Stainless Steel Dreams: Mike’s Time-Traveling Journey with a DeLorean and Beyond
To All The Cars I've Loved Before: Classic Car Restoration, JDM, and Automotive History
Stainless Steel Dreams: Mike’s Time-Traveling Journey with a DeLorean and Beyond
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Car
Nissan 300ZX
The Nissan 300ZX is a cool sports car made by Nissan in the 1990s. It's known for being fast and stylish, and it's part of a series of cars that Nissan has made called the Z-cars.
Car
Delorean DMC-12
The DeLorean is a famous car known for its unique design and its role in movies. It has doors that open upwards and is made of stainless steel, which makes it stand out.
Car
DeLorean
The DeLorean is a unique car known for its shiny metal exterior and doors that open upwards. It became famous because it was featured in the 'Back to the Future' movies.
Concept
Mika auction
A Mika auction is a place where people can bid on cars to buy them. It's like a public sale where the highest bidder wins the car.
Term
auction block
The auction block is where cars are shown to people who want to buy them at an auction. It's like a stage where the cars are sold to the highest bidder.
Term
reserve
A reserve is the lowest price that the seller will accept for the car at an auction. If the bidding doesn't reach this price, the car won't be sold.
Car
Renault Wind
The Renault Wind is a small convertible car that you can take the roof off to enjoy the sunshine while driving. It's known for being a fun little car, but it was only made for a couple of years, so you don't see many of them around.
Car
1989 Hirikugir
The 1989 Hirikugir is a car model made in 1989 by the brand Hirikugir. It has its own special look and characteristics from that time.
Term
out-the-door price
The out-the-door price is the total amount you pay to buy a car. It includes everything like taxes and fees, so you know exactly what you're spending.
Car
Pontiac Grand Prix SE
The Pontiac Grand Prix SE is a type of car made by Pontiac in 1988. It's known for being a mid-size car that has a sporty look and feel.
Term
digital dash
A digital dash is a car dashboard that shows information like speed and fuel level using screens instead of round dials. It can be easier to read and sometimes has extra features.
Term
dual exhaust
Dual exhaust means the car has two pipes that let out exhaust gases instead of just one. This can help the engine run better and make the car sound cooler.
Term
fog lights
Fog lights are special lights on a car that help you see better when it's foggy. They shine down at the road to light it up without causing too much glare.
Term
Indianapolis 500 edition
The Indianapolis 500 edition is a special version of a car made to celebrate the Indianapolis 500 race. These cars usually look different and may have better performance features than regular models.
Car
Nissan Maxima
The Nissan Maxima SE is a version of the Maxima that has sportier features. The 1990 model is known for being a solid and well-built car that many people enjoyed driving.
Part
five-speed manual transmission
A five-speed manual transmission is a type of gearbox that lets you change gears manually. It gives you more control over how the car accelerates and performs.
Car
Dodge Shadow
The Dodge Shadow is a small car made by Dodge in the 1990s. The 1994 model had a sporty version with a three-liter engine that made it fun to drive.
Part
3.0 liter engine
A 3.0 liter engine is a type of car engine that has a total size of 3.0 liters. This size can give a good mix of power and fuel economy.
Term
valve stem seals
Valve stem seals help keep oil from leaking into the engine's combustion area. If they wear out, the engine can burn oil, which causes blue smoke to come out of the exhaust.
Term
blue smoke
If you see blue smoke coming from a car's exhaust, it usually means the engine is burning oil. This can happen when parts inside the engine are worn out.
Term
automotive technology
Automotive technology is about learning how cars are built and how they work. It includes everything from engines to safety features.
Term
fixer upper
A 'fixer upper' is something, like a car, that isn't in perfect condition and needs some repairs to make it better or usable again.
Car
Chevrolet Camaro
The Chevrolet Z28 Camaro is a sporty car that was made in 1987. It's known for being fast and fun to drive, and it has a cool design that many car enthusiasts love.
Car
Chevrolet Corvette
The 2017 Corvette is a high-performance sports car made by Chevrolet. It's famous for being fast and having a powerful engine, making it a favorite among car lovers.
Car
Buick Grand Sport
The Buick Gran Sport is a classic American car that was made to be fast and powerful, while still being comfortable. It's part of a group of cars known as muscle cars, which were popular for their speed and style back in the day.
Car
Cadillac Alante
The Cadillac Allante is a stylish two-seater car made by Cadillac in the early 90s. It was designed to be a luxury sports car and is known for its distinctive look.
