October 14, 2025 • 36 mins
Click here to share your favorite car, car story or any automotive trivia!
Three days before his 16th birthday—days before he could finally get his license—Nigel Tunnacliffe's brother totaled his first car. The Skoda 135 GLi he'd saved $500 to buy. Gone.
Most people would give up. Nigel bought a Mark 1 Toyota MR2 and proceeded to blow through FIVE engines. Yes, five. The first one ran out of oil. The engines from Japan had ticking valves. The Suzuki Forsa track car with the Subaru turbo? Blew two turbos—the compressor wheels snapped off and ended up in the muffler (he called it "twin turbine exhaust").
But somewhere between the MR2 disasters and owning all 4 generations of Miata, Nigel discovered something: he loved teaching people to drive.
Today, he runs Coastline Academy—a coast-to-coast driving school on a mission to eradicate car crashes by modernizing how teens learn to drive.
In this episode, Nigel reveals:
- The exact moment he realized his Skoda was gone (and his brother's role in it)
- Why he swapped a Chevy 2.4L Ecotec engine into his NB Miata—twice
- Building a 500 ft-lb turbo monster that he drove at Laguna Seca
- Working on cars in a San Francisco storage container (his workshop when living in the city)
- High school shop class memories: welding without guardrails
- Why modern teens are more nervous about driving than previous generations
- The hardware startup pivot that became a national driving school
- What it's like owning all 4 Miata generations (NA, NB, NC, ND)
There's one detail about that Suzuki Forsa that Nigel says he'd never let his driving students replicate. For good reason.
🚗 **Learn more:** coastlineacademy.com | YouTube: @CoastlineAcademy
🔗 **Related episodes:** https://buzzsprout.com/2316026/episodes/17881474-the-father-son-mustang-ii-rebuild-at-age-14-from-ase-mechanic-to-tech-entrepreneur
Connect with us: https://carsloved.com
⭐ Teaching a teen to drive? Share this episode with them!
*** Your Favorite Automotive Podcast - Now Arriving Weekly!!! ***
Listen on your favorite platform and visit https://carsloved.com for full episodes, our automotive blog, Guest Road Trip Playlist and our new CAR-ousel of Memories photo archive.
Don't Forget to Rate & Review to keep the engines of automotive storytelling—and personal restoration—running strong.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:02):
Welcome back to All the Cards I've Loved Before,
your authoritative podcast onautomotive nostalgia.
Where our guests are unique,each auto has an era, and every
car tells a story.
So you know, you know what's upto.
Time to plug in, get littlebriefs under the nails, and slip
on that favorite car themedt-shirt, hat, or jacket.
(00:26):
And hey, you know what?
We won't judge.
If you've been wearing the samecar themed t-shirt for a week, I
don't have a problem with it.
I can't see you.
Uh it's gonna be wonderful.
Hey, welcome back to ourlisteners all over the world.
You ready, Doug?
This is my favorite part of theshow here.
Do it.
Um, welcome back, our listenersin Lafayette, Louisiana.
(00:47):
You know, uh, I'm originallyfrom Louisiana, and we we we did
a South Louisiana world tour.
I'm gonna say a couple of springbreaks ago and went that just
went all through SouthLouisiana, an alligator tour uh
in the swamps, and went to thewhere they make Tabasco and New
Iberia, uh, Louisiana.
(01:08):
Total trip, lots of fun.
And um, hey, you've got to passthrough Lafayette to get there.
So uh let's see, a couple coupleof places in Europe.
Lundaburg in Lower Saxony.
Uh try not to ma uh master this.
Gottenberg, Vasta Gutten County,St.
Michael's, Maryland, a littlecloser to home.
Canyon Country, California.
(01:30):
Erstwile in Bern, and maybe thethe city of the day here is
Cardiff.
Cardiff in Cardiff.
Why why is Cardiff fitting forthe show?
Well, the first three letters.
First three letters say it all.
Cars loved, Cardiff.
Now, if that you know howsometimes they rename cities?
(01:50):
You know, if Cardiff ever wantedto become Cars Love for a day, I
wouldn't mind.
I wouldn't want to be againstit.
So at this point in time, let'sbring in Doug.
How you doing, partner?
Doing on there today.
SPEAKER_02 (02:02):
Doing great?
Crazy.
Love the shirt.
SPEAKER_00 (02:04):
Another Mazda shirt.
SPEAKER_02 (02:06):
Yeah, I'm running out of Mazda RX7 shirts, so I'll
have to get some more.
SPEAKER_00 (02:10):
Yeah, you ever go to a dealership and you go right
in, and there are all the nicecars here, and then there's a
glass case in the back with allthe you know, the hats and
shirts embroidered with the withthe automotive, you know, emblem
and that sort of thing.
Does anybody buy that ever?
Have you ever bought anythingfrom there like that?
Negative.
(02:31):
I'm not saying it's not greatmerchandise.
I think it is, but always goback there, make note of it, and
then I get you know busysidetracked looking at something
else.
So I don't know.
If you have ever bought anythingfrom a dealership in that way,
under that glass case, let usknow.
Firing off an email.
Okay, so it's Christian atcarslove.com, Doug at
Carslove.com.
(02:51):
But I've been told that info atcarslove.com works just as good.
Is that correct?
It is.
Who is this guy info?
And when did he hire when did wehire him?
Uh don't don't pay.
Does he make more than sign thecheck?
Sign the check.
Sign the check.
That's it.
All right.
And oh, wanted to mention thewebsite.
We got something new going onthere through the the magic of
(03:13):
Doug.
Uh okay.
So we have you can send usphotos of you and your favorite
car, and we'll put them on oursite.
And we have a bunch of photosthere already.
It's really neat.
Yeah, we had the site redone alittle while ago, and it's it's
a carousel, right?
So that's that's the tech term.
So uh uh picture is that you'llsee a picture of Doug and me, or
(03:38):
several pictures, Doug.
But how about the pictures ofyou and that old Jeep?
Are they up there?
No, no, I gotta find those.
Um I'm gonna send them again.
SPEAKER_02 (03:46):
I did put a couple pictures up of um some track uh
914s from Dirk.
