Mike Chan of AHC Garage: Florida to AZ Podcast, NSX Community & Honda Stories

Mike Chan of AHC Garage: Florida to AZ Podcast, NSX Community & Honda Stories Hard Parking with Jhae Pfenning · Jun 12, 2026

Annotations will appear as you listen

0:00

77:55

Car

Honda S2000

The S2000 is a Honda roadster that enthusiasts love. It’s known for being fun to drive and for the engine revving high.

Car

DC2 Type R

This is a Honda Integra Type R, and “DC2” is the car’s model code. Type R means it’s the more performance-focused version, usually with better tuning and parts than the regular model.

Concept

A rebuilt title means the car was once written off as a total loss, then fixed up and approved to be driven again. It can be a red flag for buyers because the history is more complicated than a clean-title car.

Car

87 Honda Civic Si

This is a Honda Civic Si, which is the sportier version of the Civic. The “Si” usually means it’s meant to be more fun to drive than the regular model, and “87” means it’s from the 1987 model year.

Car

Ford F150

The Ford F-150 is a large pickup truck. It’s designed to carry cargo in the back and tow things when needed. People talk about it a lot because it’s very common and comes in different versions.

Car

91 Honda Civic

A Honda Civic is a small, everyday car that’s also popular with car fans because it’s reliable. Here, “91 Honda Civic” means a 1991 Civic, and they’re talking about it as an automatic, which affects how it drives.

Term

four speed automatic

A “four-speed automatic” means the car’s automatic transmission has four forward gears. That can make the shifts feel different than newer cars with more gears.

Concept

rebuild title

A rebuild title means the car was previously written off as a total loss, then got fixed up and passed inspection. It can be a warning sign because the car may have had serious damage before it was repaired.

Car

Civic Dx

This is a 1991 Honda Civic DX, which is a small car from the early 1990s. It was made for everyday driving and is known for being straightforward to own. The host is mentioning it because it was their first car.

Term

hatch

A “hatch” means the back door opens upward and the cargo area is part of that same opening. It usually makes the car easier to load than a normal trunk.

Brand

Wings West

Wings West makes aftermarket car styling parts. The speaker is saying their Civic had a Wings West body kit, which changed how the car looked.

Term

straight, straight pipe

A straight pipe means the exhaust is set up to be very loud, with little or no muffling. It’s the kind of mod people do for sound, even though it can be annoying.

Term

body kit

A body kit is a set of add-on parts that change how the car looks, like bumpers or side pieces. Here, they’re saying they didn’t wait for it to fit properly and just mounted it quickly.

Term

drilled it onto the car

Drilling parts onto a car is a DIY fitment method that permanently mounts an aftermarket component. It can be necessary for some body kits, but it also risks misalignment and can create holes that are hard to reverse.

Term

GSR wheels

“GSR wheels” means wheels from a Honda GSR-style setup. They’re talking about using different wheels to make the car look cooler.

Term

clear corners

Clear corners are replacement front light lenses where the turn-signal area looks clear instead of amber. People change them mainly for the look.

Car

99 Civic EX

The Civic EX is a nicer trim level of the Honda Civic than the basic ones. This “99 Civic EX” was used as an everyday car for commuting, school, and deliveries.

Part

underbody spoiler kit

An underbody spoiler is a piece that sits under the car to help the air flow better underneath. It’s usually added to improve how the car feels and looks, and sometimes to help with stability at speed.

Term

forums

A “forum” is a website where people post questions and answers. Car forums are where owners talk about their cars and help each other out.

Brand

Gran Turismo

Gran Turismo is a popular racing video game. The host is saying their online racing name came from playing that game.

Concept

endurance

Endurance means a race that lasts a long time. It’s more about staying consistent and managing the car than just going as fast as possible for a short period.

Term

bumper plug guy

A “bumper plug” sounds like a small piece that goes in the front bumper area. The host is saying people recognized them because they were known for that kind of modification.

Car

Acura Integra

The Acura Integra is a compact car made by Acura. It’s designed to be more fun to drive than a typical everyday commuter. People mention it because it has a strong fan base and many versions over the years.

Term

cold air intake

A cold air intake is a modification that helps the engine breathe cooler air. It can make the car feel a bit quicker and usually makes more noticeable intake noise.

Term

V tech

VTEC is Honda’s system that changes how the engine’s valves work. It helps the car feel better at low speeds and also make more power when you rev it.

Term

OEM plus

“OEM plus” means you upgrade the car, but in a way that still feels like it came from the factory. Think subtle improvements—better parts or small upgrades—rather than a totally different build.

Term

oil leak

An oil leak means the car is losing engine oil from somewhere. If it’s leaking onto hot parts, it can smoke and can be a problem that needs to be repaired before driving.

Part

valve cover

The valve cover is a top engine cover that helps keep oil inside the engine. If its gasket gets old or damaged, oil can leak out and make a mess (and sometimes smoke if it hits hot parts).

Part

turbo manifold

The turbo manifold is part of the exhaust system that feeds the turbo. If oil leaks onto it, the oil can burn on contact with hot metal, causing smoke and making the problem more urgent.

Term

seal

A seal is a part that keeps fluids from leaking. If seals are worn, oil or coolant can leak, and fixing them is part of restoring the engine to a healthy, leak-free state.

Term

compression test

A compression test checks how well each cylinder is sealing and building pressure. If one cylinder has low pressure, it can mean something inside the engine is worn or damaged.

Term

low compression

Low compression means that cylinder isn’t making the right pressure. The engine might still run, but it usually indicates wear or damage inside that can get worse.

Term

pitted

“Pitted” means the inside surface of the cylinder has little holes or rough damage. That can stop the engine from sealing properly, which can lead to low compression.

Term

carbon fiber spoiler

A carbon fiber spoiler is a wing-like piece on the back of a car. It’s made from a lightweight material, and it can help the car look sportier (and sometimes improve airflow).

Term

exterior carbon fiber kit

An exterior carbon fiber kit is a set of outside parts made from carbon fiber. People get it mainly for the sporty look, and sometimes because the parts can be lighter.

Term

downpipe

A downpipe is part of the exhaust system right after the turbo. Changing it can help the engine breathe better and can make the turbo respond more quickly.

Term

charge pipes

Charge pipes are tubes that move boosted (pressurized) air from the turbo system to the engine. Upgrading them can help airflow and can be part of a performance setup.

Term

cups

Here, “cups” sounds like parts used to lower the car. The goal is usually to change ride height and stance, not to change the engine.

Car

Acura Nsx

The Acura NSX is a sports car made by Acura. It’s meant to be fast and exciting to drive, and it’s usually more expensive and less common than regular cars. People mention it when they’re talking about special features or ownership.

Concept

pre-order program

A pre-order program means you reserve/buy the car before you actually get it. The host is saying the NSX Type S pre-order process didn’t go smoothly.

Car

NSX

The Honda NSX is a special sports car from Honda. It’s known for being a real driver’s car, not just a flashy one, and it has a big enthusiast community.

Term

NC one certified tech

“NC one certified tech” means that a technician has been officially trained and tested by a program. It’s a way of saying they’re qualified to work on certain cars and systems to a standard.

Car

Master Tech

“Master” here doesn’t sound like a car model. It refers to a top-level mechanic or technician who has extra training. The point is that the person working on cars is highly qualified.

Term

camshaft

A camshaft is a rotating part inside the engine that controls when the engine’s valves open and close. If there’s a camshaft problem, the engine timing can be off and the car may run poorly.

Term

ABS system

ABS is the system that helps keep your wheels from locking up when you brake hard. It helps the car stay steerable, and here they’re talking about having (or needing) the ABS parts for their NSX.

Term

SOS kit

“SOS kit” sounds like a bundle of parts for a specific job. The speaker doesn’t explain what’s inside it here, so it likely refers to a known kit in their NSX community.

LIVE

This is Heart Park and brought to you by right Honda and right Toyota out of Scottsdale,

Arizona.

I'm your host Jay Finning, recording for my home studio here in Gilbert, Arizona.

If you're a big fan of AHC Garage, that's Acura Honda Classic Garage out of Pembroke

Pines, Florida.

You're in for a big treat today and if you've never heard of them before, you're also in

for a big treat.

Mike Chan of AHC Garage and Acura Pembroke Pines flew out here from Florida to Arizona

to record a podcast episode and go on a cruise with us and afterwards went out and had some

good food.

In fact, I'm actually wearing an Acura Honda Classic shirt that he gave me an awesome shirt.

This is the only time I'm going to wear this shirt until October, which will be NSXPO in

Orlando, Florida.

So I'm definitely looking forward to that reunion.

After this word from ARCUS Foundry's Spartforge, Mike Chan.

If you're on a business and you're tired of juggling tools, chasing logins and constantly

feeling like the tech side of things is heavier than it should be, this might hit close to

home.

That tech fatigue usually shows up as an outdated website, reviews slipping through the cracks,

missed calls when you're busy, or social media that's always on the back burner.

Most business owners know something's off, but fixing it feels like a bigger project

than they have time for.

Spartforge is just to take that weight off.

