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Mickey Andrade - EP.84
About this episode
Mickey Andrade joins the Right Hand Drive Guys to share his extensive automotive journey, from his early days in Ohio to his current role as co-founder of Throttle. He discusses his passion for JDM cars, particularly Skylines, and his experiences in Japan, including acquiring vehicles and the unique culture surrounding them. Mickey also dives into his collection of rare Nissan parts and catalogs, emphasizing the importance of enjoying cars rather than just collecting them. His insights on community and automotive culture make for an engaging conversation.
Topics:
JDM culture
Skyline ownership
car collecting
Nissan parts
Throttle
Japan experiences
project cars
automotive community
In episode 84 we get to talk to the legend, Mickey Andrade about his come up in the automotive industry. Including, helping create the drift program for Falken, and Throtl. Listen along and learn.
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Ford Falcon
"...uldn't trade it for the worldAfter moving on from Falcon I worked at a wheel brand. I've worked at an air ..."
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Ford Mustang
"...ed at Falcon we shipped the Vaughn Gettin's first Mustang over there for Tokyo Auto Slon. Oh wow So total t..."
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Nissan R33
"...lines the best to meIHave a couple pictures of my R33 that I could send you that I think any other colo..."
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Toyota Corolla
"...ion magazine with them all laid out S13 S14 S1586 Corolla he had everything they're all red and I think eve..."
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Honda Element
"...ust two stands and two uprights and a wing lit or element And I found one of those so again only in only in..."
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Nissan Gtr
"...nizmo did make a replica wing that looks like the GTR coupe wingWithout the recess lower portion. It's ..."
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Honda Civic
"...kayHonda's man my first car was a Honda as a 1988 Civic hatchback. I bought it for I think three or four ..."
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Hey, and welcome back to another episode of the right hand drive guys podcast the podcast for guys who like right hand drivesI'm your host Bobby. This is your other host Aaron. Yeah, yeah, and we are super pumped to be back here today with another guest episode
Oh, yeah, man. Who is it? Well, you see this guy is actually somebody that we personally got to meet in Japan on our last trip
He was at the top rankTrack day before the top rank owners and so he purchased his 34 from there and we were of course there in my 34 andYou know, he is somebody that I'd known about for quite some time, but you know, I saw him like hey, dudeLike you want to do the podcast and he's like hell yeah, and I was like oh shit. Okay cool. I'll hit you up and
Unfortunately sometimes everybody's busy. It took us to solid six seven months to finally get here
But we're definitely pumped about itWho is it? It's Mickey Andre
Mickey Andre, and otherwise known as one of their creators or the creator of throttle right?
Right. Yeah, he's very busy, dude man. He's always wrenching on something. Yeah, he really is. I think he's done a hundred million project cars
But yeah, so we're excited to finally get him on here againIt's been a long time coming and I know he's definitely got plenty to say so what do you say we get to it?
Dude, let's get right to it. All right episode 84 with Mickey Andre
All right, and we're back with Mickey. What's up Mickey?
What's up, man? Thanks for having me on guys. Absolutely man. We appreciate you coming on
You know ever since we met at Fuji Speedway the iconic Fuji SpeedwayWe've been looking forward to this so it's definitely a pleasure to finally get you on hereYeah, man. That was what January auto salon time. So it's been a few months. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely and I can't imagine
You know how much is really changed for you in that timeA lot but so okay, man, so you know we we kind of know about youBut some of our our listeners may be in the darkSo just like let us know like who even is Mickey really you know what I'm sayingYeah, man for sure soFor those of you that aren't aware of me as a automotive enthusiast I've been working in theautomotive space as a basically behind the scenes as a marketing guy or whatever for 20 plus years at this point
kicked off my career in the state of Ohio Akron areaUniversity of Akron graduate and I owned a sticker shop making vinyl stickers in OhioDid a bunch of work a shop in in California called modern image sign works saw some of my some of my work andMove me out to California to work for themShortly after I started working for them. I moved on to a marketing position. Have felt entire
Where I was one of the first guys brought in to work under a gentleman named Nick andWe promptly started the the drift programand I worked my way into managing that drift program up to a 12 car teamWhen the blue and tear was all over the track you guys probably remember that back in the year 2000sThat was a great air so that was a really fun time in my lifeI was in my early 20s mid 20s traveling the country and the worldDrifting with all these Japanese drivers and all the up and coming American drivers just really cool
