Ninja please - That Escalade is *Gangster*. McGaugheys 3/5 drop, rollin' the double deuces?? I'm the coolest dad in the carpool line.

Deuces look goofy on a stock-height truck, but tucked they look sick. Besides, I have a shaved head and am covered in tattoos; what the hell else kind of "family car" was I supposed to drive. I've got two sons; I needed something we could all fit into after I sold the '65 Fleetwood (also rollin' deuces).

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1374380669

Yeah, that pic got weird when I transferred a bunch of pics to my laptop. Here's a better one. I loved that truck, still miss it. It was a towing machine.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1374381010

OK, since we're on Memory Lane now, a few pics from my storage garage from a few years ago.. Cobra, Saab Sonnett, BMW 2002, my nasty C-Class, the FrankenDucati, another Buell, a chopper I built, my beloved Scout and a Formula Vee Autocrosser.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1374381908

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1374381908

One last stroll down memory lane...

My old chopper. Apes FTW.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1374382611

Built a nice FJ40, then sold it to a guy in the Netherlands..

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1374382611

Rat Rod anybody? Buick straight 8 in a Tudor?

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1374382611

Everybody should own a T-Bucket. Once. Then they should sell it. Scary, evil little cars.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1374382611

The straight Eight in the Tudor was tired and just too ratty, so I built another. 320 cubic inches of Straight 8 goodness, handmade finned valve cover, super rare factory dual carb manifold with y-adapters and four Holley 92's. Ran like a bear, and made a sound unlike anything else you've ever heard.


https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1374383238

More pics of the Sonett?

Happy to oblige.

I started building model cars when I was really little, but my first introduction to working on real cars came by way of an adult neighbor who was restoring a '59 Mercedes 190SL, who let me hang around as long as I didn't ask dumb questions. One day he rolled up in a Sonnett exactly like this one, his new DD. At 10 years old I had no frame of reference for this bizarre little car, and I thought it was about the coolest thing that had ever existed. Fast forward thirty years, and I spotted this one in a Salvation Army "vehicle donation" lot. It was rough, and they had no idea what it was or why anybody would ever want such a thing, so I bought it cheaply on the spot. Did a metric shit ton of work to it, and this was the result. I wish I had a pic of it with the "Soccer ball wheels" I found for it just before I sold it, but the steelies are dope too.

Great little car. V4 sourced from Ford Industrial. (Think forklift, or really huge pump..) This, along with a sick BMW 320 Alpina and my beloved high-school '66 Riviera, is a car I wish I'd kept.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1374432249

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1374432249

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1374432249

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1374432249

I still say you're a drug dealer.

he is a drug dealing prostitute

He's obviously a gay porn star who sells drugs yo!

I would be a drug dealing prostitute if I could own all of those cars.

I find it really disturbing that the universal MT.net "dream life" is one filled with cool cars and hot drug-fueled man on man action.. Really, you guys weird me out a little.

My story is a simple one: I worked really hard in a series of corporate jobs I hated, had a couple lucky breaks, made a few smart bets and accumulated a bit of money. After my wife died I was left with a three year old and a serious existential crisis so I took a voluntary "buy-out" (headcount reduction) deal and turned my car hobby into a business, which is what I've done since. (Although I'm negotiating to buy a restaurant right now; I'm ready for some new challenges, and in this economy it's tough to make consistent money restoring cars.)

As far as my own personal collection of cars goes, what you see is the accumulated results of 30+ years of buying, selling and trading cars. I always have two or three of my own project cars going, even when I had a "real job", and when they're finished I trade them up for nicer and nicer cars, which I then "fix" and enjoy for a while then flip em, and on and on. Basic capitalism: take something, add value to it and then find someone who really wants it. Bonus points if you can get the guy to trade instead of buy with cash; people will give away stuff they're tired of to get a new toy.

I wish I had a better story to tell y'all, one filled with buggery, white slavery and airplanes full of Maui Wowee, but I don't. I worked really hard, and continue to.

Somebody once said something interesting to me regarding success. They said "look, if I hold your head underwater, you're going to do ANYTHING you have to do in order to breathe again. You'll fight with every ounce of your being to accomplish it. Success is like that; you have to want it as much as you want to breathe. Any less and it won't happen." And he was right.

OK, back to buttsecks jokes.

I think that is a pretty inspiring story. As fun as a drug dealing male prostitute is...

The problem these days is kids think that the guy holding their head underwater will let up before they die. Because everyone is a winner and they don't know what failure feels like. So why fight?

I think I grew up on the leading edge of that and managed to get out with some work ethic. But man these kids graduating from college just want jobs thrown at them when all they did was smoke weed in college and get a shitty degree.

/politics

But srsly we all know the only way to work up the corporate chain is soft lips.

and no gag reflex

Word. I sucked a lot of metaphorical dicks in my corporate career, and continue to do so. People hire, promote and buy from people they like, and they really like people who make them feel good about themselves. Basic Dale Carnegie shit.

It's odd how close that sounds like prostitution.

Not really- being an actual prostitute involves accepting degradation, which has never been part of the deal for me. What I'm talking about is more subtle, almost a game really. The objective is to get you to *want* to give me shit, without actually having to suck your dick in the process. In that way it's more "stripper" than whore.

Say you work for a guy who is utterly inept. Everybody knows he's inept, including him. So, one approach is to grind the guy, shit talk him to co-workers and his superiors, and use his inadequacy as either an excuse for your own failure, or to magnify how your own success is perceived. That's ego, which feels good on some level to someone who is also battling their own feelings of inadequacy, but difficult to deposit in the bank.

It seems to me more expedient to just ignore the guy and do whatever you have to do to be successful in spite of him, and then, and here's the crucial part, *give him all the credit*, especially in conversations with those above him. Is that tantamount to "sucking the guys dick"? I suppose, if one views any activity outside of sucking one's own dick to be the equivalent to sucking someone else's, perhaps it seems that way. But trust me, when it comes time for Boss Man to make it rain, the dollars will be stuffed into *your* G-string, and the bank DOES take those.

Oh trust me, I'm former military, I know all about this. It's basically the only way to survive.

Ugh. Military: same bullshit as Corporate America without the fat comp plan. I have friends who serve, I hear the stories.

That's why I got out! hehe.

What are you impressions of the elise vs the miata? That is the only car that I would consider replacing my Miata with. But I'm afraid I'll be let down.