It handles the tech behind the scenes, helps clean up how your business shows up online,

makes sure calls and messages don't get mixed, keeps reviews from slipping through the cracks,

and wrangles social marketing so you don't disappear for weeks.

If you're curious, there's a short discovery session and it comes with 90 days free to

actually see if it makes things easier.

No pitch, no pressure, just a real conversation about what's working, what's broken, and

what you can simplify.

So head over to getsparkforge.ai forward slash hard parking to get started.

Chan, Mike, Mike Chan, racing us from all the way from Florida.

Yeah.

H.C. Garage, Acura Hondas, Pembroke Pines, Acura Pembroke Pines, thank you for joining

us at Heart Parking Man.

Yeah, I appreciate it, man, it's great to be here.

Brought some gifts, you hooked me up with some really cool shirts, you know, and I made

you a cheapo shirt, you know, hot on the press.

We don't sell them, so.

Oh, shit.

No, we don't sell any of those things, so just for us to use, and especially, you know,

those names could get inflammatory when you start selling things like that, and especially

have a lot of respect for those companies, so I'm not going to do it.

Yeah, good call.

So why are you here?

We need to get to know each other, so that's kind of the joke, right?

Yeah, yeah, you know, it is so funny because Ardrey mentioned it about you.

Cool, you're automotive.

Yep, yep, yeah, so sponsor.

So Ardrey, and well, I recently bought a NA1, and I also have an NC1, and Ardrey's always

wanted me to be involved in the NS6 community.

Not that I'm not, but he just wanted me to get more involved, and this year happened

to be in Orlando, right in my backyard, it was only three hours away, so I got to make

it, and Ardrey is such a nice dude.

He's great.

He's like, dude, you got to talk to Jay, you got to talk to Jay, you guys don't like,

you got to go like each other, you got to do it, you got to do it, you got to do it.

And I don't know, did he text you, or you text me first, or how, or I text you?

I think you may have texted me, but he gave me your number, and you beat me to the punch,

we'll put it this way.

Or something like that, right?

And well, we don't really know each other, we've probably seen each other before in one

of those events.

But I don't know where you're like, dude, we don't know each other, or something along

the line.

It's going to my podcast.

Like, what?

Who does that?

What?

Me.

Exactly.

I'm like, if he's crazy enough to invite me, don't even know who I am, and I could blow

up his spot, I'm going to come through.

We could use the boost.

It's funny because we know, apparently we know a lot of the same people, and to your

point, we've probably been at the same event, probably within the same hundred feet of each

other multiple times without really knowing.

Because you know, you start doing the, oh, let me go through his social media, like, oh,

I know that guy.

Oh, look, I've taken a selfie with this person too, you know, and it's funny this community,

the car community period, right?

But I always tell people, and it could be the same with other car manufacturers, I don't

know.

But the Honda family, the Acura family, we're a tight close, and even without even knowing

each other.

Well, one thing add on to that, our buddy John, shout out to John, I work with him every

day, and I think a few years ago, we hosted a car made out of dealership, and you happened

to be in town.

Yeah.

He was like, Mike, he was there.

He was with us.

That's funny.

I had no idea.

I guess you just happened to be in town.

That was the one time that I've even gone to anything like that in Florida.

My wife has family in Florida, but that's the only time I was able to get away and just

do some car stuff.

Yeah.

Yeah, I was right there at your dealership.

I had no idea.

Well, here we go.

That's why I'm here.

Well, again, you know, welcome.

Why AHC Garage?

We have so much stuff we can get to because I want to know more about you, but you know,

with these cool shirts and the things that a lot of people watching or listening, you

know, know.

Yeah.

You know, why AHC Garage?

Well, we started off with just a car meet.

We just want to get people together, a place where people can hand out so many negative

stigma with the Honda and Acre community.

You know, when you go to a Honda, a car meet is like, oh, it's a shit show.

I didn't want that.

And fortunately enough, my owner, he is a car nut and he's a car guy and he's like,

hey, use my facility for a car meet.

And we sort of did that, I think, 2018 toward the end of the year.

And we had a great turnout, man.

We had like 60 cars.

I mean, at that time, just like...

That's kind of a great turnout.

Yeah.

I mean, we didn't have social media handle just, you know, hey, just come out.

I think we had like 25 NS6s, if not more, like 30 S2000s, just friends.

And so when I got home that day, I'm like, man, we'll turn into something.

So I try to come up with a name.

I like the older car.

I like the newer cars.

I like Honda.

I like Acre.

How can I combine everything together without missing anybody?

So Acre Honda Classic, there you go, boom.

How did you get away with that?

Well, at that time...

Because, you know, the brand can be very aggressive.

Yes.

I never thought of that at that time.

That time was just like a name.

Like, you know, there are people who would handle, it was like, hey, NC1 Mike.

You know, AP2 Joseph.

I don't know.

It's just Acre Honda Classic.

It was no intention to make any profit out of it.

It was just a place to hand out.

Yeah, pretty much just that.

And obviously, as the story kept going, it turned to a little bit of that, right?

So then fast forward a few years later, we kind of want to create a YouTube channel to

darken some of the stuff that we do.

At that time, I bought a rebuilt title DC2 Type R from a good friend of mine.

At one point, we sort of co-owned the car.

I mean, that's dated back, this is 2004, 2005.

Well, that's, yeah.

Yeah.

That's fresh after...

I mean, those are then...

They were still around.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

And then the car had like different swap.

It went through so many different stages, and the car was sitting in its driveway for

like years, many, many years, and it goes one day, and let me just, you know, we want

something to play around with.

I got a bunch of good guys, super knowledgeable, let's just do it.

And we saw a YouTube channel just sort of darkened what we do, and so we can look back

at it.

It's like, hey, look.

Great.

Hey, look, idiot.

Yeah.

We did that.

Yeah.

Just really for us.

Yeah.

And then from there, it kind of turned into, well, hey, Mike, how, or hey, John, hey, Miguel,

hey, everybody, how do you do this?

Well, okay, go to this video and scroll to 1226 and just kind of watch it.

From there, kind of just like a weekly upload and then turn to something bigger.

So YouTube could be becoming a thing.

So at one point, uh, don't quote me on this.

I think the YouTube channel is just a current classic.

It was the same name.

Sure.

We didn't start monetizing until we started.

Don't quote me on this.

I think 2000, 2020, don't quote me, 2020, maybe, I think we'll start monetizing 20,

maybe in the middle of 2022.

I know we qualify for it, but we didn't, we really weren't pulling numbers or anything

right?

We weren't keeping it pure because we didn't want any commercial because we didn't care

for it.

Yeah.

You know?

And because once you, you know, monetize, then you get commercials.

We didn't want that like, hey, when you want to watch a video, you're like, oh man,

okay, it's just going to help me with my car.

And next thing you know, commercial.

Yeah.

You know?

So I didn't want that.

And you kept a little ticker off, you know, when it asks you if you want to monetize the

video.

Yeah.

A good friend of mine, like, hey, Mike, you got to do it, man, because it just costs so

much money for you to do this type of stuff.

And that can just sort of help you offset some of the costs.

And that's just kind of like, you know what, let's just do it.

And then I knew that time it could be a problem.

You know, I worked for a franchise dealership.

I understand intellectual properties is a thing.

Yeah, it's a big thing.

And I respect that.

Yeah.

And like, I'm like, agronomic classics, just not good.

It just, it's just not good, especially I work for a franchise dealership and such

of I have such great relationship with a lot of factory folks.

I just want to get, I just didn't want to get into that, that gray area.

So I switched us to AXC garage and really no problems, no, no issues at all.

No, no issues at all.

So, so far, good.

So on your, on your main website, you sell like a lot of like trinkets and stuff and

cool little things.

And then of course the YouTube page and the Instagram, it's videos on, I think there's

one right now on like a civic bill that I was watching the other day.

Yeah.

I always say this with, with, with social media or specifically with YouTube.

This type of stuff with us with podcasts, it's hard because people have to be looking

for it.

I mean, people are going to look for you.

No one's looking for me.

But when you upload a video and you're solving a problem, a DIY how to, like that's the gold.

You know, it's like I, when I first started this channel, it was, it wasn't just for the

podcast, it was for everything.

And so my most watched videos are shit I've done on my cars or product opening or microphone

reviews.

But I don't, you know, I don't want to just keep buying microphones just through microphone

reviews.

But I think that's part of the gold and especially being Honda's and Acura's, you know, there

may be a lot of pages out there, but there's not a lot of pages with the right type of

content where people understand.

Sure.

Maybe the first time you do it, you set up your microphone and your, your

phone and you lean in against what the fucking washer fluid thingy inside a hard angle and

everything sucks, but people are watching it and they're like, what did they, what did

they say?

You know, most replayed part of the video.

But when you set it up to where they can actually see what you're doing and you kind of explain

your way through it, you know, that's kind of the magic.

How long did it take you guys to figure that part of it out when you're first doing it?

You're not thinking about that.

You're just doing it.

Well, the fortunate thing for me is that I had, I had a mentor.

So he worked with me as well.

His name is Brian.

So shout out to Brian too.

I always give pure credit when credit is due because without him, I wouldn't have the courage

to do it.