Company
DeLorean Midwest
DeLorean Midwest is a business that helps people fix and take care of DeLorean cars. These cars are famous for their unique doors that open upwards and their shiny metal bodies.
Concept
restomod
A restomod is an old car that has been fixed up and updated with new parts to make it better to drive. It keeps the classic look but has modern features.
Concept
JDM
JDM means cars that are made for the Japanese market. People in the JDM community love these cars and often modify them to make them faster or look cooler.
Car
Honda Beat
The Honda Beat is a tiny car from Japan that was made in the early '90s. It's small and fun to drive, which is why many people like it.
LIVE
Welcome back to All The Cars I've Loved Before, your podcast where every car tells a story.
We're at carslove.com, carslove.com, remember to stick the S in there, it's plural, carslove.com.
I'm Christian, he's Doug, you can reach me at christianatcarslove.com or Doug at carslove.com.
Talk about life lesson through cars, we step into the way back.
Talk about the first few cars that you owned, and this has been more and more of a theme of
the past few shows, Doug, where a lot of time our guests will have hand-me-down cars, which
is something I didn't have, but sometimes everybody, you know, people scrape together
enough money to go buy their first car, or, hey, this was Grandma's car, which
would be the theme of the last couple of shows, but hey, however it happens, yeah, definitely.
So I see you, even though we're separated by 1,000 miles of asphalt, we are all here
together through the magic of the internet.
How you doing?
Doing great.
Great to be back here with you, Hope.
Hope things are safe down in Florida.
Amen.
Amen.
So our neighbors to the east as Hurricane Helene, we're moving through season three
right now as you don't think about podcasts, you record it, and then it goes into post-production,
and if you have a show like we do, where we try and stay to a publication cadence of every
week or every other week, it'll take us a while for this to actually be published.
So thinking about my neighbors to the east of me, I'm in the panhandle of Florida,
a little further east, we have the people in Big Bend, so thoughts and prayers
are with you there.
I'm speaking of our neighbors.
Get into for a moment how people get to us, okay?
Just sort of platform update.
We haven't done this for a while.
49% of our listeners reach us by way of Apple Podcast.
14% by Spotify.
That's kind of surprising.
I think that when you had us propagating across the web, wasn't Spotify one of
the last ones we came to?
Or through your-
No, it's all done through Buzzsprout.
But I actually thought, I think we might be seeing a generation gap because I
think younger people use Spotify.
So we've got to get the word out.
Wonderful.
Yeah, we do 12% by way of browser, carslip.com.
And 6%, this was surprising to me by way of Buzzsprout in-bed player device
breakdown, no surprise.
64%, Apple iPhone 11% Windows, 9% Android, and then Apple Machine 6%.
And then my favorite, the countries heard around the world, the international
sensation.
We're in the United States, 88% in the United States, 2% in Germany.
I'm sure that some German car executives are quaking in their boots for
some reason.
One person from Canada.
They're just friends of mine who live in Germany.
Or that.
Yeah, we'll take what we can get.
1% Argentina, 1% Sweden, less than 1% New Zealand, Norway, Australia, the UK,
El Salvador, and my favorite, the rooftop of the world, which is?
Nepal.
Nepal.
Yeah, I'm sure they're listening with rapt attention underneath the prayer
flag.
So however you listen, please be part.
As our audience grows, remember, you can always be part of it.
We have celebrities.
We have people from all stripes and levels of notoriety.
We have family members, friends.
If you want to be on the show, it's as simple as hitting us up on
email, christian at carslove.com, Doug at carslove.com.
Remember to please follow the show, download episodes.
And I think that's all I have to say.
Yeah, reviews are also helpful.
We even like the bad ones.
So vote on your favorite episode, too.
Carslove.com slash vote.
Absolutely new poll we have up.
So please do please do check that out.
So the cause to action, as always, get involved.
Let us know what you think.
Take the poll, email.
And you know, you can be on the show next week.
Just give us a ring.
Follow the show.
And you may have a friend.
You may not be a car person, but you may have a friend
that you would love to hear his story or you want to have him
share his story, his or her story with the rest of us.
So put them on the spot.
Put in their contact info.
We'll call them.
We'll call them.
We'll keep your name quiet.
It's all fine.
Such a good point.
Such a good point.
So please help us keep the inertia going and tell friends
about the show forward to them.
And we're getting that more and more.
In fact, we have someone set to be on the show next week,
father in some tandem, who were a referral for my son.
