About Me (updated April 2020)

Born and raised in the US. Always liked cars, especially import sports cars. I remember those ads for the 280ZX and Toyota Celica Supra, they seemed affordable even to a kid like me. Porsche was on my mind too, except the 911 I thought then was ugly, the 928 too big with those funny headlights, and the 924/944 were cool but just copies of Mazda RX-7s.  Ferrari was something only Magnum PI drove. Knight Rider was cool though! LOL.

First car was a 1985 Honda Prelude. Great car, taught me so much about good handling and responsiveness in a car, as well being a fun car to drive. And it lasted me 20 years, even when I finally bought a second car, a 2003 Infiniti G35 Coupe. I sold that car when I came to Japan, but the Prelude was at my parents' house, until my dad had enough of it taking up space and donated it to charity...

But being in the US, never could buy a Skyline GT-R, as they were not sold there. Hence when I came to Japan, after learning how to drive on the wrong side of the road in a hand me down Honda Civic, I traded up to my 1997 Skyline GT-R.

Why R33? R34 was too expensive as I didn't know how much longer I was going to be in Japan. R32s were cheap, but lacked the safety features I thought I would need in a modern car. Plus, the really good ones were just as expensive as R33s. My insistence on safety features means I got a Series 3 R33...(plus for some reason I just thought it was the best looking one of all of them, both amongst the R33s and its brothers).

That was in June 2005. This blog started when I first began to get serious about modifying and improving the car.

So flash forward to April 2020. Somehow I've ended up as one of the senior lawyers at Nissan, working out of the Global Headquarters in Yokohama.  It's allowed me to further learn more about the car and the people who built it. Given what I've experienced at Nissan, I have the utmost respect for the talented engineers and workers who put these cars on the road.

And, having owned my car now for almost 15 years, it's STILL a work in progress... but we are getting there!