Ooh, as well as uh uh Legendguest Timothy dressed uh dressed
as a cone while he was uhmanaging the hot pit at a
Porsche track event.
SPEAKER_00 (04:06):
He is literally dressed as a cone.
Nobody will be.
Fantastic.
Can't wait to see it.
Can't wait to see it.
So, yeah, all right.
Carslove.com, check it out,especially the photo carousel.
Hey, if you want some uh some ofyour photos turn up there, just
email them along.
We'll get them there.
Also, if you like what you hear,please tell a friend it helps us
grow.
Uh, and leave a review whereveryou get your podcast.
(04:29):
We sure would appreciate it.
So I think that's all of thepre-flight stuff.
Did I miss anything, Doug?
Or is it time to talk about howtoday's guest yeah, how did
today's guest pull into ourvirtual garage?
SPEAKER_02 (04:45):
Yeah.
So today's guest named NigelTunacliff.
Tonnecliff.
Tonnecliffe, yeah.
Tunnecliffe.
Uh he came to us uh uh via uh Iguess I would say his PR person.
Um yeah, you know, the greatthing is as the show's picked up
(05:06):
and uh we've had more guests andwe've gotten better circulation,
if you will, more downloads.
We've had people coming to us.
We're not always begging.
SPEAKER_00 (05:17):
In fact, so yeah, lovely.
So, Nigel, welcome to the show.
How are you today?
Doing awesome.
Thanks for having me on.
Absolutely.
So, where where are you thesedays?
Where where geographically areyou on this on this planet?
SPEAKER_03 (05:32):
Uh I'm on an island outside of uh Seattle uh called
Bainbridge Island, Washington.
SPEAKER_00 (05:37):
Love it.
So, okay, so this might be thefirst show where we have East
Coast, we have West Coast, andwe have Gulf Coast.
So thrilling, fantastic, thankyou.
Welcome.
And w what is your project thesedays?
What what are you up to?
SPEAKER_03 (05:53):
Yeah, I run a driving school called Coastline
Academy, and uh it is a wholelot of fun.
Uh, I started as a drivinginstructor, and uh we built the
business to be coast to coast.
We're not in the Gulf Coast yet,but uh we're we're we're coming.
SPEAKER_00 (06:10):
Well, I I got a 15-year-old, so I need you here
ASAP, man.
And you know what?
My 17-year-old, my 18-year-old,my 20-year-old could use it too.
So um, yeah, you definitely havesome repeat business here.
And we were talking a little bitduring the pre-show that and
that's one of the things I likeabout this show is it really
unlocks memories and justtransports people back in time.
(06:32):
I, in in checking out yourcontent, and yeah, definitely
check them out on it.
We'll get to his coordinates ina minute.
Um but if you go to uh the thethe his YouTube channel, there's
a lot of really great content.
And I was just transported backinto high school in the basement
of a building, watching allthese videos of you know what
(06:53):
you should do during driving,what you shouldn't.
I can't remember if I went outwith a driving instructor, but I
I didn't feel very repaired anduh prepared for when I went and
took my driving test.
But when I think about what yourcompany does, it's it's really
kind of the model ofstandardized, modernize,
(07:15):
evangelize.
So you're taking all of thesegreat teachings, it's at and I
think this is brilliant, it'stailored per state.
And you have these drivinginstructors that come out, pick
somebody up, and it's not inthis old hoopty, it's not in
this car from way back when it'sa late model car, all the
technology, second break in thecar so that the instructor is
(07:35):
involved, uh, cameras.
It's such a differentexperience.
Can you talk about why that'simportant now?
SPEAKER_03 (07:43):
Yeah, you know, I I think um I mean learning to
drive has always been uh a bigdeal, right?
It's uh it's it's challenging,it's dangerous.
Um but I think more more oftennow, uh young people they they
get really nervous about this,you know, like uh and so
anything we can do that makesthis process um something that's
(08:05):
approachable, something they'recomfortable with, providing that
content on YouTube and TikTokand such like that to help uh
you know get some get somecomfort with with what they're
about to to take on.
And then showing up in a in anew Corolla with a super
friendly instructor.
Um, you know, all of thesethings are things that kind of
break down the barriers for whatit takes for a young person to
(08:29):
kind of feel comfortable enoughto just embark on this journey.
SPEAKER_00 (08:34):
Fantastic.
And how did the idea hit youthat, all right, you said you
were a driving instructor, andhow did what what was the
inception, the idea of I I haveto do this on a bigger scale?
And was that hard or easy?
SPEAKER_03 (08:49):
Yeah, I mean, so uh I think uh Steve Jobs has this
great quote about you can onlyconnect the dots in reverse.
So um, you know, what whatactually happened was was my
co-founder and I decided we'regonna start this business
coastline, and our mission wasto eradicate car crashes.
Uh but the the business we wewere planning to start was
(09:11):
actually a hardware business.
We were gonna make uh a hardwareproduct for cars.
Um and that was it was notworking out.
You know, we had a prototype, wewere doing our go-to market,
people weren't buying it.
We're like, what are we gonnado?
And um so we went back throughall our user research and we're
just like, what are we we gottapivot to something?
(09:31):
What's it gonna be?
And there was this common threadthrough all of these families'
experiences, families with newdrivers in the household, that
the learning to drive experiencewas just it was like a a
casually provided service, youknow, a guy with a car or a
small business that you know yougotta bring cash when they, you
(09:52):
know, when you go to theiroffice, you know, all the all
these kinds of things that a tonof variability.
SPEAKER_00 (09:58):
And from variability, you inevitably get
defects.
Okay, that's and since drivingis one of the most dangerous
things you will ever do on adaily basis, especially for a
younger person.
Yeah, you sense that.
Yeah, please continue.
Great story.
SPEAKER_03 (10:10):
And and and so um, you know, we thought, okay,
maybe maybe we're gonna do this.
And uh so it just happened thatlike I I grew up being an
instructor, not a drivinginstructor.
I I ran a sailing school, I um Idrove on the track.
Uh, you know, I like I had theselike little bits of experiences.
So when we decided, okay, youknow, we we're actually gonna
(10:30):
pivot and we're gonna build adriving school.
I thought, all right, well, Iguess step one is to get trained
as a driving instructor andteach some young people how to
drive.