So really close relationships with the Chris Forsberg the Vaughn GittensThe older guard from FD and I came up with them basically at the same time, which is really neatAnd I wouldn't trade it for the worldAfter moving on from Falcon I worked at a wheel brand. I've worked at an air suspension brand
So I've got got a pretty well-rounded background in automotiveThat leads me to starting throttle with a couple of my buddies who I met working at the wheel brand. I worked at
Came up with an idea. We want to start this brand called throttle
We want to helpEnthusias who buy and sell use car partsFind them easier without having to go into the forums and put your passwords in every time and all that stuffSo we basically develop the scraperThat would find the part you're looking for for sale in the forums bringing into one placeWe found out that a lot of people weren't finding the parts they wanted so we rotated it over to new partsStarted selling new parts start marketing on YouTube, but here we are todaySo that's kind of the long and short of my history. There's a lot more to it than that of course
Crawl intense and purposes. That's the high-level stuff. So yeah, it's been
You know an obvious journey, you know in that sense and you know, I can't imagine just all theThe little experiences that you've had that have kind of led you you know in this directionMan, yeah going back to the early 2000s when we were building the drift cars for Formula DWhich was I mean back then they were basically street carsYeah, and no rear-mounted radiators no angle kits. No none of that crazy stuff
So I learned pretty much everything I know from theFabricators that we hired to build those glorified street cars for for what they were back thenI owe a lot of debt of gratitude to all those guysThey you know let me come down and sweep the floors after work and learn how to weld and cut fenders andChop knuckles and you know all that little stuff that you don't learn unless you just get in there and do itso that journey has been amazing andYou know the throttle journey, which is what most people see because of our two and a half million the viewership on YouTube
That most will know me from that they don't realize that I have15 years prior in the industry before that it just didn't happen overnightWe just spun up a YouTube channel and here we are. Yeah, super de-lot of work
Yeah, with anything like any time you see someone that's had some level of success or enjoying their theirPosition that their job is because they've probably put in a lot of work. It didn't happen overnight for the most part
So that's one thing that a lot of people don't get they just say oh must be nice. You're right. Well
There's a lot of digging behind it. Yeah, yeah, it's nice now for sure. It's maybe it's nice now, right?
Yeah, I meanYeah, you ever really ever happyRight right right now. I feel like I have to do better and and help more when you can so that's
That's the next step for me is to start to give back the automotive community more than I have already andcontinue to build cool stuff and and learn continue to learnYeah, and in turn people will learn from you which is is also an excellent gift to have in the sense ofBeing able to pass that on the platform that you haveYeah, I hope so andAnd so you know like it like I mentioned man. We we met in Japan like Japan is oh gosh
I mean Japan isAmazing it's hard to explain Japan to people that haven't been there without getting way too excited, right?
Yeah, I mean I do it often I try to to sort of explainWhat makes it so magical or so special to me?
And everybody that goes there I think understands it after they get there and there oh now I see what he was talking aboutBut until you go and really experience it it's hard to explain for sureYeah, it really is and and soHow many times have you been over individual trips now?
Man so starting in 2004 was my first time goingWe when I worked at Falcon we shipped the Vaughn Gettin's first Mustang over there for Tokyo Auto Slon. Oh wow
So total trips I think I'm at about8 or 9 nowsince in 20 years which isn't a lot I've been going a lot more recently and last two yearsI've been doing a lot more and that's because like yourselfI've been acquiring some vehicles over thereBefore they're eligible here in the state so it's nice to go over there and enjoy them andYou know the place we buy the cars from is gracious enough to register them as rental cars for us and let us come there and drive them before they're shipped here to AmericaWhich is amazing. Yeah, that really is
You know and I would say when I bought my carYou know top rank really did stand out solely for that purpose. I knew I wanted to create those memories in Japan because that really connects you
To the car to this levelThat's maybe just a tiny step above you know buying one that's already landed hereYou know you just have all that all those KMs man like all of them. Yeah
Yeah, yeah, and all the tollsBut yeah, no, I mean believe me. I've got two vehicles that are eligible to come here in October and December
And I'm really contemplating not bringing one of them hereAs much as I would love to have it here in my shop andThe ability to drive it when I feel like it. It's also kind of nice knowing I can fly into Japan
Get a cab over the top rank pick a car up and just go driveI don't have to rent something. I don't have to lean on anybody else literally just boom cut and dry go there
Have fun drive and that's the thing like I don't know about youBut I was leery about putting cams on the car like oh, I'm gonna run the miles upWho cares man? Yeah, it's a car. It's meant to be new way to right?