So let us know.
And no further ado, today's special guest
has a personal tie-in to my co-host Doug.
So if you can, I will hand it over.
I'm very curious how Mike came into your life.
Sure, sure.
So without too much history, we were coming out of the end of COVID.
I was having my garage built, because I always wanted a garage,
but didn't have one.
And I had a old 300ZX that was 1990
that was sitting at a friend's place.
And I'm like, you know, I'm going to bring it back,
put it in my garage.
You know, I've kind of lost interest in that car.
What would be a better car to have?
And somehow DeLorean came up.
And so one of our many friends of the show,
I met him via Facebook, a Facebook DeLorean group,
Brian Paoni, excellent author and good friend,
lives in Northern Virginia.
He connected me with Mike.
And I don't want to take too much away,
but Mike runs one of the few DeLorean shops in the US
that has been around for quite some time.
But, and he's in Crystal Lake, Illinois.
So in, I want to say end of January 2022,
I did a boondog that flew out there all one day and back,
rented a Jeep, drove to, it had snowed the day before,
which delayed my flight.
I looked at two DeLoreans and I drove away,
leaving a check with Mike for one of them
and got it about a month or so later.
Mike, is all of that true?
I can corroborate that story.
Yeah, I don't know about that stuff, but yeah, we did.
I don't remember all the details.
So I'm glad you're filling me in on dates and stuff.
But I do definitely remember meeting Doug
and his enthusiasm about the cars was just, you know,
was awesome to feed off of and as many as we're around,
it's awesome to see people with that passion
and love for the car.
Yeah, just walking in your lobby,
there are three cars right on top of each other,
not on top, but like how you got them in there,
I don't know, but, and then the shop just,
there were probably 15 DeLoreans in there, maybe more.
Yeah, typically we can house up to about 30, 32,
if we really have no place to walk.
We built a little quonset hut out back
where we can put the rough cars kind of in the cold storage.
But yeah, typically 25 to 30, you'll see it any given time.
Yeah, yeah.
And so, you know, Mike has a great story
of how he got into the DeLorean world
and it's kind of been, it's turned into a family business
for him, but, you know, we'll get there,
kind of looking through a couple of Mike's cars
and family connection actually to DeLorean, Dia's brother.
Yep, yep.
So yeah, our first, if you want to tell the story
about my brother, my brother bought a DeLorean
when he was out of high school.
My parents had all given us, you know,
like $5,300 as a high school present to go towards a car.
That's what my oldest brother got
and he kept it even for everyone.
We went to a Mika auction when they were a very small company
out at the Boone County Fairgrounds in Belvedere, Illinois.
They would do a once a year car auction
and that was really all they did.
And it was also a car show.
My dad wanted to go to the car show.
There was some celebrity 16-cylinder Cadillac
my dad wanted to look at.
So we made a family David to go see the cars
and we get there, checked out the Cadillac
and my brother Joe finds this DeLorean
that's going across the auction block.
Car one of going across the auction block
didn't meet the reserve.
My brother ensues a conversation with the owner
and to the amazement of the rest of my siblings
somehow Joe talks my parents into buying this car
strikes up a deal with the seller
and we wind up driving home in our minivan
with a DeLorean in tow.
And now how did that happen?
I can't imagine my folks ever ending up
with sort of car like that with a car like that.
So was there any sort of any indication
in your parents past, your father's past
of just getting an outlandish car like that?
You know, it really,
a conversation that happened probably a couple of years
after that is I, you know,
my sister was saying something
about my youngest brother Joe, like Joe was spoiled.
I said, I don't really think Joe was spoiled.
Why do you say that?
And she said, Mike,
mom and dad bought him a freaking DeLorean.
And I was like, well, you know,
when you put it that way, I guess,
you know, none of us ever were to get anything
that exotic, it was a relatively inexpensive
at the time, I believe the car was,
you know, he negotiated a price,
I think under 12, maybe 11, five.
So quite a bit more than our cars,
but not, you know, not what they are at today
by any means.
Good point.
I got you.
So let's step into the way back machine if we can.
And let's go back to where it all started for you.
And we were chatting a bit about before
we started recording here.
So let's take us back to your first car.
What was it?
What did it mean to you?
How did you get it?
Yeah.
So, you know, like we mentioned,
it was most of the funds for that came from
after graduated at turn 18
and probably a few weeks later,
we were on a car lot looking for what was available.
We were in probably Mount Prospect, Illinois.
