My Automotive Journey
My automotive journey was inspired by my father. He loved cars and always seemed to have something interesting to offset the family car. However, even our family car could be interesting like the time it was a 1964 Chevy Impala SS.
1957 Corvette
Though he had several interesting cars beforehand, the first one that sticks in my memory is his 1957 Corvette. Dad raced his Corvettes and as a child I would play with his trophies. As a young child, I remember being in my grandparents basement cutting a Corvette off the top of one so that I could play with it like a toy car.
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Car people are familiar with how fanatical some groups can be about cars being "numbers matching". There are also registries for various car models where people can keep up with a car's pedigree. As car collecting matured, automakers began cooperating with these registries so someone could determine exactly what options their car came with from the factory. This was not true in 1957. Fast forward 40 years when Dad was retired and going to various events with his last Corvette (see below). Mom and Dad were at a national Corvette event in Florida. Through the National Corvette Club, the current owner of Dad's 1957 Corvette tracked Dad down at the event. He was so excited to meet the original owner of his Corvette. The car was was going to be auctioned and was expected to go for really big money. See, 1957 was the first year that Chevrolet offered fuel injection as an option on any car including the Corvette. 1957 fuel injected Corvettes or "Fuelies" are rare and highly valued as a result. Well, the problem was that Dad's Corvette came with two 4-barrel carburetors and was not an original "Fuelie". At that point, the current owner no longer wanted to speak to Dad.
1960 Corvette
At some point, my Dad's 1957 Corvette was stolen. It was eventually found but the engine had been removed. He decided to trade it in on a brand new 1960 Corvette. I recall a story my dad told me about getting a ticket because his Corvette was loud. The owner of the Chevrolet dealership had to go to court with him to testify that Dad's exhaust system was not modified.
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By 1962, my mom and dad had a German Shepherd who was used to riding between them and my mom was expecting my sister. So the Corvette was traded in on something more family friendly... a Buick. That didn't last long. He traded the Buick in on the aforementioned 1964 Impala SS. There was no such thing as a Sports Sedan like we have today and Dad refused to own a 4-door car.
1967 Camaro SS
Dad's looked just like this without the black vinyl top
In 1967, he bought the very first Chevrolet Z28 in Cincinnati from Glenway Chevrolet…but my mom made him take it back because she thought the neighbors would not like how loud it was. He “settled” for a Camaro SS. Though I was only a few years old, I have very clear memory of it in our driveway. It was dark green with a white strip across the front and a 327 emblem. My mom may have an actual photograph but this is close to what it looked like.
1973 Chevy Vega GT
Dad's looked exactly like this
During the 1970’s oil crisis and emissions restrictions, the automotive industry was suffering from a styling, quality and performance crisis. The Corvette, Mustang, Camaro, Firebird, 442, and GTO were all shadows of their former selves. Perhaps out of desperation, my Dad bought a 1973 Vega GT in hopes that it might be at the very least…sporty. It was a neat looking like car but what a disappointment from a performance standpoint.
1978 Datsun 280Z
One sunny Spring Saturday morning in 1978, I was riding with my Dad as I often did going who knows where and I saw a car that I had never seen before. It had a classic shape and I thought it might be a Jaguar XKE. I don’t remember the conversation that took place with my Dad that day but it clearly sparked something in him. One evening in December of 1978, he came home with a new car. He had traded in the Vega on a white Datsun 280Z with a brown interior and dealer installed brown stripes.
These pictures were taken the day he brought it home. As a 13 year-old, I learned how to drive a "stick shift" from the passenger seat of this car. As my Dad and I would go places, I would shift left-handed as I heard the RPMs of the engine reach the right shift points and he would step on the clutch.
1976 Pontiac Trans Am
Pam's looked exactly like this
My Dad's interest in cars inspired my older sister Pam as well as me. Her first car was a red 1976 Pontiac Trans Am.
1971 Olds Cutlass S
Mine looked exactly like this except with a white painted top
My grandfather passed away when I was 10 and my grandmother, being a city girl, had never learned to drive. So my grandfather's 1971 Oldsmobile Cutlass sat in a garage until my sister Pam turned 16. She drove it until she got her true first car and the "Green Machine" became mine. It was in very good condition and required only a little work to make it "cool".
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Unfortunately, when I was 17 a drunk driver ran a stop sign and hit me broadside. The impact knocked me out leaving me with no memory of the accident. However, the next morning in the hospital my first spoken words were "how is my car?". I never saw it again. Out of all of the cars I no longer have, this one would be my first choice to have again.