So when we saw, when we saw the YouTube channel, even on Instagram and everything else, the

first couple of years, they call me the most private public person out there.

My faith was not there.

Yeah.

I didn't want to be on any spotlight.

You're doing faceless before is even a thing.

You came to hear my voice.

I think I sound stupid to be quite honest, but, but, uh, so Brian was helping me with

the YouTube channel along with John and Miguel and a few other guys and, um, maybe six to

eight months into it, uh, Brian, he has his own, uh, YouTube channel called pink society.

I think he has, he has close to 650,000 subscribers right now and his channel was, was really

getting a lot of traction.

DIY show up here, how to paint cars for, for a pros and for DIYers and he's really, really

talented and, um, so he's, he was, he was sort of my host for a very long time and he's

like, Mike, listen, people start recognize that maybe this is my channel.

I don't have no problem helping you.

I, I'm all for you, but I think we're going to need a face for this channel because now

we start doing like every other week upload and, um, I'm like, okay, well, we can have

this guy.

You can have John.

Well, well, John have no problem doing it, but you're going to need, need to be there

to film it.

I don't have a problem with it, but he's not available 24 seven.

And to be fair, I mean, he got, you know, stuff that he has to do too, which I totally

get it.

Like, well, what about this guy?

What about that guy?

What about this guy?

Well, what about you?

Right.

What about you?

So that was his thing.

I'm like, well, Mike, that's only one person left that can be there 24 seven is you.

I'm like, nah, I'm not doing that.

You know, you're crazy.

I like, you don't even see me, you know, on the phone or anywhere else.

I'm like, dude, I'm not doing it fast forward a lot of three to four weeks.

Brian was like, because we worked together, Brian came to my office and said, Hey, do

you have like 20 minutes to spare?

Maybe after hours, like, yeah, let's do it.

I don't want to ask questions.

Let's just do it.

Cool.

I didn't know what it was.

I he worked in my body shop and and I thought just like, hey, man, let's just

reset up certain things.

I got some idea to make things better.

I'm all for it.

It's like, no, let's let's walk over here.

Like, what are we doing over here?

You got a camera.

He just started doing bureau.

So this is how I'm going to film.

Like quick two minutes, right?

Go to the break room, rip up his laptop, pull up his adding software.

Like, this is how you do it.

Clip here, clip there, how you get music here, here, here, really basic entry level stuff.

I'm like, well, it's not that hard.

It's not that hard.

It's intimidating until you someone actually shows you in a way where you can

believe in yourself to do it.

And I'm like, wow, it's not that hard, but I didn't have the courage to do it.

I didn't want to be in front of the camera.

Just I just thought my thing.

And every single day, Brian would bust my chop like today,

and good for him.

Yeah, I still couldn't find the courage to do it.

Not until a few months later, we were hosting a car meet in Orlando.

A friend of mine wanted trailer, his Anasix, there's a three hour drive.

He happened at that time, I think he was trying to do the RV rental thing.

And he blocked that week off so we can use it, right?

And I didn't know that, but at that time, that RV will only max out at 65

miles an hour with an Anasix in the back.

So from a three hour trip, now he turned into like six hours.

So we are three hours into it.

And my two buddies, one driving, one co-pilot is up there.

My other buddy's in the back with his daughter sleeping in the bedroom.

I'm there by myself.

I'm like one of those do, I can't sit still, I got to do something.

So I'm sitting there and I remember about a few years ago, we used to work

with a YouTuber to try to do videos and those videos really just like a review

on people's bill and we'll set it up in the shop so he can kind of just do the

filming and everything else and kind of spotlight and just give some

shot off to people, right?

Yeah, yeah.

And a good friend of mine, Tony, used to come by just before the kids, right?

We hang out in the shop, it was a good vibe.

And no disrespect to the person that used to do the YouTube.

He goes, if this dude can do it, it was out of word that he used, you can do it.

And that's how I'm like, yeah, right, Tony, get out of here.

So that happened, that flashback happened.

I goes, you know what?

It's not going to hurt me just download the editing software and it's free.

Let me just do it.

On the page, I'm going like, man, so if you download the software, you use a

free version, you're going to have a watermark.

So I end up paying for like one year subscription.

Yeah, yeah.

I goes, there's no better time to just stop filming.

We have a car meet.

Let's just do it.

That's where I start.

Nice.

Yeah.

So we had a car meet there.

I think at that time, I don't quote me on this here.

I think we partnered up with NS6 ASCAPay and had a, I think 25, 30 NS6 there

at the same time, but that's how it started.

That sounds about right.

Um, how long have you been doing this?

And as far as this, anything in the industry that pays you?

I start, I start walking into a car dealership since I was 17 years old.

Was it the Afro pick?

No, no, no.

Um, so it's funny.

I originally wanted to do mechanical engineering.

For reference, he had uploaded, I had mentioned this before another episode

you had uploaded a picture.

It was at your hair or did you have a wig on?

No, that was AI.

Oh, that's so funny.

That was on Long Beach a few weeks ago.

Okay.

Um, at their booth, you know how they set up with all the retro stuff.

With the 86 booth in the corner or whatever.

Right.

So, um, our buddy Vince, I think that was his idea, set up this photo booth.

It's like an AI that, that gave you this afro package.

I saw that line.

Yeah.

And I'm like, where are all these people in line to take a photo for?

That's what it was.

Okay.

So I didn't know that.

So when I saw John, John was like, dude, check out this photo.

And you know, he got his mustache already.

He's, he's already set up.

I'm like, where'd he get that from?

Like you, the booth, that's right there.

You go there.

So the next day, first thing in the morning, right, right after the hotlaps.

I went there and I got it.

It was funny as a photo.

So funny.

I just glanced at him.

Like, God, how long has this dude been working for this dealership?

No, no.

So that was cool.

Yeah.

But yeah, I started at a car dealership in late, late 90s at the end of old school.

Yeah.

I was going to say that's like right at school and since then.

Yeah.

Right out of high school.

So, um, right out of middle school, um, I knew it was just a job at the time.

Or did you like kind of really want to be involved and get closer to the cars?

Right out of middle school, middle school.

I love cars.

Yeah.

I might do, I, I, I got to do something with cars.

Yeah.

And I, I, I love the engineering, engineering part of it.

I'm like, I, I want to do something with that.

So, um,

Do you remember the car?

What was a car for you in middle school?

What was your poster car?

Well, what car was on your wall?

Figuratively.

Growing up in Hong Kong.

So original from Hong Kong.

So.

Yeah.

87 Honda Civic Si in my little village thing that I was there.

I remember seeing that car all the time.

I'm like, man, the thing is so cool.

And ever since then, I love Honda ever since then.

So eight, that was 87, I born 81.

So 67 years old.

And, uh, so right out of middle school, I'm like, dude, I want to be an engineer.

That's, that's what I wanted to want it to do.

So I actually, the school that I go to, it was like magnet school.

So you can get like, you know, I guess college course credit and, uh, they offer

engineering program and things like that.

I was, I, I was in that program at that time.

I was still very focused in school.

So I, I like really good grades.

I think out of the school, that was only like three kids.

That's got scholarship.

I was one of them.

And, um, this was in Hong Kong.

No, that was, this was here now.

This is here.

Yeah, it's weird.

I went to a magnet school too.

Yeah.

This is here.

And, um, it's funny.

I, I, I that time I, I, I was so impatient.

I didn't want to wait for the 44 year schooling, then, you know,

try to find a job.

I want it now.

I want to work for Honda.

I want to do this.

I want to do that.

And, um, I'm like, you know what?

This is not what I want to go.

Hmm.

And I find out they had a automotive program, uh, in my local area.

It's like 60 miles away, but I didn't care.

So I dropped the scholarship.

I remember sitting down with my administrator.

One of three.

And you like F this.

Yeah.

Four years, 34 year, three, right.

And I just dropped it and she was like, you're kidding.

Right.

I'm like, I'm not kidding.

I already signed up.

I'm ready to go.

And I did.

I, I went to a thing called Honda pack.

Um, it still exists and actually a lot bigger than what it is, what was then.

And, um, shout out the Honda pack, um, training, you know, regular people

that know nothing about cars or know, or know something about cars to be a

technician, advisor, or someone, you know, that we will.

So it's like Honda's legit school for training people stuff.

Yeah.

How do they even advertise that now?

You know, like how, how were they, I mean, how did you know about it?

Just because you were in that program?

At that time I was going to get into the Toyota program back then in internet was,

it's not as what it is now.

Of course.

And, uh, they had a Toyota T10 program.

It was huge.

You know, that, that was like the program that you go to.

And, uh, it was, it was full.

And I'm like, oh man, it crushed me.

Like the lady was like, Hey, that's another program.

It's a little bit of a drive about 60 miles from where you at is, is, is, is an

application to a school called Robert Morgan and you should go there and they

have general automotive, they have GM.

I'm like X, X, you know, and they have Honda.

What?

Flashback to the little poster in the village.

Sign me up.

Let's see.

She goes, no, no, no, you're going to go down there.

He can't do it here.

So I drove down there signed up and, um, that's how I find out.

I think now they, uh, the factory is, is putting some money, um, try to push it.