Yeah, now I agree I got 8,000 on mine in Japan right nowLike as far as that I've put on there so you put on itYeah, and so you know, yeah first I'm like oh, it's an R34I should you know limit these miles, but then like you said manI mean it's a whole different level of freedom when you're there, you know, and you have that car to walk out and like you said justTake off it's definitely amazing manYou're experiencingBasically a dream world it was a dream world for me in the beginning when I first started in the automotive industry to go to Japan and drive a
Skyline there whatever you know whatever you're into and to be able to do itWhenever you feel like it is is it very cool and and very reward rewardingAnd so I know that you have traveled you know beyond Japan, you know quite a bit for just differentThings that you've been into, but you know, what is it would you say that just really stands out about youLike what is it, you know that just maybe I would assume makes Japan one of your favorites
You know, this is gonna probably not be the popular answer, but I'm gonna say it anyway. It's the people honestly
YeahAnd not even just the people the culture I think even further like to go down that road is likeWe could learn a lot from the Japanese and their culture there and how they care for one anotherSimple instance you get on the public transit andSomeone maybe coming down with a cold. What do you see?
They're wearing a mask. Oh fair. They're not wearing a mask to protect themselves
They're wearing a mask to protect the others around them andTo me that's like the idealFor that culture like it. It's just they care about one another. We simply don't
People care about one another in America, but not at that levelAnd you know you care about your family you care about your closeFriends and that sort of thing, but a strangerWhatever you think it's sick. They could sit but in Japan is totally different. They look out for everyone
Regardless they know them or not and to me that's really cool andVery humbling and one of the reasons why I love going to Japan because I feel likeThat's where I should have banned my whole lifeYeah, I could relate to thatYeah, it's veryInteresting and then you know obviously living the car car culture lifestyle over there going to die cook whoGoing to theToto gay and checking out the the after hours activities and stuff like that is just
That's kind of like a cherry on top for me and that's like man. I'm living in a dream world at the moment
So every time I go there I get I get giddy and and just enjoy every second time thereYeah, it's almost like a reset, you know like you goYou experience that and it doesn't even have to be lavish or crazy, right like and no and literally you come back with almost like aRenewed sense of I don't know what to call itBut I definitely feel a lot more charged and I'm always of course I'm instantly like how to immigrate into Japan
Yeah, no, I can only imagine manMy trick on our last trip we're driving on the freeway and I look around saidYou're down to move here with me. She looked at me and she
Yeah, I actually am and she won't go anywhere. She's in California girl born and raised San Diego
Loves it here would never go guys San Diego and she's like yeah, I would move to Japan honestlyDang okay, you got around bored. That's what's up, dude
Yeah, no, and that that's what I hear the challenge definitely isAnd so you did mention, you know, you got two cars over there. They're coming to be eligible
You know, we know you got multiple carsYou know back here at home in the states. Yeah
So my question is because we kind of have something in common. We're both going for the the white
3 GTR collection, right and you know, maybe more but you know stage you kind of fits in there 35 kind of it's in thereBut why white man like I got to know like I know why I like white, but but why does Mickey like white?
Well, there's a couple reasons why and so for me white cars show the body lines the best to meIHave a couple pictures of my R33 that I could send you that I think any other colorThe body lines on the car wouldn't appear the way they do on a white car and white cars always look very clean to meAnd I know clean is kind of a cliche word in the car scene like oh, that's cleanBut it means different things right so to me clean is like it stays clean like it doesn't look dirty
As opposed to a black car or darker color car which captures all that road dirt and looks very dirtyWhite cars you can get away with a few extra days without a wash and still looks pretty tidySo to me the crisp cleanness of a white car is why I like them now the reason I went for that was because I was inspired byNo potato ton of Gucci way back in the dayback in like2003 he was basically building a collection of S chassis and they were all red
I remember seeing an option magazine with them all laid out S13 S14 S1586 Corolla he had everything they're all red and I think even at an FD maybe butDon't quote me on that but anyway, I was inspired by thatI thought it was so cool that he had all these premium JDM chassis in all red and just looked so slick soWhen I was able to start buying cars I started buying white and I was like you know what everything I buy is gonna be white from here on outSo I buy a pickup or sports car. It's white. Oh, yeah, and in that
That two so it's a 260 RS is it that you have over there?
Yes, I have aStasia all tech version 260 RSWhich is probably the cleanestCleanest of all the cars that I haveYeah, arguably is the lowest case. It's the most original as far as like it wasn't modded at all when I bought it
other than a grounding kit on the chassisSo very happy as a one owner car and that's the one I was starting to feel guilty about putting the case on butIt's so good man and the more I thought about it like I could let this car sit in a rattle way and not enjoy itOr I can just get in and enjoy it and not care that I might not get that extra five grand on top of sales price if I ever decided to sell this thingLet's be frank. I'm not buying these guys a selling. I'm buying them. Join him. So right?
I'm gonna drive him and that is you know kind of the the difference between not I don't even mean to say this but like aReal enthusiast right like is buying these cars to experience them so to speak as opposed to just kind ofStorm you know and look at him and show their buddies, you knowExactly these are all cars I used to drive in Gran Turismo and you know really popular video games in theLate 90s release 2000s and these were likeI'm a little bit older than you guys so I to me
I was in my like getting ready to buy my first car or had my first carI was like these were aspirational vehicles for me big timeman, I remember driving the aughtack version Ford orR33 andYellow one in Gran Turismo being like what the heck is this thing a Ford or GTR?