1970 Olds Cutlass/442 W30
So began the search for a replacement. By the time of the accident, my Cutlass had become part of me. My car was unique at school and in the community so people knew it before they even knew me.
As a result, there was only one type of car that I was interested in. I had no idea that we would be looking at convertibles. The search ended pretty quickly when we found a 1970 Cutlass Convertible in fair/poor condition. I didn't know what a 442 was and wasn't crazy about the color at first but that didn't matter since it was a convertible. Little did I know what impact this car would have on me and how long it would be part of my life.
As it turned out, the Sebring yellow color was a factory order only color. The car went through four separation "restoration" efforts with each one being better than the previous. I had developed so much confidence working on it that I would have no reservations about tearing it completely apart and putting it back together again. I ended up owning this car for 26 years before the demands of a growing family motivated me to sell it.
Back to Dad's 280Z
By 1982, my dad's 1978 Datsun 280Z was starting to rust pretty badly. These cars clearly were not made with good sheet metal. Having gained confidence on my Oldsmobile, I pulled dad's 280Z in the garage and began stripping off the paint. My friends, Doug and Todd Heinrich, and I decided to have a little fun and make it look "European" by "whiting" it out. This was the trendy thing to do in the 80s. Then we decided to add candle apple stripes to really make it stand out. Lastly, the Z was known as a Porsche killer in it's day so why not make it look more like a Porsche with a whale tail, a front air dam and fog lights?
1985 Mustang GT Convertible
Dad's looked just like this
In December of 1985, we moved from Cincinnati, Ohio to Greenville, South Carolina. I began attending Clemson University and did not want to park my 442 on campus while I was living in the dorms. So I started driving Dad's 280Z and Dad bought a Mustang GT Convertible. For my first official date with my now wife of 32 years, I took Angie to Gatlinburg in the Smoky Mountains in this Mustang.
1960 Corvette
Around 1992 my father retired. One of the first things he did was buy a 1960 Corvette that was a combination of options from his other Corvettes. It had the body and drivetrain of his 1960 and the color scheme of his 1957. He bought it from a company in Ohio (ProTeam) that had warehouses full of Corvettes with each warehouse being a different generation. It was like going to a dealership where you could choose year, make, model, color and even condition. This Corvette had a 283ci V8 with two 4-barrel carburetors, 4-speed manual transmission and a 4.11 posi-traction differential.
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The first thing he did after buying it was to "baIance and blue print" the engine. It was pretty amazing to drive as I could pull the front wheels off the ground from a dead start AND when shifting into 2nd gear.
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In 1998, he entered his car in a NCRS concours event in Hiawassee, GA. These people are extreme by any measure when it comes to automotive restoration. For example, they will make sure bolts have the correct stamp on top and that there is paint overspray in the appropriate areas as it would have been from the factory. His car won the Top Flight Award.
1974 Pontiac Trans Am
Many years later, my sister decided that she wanted to get a fun car like her first Trans Am. She found this 1974 Trans Am which was one of only 1500 with manual transmission. It was truly a barn find and was in solid shape but looked terrible. After months in my garage and a brief stay in the paint shop, it came out looking incredible.
1970 Oldsmobile Rallye 350
Wow. It's amazing what you can forget. As I perused my Car picture folder, I ran across this Rallye 350 that I owned for a brief period around 2003. Being an Oldsmobile fan and fan of the outrageous paint schemes of the late 60s and early 70s, I always liked these cars. This was Oldsmobile foray into the low-cost muscle car market. It was a base Cutlass with the stock 350ci (5.7 litre) engine but with all of the W30 bells and whistles.
1986 Jeep Cherokee
When my oldest son Josh turned 16, we found a Jeep Cherokee. It provided an opportunity for him to learn how to work on cars and we had a lot of fun making it a true off-road vehicle. I believe this in part contributed to his love of the outdoors and his eventual employment with REI in Seattle.
1997 Land Rover Discovery
As a result of Josh's enjoyment of his Jeep and off-roading, he suggested that I find a Land Rover. The result of that search was this 1997 Land Rover Discovery. It had already been lifted so we added the brush guards and other off-road items.