There was one of two dealers.
I think we went to two dealers and just looked at,
you know, what would be something I was interested in
that was in our price range.
I really wanted a two-door car.
And we wound up with a really nice 89-Mirror-Hirikugir,
3.8-Liter LS.
It was a dark blue metallic car.
Wood green interior and a very nice conditioned car.
I think the out-the-door price on it was about $61.50.
So over the next year, I had to work
and pay my parents back for that,
what would $850 balance there?
And yeah, that was my first set of wheels.
When I was at two-tone, I have to ask.
Curious?
Oh, no.
Okay.
Well, dark blue, yep.
Gotcha, gotcha.
And so what happened to that car?
So that one I actually pulled out in front of someone
making a left on a four-lane highway
and they wound up hitting the back of it
and spinning me out.
And that was the last I saw that car.
And that was the last of that.
Gotcha, okay.
Which brings us to the next car,
which I'm excited about this one.
This is the Pontiac, right?
Yep, that was the one that got replaced the Cougar
with the insurance money from that,
you know, totaling that one out.
So yeah, that was an 88 Pontiac Grand Prix SE.
It had a lot of digital dash.
The first of their, you know, V6,
first of the front-wheel drive cars.
It had a great sounding dual exhaust,
had the spider tail lights,
a little luggage rack-ish type rear spoiler.
And it was a pretty loaded car.
So interesting.
Oh, go ahead.
Yeah, lumbar seats, fog lights,
you know, a bunch of lots of buttons in the interior.
It was a cool car.
And one that, again,
fit the mold of a two-door car that I wanted,
but something much more age-appropriate
for a young guy.
And a slick-looking car, too.
Funny that I read this now,
my next-door neighbor right now,
they're an older couple,
and she was an executive with Mary Kaye,
or she was somehow involved with Mary Kaye.
And so they had lived next to him
for about five years,
and they had the, it was a few years later than you,
I'm gonna say in early to mid-90s.
Pontiac Grand Prix.
And boy, it's a good-looking car, even now.
But, oh, and it had the Mary Kaye,
I don't know if this was the Indianapolis 500 edition
or something, had a little, you know,
looks sporty on the side, had a little Mary Kaye
and pink stencil right behind the wheel well.
And I talked to her husband who drove it,
and he said, yeah, I've got 265,000 miles on this thing,
and it just runs like a twist watch.
Beautiful, but I have not seen it for about a month or two,
and I'm just scared, yes, I'm scared to go over and ask.
I kind of don't want to know,
so I don't know what happened to it,
but they got a ton of miles out of that car.
And that was his daily driver,
so some of these things will last.
And it was pink.
It had, well, it was silver,
but it had this little pink,
it had this little pink stenciling that said Mary Kaye.
So it was really a sharp, sporty-looking car,
and you had to look very close for the Mary Kaye.
You could look at it several times and not have seen that,
but I hope it didn't incognize it.
Yes, exactly.
I'm hoping it didn't go the way of the dodo,
but I will find out for you.
Sorry, Mike, I didn't mean to interrupt.
So what happened to the Grand Prix?
So the Grand Prix, actually, I had for a really long time.
I had reported with a different car
and wound up crashing that car
and going back to the Grand Prix.
So I probably had that car for six or eight years.
I think it had 60,000 on it when I bought it.
It probably had 130 plus on it when I sold it.
And probably, you know, of that timeframe
of first driving a car,
I had that longer than anything else.
And, you know, that was neat for a long time, yeah.
Very nice, very nice.
Which leads us to the suburban.
Is that next up in the lineup?
Oh, man, it's hard to remember all of them.
I think the car that you replaced the Pontiac
for a short time was a 1990 Nissan Maxima SE.
That cool feature about that was they had,
some of them had a five-speed manual transmission,
which the car had a manual transmission.
So that was my grown-up guy's car, I guess.
It felt like much more of a young dad car, I guess,
even though I didn't have kids anywhere near having kids back.
That was a very cool, well-built car
that I really enjoyed driving.
Probably super quiet, no rattles,
just really smooth transmission.
And I forget, I think I was shopping for a car
because I was starting to get a little bit bored
of, you know, Grand Prix and had some money saved up
for possibly replacing it and ran across that in an ad
and just had to have it.
And it was white, I think with a dark blue cloth interior.
And just like I said, very well-made car, I really,
I drove that for a time when I was commuting
probably 45 minutes plus each way,
put a lot of miles on a car
and I just, I loved every minute in that thing.