I actually was able to buy one and like to me these are pocket list things like I never in a million years were thought that ICould own something like this one because of the geographical challenges is getting it here and to having to wait out the25-year-old and then also being able to afford it and then maintain it soI've been very fortunate last few years and found a good one and bought it and I'm not gonna look back man. I'm just gonna enjoy it and
Those you know this is a common theme between a lot of the guys that weInterview right like they would be in their prime right in these video games and they're playing these cars and it almost gets like burned into their brain andAnd like self manifests right after 10 5020 years and all of a sudden, you know these guys are actually driving, you know, they're aughtack 33sJust like they were you know in that grainy Gran Turismo, you know, PlayStation game
Living that life that we couldn't live back then just doing it nowYeah, and it really is amazing and and I know I can tell you are and I'm definitely enjoying it, you know whileThis time in our lives is like fresh in here. I try to take it in because
These will be the good old days for sureI can tell just these Japan dress and yet acquiring the cars and stuffSo and now that the 34 sorry another 34 is legal in AmericaWe're kind of seeing the heyday of of skyline activity. I think you know
Sadly until probably2027 when the 2002 has become available and they stop coming it's kind of slightly declined probably and the novelty is not gonna be as great butI agree I guess the time will tell yeah, and I think you knowI wouldn't say the novelty is quote unquote like wearing off, but I think it'sSaturating in right now, you know like when these first ones of course started landing and everybody's in Japan driving theirs and you know
I think people are kind of starting to get used to it a little bit evenYou knowSo I know Aaron had a good little little challenge questionWe we got something for you little fantasy action here, so you get to keep all of your current carsBut you have to swap the same motor into all of them. Oh, what would it be? What motor is it gonna be?
Easy answer are be 26 are be 26 and so there it isThey already have itThat I was gonna ask what car actually doesn't have that right now. Yeah, yeah, I have you
But so I haven't have the RX 7 which we know that's an upgrade already. Yeah, although I am I am putting a different engine in my
RX 7 will be rotary but not a 13b, but I would gladly change that for an RVHowever, I won't because I'm a purist soS14 S15 which have SRs and I would gladly change those to RVs so I have to say RVRVs still have the freak thoughI do it does not belong to me though. Oh, I see I see that's a project car. I see what you're saying long story
But that car belongs to throttle. I so in the beginning it belonged to me
But there was some business activities that had to have had to happen and I had to basically sell the car to throttleSo that car is rad and that car has my second choice motor that I would put in every car if I had to so it's got to be a K seriesYeah, I haveK20 NA it doesn't matter. K20 is
Man, I hate to say this but it's probably one of the best motors ever built in my opinionIt just does everything well holds boost super reliableSmall contact lightweightCan be used in rear wheel drive configuration for a draft configuration all wheel drive configurationIt's just it's like the four-banger LSYeah, yeah, and they're like 800 bucks on Facebook marketplace. Yeah, yeah, I bought the engine in the freak
I think for 600 that was a good five years ago now that six years agoYeah, they're just super cool and bulletproof manLike you really got a rag on them to pull them up and stuff so or not take care of them soAreYeah, I mean those are definitely two solid motors by two solid manufacturers. I mean you really really probably couldn't go wrong
So we heard we heard through the grapevine you could say we heardYou're what we would call a hunter and and I'm not talking aboutVenison or deer or anything like that. We're talking about the rarest of the rare we heard you're no one now who options
Well, this is just within reach of me. So let me reach over here. This was my haul from yesterday. Oh
So I collect really weird random stuff from Japan. This would have been a mid-logo decal that came with an exhaust
I see way dudeIt's been something you stuck on your back window your rear bumper or somethingBut I also this room that I'm sitting in it's actually gonna be called the skyline berryI'm gonna have to bring youThere's gonna be a lot of shelves on the walls in here and I am a mad collector ofNissan catalogs and books instead ofScott or the S15 catalogs from the dealer I have every nismoSiparts catalog from 90 sorry 89 to 2020 when they stopped printing it
Every log for every nismo car or any Nissan car ever made even down to the special edition stages and stuff like thatAnd I have a collection of very oldMagazine stuff. This is I don't know if you guys realize who that is. That's Paul Newman. Yeah, yeah
Oh with his guy. I actually saw the Paul Newman R31 at top rank. Yeah, all this alone
So that's the car right there. Yeah, that is sweet. That must have been this is it
Yeah, I mean this I mean stuff's available you can find it, but I just I don't know why I'm in this two or three years agoI started you know getting into the skyline super heavily and you know when you're scouring for partsYou end up finding stuff like this and this is this is probably like maybe a hundredth of what I haveI literally can pack shelves in here with stuff andI have this space that is my own personal space. I call it my hobby shop, but
When I'm not a throttle building cars with the boys. I'm here at night and on the weekends and
I'm gonna eventually open this up to allow people to come visit and thumb through the catalogs and you know if you have a question about when ICertain duffel bag was made by Nismo you can scour through all the accessory catalogs and see what year it was andJust stuff like that. I really the history of all that stuff
And so you know when you're looking for parts you find the stuff so I started buying it andIt's just become almost an obsession for me. See I you could call me a hunter
He's a hunter and so I mean that's very valuable to our community though becauseYou know like you said this stuff's available, but in one place where you knowWhatever you've put in a hundred hours looking for something on the internet, but you can go to Mickey's place and what do you know?