1978 Datsun 280Z
Baby BlueZ
Somewhere around 2010, I recall being home one sunny early Spring Saturday morning and yearning to work on a car project. I wanted it to be something small, cheap and something I could modifiy without being concerned about the impact to it's value. In other words, not like my Dad's Corvette or my 442. The first car that fitting that description that came to mind was a Mustang. The only problem was that Mustangs were so common. Then I remembered by Dad's 280Z. So I looked through Craigslist and ran across a 78 Datsun 280Z for $2,000. It needed a paint job and came a new interior which had not been installed. Oh...and it wouldn't start. I drove over to other side of town with my trailer and $2,000 cash. I took one look at the car and realized it was a diamond in the rough. No rust, no dings, no accidents. The owner said it would not start when cold even though he had done a complete tune-up including $1,000 worth of 6 new fuel injectors. I didn't hesitate. I rolled it onto my trailer and headed home. Once in the garage I did some research. Even though these cars had 6 cylinders, they actually had 7 injectors...a cold start injector. This injectors was smaller and cheaper than one of the regular injectors, just $50. I put one in and it fired right up. After front and rear air dams and a nice paint job, it was the cleanest 280Z I had ever seen.
Unfortunately, one of my sons asked to borrow it one night. That didn't end well. Thankfully he and his friend were wearing their seat belts so after crawling out through the driver's window they walked away without a scratch.
1977 Datsun 280Z
BlueZ
It would be an understatement to say that the loss of Baby BlueZ was painful. My wife felt so badly for me that she began a search for a replacement. She ran across this car out of Chicago. It was a Southern California car that had managed to find it's way to the wintry car unfriendly Chicago. It had some very interesting modifications and a Torsen/Gleason mechanical limited slip differential from Bob Sharp Racing (think Paul Newman).
After agreeing to a price, I bought a ticket for Chicago. I live in South Carolina and had a meeting in Nashville. My plan was to drive it from Chicago to Nashville, spend the night, attend my meeting then drive to South Carolina via the Tail of the Dragon. During the drive from Chicago to Nashville, I realized that the tires needed to be replaced especially before driving the Dragon. So I bought a new set in Nashville and headed home.
This car has a lot of very unique and experience-changing modifications. It had already been bored .30 over to a 3.0 litre and the heads had been milled increasing the compression ratio. I rebuilt the motor and added a Stage 2 racing cam, lightweight flywheel, headers and big exhaust. It rumbles and shakes like it has a V8. Additionally, I swapped the transmission for a close-ratios 5-speed from a 90s Nissan 240SX and a 3.90 limited slip differential from a early 80s 280ZX. The performance is worlds apart from a standard 280Z.
I have had many fun adventures in this car. One in particular involved the Tail of the Dragon. My high school buddy, Doug, met me in Fontana Village for ZDayz back in 2012. Early one morning, we made the drive over the Dragon to Tennessee. At the turnaround point, there was a twin turbo 300Z and a brand new 370Z Nismo getting ready to make the return trip. So Doug and I followed them. It was quite a challenge to stay with them given that I'm driving a 35 year old car with no power steering and no power brakes. However my little BlueZ was built just for this, lots of low end power and the drivetrain was tuned for coming out of curves. When we reached the Deals Gap store, we all pulled into the parking. The guy driving the 370Z popped open his hood and was checking something. I innocently asked, "what's wrong?" He replied that he had boiled his clutch fluid. I shrugged and then drove back to Fontana Village.
Later that night, Doug and I were leaving the Fontana Grill and got in the car when someone knocked on my driver's side window. Perplexed, I rolled and window down. He asked "were you on the Dragon this morning?". I said Yes. He then asked "were you tailing a new Nismo?". I sheepishly replied Yes beginning to believe I had been following too close. He then stuck out his fist to give me a fist pump saying "man, I was just in my buddies cabin watching his GoPro of the drive. We heard an engine roaring and tires squealing the whole way. His wife got onto him said 'honey, you shouldn't be driving the car so hard because its brand new. Her husband replied, 'that wasn't me that was some first gen Z behind me"
Doug had taken a video of that drive which I recently found. It is posted here -> (2012 Dragon Run)
1990 300ZX "Slick Top"
I always liked the design of the Z32 model which ran from 1990 thru 1996. In 2016, I ran across a high-mileage original-condition 300ZX which was being sold by the original owner. Most hardtop 300ZXs came with T-Tops but a low number did not and are referred to as "slick tops". These are preferred by racers as the cars are more rigid.
A different son and a different story that didn't end well.