Um and so we started thebusiness with just us as the
instructors and built it up bitby bit.
And uh it was actually anincredible experience, you know.
I I love that.
(10:51):
I I just I love that time withwith these folks who were, you
know, they're coming in, they'rekind of nervous, you know, how's
this gonna go?
Like I I finally took the stepof signing up and I don't know,
and then we work them throughbit by bit until they have that
aha moment, and then they'reoff.
And what's really awesome now isI get to sort of enable that
(11:14):
experience for hundreds ofthousands of kids.
You know, it's like pretty cool.
That that that is great.
SPEAKER_02 (11:20):
Yeah, and I know Doug wants to parents love you
guys because I could not wait tolet somebody else teach my
daughter how to drive.
SPEAKER_00 (11:30):
Well, I mean, there's yeah, everybody brings a
perspective, everybody brings atip, everybody's got some some
little nugget of knowledge,especially driving, that that
can always move it forward.
I know Doug wants to get intothe discussion here, but I just
want to uh for our listeners,you got to check out
coastlineacademy.com,coastlineacademy.com.
(11:52):
Great website, ton ofinformation.
But also go to YouTube atCoastline Academy, Coastline
Academy.
There's so many good videoshere, and that you can and and
when my son uh gets hometonight, my 15-year-old, we're
gonna sit here and watch some ofthese videos together and spark
that conversation.
(12:12):
And yeah, we'll do a few laughsaround the parking lot here
until Nigel opens a school downhere.
But it all kind of great stuffhere.
So um, and it's oh, I don't knowif I said this before, but a lot
of these lessons and a lot ofthe content is tailored by
state, which is really importantbecause they're variations on a
theme, but they're rules youneed to know uh nonetheless.
(12:35):
So one of the videos is entitledWinter Weather Driving Tips to
Stay Safe This Went WinterSeason.
Good stuff.
I live in Florida, I haven'tdriven in the snow, thank
goodness, for years since Imoved down from the
mid-Atlantic.
But now that my son is up there,we need to talk about this
stuff.
Another great video, don'tpanic, steps to take after a car
crash.
(12:55):
Really good stuff.
Okay, I've been in a few wrecks,unfortunately, myself, but it it
the video good job does a goodjob of saying, look, you might
be shaken, but you gotta stop.
You gotta keep your wits aboutyou, you gotta communicate.
Uh, if you're hurt, call theauthorities, wait for a
policeman.
Uh, this is all good stuff.
So how talk a bit, Nigel, abouthow the YouTube channel started
(13:20):
and how you get content up here.
I think it's just expertly done.
SPEAKER_03 (13:25):
Yeah, you know, we we started producing a little
bit of content in the very earlydays.
You know, we we wereexperimenting, experimenting
with different things.
You know, we were okay, what ifwe put a 360 camera in the car
and drove around?
We got some drone footage andstuff like that.
Um, and we thought, okay, thisis gonna be great, everyone's
gonna watch it.
But you know what actuallypeople care about is just
someone explaining stuff.
(13:47):
Yeah.
So so as we went along and wegot some of these just
incredible instructors that umjust are excellent
communicators, really engaging.
It's like, all right, let's justdo like, you know, uh 20 seconds
for TikTok or three minutes forYouTube.
Just explain something that likethat that's that's helpful.
And so that's a lot of whatwe're doing now, is just like
(14:08):
these little snippets of ofsomething that's like, oh, how
do you drive in the snow?
Boom, like uh that kind ofthing.
And and it's it's I I thinkpeople uh it's resonating with
folks.
SPEAKER_00 (14:18):
Absolutely.
And these aren't two hourvideos, they're just a few
minutes of pop, like Ninja wassaying.
And and so, you know, I can'twait to sit down with my son and
we can just kind of watch ittogether, spark the
conversation.
What do you think about this?
What do you think about that?
And I guarantee you, when we'reout on the road and this thing
happens to us, we're both gonnabe thinking the same thing
because we kind of started fromfrom here reading about it.
(14:40):
What do you think, Doug?
SPEAKER_02 (14:43):
I'm thinking I'm gonna drag my daughter in front
of YouTube and uh have her seethe video.
What it's good stuff, it's allgood stuff.
Yeah, she's already had herfirst accident, but it wasn't
her fault, but you know how itgoes.
SPEAKER_03 (14:55):
Well, have her it does it's you're your your fault
or not, it's still it stillshakes you, you know.
Oh, she was crying.
SPEAKER_02 (15:02):
She called me.
I just happen to be nearby.
But what do you do when you'reaway?
Right?
She's going off to college.
SPEAKER_00 (15:10):
Absolutely.
Yeah, good stuff, good stuff.
So um I know Doug wanted to getin the conversation here, or
really, or are we ready to hopback into the time machine?
Your call, your play.
Yeah, uh, time machine.
We're gonna have some fun.
And I'm sure the RX7, whoseshirt you're wearing, has got a
flux capacitor tucked deepsomewhere inside of the car.
(15:32):
So, Nigel, we're gonna put youin the way back, go 88 miles an
hour.
Let's talk about the first caryou ever owned.
What was it and where did itcome from?
SPEAKER_03 (15:42):
Yeah, my first car was a Skoda 135 GLI.
Uh, it was a short-lived ummodel that uh uh it was um made
in Czechoslovakia, uh where uhyou know.
Oh, was it so it was made?
(16:02):
I know it was a Czech company,it was made there too.
It was made there, yeah.
Gotcha had more cardboard in inthe dash and door cards than uh
you know, the than othermaterials.
It was it was uh it was made forthe masses, um, but it was
actually kind of a cool littlecar, you know.
It's less than 100 horsepower,but uh mid-engine and uh just
(16:23):
like super weird.
Um and uh it was uh one of myneighbors had this and his
parents had brought it fromEurope, and so like uh they had
this for a while and it was likethey were getting rid of it.
I bought it for 500 bucks, and Iwas so stoked.
(16:45):
You know, I I saved this moneymyself.
I was 15 years old.
I was like, yeah, I got my firstcar.
Uh, still about six monthsbefore I could get my license,
and I was like, you know, neededsome work.
So I I brought it into uh theauto shop at my high school
where I was taking shop class.
Nice.