I know, so yeah, so going from loving every minute
to being disappointed every other minute,
let's talk about the Dodge Shadow, the 94 Dodge Shadow,
the drag racing three-liter 94 Dodge Shadow.
Yeah, that was a car that I kind of stumbled into.
I had actually wrecked a car
and didn't have the insurance payout
and I was going to school at the time for automotive
and the shop would have cars donated
and they sell them from time to time.
They like to sell them to students or people they knew.
So they had this 94 Dodge Shadow with a 3.0 liter in it.
I want to say it had like 190,000 miles on it.
Condition was great, no rust for our area,
there's a huge plus and the car ran pretty good.
And I did like the car, but it had one nasty feature
that I never was able to shake or never repaired,
but they were known for having leaky valve stem seals.
And when you idle the car,
it was more than about a three-minute idle,
it would start burning oil and blowing,
blue black smoke out the back and it got kind of noxious.
And so I remember if I ever sat in a bank teller window
too long or even a drive up, getting fast food,
I had to shove the car off because it was a noxious smoke.
A cloud of dust and a hardy hyo silver.
I know that feeling, yeah.
Yeah, so that was not likable about that car.
Yeah, and so if we move forward just a little bit,
there's a tie-in with your brother in the DeLorean
and your business, which is pretty cool.
And I love this story, Mike,
if you don't mind sharing what you're comfortable with.
Yeah, no problem.
So my brother, like I said,
all of us were kind of shocked
that we're a very middle-class family.
My dad never had cars other than his daily driver.
For us to come home with DeLorean was very peculiar,
but very cool memorable.
But fast forward about seven years from that date
and I had gone to school for automotive,
got a two-year associate's degree
and applied technology from the local community college
in automotive and had about five years' experience
working on cars and a couple of different shops.
And I sit down at work, we'd start the day with a break.
That way, if anybody came in late,
he just said, well, you didn't get paid
for your break today and he didn't have to get
on people for being a few minutes late.
Anyways, I'm looking over the help-wanted ads
in the Northwest Herald and see a gentleman
who's looking for a DeLorean technician.
And my first thought,
where are you gonna find a DeLorean technician?
You never see the cars
and I had no clue where you would go to have it serviced.
My brother didn't really drive this car much.
We had, remember we had fixed an alternator for him
and a tail light issue,
but in this seven years ownership
really didn't drive it enough to do anything more
than that to the car.
It was a decent shape when he got it.
But basically my connection to the car
and having one in the family was probably the reason
I made that phone call.
I remember talking to my brother beforehand
and he said, yeah, you gotta make the call.
You don't get in the call.
What worse they can say is no.
And so I made the phone call.
I wound up being, coming in for an interview,
I spoke with Dave and Julie Swingle.
They had not even started the shop yet.
They had picked out a facility
and were building out the facility.
I got the lifts in.
They were doing some modifications to the space
and didn't quite have occupancy from the village yet.
So just in that initial setup process,
when I interviewed,
I wound up being the first guy they ever hired.
I worked for them as their lead tech
and then shop manager for nine years.
And then Dave reached kind of,
Aji was ready to retire and he sold the business
to myself and my wife, Susie, in January, 2016.
Love that story.
So I believe it was February of 2007
when I first started working for Dave and Julie.
Yeah, and it was just thanks to your brother
wanting a DeLorean, right?
It's just funny how things come together, right?
Here we are 20-ish years later.
Well, so in a moment, you don't really think about it.
Like, you know, we'll be like,
I think it's been several years ago now,
but after my brother had owned this for 20 years,
he said, you know what?
I think it's time to sell the DeLorean.
And that's when I kind of reflected upon,
if it wasn't for him and that car,
I would be in a different,
you know, in a different work environment for sure.
Yeah.
To look back and be like, well, you know,
this is the reason I'm doing what I'm doing.
I believe there was, you know, a divine reason
he came home with that car.
And we didn't know it at the time,
but I'm here for that.
Yeah.
Yep.
And I, you know, I don't know the story.
How did Dave and his wife,
why did they choose to open a DeLorean dealership
or a repair shop in Silver,
am I getting it right?
Silver Lake.
Crystal Lake.
Yep, yep.
So that was kind of just a,
so Dave had owned a car
and he bought one that was a bit of a fixer upper
that he took apart and kind of a father
on some project with fixing it up,
right when his son was, you know,
in high school and kind of getting interested
in, you know, getting his hands on cars
and figuring things out.