It's right there. Yeah, like this one right here. This I just got this yesterday. This is 2007
This was the only volume that has eluded me for two yearsWow, you just it's not in perfect condition which I don't care because theReason for this this collection is for people to enjoy and the last thing I wanted to be great about getting fingerprints and stuff on itAnd that's why I showed you thisThe silver catalogs. These are so via S15 dealer brochures
This one is brand new so it's in a package and I've left it that way, but I bought another one the second oneThumb through it and actually see like what I mean this is so cool Japan is so awesomeThis is all the stuff that was an option on the car. Oh, I love how they break stuff down
man, it's it's addictive andIt's it's become an addiction for me to find all this cool rare stuff and be able to have it here so that people can enjoy it at some pointSo yeah, I think that's aYou know like a great goal to have to be able to share because you know we buy these things and when we just keep them to ourselves like you knowIt really limits you and inBut okay, so what I want to know is what's the rarest part like your pride and joy?
What's the pride and joyDang it. I would have known you're gonna ask me that question. I would have brought it here today
But it's I keep it actually in the in a climate controlled room that's darkOhI have a disease anywaySo obviously I bought theAutec r33 and ILove mid-Logo stuff. So as I showed you guys this this is the logo. I like
So when you find the round logo, which is he knew maru is what that means. It's the Japanese circle from the flag
That's my favorite era ofSkylands which is basically the golden era which was the r32 r33 and r34And then they switched they had the old logo before them well partially into the r32And then the new logo towards the end of r34But to me the sweet spot was that he knew maru logo or mid logos Americans call itAnd so I started hunting parts for the 33 Autec version which is really difficult becauseSome stuff works from a coupe but a lot of it doesn't and there's a lot of trial in here
I found out a lot of really cool things of what actually fits a two-door and a four-doorThe same which is pretty cool like the side skirts for a two-door fit the four door exactly the sameOh, wow, that's it. So wheelbase is the same the size skirt length is the same
Which is weird you wouldn't know that unless you tried right well in hunting for parts I found the carbonOuter doorCovers I don't know if you've seen the application that go on the 34 B pillars behind your glassSo I think a car a carbon with a clear gel coat over and it says nizmo at the bottom IFound a set for a four-door which oh wow is ultra rareBecause you know, that's what that's a part that you bought for a car you bought for your car you stuck it onOnce it's stuck you're probably not gonna be able to remove it in one piece or nicely and it gets ruined
I found a brand new in the box set of all so because it's a four-door it has six piecesSo has the front door pillar the rear door pillar and then the little triangle in the rear glass window and that's where it says nizmoSuper trick piece if I pulled out one of those other catalogs over thereI could show you it in the catalog. It was only present in the catalog for two years and
It disappearedSo finding a brand new in the box to me. That's like treasure hunt of all treasure hunts
I don't even want to use them. I bought a used set
I found a used set piece it together and I refinished it and put that on my carI won't even use the set I bought brand new wowMan that is that is wild to really think about because that was such a limited car that parts like thatWe're lucky they were even manufactured let alone you know actuallySpares yeah, I mean that's brilliant heard of I meanYeah, and so there's another there's another part to that just don't I mean so the rear wing for the 33Autek version because the trunk as you know is a 33 owner the trunk is sunk down right on a coupe and then the
Fenders come up and so the wing from nizmo or from NissanSits in that recess and makes it flatWell on the sedans it's straight across there is no recessBut nizmo did make a replica wing that looks like the GTR coupe wingWithout the recess lower portion. It's basically just two stands and two uprights and a wing lit or element
And I found one of those so again only in only in the nizmo catalog for one or two years and they may have made ten of themI don't know they may have made two they may have made a hundred. I don't know but finding them is like
Finding hen's teeth. They're just they don't exist
So I was able to find one though so it that gives you idea where I'm going with my 33 buildYeah, dude, I think it's sick. That's probably one of my favorite R33s
Really yeah, yeah, the all 33s are hot, but dude yours is just like with the T.E. is the white
The white on why so nice?