Um, started tinkering with itand everything, and uh, and then
(17:07):
just uh a few days before my16th birthday, which was the my
first opportunity to get alicense in in British Columbia,
Canada, uh, my brother totaledit.
SPEAKER_01 (17:16):
So never quite got to dagger.
SPEAKER_00 (17:24):
Oh I can I could just yeah, I can feel the
historical frustration fromhere.
But uh I got I know I know Dougwants to wants to geek out on
the cars, but I gotta squeeze inon the Skoda.
unknown (17:35):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (17:35):
When when I learned that that was your first car, I
got really excited because wewent to Ireland last summer, and
scotas were everywhere on theroad.
Um drove around the wholecountry.
There, Renault's, Peugeot's, alot of Skodas.
Um no American cars, obviously,but very sharp, so still smaller
(17:58):
cars.
I'm sure more than 100horsepower now.
But and so we looked into it andand and now Skoda is owned by
Volkswagen.
And I thought it was curiousthat they their the the product
line, Skoda, is second in profitmargin only behind Porsche in
the Volkswagen portfolio line ofautomobiles.
So I thought that was I thoughtthat was interesting.
(18:20):
Doesn't help you at all for yourheartbreak going back to the car
being smashed up, man.
That's a bummer.
I we've never had a story likethat.
SPEAKER_03 (18:31):
This was definitely a pre-Volkswagen group Skoda
built to serve the uh the um youknow USSR uh with just cheap
transportation.
SPEAKER_02 (18:43):
Uh yeah.
Yep.
Yep.
Did you did you ever dream aboutor have the have the thought to
go buy one and relive that?
Or a more modern one, asChristians said they still need
it.
SPEAKER_03 (18:56):
You know what?
I totally and actually in in intrying to find pictures uh for
this show, you know, it's goingback through memory lane and
thinking about this, like, ohman, that would be so cool.
Like, what if I could get one ofthese, you know, mid-engine, put
like a you know, K24 in thereand like how fun would that be?
Um, but they're they'reexceedingly rare now.
I don't think they were meant tolast uh that long.
(19:20):
Uh and actually though the eventhough it was uh damaged, you
know, not like it wasn't likecrumpled in half, it just uh it
had enough damage that it it wasnot worth repairing a$500 car.
Someone drove uh a thousandkilometers with a flatbed,
picked it up, and towed itacross the country uh because he
was a collector.
And so like people were intothese, you know.
(19:42):
Um there's still a there's stilla few around, but it's it's it's
pretty hard to track one downthat's not full of rust.
SPEAKER_02 (19:47):
Yeah, yeah.
It just happened to be aneighbor, otherwise you never
would have known about it,right?
Versus this guy who's gonnatravel that far to pick it up
and do something with it, right?
Yeah, make some good of it.
Hopefully it's still on the roador yeah, lives on pieces of it
have lived on in other scotas,right?
Do the transplants.
And uh speaking speaking oftransplants, but I let's let's
(20:12):
talk about your second car,which I you actually had two
second cars concurrently.
Tell tell us about them.
And I think one of them did havemini transplants.
SPEAKER_03 (20:22):
It did, yeah.
So so the immediate replacementwas a uh a Mark I Jetta GLI,
which was a really cool car.
Uh, I would love to get my handson on one of those or a first uh
a Mark I GTI.
It was just like it had a lot oflife to it, you know, not a
crazy powerful, but it was lightand small and like just it's
(20:45):
just like a happy car.
You get in, you you you youpress the gas, and it just kind
of jumps to life.
Like um, and so that was likereally the daily.
And around that time, I also gota Mark I Toyota MR2, and that
was like my enthusiast car.
I was super into it.
And uh that went through fiveengines under my ownership.
(21:06):
Uh starting with the first onevery soon after I bought it
because it ran out of oil.
Uh I want to say not my fault,but I feel like everything's
your fault.
If it's your own car, you know,if it's if it's leaking oil,
that's that's not uh you got toown it.
Um and then uh just you know,first and first engine swap I
did was uh you know, a usedengine from uh Japan, you know,
(21:31):
they come into these big crates,and it had uh it had a like
really loud ticking valves assoon as I turned it over, like,
oh shoot, okay, I don't want todeal with this.
I'm gonna just pull it back out,send it back, they give me
another one, try it again.
Um, and over the the over thelife we we had to we had to do a
lot of work on that car.
SPEAKER_02 (21:52):
Wow, that that is uh that is something and yeah,
guts, guts.
And I guess the high school shopclass probably helped you quite
a bit.
SPEAKER_03 (22:01):
Totally, yeah.
And the MR2, uh Mark I MR2 iskind of cool because to swap the
engine, the easiest way to do itis to support the engine from
the bottom and then lift the carover up, uh just with like a
like it use an engine lift, butyou're lifting the chassis and
it leaves the engine behind.
It's like uh yeah, I mean, Ididn't know any different then,
(22:24):
um, but now that would be apretty funny way to to do uh an
engine swap.
SPEAKER_02 (22:28):
Yep, and you and you didn't have to take the
transaxle out to do it, justengine only.
SPEAKER_03 (22:34):
Uh yeah, exactly.
You know, and um it's it's kindof squeezed in there, but access
wasn't terrible.
Um and uh yeah, it it it cameout pretty uh came out pretty
easy.
SPEAKER_02 (22:44):
Yeah, that's that's cool.
Yeah, that's the thing aboutmid-engine cars, right?
They can be difficult to workon.
That's what's kept me frombuying a uh Honda Beat.
That part of availability.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But yeah, just just trying towork on it.
Uh, I don't know how you how youdo it.
Um yeah, so uh you've had somany cars.
(23:08):
You were telling us in thepre-show about your Suzuki when
I asked you what was your mostdangerous car and why.
So if if you could regale uswith that story, it's a great
story.
SPEAKER_03 (23:22):
So I got this Suzuki Forza, it was uh mid-80s, um,
and it had been built as a fulltrack car.
So it was roll cage, Lexanwindows.
The three-cylinder engine hadbeen bored out, uh um and uh
just uh used Subaru turboslapped on there, and it was
(23:45):
this like man, it was raw, youknow, no noise deadening,
everything completely stripped,only one seat.