And then Dave, you know, got involved with the club,
became the club technical director,
was actually doing some work on club members' cars
and was wound up having a conversation
with Steven Wynn about would you be interested
in opening up a DeLorean motor company location?
Wow, gotcha.
At the time, I believe Dave turned him down
because he had two kids in college and said, you know,
I'm not gonna step away from his career with Motorola
because with the kids in college, he's like, it's not right.
Fast forward, I think a couple of years from there
and he was ready to make a move.
And really he happened to live in Crystal Lake, Illinois.
So he just found a shop to rent
and off to the races they went.
Yep, yep.
And he had some feeling there was the need,
there was a DeLorean community and whatnot.
And yep, that's pretty awesome.
None of us really knew about that.
I mean, I think Tony in Florida had already set up
his location and was kind of the first example
of a success story, but he had not been in business
that long, maybe six months to a year mark.
So it definitely was, you know, taking a risk,
but he was ready to move on from his long,
I think he was at Motorola for like 28 years
and ready for a change and had always been a car guy.
And so yeah, it was just, I guess,
the right time for him to do it.
When I took the job, I really thought this is gonna be,
I was ready to move on from where I was at.
Thought that was a real opportunity.
I really thought six months to a year,
this will be a blip on my resume
because where's this guy gonna find enough DeLoreans
to keep him busy for a long time?
And here we are pushing close to 18 years
and I've got more cars than I can handle as far as repair.
Yeah, thank you for sharing that.
And I know that we're kind of running low on time in here.
And I knew this was gonna happen,
but could you just give us a minute or two
for two things happening in your life right now.
The dipping your toe into the dealer space
as well as your show on YouTube,
which I just love DeLorean Nation.
Can you talk about either or both of those two?
Yeah, so they're kind of somewhat go hand in hand,
but probably right before COVID we decided
we're doing some DeLorean sales
and we wanted to do more of that
in order to really do that properly,
we had to become a dealer.
So we went through that probably six month plus process
and all the hoops to become a car dealer in Illinois.
And then we really just went after trying to buy cars.
And we hit this right before COVID,
we were probably a dealer like about a year
before that happened.
And so COVID kind of sparked fire
in the classic car markets.
So we were ready to take advantage of that.
There's a video we did early on
and one day I was like,
we kind of run out of space in the shop,
which we always seem to be up against.
And I just had bought cars here and there
for whatever reason.
If they were a decent deal, I'd buy them.
And sometimes customers were just like,
you know what, I don't really want to put
that much money into them.
And we would buy the car
or every once in a while they'd call
and say, hey, I got this car I want to sell
and it was price right, so we bought it.
I think I wound up with at one point 13 DeLorean's.
And I was a little overwhelmed.
I'm like, this is a problem,
my shop fits like 30 cars ish.
And so we're approaching 50% of the shop
with owned vehicles.
And you think about the dollar amount that is in that.
And I'm like, that's what we're comfortable with.
And we put out a YouTube video that said,
you know, world's largest in for it.
Cause I think at the time
you couldn't see more than five
or so at anybody's place.
So I believe it was the largest for sale.
So I did just a quick,
here's an 81 with this mileage,
this interior color and this transmission
and they're for sale and put that video out there.
It was at the time our most watched video.
And, you know, it took a while
but probably sitting a year later,
I turned, you know, 10 of those 13 cars
and we've been kind of doing that ever since.
So, you know, with the dealers license
I talked with you guys a little bit pre-show
about the great thing about it is for me,
mostly it's Deloreans, but every once in a while
I'll buy a car that's an itch I wanted to scratch.
And we run across something that's just super clean.
And I love the super clean cars
cause they're easy to sell.
Cause I say the guy to buy the super clean cars
is going to be the first one to look at it.
Because, you know, when there's that,
in that condition, you know,
there's nothing to complain about with the car.
Right.
They know it will take me forever to find one this nice again
and most likely it's an easy sale
as soon as somebody comes along that serious
they're going to realize what they see and buy the car.
And so I've been able to scratch a dish on a few
some were cars that I really have always wanted
some were just ones that I was like, man
this is a good condition car
and the condition of the vehicle
is what made me move forward.
So with a friend Anthony
I bought a 87 Z28 Camaro with 9,000 miles on it.
We've owned that car for probably nine months
and really had a lot of fun with it.
I bet.