And now in fact, I was talking to one instructor, a local instructor, um,

they want to get into the high school.

They want to start from high school.

They call it the PACE program, P-A-C-E.

PACE program.

That's pretty crazy, man.

So you've always, you've always been into the brand.

Yeah, I love it.

Anything else, anything else that you were like, Hey, that's a cool car.

I want to have that car one day.

You know, I, um, grown up up until I was, I'm 45 now up until I'm like leaving

the late 30s in late thirties.

Hardcore Honda guys.

I don't give a shit when anybody say, Oh, this is better.

No, no way.

I'm a Honda guy.

Yeah.

You know, blue blood.

Yeah, I don't care.

Um, the last 56 years, I, I have a lot more appreciation for other brands.

I do, but you know, look, I just got off the plane a little earlier.

I went to a rental car place, right?

You can pick any car you want.

They had a Honda Richline.

No kidding.

I hop in a Honda Richline.

Could it be a F-150?

But when did, you may not even know the answer to this.

Cause I mean, I would travel all the time.

And at least at the time there were no Hondas and Acuras.

I mean, the only time I've seen anything like that is when I was in Hawaii and I

saw a couple of rental Acuras.

Otherwise it's just never see hundreds of Acuras.

Honda does do fleet.

I'm quite surprised that I see it there.

Okay.

Then yeah.

So they still technically don't do it.

No, I don't think so.

Don't, I mean, don't, don't quote me on this, but I, I, I don't think so.

Um, that's like a big no-no for Honda.

I don't know how that works.

I think everything starts to change ever since pandemic.

Yeah, I was going to say probably.

Yeah.

Um, they, they were buying all kinds of cars.

Um, I'm sure the rental car company gets special discount from other

manufacturers too, but I don't think Honda do fleets at all.

I know we don't.

Well, now it's not even, when you rent from a main place like national, I

consider that like a main place, national hurts, you know, not budget, not dollar.

Yeah.

Even Avis.

It's, it's common now to get in a rental car that has like 20, 30,000 miles.

You know, it was before they would run them for a year or two and they'll dump

them to someone else and just get brand new vehicles.

So, um, I think that's coming back now.

Cause the rich line that I have now has $6,000 miles.

Oh yeah.

It's a new one.

Yeah.

So I think, think that's happening.

It was like it was meant to be for you to step off and I know I'm like F-150.

I, I kept walking in the corner.

I saw a rich line.

I'm like, I'm getting that.

What color is it?

Silver.

Yeah.

Got leather.

I'm good.

Tell us about yours.

What was your first car?

I was going to ask about your NSX, but no, I'm not going to.

I'm not going to forget to ask that question.

91 Honda Civic, Alex automatic.

Well, white with a blue interior.

Are those four speed?

I don't know a lot of four speed automatic.

Yeah.

I love that car.

That was my first car.

Did you get it new?

Used?

Used.

So that was a 1991.

I started driving.

I think, what, 97?

It's like six years old.

Oh yeah.

Yeah, I guess that makes sense.

That was a rebuild title too, by the way, because I couldn't really afford it.

So, you know, but that was a nice car.

It was my first car.

I didn't care.

I was so proud.

I had a 91 Civic DX that I bought off a friend of mine.

Was it a hatch?

It was a hatch.

Nice.

It was, it was red and it had that blue hood that you get.

You know, you kind of buy it aftermarket or whatever.

And you just don't get around to painting it.

So it was red.

And then I had a Wings West body kit on it, but my friend had had it in

storage for a long time.

So he had warped.

This was up in Michigan.

And I was waiting for my 99 GSR to get a new motor put in it.

So this was me buying this car.

And I'm like, that car is kind of cool.

It's loud.

It's shitty.

It's got this straight, straight pipe on it.

You get welded on there, very loud, kind of embarrassing car.

Oh, hollowed out, right?

With a little bar in the back.

But I was too impatient to wait for the body kit to like sit out and unravel.

So I kind of like just drilled it onto the car.

I get it.

But I have my GSR wheels on there.

Yeah, I get it.

I get it.

My second car.

It was a 91 Civic DX hatchback.

Oh, yeah, you know, you know the car, you know.

Oh, man, I love that car.

Then I move on to.

Did you at least get the clear corners for it?

That car, like the little ABC ones, whatever you can order, you may.

Yes, I got those and some wheels on it.

I thought I was the coolest kid on the block.

Well, you were.

Yeah, of course.

In my in my view, I was, I didn't care.

Yeah, but that car got stolen.

And it was a shitty story to be quite honest.

What happened?

It got stolen.

And next thing you know, the wheels that was on that car is in one of my

classmates vehicle in a high school parking lot.

Oh, that's funny.

So whatever that happened.

And then I move on to a Civic Si, a 91 Si.

I'm like, that was the car for me.

That was the car, you know, could you read in the brochure, like they had the

one point six, I got the one point five.

My two previous cars, one point five.

I haven't got some roof, but yeah, I had that car for about two years.

I love that car.

What was your favorite car you've had so far other than what anything you may have

right now?

Well, my GSR 2001 GSR color red, I was, I was working a Honda at the time.

It was a trade in that time.

I had a 99 Civic EX that used for travel, for school and for delivery.

Try and make some income.

And that came through with a factory body kit.

I was like, dude, oh, there's the underbody spoiler kit.

Yes.

I'm like, dude, that is the car.

I got to get this.

And, uh, and I got it it.

Um, they, they hooked me up and, uh, I think my payment is crazy thing.

My payment, I think it was in the mid-force.

It's gotta be like 2002.

Yeah.

2002, the car was 2001.

So about a year or two years old, my insurance like 500 bucks.

My insurance was higher than my car payment.

I remember those days.

Yeah.

Did you do, uh, were you on the forums or anything?

No, no, I'm on the Acura dot net or another stuff.

Never, never.

Yeah.

I, that's how I got kind of famous in the little Acura world way before I even had

an SX is I was a T and J motorsports is the name of my handle.

Oh, and that came from playing a Gran Turismo.

And so I'm my buddy Tony is the T and I'm the J.

Gotcha.

As you know, you get the top record and you put your name on there and you play

the endurance and you couldn't save back then once you started.

And so that's where T and J motorsports came from.

But everybody knew me as the bumper, the bumper plug guy, because I had a plug in

at one of the dealerships in Dallas, shout out to Goodson Acura back in the day.

And they would, they would just collect all the little bumper plugs that would

come off because you had to have the front plate in Texas.

And so I just became known as the guy that had the bumper plugs.

And so I'd mail them to everybody that had the Integra is all around the place.

That's cool.

It's a funny little story.

Yeah.

Why that GSR?

Like, why was it your favorite?

Man, I, I, that was car that I think.

Well, at the time, it was pretty quick.

It was pretty quick.

Did you have a cold air intake on it and everything?

Well, when I first got out of just stock, yeah, I just take the top portion of

the intake box off.

So it sounded like I have intake, but I didn't have much money, paying

insurance and car, payment, all of those nonsense.

Um, and in pay for school, um, we should pull up to, uh, uh, car meet and, uh,

V tech, yo, uh, yeah, let's do it.

You know, let's back then where we, where we were was sterile 84th, which was

like two miles from where we hand out.

And, uh, the car was stuck.

It performed really well, you know, and, uh, line up with eclipses at

all kinds of stuff.

I'm not saying I'm a good driver because people are like, oh, it's, it's not a car.

It's me.

I'm like, dude, maybe I was, I was lucky.

And, uh, I just had so much fun back then.

I, I didn't have a lot of money and that was the best car I could ever afford.

He's a great car.

It had to look.

Yeah.

It was a great car.

Got you.

I saw a blaze on them, nice and shiny.

Got the black leather, you know, car looks great, man.

It was a fantastic car.

That's a car.

Uh, I eventually turboed and blew the motor in mine, but, um, that's a car.

To your point, it sounds great that V tech kicks in.

People can make fun of it now, but those who know, know, yeah, against other cars

in its class.

And if you drove it right, you can make it look like it was 10 times quicker

even on top of that.

So other cars that might be faster, maybe look at you and like, oh, I don't

fuck with that car.

Yeah.

If you just think it was at the very, very top of first gear.

If you just waited there.

And then as soon as they said, go, you hit the gas and hit the second, right?

Like I was like a master at that, but I don't remember if it was the top

of second or the top of first, but if you did it just perfectly, you're just

like, you know, remember race back then used to race those on the civic outside

EM ones because you got shorter gear ratio.

So first and second EM one would hop out and then third and fourth, you know,

Monica, that's so funny, dude.

Cause it's almost like when you're riding with your friends, you're on the

freeway, the big freeway.

So I grew up in Texas, the people in the front speed up, the people in the back

slow down and they're going to give you that little drag race lane or just

for yourself and you're slowing down and it takes forever to get from like 70

to like 90 or from 40 to 90, but it's, it's the fun as little sprint is

when car guy gets together is, you know, well, back then you have, you know,

you have the next half to bloop, you know, but you just know it's just lined up, man.

Yeah.

If I had my anise six, you're driving your anise six.

We got to line up.

Yeah.

We got you right.

Yeah.

He's just a car guy.

That's how it is.

When did you get your, your NA one?