Um and uh it was just such ahoot.
Uh um, and if if I was uh uh I Iwould I would instruct my my
(24:07):
students today that this is notlike a really great way to uh do
as I say, not as instructordoes.
SPEAKER_00 (24:13):
Yeah, and yes, your instructor has a past, but yes.
SPEAKER_03 (24:16):
Um but it was just it was so it was so light, um,
because it was completelystripped down.
I I think we we figured it wasprobably around uh 1,500 pounds
uh uh around there.
And um, and I mean it was no endof problems, right?
I mean, this is it was like waymore power than this tiny little
engine was supposed to supposedto take.
(24:39):
Um I uh through cooling issues,I I um blew two turbos on there.
And each time the compressorwheel would snap off and find
its way into the like into themuffler.
And so we used to joke it had atwin turbine exhaust.
SPEAKER_02 (24:55):
Um made it all the made it all the way through.
And you had that car in highschool.
SPEAKER_03 (25:03):
Uh that was uh very beginning of college, yeah.
Okay, gotcha.
Right around the end of highschool, yeah.
Gotcha.
How how long did you keep thatcar for?
Probably about a year.
Um you know, long enough that Ihad a lot of fun in it and then
realized that you know, everythird time you drive it, you
gotta fix something.
It was like uh not not superreliable transportation.
SPEAKER_02 (25:24):
Yeah.
And and which which of yourcars, and maybe it was the
Suzuki, um, got you into thetrack.
SPEAKER_03 (25:32):
Yeah, that was that was my first, no, my second
Miata.
Um I I did autocross um as a asa younger person, which uh which
was super fun with the um I haduh an NC Miata um and a uh and
the and the MR2s, you know,those I did autocross in, which
was a lot of fun.
Um but it was when I moved toCalifornia and got the NB Miata,
(25:55):
um that I sort of discovered thewhole world of track driving.
And I that is addictive, youknow.
The the um just there's so muchto learn, it's so intense.
And uh uh yeah, I I just I justlove it.
SPEAKER_02 (26:10):
And and that NB Miata, which I think you told us
you sold uh uh somewhatrecently, about a year ago.
Yeah, you did some work on thatcar too.
Transplant from a totally othercompany, let alone built in the
US, right?
The engine.
Can you can you tell us aboutthat?
SPEAKER_03 (26:30):
Sure, yeah.
Well, so it started.
Um it it it was a wrecked car.
Uh uh, so it had been uh it hadbeen written off, and I got it
in its damaged state, towed itto my place.
Um, I actually I did the work onit.
Living in San Francisco, Irented a storage unit that was
like one of these storagecontainers, and I put the car in
(26:53):
there, and that was also myworkshop, was like a like a you
know, 20 storage container,uh-huh.
Uh shipping container.
Um, so fixed up all the damage,started driving it, started
driving it on the track, startedwanting more power.
So first I turboed it.
Uh then I did a um uh swap foruh this Chevy 2.4 liter EcoTec
(27:15):
engine um with a just a tinylittle turbo that was um that I
added.
Then I uh I I blew that engine,unfortunately, and then I did
the same engine but fully built.
Rods, pistons, fully port andpolished head, like just the
just the just threw everythingat it, and uh slightly bigger
(27:38):
turbo.
And that was an absolute beast.
It was like 2500 rpm, it was itwas 500 foot pounds of torque.
It was just a just a monster.
SPEAKER_02 (27:50):
Yep.
SPEAKER_03 (27:51):
Yep, for the track, right?
For the track, yeah, exactly.
So my my home track at the timewas Laguna Seca, and you know,
you got this uphill.
Um, and so I was always justlike, you know, I'm not that
good of a driver, right?
So, you know, you just think,oh, if I just had more power,
then when I go up this hill,I'll be able to, you know, I
won't have this like, you know,flat coming around the corner
(28:12):
and then just thinking, come on,go faster as all the Porsches
pass you.
You know, it's like, no, I wantto go fast up that hill.
SPEAKER_02 (28:19):
And Laguna Seiko was owned by Mazda or still is?
It was sponsored for many years.
SPEAKER_03 (28:25):
Yeah.
Now it's the Weather Tech uhraceway.
SPEAKER_02 (28:30):
Gotcha.
So it was good that the Miatawas there and you got rid of it,
and you're um but you're nostranger to Miata's.
I own two.
Sounds like you've owned atleast two at this point.
SPEAKER_03 (28:42):
I've had all four generations, actually.
SPEAKER_02 (28:44):
All four.
Yes.
Yeah, and you're and you'recurrently on the ND, right?
That's your current car.
Yeah.
And how how does that compare tothe other generations?
SPEAKER_03 (28:57):
You know, um, it is, I feel like they really
perfected it with the ND.
Uh especially the ND2, where youknow, 180 brake horsepower, you
know, it's not like this is nota super powerful car, but that
engine is great.
And it's um, it's just such ajoy to drive.
Everything is really in balance.
Um, so I'm both tempted to startmodifying it.
(29:20):
And also, every time I get inthat car, it just it just makes
me smile.
You know, it's it's it's notsuper stiff, it's not super
powerful, but it's just reallyenjoyable to drive.
And and where I live, uh the thehighest speed speed limit is 35
miles an hour.
So it's kind of like, you know,it's perfect.
SPEAKER_02 (29:41):
Yeah, yeah.
Well, top down, it always feelslike you're going faster.
SPEAKER_03 (29:47):
For sure.
Wow.
unknown (29:48):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (29:49):
And this is the RF too.
So when the top's up, itactually looks looks really nice
and it's a bit more dry.
So yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (29:55):
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (29:56):
The the the targa, right?
SPEAKER_02 (29:58):
Yeah.
The targo of the Us.
Yeah.
That's it.
That's a neat car.
We had um actually we had uhJohn Everett, who is a new
product launch manager for MazdaUSA, and he had a lot to do with
the latest ND, like doingcomparisons and working to
launch that in the US.
And he got to give some feedbackback and he got to drive like
(30:21):
the last ND versus this new onebefore it came out and did it
back to back.
Just and wow, I could justimagine doing that.
SPEAKER_03 (30:29):
Great guy.
It was so cool.