Well, it's about to get changed up a little bit boys, but yeah, I'm actually behind what I'm looking at on my computer screenIf you guys interviewing me is a picture of it at Willis Springs and I can see it and so it'sIt is I love the way it looks now currently, but man I got ISaved up all the parts to basically I'll tell you guys here is exclusiveI'm basically turning it into the all tech version nizmo model the only made one of I've scoured the world found every part to recreate the carDown to the decals that are on it
WowThe nizmo car that was on display atTokyo, Oslo in 1998 and only one exists is gonna be the color and it was yellow is the gameIt was the one I played in the video game that was the actual unit mine will be whiteYeah, yeah, which I mean like you said, I mean that white makes it individual, but those parts manNobody will have that which I know isn't the point, but I mean that's just wild that kind of almost have a one-of-oneYeah, and that's the goal for it, you know the car has some k's on it
It did get a chassis refresh at Tokyo PrinceBack in 2019 so it handles and feels like a brand new carBut it has high k's it's not a cream puff by any meansIt's meant to be driven and and I'm enjoying the crap out of itI'm gonna mod it make it a one-of-one style car and who knows maybe I'll sell it someday, but IReally don't think I will yeah, I mean with that low production number and then those partsI mean and it kind of seems to be kind of a common theme like you get these cars and you know
They're beautiful nice cars, but you turn them into drivers carsNot in like a negative way because somebody will use that in a negative way, but yeah, you knowUnderstand what you mean you drive them you actually do drive them which it which is yeah, not the case for all of these cars that get brought overEnjoy it man like you only have one life to liveYou could be gone tomorrowI would feel terrible if I was gone tomorrow and I had all these cars sitting in the garage and I didn't get to enjoy
I'm so that's my mentality now it isIt took some years on me to to figure that out because I had cars in the past that I sat on and justDidn't enjoy because I didn't want to put my eyes on themIt's dumb. Yeah, it's true. Especially if if you can afford them. Why not enjoy them, you know
Exactly, I mean again, there's there's a case forever if you've got a one of tenWho knows what Porsche or 918? I don't know what it is, but like if you've got something ultra rare like that sure
I get it, you know, I could be worth a million two million dollars at some point, but none of these cars I meanYou know white GTR's the most common color pretty much for every GTR is whiteSo we're not talking about anything super rare of course my 34s of V spec which makes it a little bit more specialBut is it really right they made a couple thousand of them?
Yeah, I might as well. It's not that special
Yeah, enjoy itAll right, what is it would you have for him? Yeah, dude. What's up next for you?
What's next for me?
Yeah, so you know my rolls change a little bit of throttleWe've got a good team there now Ricky and Quinn have been killing it in the shop and my rolls change is sort of theProject manager I basically in it has for the last year year and a halfBut not doing as much on camera now. I'm doing a lot more behind the scenes building the cars on spreadsheet
Getting the parts or getting everything in so the guys have products every day to install on the carsAnd basically just planning the builds soIt's what I really enjoy doing as you've seen on all my personal carsI take a lot of time and pick the right parts and put out the whole package together so it all works well togetherIt looks nice and I'm really enjoying it. It's a bit
Different because I'm not on camera every day, which I used to be still a content creatorBut doing a lot more project planning and building of the cars in the backgroundSo it's a little different world these daysAnd aside from that as I told you previously I've I've got my own hobby shop now where I store all the cars andAnd I'm building my skyline verySo that gets all my extra timeI haven't been going to car meets as much which I need to be doing more of but I really want to share these cars with with all the local car
Community here, so I need to do that moreWhich is like hard right because you want to be in the shop working on themBut you want to have them at the me, but you know, yeah, it is that that balances tough and sometimes yet time gets away from youThat's the thing so you got to keep in mind that likeFrom nine to five every day. I'm at throttle or longer
And then I come here after hoursAnd do my own personal stuff. I don't know Saturday morning when everybody's rolling out the cars and coffee. I'm laying there and beg gone
I've been working on cars all week. I kind of just want to go walk down by the beach or
Yeah, grab breakfast or you know, it's not IDon't need to be doing cars a hundred percent of the time which I have done for like the last 20 years in my life, soRecently, I've been kind of pulling back a little bit, but I realize I need toTo be more involved and really to help the community grow and to share these cool cars that you know, we've all collectedSo it's neat to get them out and let people enjoy themYeah, and I could see you know the consumption like it consumes you for a long time right andIn time time like goes by very fast and all of a sudden you are like, okay
Well, I kind of need to have some of these other parts of my life be more of a constant as well. I could relate to that for sure
soAll right, we we were last night. We're like all right
Yeah, we got we get Mickey on the show tomorrow like we're excited. You know, we had
This question for you which I didn't put in the outline. All right, if this is it. This is a surprise all right
I hit me with it. Okay, is Mickey a Honda boy or a Nissan dude?