And it won.

I just, I think we got that, I want to say about 67 months ago.

Oh, so you're new to that car itself.

Yes.

I find out about that car from John.

He goes, Hey, a, a, a really good friend of mine.

And, um, he's pretty active in the anise six community for many,

many years.

His name is huge, uh, Hamilton Hamilton.

Yeah.

He passed away and, um, so you have Charlotte.

Yes.

What's the name of the car?

Charlotte.

Okay.

Yeah.

Oh, I guess we, that's just an illusion.

We haven't had this conversation.

We've never had this conversation.

Yeah.

I have Charlotte.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

Uh, SOS, you know, twin turbo, 3.5 stroker kid.

Did you ever meet you?

Interesting guy.

Um, everybody say that.

Yeah.

Everybody say that.

He had like little aliens everywhere and I think he was a retired officer,

retired, something like that.

But every time he was like in a sex bow, he just always had these huge iron

maiden shirts on.

It's everywhere around the car.

We got the car running for the first test drive.

John's like, let me see what's in a CD player.

Iron maiden.

Bum, bum, bum, bum, bum.

We're jamming out.

Yep, absolutely.

So he has a stop tag, a BBK on there.

Well, well, he pulled off the stop tag and Iron maiden, stop tag stick it on.

Rest in peace is stop tag.

You know, hopefully that, that whole situation gets figured out.

Yeah, absolutely.

But Charlotte.

Yeah.

What are you doing with Charlotte?

Are you able to drive?

Is it, is does it run?

Or do you have to like do stuff to it?

Or what?

So the person that had the car, um, we bought it from, uh, from the dude.

And when I looked at the car, I, not that I didn't care for it.

It, it, it, people that know me, I, I like stuff that's all just like OEM stuff.

OEM or OEM plus, OEM plus, exactly.

And that car was just a little bit more than, uh, than, uh, my taste, right?

And John's a real good friend of mine.

We worked over a very long time and he wanted me to buy the car because the car

has so much history and he, he is an essence, an essence nuts.

So with the two combined together, I'm like, man, he always helped me to do so much shit.

And me, I haven't really talked about this.

Like I'm, I want to buy this car so we can build this together.

And, and I bought it so that if you look at the, uh, that NS6 series, I think we have

about five or six videos right now, you probably don't want to see my face on there.

It's all about him because I want it to be his bill.

Yeah.

Um, what are you, what are you going to do to it?

So the car was running at that time.

We had a major oil leak, um, find out from a valve cover.

Uh, it was leaking directly onto the turbo manifold.

Uh, so we didn't really drive the car.

The car starts, the bevel was dead.

Uh, all day was no good.

Yeah.

We thought that, hey, you know, just fix the oil leaks, fix the alternator, put a new battery.

It had like a cooling leak, no big deal.

Hoses, this, that and fresh paint job, clean everything up, do just typical crap that we do.

And NS6, you know, expo in the, uh, October, right?

So we start working on the car and next thing you know, you're like, dude, what's

happened here, what happened there, bum, bum.

Why does this happen?

Why did that happen?

And, uh, well, let's drop the motor down.

Let's just do the refresh, change all the seal, all the gasket, make sure this car is perfect.

I'm like, John, you know, I think, why don't we have, because we won't do content, right?

We want to show people how to do all this stuff.

That's your compression test.

Three of the cylinder have low compression.

The car ran fine.

No smoke, no nothing.

Dry, perfect.

We got a car running, dry, perfect.

Um, we're like, oh, oh, that's not good.

So we stick a camera down into the cylinder and the cylinder was pitted.

Oh, I call it sitting Steve's sleeve and you know, like, oh, that's not good.

That is not good.

And, um, we didn't want.

Just refresh it, forget about it and maybe just sell it.

And that's somebody else's problem.

Well, first we have no intention of flipping the car.

Sure.

Yeah, no intention on it.

Um, gotta do the right thing, right?

I'm like, Jesus, John, we are tear this down, man.

We, we, we, we got to do it.

We got to do it.

So fast for it right now.

It has no motor in a car.

Um, the block is with the engine builder.

The cylinder head is with the cylinder head depot, uh, local, you know,

machine shop and, um, right now we are trying to find custom piston because we

do need a set of pistons.

They need to do 25 overboard it out and, um, I tried to resolve the Chris.

Chris really tried because he built that car back in 2010.

Sure.

And, uh, Hugh spent 73,000 dollars.

I had all the receipt.

They, they, they sent it to me 73 grand building that car.

And, um, Chris tried to, you know, locate a set of piston for me.

No luck, no luck at all.

So my engine builder said that he, he can make that happen.

So, okay, good.

So waiting for, um, five months to get that shit figured out.

Four and a half.

Yes, absolutely.

So we were going to paint the engine bay.

Um, so now we looked at it like, well, you know, it's not, actually it's

not that bad because one you do the engine bay is, uh, is a disaster.

It's just time and time and time.

So we know what time it's taking, but, uh,

how's the pain overall in that card?

It need a paint job.

Yeah.

So yeah, it's faded.

Yeah.

You know, we definitely will do exterior paint job, a full paint job.

Brian, go to do it.

Do you have normal tails on there?

Do you have some of these like aftermarket ones with these weird lines and stuff?

No, no, he has the NSXR style, you know, sport in the back.

He has the NE2 lower re-bumper.

He has, um, I don't know what hood that is.

He had like a scoop.

I didn't care for it.

There's so many different variations because there's like the NSXR one.

Yeah.

But he had the pop-up lights, right?

So he had a slightly different hood.

Yeah.

It's probably the shallow.

Yeah.

I don't know what brand that is.

But, uh, I was able to pick up, uh, RJ helped me a little kid hood.

Um, at one point we had an idea was like, Hey, why don't we, you know, switch the color?

You know, um, at one point I would, I was, I was like 99.9 percent.

Monaco is blue, like that's just do it.

Let's just tear everything out down or strip the car and just do it.

It's just, we have done that before.

It's just so much work and it's become a headache.

I'm like, now you got, you know, you know, a timeline that we got to get the car done.

And, and we didn't end up doing it.

And we start thinking about him.

Like we want this to be a, a tribute sort of, right?

Just keep it red the same way, formula red.

That's all we're going to do.

You're going to, um, if it's going to be somewhat of a tribute, you're going to find

a way to Easter egg and any like iron maiden shit in there or anything.

Some of the stickers on it.

We'll leave it on there.

Yeah.

We'll leave it on there.

Yeah.

That's cool.

Yeah.

Uh, what about your NC one?

NC one, I bought that car probably about 16, 17 months ago.

Um, I always wanted that car, uh, 130 same as mine.

Yeah.

130 are red and black interior.

Nice facts.

Um, it was funny.

I always wanted one, but never really put a trigger on it.

When, when, when they were new, there was just too much money.

I, and I didn't have a budget for it at all.

Um, and you know, if you go back about 16, 17 months, I was, I was thinking about 9 11.

I, I loved the night.

Great car.

My use car manager's name is Ryan, shout out to Ryan.

He bought one on the sticker.

I'm like, Ryan, how the heck do you do that?

I've heard of base models.

Yeah.

You can't write.

I'm like, how do you do that?

Well, it was a cancellation from somebody and I was able to work.

We work in a car dealer.

So we know how to wheel and deal.

I'm like, I'm like, Ryan, how the heck do you do that?

No, I just gave him offers, you know, you know, and he got it.

Like, I think five grand under sticker and, uh, he was like, I can help you.

We will find your one.

Like, man, I kind of want to see one, man.

That's what I want.

And I'm going through, uh, auto trader.

Yeah.

You kind of feel like you have to because I mean, you're out each garage.

Yeah.

And, and I love the brand.

Yeah.

I'm like, I would have NC one first, then we'll have a 9 11 after.

Right.

Yeah.

Nice plan.

So I'm showing him on the computer.

I'm like, dude, look at the NS6 and boom, this car pops up.

It was in, it was 2017 with like 7,000 miles.

In Charlotte, Hendrick Lexus.

I'm like, dude, this car is awesome.

It was price right.

It was, I just have to call this out.

You bought the NC one in Charlotte out of Charlotte.

Yeah.

You own Charlotte.

I never thought of that.

Yeah.

Holy shit.

You own the iron maiden Charlotte car.

Okay.

You make, you may continue with your story.

So the, so the 130 hours in Charlotte.

Wow.

Yeah.

I'll never thought of that.

Anyway, I was showing him and that pops up.

I think they were asking for like 135, 139, something like that.

It was way above my budget.

I'm like, Ryan, work your magic for it.

I mean, it's got low miles.

Yeah.

I'm like, Ryan, work your magic.

I want to see in action.

Yeah.

How do you do it?

And, uh, okay.

Where, where do you want to be?

I don't want to low ball the guy.

I'm like, Hey, man, I want to be like 120 all in.

Dude, you're talking about the tax and all this 30 grand difference.

You know, so he called a store.

He goes, uh, can I please speak to a use car manager?

And he didn't brag about who he was, but I guess just by certain words.

They know, car, man, so it's just sort of, no, we got an industry guy here.

Yeah.

So we just been, you know, being transparent and say, listen, we need

to be at this number out the door.