I was listening to that episodewhen I was driving my ND in this
twisty sort of mountain road,and I was just like, it was that
was a joyous moment.
SPEAKER_02 (30:41):
Comes together.
It all comes together.
For us to hear that story.
SPEAKER_00 (30:45):
Yeah, yeah.
That that guy really knew hisstuff.
And talk about uh just the dreamjob where all of this guy's
passions just sort of cametogether, and he had a smile on
his uh on his face the wholetime we were interviewing.
One one happy dude, Doug.
He was one happy dude.
SPEAKER_02 (31:04):
Yeah, yeah.
So what what is your uh is theMiata your daily driver?
SPEAKER_03 (31:09):
I have um I've got a Tesla Model 3 and I've got a
Ford Maverick.
And so uh because I've got aI've got a kid and you know we
got stuff to move around, soyeah, I don't always get to
drive the Miata.
That's it's sort of like thecar, the only car that doesn't
have a real purpose in my uhfamily place.
But uh, you know, I I wheneverI'm driving by myself or just
(31:30):
with my son, we always take theMiata.
SPEAKER_02 (31:32):
Yep, awesome.
SPEAKER_00 (31:35):
Good deal.
SPEAKER_02 (31:36):
Good deal.
All right, so um oh, let's see.
Oh, oh, oh, oh did we talk aboutthe Oldsmobile?
How can we forget?
No, we did, we did, we did.
SPEAKER_00 (31:48):
Sorry, did we Yeah, no, that that's fine.
Yeah, so as we as we okay, thatactually is the perfect segue
there.
Um as we guide the podcastgently to the off-rant, Nigel.
I have to ask you, speaking of,what do you have against
Oldsmobiles, man?
SPEAKER_03 (32:07):
You know, I am just I'm a small car guy.
I just love the feeling ofgetting into it.
Like I'm I'm 6'2, you know, I'mnot like a small guy, but when I
fold into a little car, and it'sbasically just like the car is
just wrapped around me, and youdrive, and it just feels like
you know, just it just wants tojump when you hit go and it
wants to stop when you hit stopand it turns sharply, all that
(32:28):
kind of stuff.
I love that.
So um getting into this big,huge Oldsmobile where you just
wasn't for you.
SPEAKER_00 (32:35):
Just wasn't for you.
SPEAKER_03 (32:36):
Yeah, like 15 degrees in each direction, and
it's just going straight.
SPEAKER_00 (32:39):
You know, it's like it was a boat.
Yeah, those cars were justboats.
Um okay, so seriously on the wayout here, um you mentioned shop
class, and we see less and uh orfor some reason I'm seeing a
lot, maybe because I have kidsthat are kind of moving towards
after high school, what are wegonna do?
(33:01):
And so I'm more aware of it.
There's so much more focus thesedays on trades, on trade
schools, on alternate ways.
You know, college doesn't haveto have to be you know the way
to go.
In other countries, in Europe,man, at 15, you were you were an
apprentice, right?
Make some skills, get a job likethat.
(33:23):
That's a way to go.
So I would like to hear, if youcan, your top three moments from
shop class, if you have them.
What did you make?
What do you remember?
Who was your teacher?
Who were your friends?
Because you just, you know,you're a tech executive, I get
it, but you just like to dothings with your hands.
SPEAKER_03 (33:42):
Yeah, I I loved, I spent more time in shop class
than anything else in highschool.
Oh, wow.
I found my way in, uh, you know,because it was always open,
which was cool.
I found my way in there all thetime, before school, lunchtime
after school.
Sometimes, if uh, you know, Ijust ended up ended up there
instead of another class.
Um, you know, learning to weldwas a really cool experience.
(34:05):
Fantastic.
Um kind of the amazing thing wasour our shop teacher, you know,
yeah, he'd teach us how to dostuff, but there were it felt
like there were no guardrails.
And I'm sure that there were.
But it was just like, okay,here's how you do it.
Do to hold this, you know,shield your your face, blah,
blah, blah.
All right, now go.
And I'm like holding thiswelder.
I'm like, really?
Like, I just get to do this now.
(34:26):
Like, it's so cool.
Um, that was that was a topexperience for sure.
Um, and uh, and then getting towork on my own cars, you know,
being able to just like havetons of space in the shop.
You're like, oh, great, you wantto bring a car in?
All right, roll it into thecorner there.
Like, you know, if it's gonna bemore than two months, let me
(34:46):
know.
You know, it's gotta be out ofhere before summer.
Uh just go for it.
I was I like that.
SPEAKER_00 (34:54):
Great memories, great memories.
Thank you for sharing that.
Well, we have come to the end ofour time, Nigel, but I have to
tell everybody very importantmission.
And uh, let's see, as as Nigelsaid it in the beginning, uh,
let's eradicate car crashes.
How do you do that?
How do you do that?
How do you do that?
You get them out, you get themon the road with someone that
(35:15):
knows what they're doing.
And we just had a blast gettingto know you, Nigel.
Um, Coastal, oh, I'm sorry.
The company is CoastlineAcademy.
Check them out,CoastlineAcademy.com.
He is Nigel Tunacliff.
Nigel, it was a distinctpleasure to meet you and have
you on the show.
Thank you for your time, and wewish you the best of everything.
Thank you, guys.
Thank you.
(35:36):
Fantastic.
You have just heard the highrevving, low mileage, late model
heard, round the worldauthoritative podcast on
automotive nostalgia.
He's Doug, reach me at Doug atCarsLove.com.
I'm Christian.
Reach me at Christian atCarsLove.com.
He's Nigel Tunaclip.
Check him out.
And if you like what you'rehearing, please follow and
telephone.
(35:56):
Helps us grow.
Check us out at carslove.com.
I am sure we'll see you at thenext local car show, showroom,
race trip, car museum, orconcorse.
We appreciate your taking alaugh with us, and we will see
you next time.
Welcome back to All the Cards I've Loved Before,
your authoritative podcast onautomotive nostalgia.
Where our guests are unique,each auto has an era, and every
car tells a story.
So you know, you know what's upto.
Time to plug in, get littlebriefs under the nails, and slip
on that favorite car themedt-shirt, hat, or jacket.
(00:26):
And hey, you know what?
We won't judge.
