Camaro Chevrolet Cavalier Delorean DMC-12 Hyundai Sonata Mazda 6 MPS Mazda MX-5 / Miata Mazda MX-6 Mazda RX-7

Original notes

Click here to share your favorite car, car story or any automotive trivia!

Jim Gravina invites us on a cross-country cruise through his life, filled with classic cars and a touch of magic. Growing up in the ’80s, Jim’s first love is his 1980 Camaro Z28 – a loud, proud muscle car that symbolized freedom on the streets of Syracuse. He then recounts a practical turn with a ’98 Chevy Cavalier and a modern 2014 Mazda 6 as career and family life evolved, proving you can balance car passion with daily responsibility. Yet Jim’s story has a show-stopper: his acquisition of a 1981 DeLorean (yes, complete with gull-wing doors and pop culture flair). He shares delightful details of performing “magic tricks” with the DeLorean at car shows and the car trivia that surrounds this legendary vehicle. Throughout the episode, Jim’s emotional connection to his cars shines – from rebuilding an engine with his dad to using his vehicles to bring joy to others (like surprising kids with rides in the “time machine”).

Jim loved the episode with Brian, "From Ford Tempo to Flux Capacitor – Brian’s High-Octane Car History" https://www.buzzsprout.com/2316026/episodes/15046730-ford-tempo-as-your-first-car-brian-s-unique-car-history

Listeners will come away smiling and inspired, having learned about car restoration and the power of car community, all while riding shotgun on Jim’s heartfelt, nostalgia-fueled journey.

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Listen on your favorite platform and visit https://carsloved.com for full episodes, our automotive blog, Guest Road Trip Playlist and our new CAR-ousel of Memories photo archive.

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

To All The Cars I've Loved Before: Classic Car Restoration, JDM, and Automotive History

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