officiallyI'm a Nissan dude. He's a Nissan dude
He's a Nissan dude 100% okayHonda's man my first car was a Honda as a 1988 Civic hatchback. I bought it for I think three or four grand the year 1994
1993 I don't know I'm old but anyway, I got in the Honda's that wayOf course I broke it my dad helped me fix it and I got the bug for working on cars and bought a young oneSII had more CXs than I could countA bunch of efs so yeah, I love Honda's man listen started my my love for cars and working on cars and and understanding how to work on cars because Honda'sSo simple to work on. Yeah, they made it fun
It made it fun and not intimidatingHad I started with a 3000 GT twin turbo or something like that?
Yeah, I want to give a quick cars as much or a Volvo or something that's like a pain in the ass to work onsoMy obviously I've mentioned that I played a lot of Gran Turismo and stuff back in the dayThat's where I sort of grew into liking like you knowgrubayJGTCThat's type of stuff and those type of cars and aspiring to own something like that or a street going version of one of those race carsfast forward
To today here we areI'm able to now for those things and I want toExperience that in real life. So as we spoke about you know briefly previously
That's where we're at and so I've become sort of I've graduated from Honda's to Nissan's I don't think I'll go back to Honda's althoughthe FK8 and the FL5 are fantastic carsI've driven both of them and and completely blown away because I feel like Honda lost their wayAfter about 2002 to aboutDamn almost recentlyYeahPretty much my whole career in automotive after I moved to California
Honda really hasn't made a digestible platform for meSo it kind of forced me to look elsewhere and I've always been you know looking at skylinesBut they've been on a battalion. So here we are now they're available
I'm a skyline guy. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, that's what's up man
Absolutely making and and we we definitely appreciate you carbon out some time here for us tonight manToo easy guys. I love it. I'm sorry. It took so long to get on here. I'm spend busy and I'm glad you stuck with me here
And thank God it's got us together. Oh, yeah, man. Well worth the wait and hey
So did did I hear that your favorite NHL team is the Anaheim mighty ducks?
Is that is alive? That's a lie. Who is it?
I actually go to a lot of ducks games because I'm only about 30 minutes from the arena and I actually I play on the arena before some of the ducks gamesWith this group that I play hockey with which is really cool experiencing aFast-paced game on a professional arena isIs second to none like I it's right up there with driving the skylineThe boards are so predictable the ice is perfectly manicured like you know what to expect when you bounce a puck off the glassIt goes where you want to go legit like as we play at yeah legit lighting. Yeah
Yeah, I'm actually a Pittsburgh penguins fan believer in our Pittsburgh fan. How yeah, man?
So I get a lot of hate for that a lot of people hate the penguins because of their successes and some of the players that they've drafted and stuffBut at the same time I grew up in Akron, Ohioin the as born in 76 so I grew up I started playing hockey started skating was 15 months old started playing hockey in ourthree and so I was a huge Edmonton, Williams fan because they were aPowerhouse back then with Wayne Gretzky and Paul Koff you know those guys and thenPittsburgh was only two hours away from Akron, Ohio
So my family would take me to pens games once in a while when I was good andI played in some tournaments in Pittsburgh so I just became sort of a penguins fan by defaultAnd then right before I moved to California, Ohio got the Columbus Blue JacketsYeah, and they've rivaled me to the penguins so I don't really care for the Blue Jackets too muchBut today's the diehard penguins fan just from being a kid and rooting for them and getting to see Mario play and you knowI got the igloo and it's just it's one of those things, man
It's just ingrained and you I'm sure you're the same way with your team. Now it's something you've
cheered for your whole life andI'm a hockey fan in general. I'll watch any game that's on I'll watch the ruins. I'll watch the Nordic or they're not even around anymore
Yeah, I watch any hockey dude. Yeah, and that's like passion, right?
You know, that's like that real passion that stuck with you from three years old literally and until this day and a lot of peopleMaybe haven't had something like that and so you're you I you know people like us are definitely lucky to have experienced things like thatYeah, so I still play two or three times a week now in factSome of your audience might be familiar with a guy named TJ hunt. He's actually a friend of mine
And we actually play on the same beer league teamSo how are those knees holding up?
His or mine yoursMinor great. Yeah, those are fantastic
II'm 47 now and I'm playing in a league with guys in their 20sSo I I'm still hanging in there and enjoying ithaving a blast and this the thing like most of you guys all know me as a car guyBut I always tell people this I'm a hockey guy that's just in the cars. I'm actually
Back soon about ice hockey that I am cars believe it. Yeah, and like you said it's that early like ingrained, you know from three years old
How could you not be man?