Scratched an itch I drove it for three months or so
he drove it for three months or so
we've spent a couple of months
probably just taking it to the next level
but it didn't be a lot great car.
But yeah, I scratched an itch
I really have an appreciation
for that third gen Camaro now
learned a lot about them
and made a little money turn in the car.
So that's a great thing.
I've also done that with a
bought a 2017 Corvette that customer of mine
was going to trade into a dealership and said,
are you interested before I do that
had a probably about a four months
did for that car?
Absolutely loved it was a thrill
really missed the car.
I don't think the time of life
is right with three kids at home
will be three kids in a large dog.
Right.
You know, and all the kids bikes
and all that in the garage
it's not really the right time of life
for a 17 grand sport
but there will be another C7 in my future
probably thrilled with that car.
And then we currently just had a customer
a few months ago
video probably coming out on this at some point
that had a Delorean nice car
we went out there to look at the car
and she had a 93 Cadillac Alante
with 8,984 miles
and just look every bit you'd expect
an 8,000 mile car to look
and we came home with that
and that's the one we're kind of
tooling around with that
or 90s 90s time capsule right now
and cheap car inexpensive.
So not as worried about it
as you would be like the grand sport
but that one's kind of the current thrill
my wife and my brand new 16 year old driver
my daughter, those ladies look great
in that convertible Alante
and so we're having fun with that one
as well as Delorians right now.
Oh man.
Yeah, well.
If we got a few minutes still on Delorean Nation
I'd love to talk about that.
Please.
Yeah, so that's, you know, me and Kevin
myself and Kevin Thomas
you know, quite a while ago
we went to pick up a couple of Delorians
in Indiana and a story was with that
was a gentleman who owned three of them
two of them he was ready to sell
and I wound up going out before hand
I was in his area and stopped by
and we kind of looked over
I looked over the cars kind of made a price
with the guy, you know, agreed
we probably try to come back in a few weeks
and purchase them
and my way down his driveway happened to say
hey, I really like your gas pump
that's in the back
and he said, well, you know, you want to buy it
make me an offer
and I said, well, I wasn't expecting him
to be offered to sell it
so I said, well, we agreed that
he'd kind of give me a price when I came back
and I'll see if we threw it in with the deal
whatever made another side deal on that
so anyways, fast forward two or three weeks
Kevin and I made arrangements
we get two trucks
we get two trailers
in Indiana to pick up these cars
first thing the guy says
when I step onto his driveway is
you want to buy the gas pump
and I hadn't really thought about that
I was focused on getting these cars back
to the shop in Crystal Lake
and anyways, we wound up making a deal
on a gas pump
an old oil tank
that goes along with it, same colors
and they call it an air dinger
or a tire filler that basically this tire
when you fill a tire
and it gets close to the set pressure
it starts digging rapidly
that's why they call it a dinger
like 1950s automobile gas and oil
that's very cool, car guy stopped
sitting in my showroom now
but anyways, two stories there
one was after we were kind of wrapping that up
and got the cars all loaded
I said to Kevin, I would love to record these stories
and maybe have a YouTube channel for this
and I'd always thought about this
but I wasn't really the guy to do the videos
and the editing, I just had kind of cool content
and stories I wanted to share
and Kevin said, let's do it
and so we said, well, next time there's a story like this
let's try to get some equipment, make a video
and he agreed to do the editing
and so that was kind of the plan
so to finish the story off of that day
we get back to the shop
we get the cars unloaded
we get the gas pump out of a pickup truck
and we get the other memorabilia that we bought
and I remembered that my great grandfather
owned a couple of service stations
way back in the day
and my grandfather worked there
when he was in his late teens and early 20s
and I called my dad to say, you know
what station did, you know, like our great grandfather
owned and he said it was a, you know
a red crown station
and we were red crown gas pump
and filler and tank and stuff like
I didn't even know it at the time
but, you know, after that phone call
when we unloaded this stuff
it was like, I was so glad I said yes to it
that was, that stuff was meant to come home with me
and it's kind of a bit of a story of our family heritage
so it was so glad to have it.
Yeah, thanks for sharing
I love that
and do yourself a favor out there and listener lane
if you have a few minutes
and you will need a few minutes
because you're gonna love the little videos
they're so clever and funny and fun
go to YouTube type in DeLorean Nation
and again, give yourself some time
because you're just gonna, just like I did
you're gonna fall in a rabbit hole
and roll from one into another.