And the use car manager said, hold on, let me see.

He goes, Hey, I can do it with this number.

Now this is on the phone.

It's not on FaceTime.

Yeah.

And he's looking me like what you're going to do.

Right.

I'm like, this is a, this is a Friday afternoon at like four o'clock.

I'm like, okay, send me some photos.

I want to make sure it's legit.

Right.

Make sure everything's just good.

Follow came through.

It's perfect.

You can send me follow underneath the car.

No scratches anywhere.

My dude, this is, is a cream puff.

This is the car.

The only thing that I need, need, need to do to confirm that the cars, you know,

doesn't, you know, no one smoked in anything like that.

Yeah, yeah.

And he goes, well, let me say I can book a plane ticket because I was supposed to

work that Saturday and my manager, you know, was going to cover me and I was

able to book the ticket.

This is like four or 35 o'clock.

I'll book the ticket for the next day.

Yeah.

I flew over and I had a car in the showroom.

And I was like, whoa, I opened the door.

I stick my head in there.

It smelled like it was just off the truck.

Oh, sure.

I know the smell.

I was like, yep, done deal, done deal.

So bought the cars, the car got shipped back.

Bone stock, everything.

Bone stock.

Like what, which wheels do you have?

It had at that time, the white spoke wheels, which exactly that I want.

Now, the only thing that I wish the car had was the carbon fiber spoiler.

Oh, I see.

Yeah.

It didn't have that on there.

It had everything else.

I didn't have the exterior carbon fiber kit, which I didn't care.

It still has a silver beak or did someone replace it with the white?

We did it.

Yeah, we did it with with the white.

Yeah, it's funny how that little thing makes such a visual difference.

You're so right.

A hundred percent.

It's just that little thing.

It changes everything, man.

So, yeah, we did that.

So we got the car back at the dealership and we start doing, you know,

SOS stuff, downpipe, right?

Necessity, lower it down, you know, with the cups, got the charge pipes.

Oh, yeah, do the full service on it.

You have it on the first purge or the second purge as far as lower?

All the way, buddy.

All the way down, all the way, buddy.

Mine, mine's on the first purge.

I can't go any lower than that.

All the way, buddy.

Yeah.

And my buddy, that work at Boston,

hook us up with a set of wheels, some forged wheels.

Yeah, yeah, I think talk us about what?

Two months to do it.

And yeah, I'm joined.

I'm enjoying the car.

It's a great car.

Don't get a drive all the time.

Yeah, because I'm like very particular.

I don't want to drive in the rain.

I don't want to drive this.

I don't want to drive it there.

So, well, GPPF it.

No, no, no.

I, I may get crucified by me saying that I think the PPF is a gimmick.

I know the technology.

I mean, it's basically a modern bra, right?

And so you laugh at the bras from back in the day

because when you pull them off, they fuck everything up.

But, you know, the the the technology definitely is is 10 times

better than I agree back in the day.

But it turned yellow, right?

It turned yellow shelf life like five years.

You got to spend that money all over again.

Again, especially exotic car, you don't want any paintwork.

Yeah.

So you should have that on there.

It was now I'm just going to raw dog it.

I'm I'm OK with it.

You know, haven't been taken to any, you know, long trip like yourself

when you put like 20,000 miles on it.

I'm at 23 on the type S.

You probably the top five, right?

That's you drive the type as that way.

So much credit to you.

But yeah, I don't get to drive my that that much,

especially when I go to work.

I kind of have to drive my demo.

You know, in case, you know, things happen, you know,

drive people around, things like that.

So I am grateful that I would have that car.

But yeah, yeah.

And, you know, now my daughter is going to school,

college now, the school that I was supposed to go to for my

engineer program.

So that was the agreement that within my wife,

my wife didn't care.

She didn't care what I got.

So I might sell the car.

I might sell the NC one so that, you know,

I feel more comfortable financially.

Yeah. Yeah.

That'd be a shame, but I get it.

But you know, it's funny thing about the company,

we're talking about a community, right?

I joined the Facebook group for the for the NS6.

I and the NS6 owners group, there's so many of them.

But I think that's kind of like our official.

Yeah, I don't know which one, but it was one of them.

It was two of them that I joined.

RJ asked me to join them and I did.

And I found the original owner.

Oh, no kidding.

Found the original owner on there.

I ended up buying the, you know, it came in like a die cast.

Oh, yeah, the 17s that came with that.

I bought it from him.

Have a lengthy conversation with them.

Again, what are the convincing?

We got a pin.

Yeah, we got a type S pin.

Like, I don't know over here.

Some people got to me luggage.

I think people who bought like a 21, they have to me.

Acura NSX luggage.

Wow. I didn't know I got a pin.

Really?

Yeah, I got like a little to me bag in there.

I think I can't put anything in.

Yeah. Yeah.

I got a bill sheet.

I put almost got everything for that car.

Did you know about the bill sheet tobacco with the with the type S's?

Every, they sent them to all the dealerships.

And I think everybody got the same bill sheet.

So they had the color wrong and all sorts of shit wrong.

Yeah.

Mine's in the closet.

The, the whole type as thing.

I don't want to get crucified by Acura, but.

I don't want you to get crucified Acura,

but that whole thing was interesting.

Yeah. Yeah.

The pre-order program that it came up with was a bit of a disaster.

Worked out for me though.

Yeah. It was a disaster.

But no one expected that it would get sold out with a minute and it did.

Yeah.

I can see why.

And that's, I mean, from a brand thing, right?

I mean, no one, I mean, you think about the sales were so poor with the 20 and the 21,

then they stopped midway to get ready for the 22.

Yeah.

It was, if they could go back and do it again,

I think that they would have made a few slight changes to make the car a little more special

than they already did.

For God's sake, give us at least the civic entertainment system from like the 20 and 21

models, you know, because you have the 17, mine's a 22.

It's got to be what, 2015 technology, you know, just little things.

Maybe give us a little bit of air, like the eyelids so we can get over some things.

You know, and I think if, yeah, if they could go back,

they would probably change a few things on the car and maybe reevaluate that part.

You know, the, the third gen might be coming out.

So who knows?

Yeah.

People ask me all the time.

I go, I don't know.

Yeah.

I don't know.

And I don't pry.

You know, it's just, I figured I'll, I'll learn about it when people learn about it.

And, and we'll go from there.

But the program or the, the companies, so many changes, right?

Yeah.

Um, and speaking, I mean, I know you work for the dealership, uh, and you probably

work for a dealership that actually gets more information or knowledge.

Cause I've, I've learned that a lot of dealerships, they don't know shit, you

know, it's not their fault because they're owned by a dealership group.

And then maybe their relationship.

I mean, Pembroke, you guys have been on, how long has that been around?

I mean, you were, you were brought out to Long Beach.

So you're a top 40.

Yeah.

We, we were the, one of the founding dealers.

Um, so my owner bought the store back in, uh, don't quote me on this.

I think 2004.

He bought it from the original owner.

Um, the reason he still considered as a founding dealers, because when he did

the buy sell, he accept all the liability.

So you see most of the public company, when they buy dealers, like, I don't

want that shit, you gotta keep all the shit.

I want a clean, you know, clean shit of paper.

Yeah.

He kept every, he kept every single employees.

Wow.

All the debt, good debt, you know, give it all to me.

Yeah.

And I think that was 2004.

And, um, anyway, um, everything he bought the dealer, my owner, he's a car nut.

And he's, he's an incredible guy, just incredible person.

Very grateful to work for him.

Um, his father is the first Toyota dealership in Florida.

Oh wow.

Okay.

Yeah.

Dave Zen.

Anyway, long story short, every store that he has is a, um, is he trying to

get the store to be number one, you know, every store, uh, Alexa store, he has two

Alexa store, I think it's number one and number three, uh, our store, I think last

year we were number two in the nation.

Oh wow.

Yeah.

Until your store, I think it's number two.

We have a Subaru store too as well.

I think don't comment this.

I think maybe like number five, but it's market leader.

Right.

Um, he believes in just getting the cars out there.

Yeah.

You know, five times two or two times 51 of those things, right?

Have you always worked for them?

Or did you, cause I know you started when you're like fresh out of school.

So when I first started, I, I work at a Honda dealership, family owned

Honda dealership, um, in 2003, I left the Honda store because they had a

buy sale underneath the same ownership.

No, no, no, no was, was a different owner.

Uh, 2003 I left because they had a buy sale and things weren't going the way

you know, yeah, people expected.

And, uh, at that time I was, I was really young.

I make some mistake.

And, um, anyway, so I goes, you know what, let me just have a fresh start.

Uh, my own managers left that on the store, went to an accurate store in 2003.

And, uh, I goes, you know what, this is going to be my first start.

And I went to Acura in August of 2003.

And then my owner purchased that store, I think 2004, 2005.

And, uh, I think in 2008, we moved to a new location where we are now.

Wow.

Uh, so what exactly do you do there?

So my official title is fixed operation director.

So part service, body shop, valet, you know, it's under my watch, pretty much

half of the dealership, anything other than new cars, finance, used cars.

Yeah.

You know, it's under my watch.

Now I don't do everything.