Yeah, and my fan is all hockey players like all my nieces nephewsFigure skating hockey my dad was a hockey player my mom was a figure skating coach like wow it's justIt was it was my whole life until I got into cars and that's where things sort of pivotedI moved to California and cars kind of just took over my lifeTook a couple years off hockey and immediately went right back to it and haven't looked back man. I just I love the game
It keeps me groundedI love the the code of ethics that are involved with the gameThere's a game in a game going on all the time and and to me that's fun and a fun challenge and keepsKeeps things exciting. Yeah, and you know, it would if cars were it that would be it would be
Too much and not enough at the same time, right? I mean you got to have those other
Those other things that as you say kind of keep you groundedYeah, and if you look at my social media, you won't see too much hockey contentI am every time I post something though. I get a lot of DMs and hey more hockey content. Hey show us. Oh
Yeah, I don't really because it's my private life and I'm a pretty privateI don't put a lot of umWhat I do outside of cars on social media is because I it's my time andI don't want to feel like I owe anybody anythingum as much as I know our audience and stuff appreciate seeing what we do outside of cars umTo me, it's just a private thing and yeahOh, yeah, hockey's my outlet. So like I just want when I walk into the rink man my phone doesn't come out of my pocket. I
Don't know. I just I just turn off and I enjoy it. Don't spoil it for sure. Keep it sacred like that
ExactlyAll right, Mickey. We'll let you get back to it back to back in the workshop over there
But we definitely again appreciate you coming on man and uh hopefully maybe we'll see you in Japan sometime at the end of the yearIs yeahWell, as you know, I blew up my R34. I wasn't gonna say it
I'm too uh, oh man. I man. I have the video content from what it happened and I handled it so well
Like I literally just I opened the door kicked it open and looked at my video guy and said wellThat's how it goes sometimes just door and walk away. We did. Now what can you do?
Yeah, it is and the car is tired and old and now it's time for a new engine which I was planning to do when it got here anywayso umI'm gonna be going back hopefully the way it looks in September to build an engine umHope capture that content so keep an eye on my Instagrams and throttles socials for that andThen I'm their top rank is planning on using my car for a ours meeting in October. Oh nice
As they're justShowcase the engine we're gonna build umSo it's kind of neat. I'm gonna go back a couple times
I think before the end of the year and then of course I'm gonna go back and change your riff or autos lawnSo it's a lot of traveling um, I don't need them prepared for it, but umThe stuff has to get down and it's really cool stuff. So how yeah buck the more time I
YepYep, awesome mammal. We definitely look forward to connecting with you again, man
I really hope you enjoy the rest of your eveningThank you guys and yeah when you're ready to have me back on just shoot me a message. Oh yeah, man. Good talking. We're gonna much peace. All right. Thanks boys later
Dude Mickey like Mickey Mickey Mickey is so cool, manI like when we're in Japan. We didn't really get to like hang out with him
It was kind of an impassing thing and uh, yeah likeThat was that was a cool episode. Yeah, dude's a cool guy and he's got you know sick car collection
Like you touched on the the white the YGTRsBuilding that collection. Dude is a tech 33 with some of
the rarest parts likeYou know insane. I feel like the rarest part this man has is the true passion
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, the true passion that true. Yeah, he like he really
He's not like overboard about it, right? Like it's not like this like turn off. It's like
Inspiring like wow, you know, he openly said he's 47 years old. He's his head is still in the game
So heavily that he'sUp late looking for the Nissan catalogues dude because he wants to share themAnd this is why I say like this is a rare part like he wants to share themHe doesn't want them all for himself to hoard them to say I have all these catalogues nowHe wants to share him so that you can find what you need so that they can find what they need andIt's a communal type thing. Yeah, dude. I mean
Insane. Yeah, I mean that was what really stood out
To me about him is you know, you know, sometimes when you have these guys that find success like that the YouTubeYou know Instagram all these different things they kind of forget about the community side of it because it's easy to get like kind ofYou know stuck in it of being about you. Yeah, but he really didn't do that and uh, yeah
I mean, I'm excited. He he told us to make sure to hit him up to get him back on here and
You know, we'll let him get that 34 motor bill and like let him get some progress and then we'll try to get him back on it and really talk aboutYou know how he kind of went from a blown motor at Fuji to a total rebuilt car that isYou know featured at the top rank booth. Yeah, probably gonna be sick. Yeah, it is. I can't wait
So for episode 84 with Mickey. We definitely appreciate you listening along
You know, we forgot to ask him his socials, but you can f it's you knowAt throttle at Mickey Andreid and you find him on Instagram pretty easilyBut yeah, we appreciate you listening along. I'm Bobby. This is Aaron. See ya. Peace
[Music]
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