If you've been wearing the samecar themed t-shirt for a week, I
don't have a problem with it.
I can't see you.
Uh it's gonna be wonderful.
Hey, welcome back to ourlisteners all over the world.
You ready, Doug?
This is my favorite part of theshow here.
Do it.
Um, welcome back, our listenersin Lafayette, Louisiana.
(00:47):
You know, uh, I'm originallyfrom Louisiana, and we we we did
a South Louisiana world tour.
I'm gonna say a couple of springbreaks ago and went that just
went all through SouthLouisiana, an alligator tour uh
in the swamps, and went to thewhere they make Tabasco and New
Iberia, uh, Louisiana.
(01:08):
Total trip, lots of fun.
And um, hey, you've got to passthrough Lafayette to get there.
So uh let's see, a couple coupleof places in Europe.
Lundaburg in Lower Saxony.
Uh try not to ma uh master this.
Gottenberg, Vasta Gutten County,St.
Michael's, Maryland, a littlecloser to home.
Canyon Country, California.
(01:30):
Erstwile in Bern, and maybe thethe city of the day here is
Cardiff.
Cardiff in Cardiff.
Why why is Cardiff fitting forthe show?
Well, the first three letters.
First three letters say it all.
Cars loved, Cardiff.
Now, if that you know howsometimes they rename cities?
(01:50):
You know, if Cardiff ever wantedto become Cars Love for a day, I
wouldn't mind.
I wouldn't want to be againstit.
So at this point in time, let'sbring in Doug.
How you doing, partner?
Doing on there today.
SPEAKER_02 (02:02):
Doing great?
Crazy.
Love the shirt.
SPEAKER_00 (02:04):
Another Mazda shirt.
SPEAKER_02 (02:06):
Yeah, I'm running out of Mazda RX7 shirts, so I'll
have to get some more.
SPEAKER_00 (02:10):
Yeah, you ever go to a dealership and you go right
in, and there are all the nicecars here, and then there's a
glass case in the back with allthe you know, the hats and
shirts embroidered with the withthe automotive, you know, emblem
and that sort of thing.
Does anybody buy that ever?
Have you ever bought anythingfrom there like that?
Negative.
(02:31):
I'm not saying it's not greatmerchandise.
I think it is, but always goback there, make note of it, and
then I get you know busysidetracked looking at something
else.
So I don't know.
If you have ever bought anythingfrom a dealership in that way,
under that glass case, let usknow.
Firing off an email.
Okay, so it's Christian atcarslove.com, Doug at
Carslove.com.
(02:51):
But I've been told that info atcarslove.com works just as good.
Is that correct?
It is.
Who is this guy info?
And when did he hire when did wehire him?
Uh don't don't pay.
Does he make more than sign thecheck?
Sign the check.
Sign the check.
That's it.
All right.
And oh, wanted to mention thewebsite.
We got something new going onthere through the the magic of
(03:13):
Doug.
Uh okay.
So we have you can send usphotos of you and your favorite
car, and we'll put them on oursite.
And we have a bunch of photosthere already.
It's really neat.
Yeah, we had the site redone alittle while ago, and it's it's
a carousel, right?
So that's that's the tech term.
So uh uh picture is that you'llsee a picture of Doug and me, or
(03:38):
several pictures, Doug.
But how about the pictures ofyou and that old Jeep?
Are they up there?
No, no, I gotta find those.
Um I'm gonna send them again.
SPEAKER_02 (03:46):
I did put a couple pictures up of um some track uh
914s from Dirk.
Ooh, as well as uh uh Legendguest Timothy dressed uh dressed
as a cone while he was uhmanaging the hot pit at a
Porsche track event.
SPEAKER_00 (04:06):
He is literally dressed as a cone.
Nobody will be.
Fantastic.
Can't wait to see it.
Can't wait to see it.
So, yeah, all right.
Carslove.com, check it out,especially the photo carousel.
Hey, if you want some uh some ofyour photos turn up there, just
email them along.
We'll get them there.
Also, if you like what you hear,please tell a friend it helps us
grow.
Uh, and leave a review whereveryou get your podcast.
(04:29):
We sure would appreciate it.
So I think that's all of thepre-flight stuff.
Did I miss anything, Doug?
Or is it time to talk about howtoday's guest yeah, how did
today's guest pull into ourvirtual garage?
SPEAKER_02 (04:45):
Yeah.
So today's guest named NigelTunacliff.
Tonnecliff.
Tonnecliffe, yeah.
Tunnecliffe.
Uh he came to us uh uh via uh Iguess I would say his PR person.
Um yeah, you know, the greatthing is as the show's picked up
(05:06):
and uh we've had more guests andwe've gotten better circulation,
if you will, more downloads.
We've had people coming to us.
We're not always begging.
SPEAKER_00 (05:17):
In fact, so yeah, lovely.
So, Nigel, welcome to the show.
How are you today?
Doing awesome.
Thanks for having me on.
Absolutely.
So, where where are you thesedays?
Where where geographically areyou on this on this planet?
SPEAKER_03 (05:32):
Uh I'm on an island outside of uh Seattle uh called
Bainbridge Island, Washington.
SPEAKER_00 (05:37):
Love it.
So, okay, so this might be thefirst show where we have East
Coast, we have West Coast, andwe have Gulf Coast.
So thrilling, fantastic, thankyou.
Welcome.
And w what is your project thesedays?
What what are you up to?
SPEAKER_03 (05:53):
Yeah, I run a driving school called Coastline
Academy, and uh it is a wholelot of fun.
Uh, I started as a drivinginstructor, and uh we built the
business to be coast to coast.
We're not in the Gulf Coast yet,but uh we're we're we're coming.
SPEAKER_00 (06:10):
Well, I I got a 15-year-old, so I need you here
ASAP, man.
And you know what?
My 17-year-old, my 18-year-old,my 20-year-old could use it too.
So um, yeah, you definitely havesome repeat business here.
And we were talking a little bitduring the pre-show that and
that's one of the things I likeabout this show is it really
unlocks memories and justtransports people back in time.
(06:32):
I, in in checking out yourcontent, and yeah, definitely
check them out on it.
We'll get to his coordinates ina minute.
Um but if you go to uh the thethe his YouTube channel, there's
a lot of really great content.