I got great manager, managers and great people in place that, you know,

you know, do the daily operation too.

I just pretty much managed them, just make sure everything's okay.

But I work for the man for just, this is my 23 years now, working for the same

man.

That's awesome.

Yeah.

What do you think the coolest thing that's happened to you being there for 23 years?

Having him or whatever.

Having him as the owner.

Yeah.

I have done so many first time ever with them.

When I met him, I was, I was in debt.

Um, I just met my girlfriend then wife now and we were struggling back then.

Yeah.

Uh, man, remember one time we're struggling so bad where my mortgage at that

time was 1,040 and we only had like 980.

This is 2005, 2006 and I had to do this job right outside my house in middle

of summer in Florida.

So mosquito just, just kills you.

And this after work, right?

My wife at home, the flashlight for me back then, you got to stick, stick the

core, you don't have all the LED cool shit, you know, right?

And, uh, start to ring porn ring.

So we're out there.

So I can make my hundred bucks.

Yeah.

So we had the out of 60 bucks pay for the rent and the out of 40.

And that was like a Wednesday.

We have enough money to buy food for both of us till Friday can pay.

Um, but working for this man, I was able to have the ability to turn my life around.

You know, there's some workplace, you know, again, not, not shit on anybody else.

Just you get what you can get.

You can, you know, without company, I feel like you can always grow.

You know, the growth is like a big thing.

And I've learned so much.

I've learned so much from, from working with this company.

That's awesome, man.

Yeah.

I would do all over again.

To kind of be able to, to look back at those times where things are like different,

the struggle is part of the journey.

You know, and we live in such a, and this is so cliche, right?

But like an instant gratification society.

Um, so you've been there 23 years, you've obviously seen people come and go all the time,

especially on the sale side.

You know, what's, what's something that is, or is there any trend in people that you've

seen change over the time or people always kind of the same?

I think, I think the last four to five years, things obviously change.

Ever seen pandemic, um, just things just different.

Um, instant gravitation is always there.

Like, hey, you want, you know, they want things done yesterday, but I seem like people don't

have patience anymore.

Yeah.

People want something like now.

Yeah.

You know, they, they just start the business, but they want to make, you know, you know,

they, you in business for like 10 years, no, you got to start from here.

You got to start from here.

Um, turnovers typically happens in car dealership, but I think the turnovers is a

lot higher now, um, in the past four to five years, um, you know, um, I'm very

grateful to folks that I work with, they, um, I've been working with them for the

past, you know, 56 10, 12 years, some of them.

That's a long time in the dealership space.

You know, it's funny.

I, um, that were, let me see here.

123 guys, um, I'm working with, with right now that I start with them.

When I walk into Honda dealership when I'm 17 years old, that is crazy.

Yep.

In fact, to those guys is one of them is my shop foreman.

The other ones is a team leader.

I used to work for them.

That's awesome.

Yeah.

And they grow, were they there when you got there?

I mean, when you, when you came over to Acura, were they already there or

didn't they eventually come?

No, I was first one that left.

No.

Yeah.

I left first and then I think they followed me like a year or two later.

You're like, guys, come over here.

It's so much better.

It's good stuff here.

The water's cold.

Yeah.

It's good stuff here.

The grass really green here.

Oh my God.

Um, so what, so we're going to see you in, uh, in, in this expo in October?

Yes.

Yeah.

I plan to be there.

Hopefully we get shot.

All finished up by then too.

Yeah.

I know the pressure is on right now when we got five months.

It seems like a lot of time, but we've no, it's not.

No.

It's going to be this year is flying by.

Yeah.

Come to be on special building cars.

I mean, they go by quick.

Yeah.

Um, so you brought up John DeCandia a few times.

We take killer one.

Yeah.

You know, how did you guys meet?

Just from there?

Yeah.

From a deal.

She's my tech.

He's my tech.

And, um, he's there now.

Jeez.

I don't know, man.

Probably like 13 years now we're working together.

And, uh, you guys haven't killed each other.

Obviously they feel time.

We try to, but we hug each other afterwards.

You know, you know, brother love, but, um, you know, we have

about differences sometimes and, you know, and, and working in a shop,

shop environment.

I don't think this is an ego part.

It just, it just, things just sort of happen, right?

And, and, you know, oftentimes we just got to step back and goes, Hey,

you know, look, sometimes people always mistake emotion.

Yeah.

The emotion is real, but it's not always accurate.

And sometimes you just got to step back and just have some clarity.

And, uh, I've learned that from John.

You know, and, uh, which is a good thing.

It's a good thing.

And, uh, yeah.

So he, we worked together for the last 13, 14 years together.

He was always my tech.

Uh, he came a long way.

Uh, he was an NSX freak and he's still NSX freak now.

And I think, uh, about 12 months ago, he became the NC one certified tech too.

Oh, good for him.

Yeah.

He'd been wanted it.

Yeah.

Um, but they closed down the training center in our area doing pandemic

due to expense, but expense control and, and waited for years.

And, and, you know, there are times that John's give me a shit like, oh,

wait, I'm going to send me there.

You hold me back.

Yeah.

I'm giving you some jab, John, but, um, and the seat popped up.

And he didn't tell me anything about it.

Like I say, what are you doing within this time?

It's like, Oh, nothing.

Why?

Oh, nothing.

Just curious.

Nothing.

Until he got his email, he's like, I'm going there.

Yep.

Here's your golden ticket.

Yep.

Yeah.

I think it's nicer that way when, uh, you know, the surprise is there.

That's cool.

Yeah.

So he's my master tech and a six certified tech.

And he is going to be of not, uh, ASC certified master tech too.

So quadruple, triple quadruple master technician.

He's everything.

He's all the above.

E you need to get him, you need to get him like a shop shirt that has all this stuff on.

I know they put it all on there, but almost like a military one where you have

always different things to him.

I give him humble.

That's too funny.

Yeah.

Uh, you have any fun stories about being in the industry and working or traveling

and doing some of these crazy things like maybe John Akeda or Long Beach or Monterey.

I think you've been to Monterey.

I've not been there yet.

You haven't been to Monterey.

Okay.

Never.

I, I, I think they're, I know, I don't, they're not doing it this year from what I

understand.

Yeah.

I hopefully I can attend before they, they, they ended.

So John Akeda.

He's a fun guy, isn't he?

He's such an awesome dude.

Yeah.

Um, so working in a franchise dealership, you always see him on TV.

Cause at one point he was the, you know, he's the group general manager for the

accurate brand and then he, you know, obviously got promoted.

So for me, he's always been an idol for me.

I'm like, dude, like that's the guy, you know, the TL, the designer, look at him.

Did that.

I mean, I just, I, I still think one of the best looking car in, in top five for

sure in the accurate brand.

Um, so this has got to be about four to five years ago.

Uh, I was at Emsa race, uh, Daytona 24, um, and they

had, they had this event where you able to go up to the flat pole.

And so you can wave the flag and all the good stuff.

It was kind of cool.

Yeah.

You know, so I remember that day, that day it was super cold, windy.

And we took a break.

This has got to be like 11 o'clock.

We took a break, went to the car and we just something in the car.

Like, oh man, this feels so good in the sun.

My phone rings like, Hey, Mike, we doing this.

Can you come over?

Meet us.

Come on.

You got 20 minutes.

You know, it's like one of those things like, oh man, I'm so comfortable.

I don't want to do it.

So I'm going to pass that responsibility to my buddy, John, John DeCania.

Cause me being gone for like the last 10 years now.

And, uh, at that time, John, I'm like, John, do you want to go to this thing?

I kind of want to go, but it's just so comfortable.

John was like, hell yeah, let's do it.

Like, man, I wish you say no.

I wish you say no, but I'm like, dude, we're not going to make it.

Like we've got to walk all the way on the opposite side.

He goes, no, I know a shortcut.

Let's just do it.

Like we literally made it like that minute before the, the group have to leave to

go to a flat pole because guys, you got to have a credential, right?

So it's our turn.

We climb up there, really confined space, probably the size of here.

Maybe a little smaller.

And they had about four staff up there and they brought four other people, eight

people in there and like you wait up there.

And when it's costing cars flying down and at that time, it was a yellow flag.

And I'm like, man, that's going to be cool.

They got to wave the flag and start to race.

I'm like, dude, this is cool.

Next thing you know, John and Keith climb up.

And joined us.

He just mind his own business, taking photos.

He was literally next to John and John looked at me, I looked at him.

We're like, the boss is here, you know, and I kind of like snap a photo, you know,

and we climbed back down.

We're like, oh, I can't believe it.

It was John and Gita.

It's so fucking cool.

You know, that was the coolest thing ever.

And where we were, I think two other group need to go up.

Each group took about five, 10 minutes.

So we have some time to burn.

And it was a big group of people here.

I'm like, John, let's just go over there to the side so we can, you know, take

some cool video when the car, you know, fly by, right?

One of the few times that we can do it, you know.

So I think I was doing a video like I was panning to the right.

And next thing you know, I bumped into John and Gita.

And I was like, oh, my mom was open.

I didn't know what to do.

Like, and John and Gita was like, oh, Mike, I know you.

You like you do?

Pine Zachary, you guys do you too.