Dad's 280Z Returns
Around 2017, I received an email. The person was looking for me. He had purchased my Dad's 1978 280Z in the mid 90s. It sat for nearly 10 years before he officially transferred the title. He had done almost nothing to it except replace the floor pans and primered it. I could not believe my eyes.
I still had the hubcaps that we had painted white back in 1982. It now sits in my garage awaiting a full restoration.
93 Nissan 300ZX Convertible
As I mentioned before, I always liked the design of the Z32 model. A year or so after the loss of the Slick Top, I found this 1993 Convertible. Only 2,000 were made in total between 1993 and 1996. This one was even more unique in that it had custom rims and the "J-Spec" package which means it had the Japanese air dam and taillights. They were the most expensive and most complicated consumer sports car of their day. I had a love-hate relationship with this car. Being a low production convertible made finding parts difficult and being complicated by design made it a nightmare to work on. I could not decide whether to admire the engineers for what they did or despise them for it.
2004 Dodge Dakota
In 2013 my oldest daughter turned 16 and she wanted a blue truck. At one time, my wife's daily driver was a blue 2000 Dodge Durango and I really liked the body style. So I decided to look for a blue Durango. I did my homework and decided that I wanted a 2004 Dakota quad cab with the V8 and 4-wheel drive. The year was very important because in 2004 Dodge came out with a new drivetrain. The Durango got the new body style, which I did not like but the Durango kept the previous body style for one more year.
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So I started looking around. I discovered that truck prices can vary a great deal and when in good condition keep their value well. I also discovered that Dakota's are really hard on ball joints. Finding exactly what I wanted was proving difficult. A month or so into my search, my wife and I made plans to visit Mt Airy, NC for our anniversary. She is a huge Andy Griffith Show fan and he was from Mt Airy and it is the town on which Mayberry is based. The town puts on an annual festival and is just like visiting Mayberry.
When we first arrived, we drove down Main St and stop at a traffic light. On the opposite corner, was Mayberry Auto Sales and sitting front and center was a Blue 2004 Dodge Dakota Quad Cab 4x4 with the V8. The exact truck I was looking for. It was a 1-owner truck in excellent condition with 225,000 miles. It had been bought by the original owner at the local Dodge dealership and recently traded in on a new truck. Because of the high mileage, the Dodge dealership sold it to Mayberry Auto Sales.
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My daughter did not decide to get her license until she was almost 18 so I got to drive it for almost 2 years. By that time, I decided that I liked it too much to give to her. Now over 450,000 miles later, it is still my daily driver. I have rebuilt the motor, transmission, front suspension 3 times and it received a new paint job in 2021. I currently have the interior torn out (minus the 2 front seats) so I can replace the heater core and A/C evaporator...what a pain. I have replaced the dash gauge cluster 3 times and though the truck has right at 700,000 miles, the latest dash cluster just turned over 300,000.
Peter Brock
Back in 2019, I had the opportunity to attend the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas with my wife Angie. We visited Shelby America then went down the street to find Peter Brock's place.
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Peter is a legend in the automotive space. As a very young person, he had the opportunity to help design the 1963 Corvette under the direction of GM chief stylist Bill Mitchell. He later worked for Carroll Shelby and designed the Shelby Daytona. It was engineered and purpose built for auto racing, specifically to take on Ferrari and its 250 GTO in the GT class. In 2014, the first Cobra Daytona Coupe became the first vehicle recorded under a U.S. federal program for documenting historically important national treasures. In December 1965 he started his own design firm and motor racing team, Brock Racing Enterprises (BRE) and raced Datsun 2000 roadsters, 510 sedans and 240Zs.
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I walked into the small lobby / souvenir shop at Brock Enterprises. No one was around so I casually looked around. In about 15 minutes, Peter came walking in the door. He spent about an hour talking cars and memories. He was one of the most humble down-to-earth celebrities that I've had the pleasure to meet.
The Guys
In the early years of my automotive journey, I had a close band of brothers. Here are their cars
Doug Heinrich's
1970 Pontiac GTO
I still remember the day somewhere around 1982 that Doug and I drove out to Northgate Mall in Cincinnati. Sitting at the outer edge of the parking lot was a green car like I had never seen. It had a 400ci engine and 4-speed manual transmission. Doug bought the car from the original owner. I probably only got to drive it one time but man it was powerful. Years later, he and Todd repainted it and won a trophy at a big Cincinnati car show. Doug eventually sold it back to the original owners who restored it to it's original condition.