You'll, yep, you'll see and hear Mike
you'll see and hear Kevin
there's some great product reviews
and, you know, Christian to take the wind out of your sales
there's some great stories about mice in DeLorean's
and, you know, Mike
Mike actually made some nationwide news
I think he found like the lowest mileage DeLorean
one of them, maybe the only one
like 970 miles, Mike, something like that
Yeah, 977 mark
77, okay
and that story went absolutely viral and international
Yeah, yeah, it's awesome
so that story is out there
it's a multi-part series
and when Mike and Kevin opened the door
after all these years
a bunch of mice scurried across
and Christian was so impressed with watching it
like it was on cue
It was, yeah
had you get all those, it must be Tom and Jerry mice
they follow directions so well
why are they so surprised when, you know, they
you find mice in cars
but then you use licorice for the insulation on the wires
why would they be interested in that
so anyway, but check him out
his day job is DeLoreanMidwest.com
DeLoreanMidwest.com
and Mike, I just want to say
I've heard a lot about you
and I've really wanted to meet you for a
for a while man
so appreciate you making the time today
and dropping by the studio
and just thanks
it's great meeting you
thank you, Mike
it's been a great conversation
I appreciate all the car love
and I'm sure you guys put in the car
the podcast and you know
I love hearing all the stories of these old cars
yeah all right well yeah
anything for you pal
good to meet you
and over to you Doug
anything in closing
no I think in closing
you know we'd love to find some
you know in trying to expand the podcast
we'd love to find
we're trying to get into other car
subcultures if you will
resto mods are very popular
these days
but also JDM
the whole JDM community
and Christian could take
take a whole episode
and talk about this amazing place
he went to in Christiansburg, Virginia
called Duncan & Quartz
gosh I want to have them on
but they sell these JDM
for everybody's knowledge
if you don't know Japanese domestic
market cars
that now that they're over 25 years old
and they're some of the coolest cars
all right hand drive
but that you've never seen ever
and small and just quirky and
but I go to car shows
and I'll see some of those cars there
Honda Beat, Suzuki, Cappuccino
there's a really skinny
and small pickup trucks
I mean little K cars
for the Japanese market
yeah K E I
correct
so yeah so
we'd love to connect with some folks
that are into that culture
if you will
cultures
and just hit us up
Doug at carslove.com
Christian at carslove.com
carslove.com
or wherever you get your favorite podcast
that's it
can't say it any better
thanks again Mike
it's great
thank you Mike
see you next time
partner
thank you gentlemen
About this episode
Mike shares his fascinating journey into the world of DeLoreans, from his family's first purchase of the iconic car to running a successful DeLorean repair shop. He recounts how his brother's passion for the DeLorean sparked his own interest, leading to a career that combines automotive expertise with a love for these unique vehicles. The conversation also touches on Mike's YouTube channel, DeLorean Nation, where he shares entertaining stories and insights about the DeLorean community. Listeners will appreciate the personal anecdotes and the deep dive into the DeLorean culture.
Original notes
Click here to share your favorite car, car story or any automotive trivia!
Mike’s “DeLorean Dreams” episode is a nostalgic cruise through the 1980s and a heartfelt exploration of how one iconic car can shape a life. As a child of the ’80s, Mike grew up idolizing the Back to the Future DeLorean, never imagining he’d one day own one. He shares the emotional story of tracking down a 1981 DeLorean DMC-12 and the goosebumps moment of seeing those gull-wing doors in his garage.
But the DeLorean is just the centerpiece; Mike’s journey through automotive history includes restoring its finicky PRV engine, sourcing parts from a passionate owner’s club, and even taking it on a cross-country rally where fans flocked to see “the time machine.” Alongside the DeLorean saga, Mike reminisces about the other classics in his collection (like a pair of Dodge Darts affectionately nicknamed “The Twins” and a Buick Special – each with their own chapter of car memories). He also touches on how owning these cars connected him with his community – from winning “Best in Class” at a local car show to mentoring a neighbor’s kid on how to polish stainless steel body panels.
Mike's favorite episode is no surprise, it's our Season 1 Finale with Kat DeLorean - https://pod.link/1733902541/episode/21bc2a128a77f6b4aebc3657124d0d80
Blending pop-culture fun with restoration reality, this episode will delight anyone who’s ever pursued a childhood car dream. Mike’s story is a powerful reminder that our passion for cars can drive us to achieve the impossible and forge lifelong friendships along the way.
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Don't Forget to Rate & Review to keep the engines of automotive storytelling—and personal restoration—running strong.
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