I didn't want to do.

That's awesome.

And that's, that's where I met him.

That is awesome.

I'll send you the photo.

Like I was the happiest guy at the moment.

I took a photo with them that was cool ever since then.

You know, he always invited me to cool events and things like that.

I think a few years ago, went to see me for the first time, launching the HRC stuff,

which is kind of cool.

Yeah.

John is such a cool dude, man.

And, and big shout out to him, big, big, big, big shout out to him.

The NSX family is great and I've got so many good friends, you know, especially on

here, I mean, Andre, who's been on the podcast a few times.

You say you're original from Texas?

Yeah.

We're from Dallas, technically, um, Garland.

Okay.

Yeah.

Garland shout out to, shout out to North Garland High School class of 94.

But, um, yeah, yeah, I, you know, it's so funny, you know, when, when you

compare to just Hanuk community, right?

DC2, FKA, FL five.

Yeah.

NSX community is just so different.

We had a problem with camshaft.

Like we look for camshaft.

People reached out and like, Hey, I, I, I got this, I got a camshaft that you need.

Like, what are you looking for?

I'm like, I don't know.

Gave me a full set for like half of the price that I want to pay for it.

This is not a cool story.

Um, I got a DM from, I forgot his name.

Man, I, I'm, I'm sucked with name.

Anyway, he only shop in Indianapolis and he was like, Hey, I work, I was supposed

to work on this NSX, uh, like four years ago, but a guy flick on me and I got all

these parts here.

Do you want it?

Just give me offer.

I don't care.

You can, you can use it for your NSX like, what do you have?

Well, I got an A1 and I have the O ABS system.

He has the entire SOS kit.

Is this a shop or is it, I don't know the shops.

The only shops I know of off the top of my head in that general region is source one.

Is it source one?

They're out of Ohio, but no, no, he's in Indy.

So, um, who is an Indy?

I think his name is Chris or John or John.

I think his name is John.

Anyway, a lot of John's in our life.

Exactly.

And, uh, I was like, dude, you kidding me?

He's been discontinued such a long time ago, man.

That, that ABS modulate itself is like four G's.

Yeah.

That's, that's what he's going for.

Yeah.

It's discontinued.

And, um, and my ABS palm is shot and I needed it.

He goes, in fact, I got like two body seal.

I throw that in.

What do you want?

I don't know.

I don't want to low ball you.

I, I, I can't pay five G's for everything.

It's probably worth more than that.

If you really want to sell it, I'm like, I'm comfortable.

I forgot what I counted him with.

I don't know, man.

I feel bad.

I'm like, maybe 2,500 or 22 grand or something like that.

He says, give me 1500 bucks.

Nice.

And I cover the shipping.

I'm like, what?

And just send me some shirts.

Yeah.

So the shirt thing really worked out for me.

Yeah, dude, that's funny.

Yeah.

Trade bid.

I don't know.

I can't give you no real cool parts or anything for this, but no, it's, it's,

it's weird.

It's like some people, you just give them the NSX discount.

Yeah.

And then sometimes they're just tired of holding on to shit.

So they're so happy to find somebody who needs it.

It's not going to buy it to flip it like they actually need it.

Yeah, man.

I, I, that's one thing with the NSX community.

I'm so glad that Hannah or Acura is doing that.

The refresh, like our version of the refresh program.

The energy program where, you know, with, with all the new parts and stuff,

the discontinued parts, I think that's going to be fantastic.

It's funny because being an NC1 owner, I mean, sure, I'm the president of the club.

So I do care, but not having my 97 anymore.

I don't really pay attention to that stuff nearly as much because what am I going to do?

You know, but I'm glad they're doing it.

And we know, we don't know to what extent at this point, it depends on how much

people want to pay, but there are, there are some stuff, stuff in the works.

So should we, should we get out of here and get ready to go on our cruise?

Absolutely.

Let's do it.

Well, I want to thank you so much for, for making the trip out here and coming

to the studio and giving me these awesome shirts and sharing your story.

Well, I'm kind of excited what you got, what you got for me for the rest of the day.

That's a lot of pressure, man.

But besides that, may thanks for having me here.

I think this is really cool.

Appreciate you.

Of course.

Hope you guys enjoyed that amazing and fun conversation with Mike Chan.

As you can see, I'm still wearing this shirt.

I actually put it back on to, to film the closing of this.

And yeah, that was our first time actually having a real conversation.

We met up at, at Long Beach for a couple of minutes.

He, myself and the aforementioned Jonathan DeCandia v.

Tech killer one on Instagram and we chatted, but even then I wasn't sure how

this was going to go, but wow.

So Mike represents a first for the podcast, somebody who flew into town

just to do the podcast.

And afterwards we went out to Pony's.

Meches, which is an awesome bar Mexican restaurant.

I guess is what you call it a tequila place that's owned by fellow NSX owner

here in the area, Sergio Escamilla, who is also the guy behind ELG accident

attorneys.

And so every once in a while, you'll see me wrap in that ELG shirts.

Special shout out to him.

Also a special shout out to RJ of Cuyahata Motive out of Winter Garden,

Florida, one of our business supporters of the show.

He is the one who essentially connected us, us as in myself and Mike Chan of AHC

Garage, Acre Honda Classic.

So thank you, RJ, which you may or may not even watch this or listen to it

because you're so damn busy.

One thing, right?

Honda, right?

Toyota auto cannon officially licensed Honda Acura gear.

Arcus foundry spark forge.

Also want to thank the rest of the Patreon business supporters, automotive,

especially to out Owings Mills, Maryland, B house, small home design out of

Ashborough, Virginia and Traverse City, Michigan.

The lucky breaks sports breaker out of Caledonia, Michigan.

And of course, shaping success, Treasure Valley out of Boise, Idaho.

My man, Wes Tankersley, make sure you guys check us out at One Drink

Wednesday on Instagram where you're trying to get to a thousand followers

so that we can go live again, hosted from that page.

So if you're listening to this, regardless, if you ever plan on checking us out,

please go to at One Drink Wednesday on Instagram and give us a follow.

Also want to thank my Patreon supporters, Mark Stolman, Katherine Cox, Eddie Ramos,

Richard Graves, Bo Jung, Alice Kamina, Drew Bunkley and Andre Mullins.

If you want to become one of those supporters,

you just go to patreon.com forward slash hard parking podcast,

or you could become a member on the YouTube page as well.

And if you're not given this podcast, a review on Apple, please do it.

I need new fresh, you know, four and five star reviews.

You can keep the one star reviews to yourself.

You want to email the show info at hard parking, follow the show on Instagram

at hard parking pod.

You can follow me on my personal page at Jay Finning.

And of course, at A.H.C. Garage and Acura Honda Classic,

depending on if you're on YouTube or Instagram, they're not hard to find.

They're big accounts.

And of course, make sure you are listening to this show

and I will talk to you all next week.

Shut up.

About this episode

Mike Chan of AHC Garage joins Hard Parking to connect Florida-to-AZ roots with NSX community stories, Honda/Acura dealership history, and the way car culture overlaps. They talk NSXPO in Orlando, Mike’s NSX codes (NA1/NC1), and how AHC Garage started as a simple car meet with early turnout. The conversation also covers rebuilt-title Honda projects, YouTube growth and monetization, and shop-level diagnostics/parts sourcing—plus a few first-car and VTEC memories.

ABS system body kit cam shaft carbon fiber spoiler charge pipes clear corners cold air intake compression test cups downpipe

Acura Integra Acura NSX Ford F-150 Honda Civic Honda Integra Honda NSX Honda S2000 Renault Master

Original notes

Episode Summary: Jhae Pfenning sits down in-studio with special guest Mike Chan of AHC Garage (Acura Honda Classic Garage) out of Pembroke Pines, Florida. Mike made the trip to Arizona for the podcast, a cruise, and good food — their first real extended conversation after crossing paths at events like Long Beach. They explore the welcoming Honda/Acura family vibe, AHC's origins as a low-drama community hangout, dealership car meets, NSX stories, generous parts swaps in the scene, and more. Laid-back, fun, and full of community love.

Timestamps:

00:00 Intro & Arcus Foundry Spark Forge Sponsor
01:55 Welcoming Mike Chan from Florida
05:00 RJ / Adam Motive Connection & First Meetups
12:00 AHC Garage Start: 2018 Meet at the Dealership
25:00 Honda/Acura Community Culture & Tight Bonds
40:00 NSX Ownership, Parts Stories & Refresh Program
55:00 SEMA, HRC, Dealer Insights & John Shoutout
1:05:00 Wrapping Up & Plans for the Day
1:14:00 Outro, Thanks & PoNy's Miches Mention

Guest: Mike Chan (@chan_mike on Instagram) — AHC Garage / Acura Honda Classic (@acurahondaclassic on Instagram).

Post-recording they hit PoNy's Miches Michelada Bar & Grill downtown Phoenix (owned by NSX owner Sergio Escamilla of ELG Accident Attorneys).

Listen on Spotify, Apple, or watch the full video on YouTube. Support the show and join the conversation!

Hard Parking with Jhae Pfenning

Jhae Pfenning

View classic page →

0:00

77:55