Todd Heinrich's
1969 Pontiac GTO
Todd painted my Dad's 280Z and my 442. He really went all out on this 1969 GTO including a bunch of customizations like removing the door handles and dual recessed retractable antennas. You can barely see the button on the bottom of the sideview mirror that electronically opened the door.
Todd Heinrich's
1968 Pontiac GTO Convertible
Todd Heinrich's
1987 Pontiac Trans Am GTA
Todd sold the hardtop but kept the convertible. He bought this Trans Am brand new in 1987. It was the first year they started putting the bigger V8s back in "muscle cars". Todd's GTA only has 24,000 miles on it.
Paul Drescher's
1969 Buick GS Convertible
There wasn't a time that I didn't know Paul. His family lived down the hill directly behind us. Next to our homes was a large farm with a creek and Delhi Park was down the street the other direction. I love how all of my friends have different tastes. Paul covered the bases that the rest of us missed. He started with a 1972 Chevrolet Chevelle but then he found this 1969 Buick Skylark/GS. He still has it to this day.
Scott Taylor's
1968 AMC Javelin
I met Scott just out of high school when he was driving this 1968 AMC Javelin. He doesn't have the Javelin any more but he has other amazing cars below.
Scott Taylor's
1972 Cutlass Convertible
Scott Taylor's
1972 Corvette
The original owner of Scott's Corvette had it 20 years and only put 5,000 total miles on it. It now only has 51,000 miles.
Rich Graeter's
1964 Triumph TR4
Because of Rich, I know a lot about Corvairs. The Corvair was the only American-designed, mass-produced passenger car with a rear-mounted, air-cooled engine like the VW Beetle. I remember running all around the greater (no pun intended) Cincinnati area looking at Corvairs. Well, Rich's Dad really did not want him getting a Corvair. They had a bad reputation for spinning out of control due to all of that weight in the back. So Rich "settled" on this 1964 Triumph TR4. Good choice.
Related Stories
2006 Ford Shelby GT-H
The Hertz Mustang "rent-a-racers" from the mid-60s are legendary in car circles. Here is a good article from Hemmings Motor News -> History of Hertz Rent-A-Racers . For decades, car enthusiasts wanted to know when they would do it again.
In 2006, I recall being in the Toronto Airport when I picked up a Car & Driver magazine and read an article about the return of the Hertz/Shelby Mustang for its 40th Anniversary. This was exciting news! Where do I rent one? Reading further in the article, I learned that it would only be available in selected resort destinations (i.e. Las Vegas, Orlando, etc). When I got back to work, I learned that I would be traveling to Orlando! A coworker of mine, who happened to be a car fanatic, would be traveling with me. When we arrived in Orlando, I had him go to baggage claim while I went to get the rental car. He was speechless when I rolled up in this Mustang.
The Chandler School
Pirate Zhip
One cold February day in 2013, I received a call from complete stranger named Dana Blackhurst. He had purchased a partially completed Datsun 240Z race car and wanted to make sure it would stop! It turned out that he was a nationally known expert on Dyslexia with a school for kids with learning challenges (i.e. Dyslexia, etc) and had an idea for starting a special program. We worked together to start the Automotive, Culture & Engineering program (ACEs) that eventually resulted in the Pirate Zhip, a completely race ready 240Z with a 6.0 liter LS V8.
Cars and Technology Come Together
I have been involved with technology for most of my life. My undergraduate degree is in Computer Information Systems from Clemson University. I was working at Clemson pursuing my MBA in the early 90s when the internet was in it's infancy. Though I could see where it was going, I was not in a place to get involved in a significant way.
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Sometime around 2015, due to my involvement with the Chandler School and being president of the local "Z" Club, I was invited to a presentation at the International Transportation Innovation Center (ITIC) being given by Dr. Joachim Taiber. They were wanting to turn the old Air Force base into a automotive testbed and they thought that local car clubs might be interested in using the facility on nights and weekends. I really didn't think the car club angle was going to take hold but I wanted to know what was going on "behind the curtain". I knew right away that electric, connected and autonomous vehicles were going to be bigger than the internet and I wanted to be part of it. That "chance" encounter has led to my current roles as head of operations for the Global Autonomous Vehicle Partnership (GAVP) and IT Services Coordinator for the International Alliance for Mobility Testing & Standardization (IAMTS).