And I was just transported backinto high school in the basement
of a building, watching allthese videos of you know what
(06:53):
you should do during driving,what you shouldn't.
I can't remember if I went outwith a driving instructor, but I
I didn't feel very repaired anduh prepared for when I went and
took my driving test.
But when I think about what yourcompany does, it's it's really
kind of the model ofstandardized, modernize,
(07:15):
evangelize.
So you're taking all of thesegreat teachings, it's at and I
think this is brilliant, it'stailored per state.
And you have these drivinginstructors that come out, pick
somebody up, and it's not inthis old hoopty, it's not in
this car from way back when it'sa late model car, all the
technology, second break in thecar so that the instructor is
(07:35):
involved, uh, cameras.
It's such a differentexperience.
Can you talk about why that'simportant now?
SPEAKER_03 (07:43):
Yeah, you know, I I think um I mean learning to
drive has always been uh a bigdeal, right?
It's uh it's it's challenging,it's dangerous.
Um but I think more more oftennow, uh young people they they
get really nervous about this,you know, like uh and so
anything we can do that makesthis process um something that's
(08:05):
approachable, something they'recomfortable with, providing that
content on YouTube and TikTokand such like that to help uh
you know get some get somecomfort with with what they're
about to to take on.
And then showing up in a in anew Corolla with a super
friendly instructor.
Um, you know, all of thesethings are things that kind of
break down the barriers for whatit takes for a young person to
(08:29):
kind of feel comfortable enoughto just embark on this journey.
SPEAKER_00 (08:34):
Fantastic.
And how did the idea hit youthat, all right, you said you
were a driving instructor, andhow did what what was the
inception, the idea of I I haveto do this on a bigger scale?
And was that hard or easy?
SPEAKER_03 (08:49):
Yeah, I mean, so uh I think uh Steve Jobs has this
great quote about you can onlyconnect the dots in reverse.
So um, you know, what whatactually happened was was my
co-founder and I decided we'regonna start this business
coastline, and our mission wasto eradicate car crashes.
Uh but the the business we wewere planning to start was
(09:11):
actually a hardware business.
We were gonna make uh a hardwareproduct for cars.
Um and that was it was notworking out.
You know, we had a prototype, wewere doing our go-to market,
people weren't buying it.
We're like, what are we gonnado?
And um so we went back throughall our user research and we're
just like, what are we we gottapivot to something?
(09:31):
What's it gonna be?
And there was this common threadthrough all of these families'
experiences, families with newdrivers in the household, that
the learning to drive experiencewas just it was like a a
casually provided service, youknow, a guy with a car or a
small business that you know yougotta bring cash when they, you
(09:52):
know, when you go to theiroffice, you know, all the all
these kinds of things that a tonof variability.
SPEAKER_00 (09:58):
And from variability, you inevitably get
defects.
Okay, that's and since drivingis one of the most dangerous
things you will ever do on adaily basis, especially for a
younger person.
Yeah, you sense that.
Yeah, please continue.
Great story.
SPEAKER_03 (10:10):
And and and so um, you know, we thought, okay,
maybe maybe we're gonna do this.
And uh so it just happened thatlike I I grew up being an
instructor, not a drivinginstructor.
I I ran a sailing school, I um Idrove on the track.
Uh, you know, I like I had theselike little bits of experiences.
So when we decided, okay, youknow, we we're actually gonna
(10:30):
pivot and we're gonna build adriving school.
I thought, all right, well, Iguess step one is to get trained
as a driving instructor andteach some young people how to
drive.
Um and so we started thebusiness with just us as the
instructors and built it up bitby bit.
And uh it was actually anincredible experience, you know.
I I love that.
(10:51):
I I just I love that time withwith these folks who were, you
know, they're coming in, they'rekind of nervous, you know, how's
this gonna go?
Like I I finally took the stepof signing up and I don't know,
and then we work them throughbit by bit until they have that
aha moment, and then they'reoff.
And what's really awesome now isI get to sort of enable that
(11:14):
experience for hundreds ofthousands of kids.
You know, it's like pretty cool.
That that that is great.
SPEAKER_02 (11:20):
Yeah, and I know Doug wants to parents love you
guys because I could not wait tolet somebody else teach my
daughter how to drive.
SPEAKER_00 (11:30):
Well, I mean, there's yeah, everybody brings a
perspective, everybody brings atip, everybody's got some some
little nugget of knowledge,especially driving, that that
can always move it forward.
I know Doug wants to get intothe discussion here, but I just
want to uh for our listeners,you got to check out
coastlineacademy.com,coastlineacademy.com.
(11:52):
Great website, ton ofinformation.
But also go to YouTube atCoastline Academy, Coastline
Academy.
There's so many good videoshere, and that you can and and
when my son uh gets hometonight, my 15-year-old, we're
gonna sit here and watch some ofthese videos together and spark
that conversation.
(12:12):
And yeah, we'll do a few laughsaround the parking lot here
until Nigel opens a school downhere.
But it all kind of great stuffhere.
So um, and it's oh, I don't knowif I said this before, but a lot
of these lessons and a lot ofthe content is tailored by
state, which is really importantbecause they're variations on a
theme, but they're rules youneed to know uh nonetheless.
(12:35):
So one of the videos is entitledWinter Weather Driving Tips to
Stay Safe This Went WinterSeason.
Good stuff.
I live in Florida, I haven'tdriven in the snow, thank
goodness, for years since Imoved down from the
mid-Atlantic.
But now that my son is up there,we need to talk about this
stuff.
Another great video, don'tpanic, steps to take after a car
crash.
(12:55):
Really good stuff.
Okay, I've been in a few wrecks,unfortunately, myself, but it it
the video good job does a goodjob of saying, look, you might
be shaken, but you gotta stop.
You gotta keep your wits aboutyou, you gotta communicate.
Uh, if you're hurt, call theauthorities, wait for a
policeman.
Uh, this is all good stuff.
So how talk a bit, Nigel, abouthow the YouTube channel started
(13:20):
and how you get content up here.
I think it's just expertly done.
SPEAKER_03 (13:25):
Yeah, you know, we we started producing a little
bit of content in the very earlydays.
You know, we we wereexperimenting, experimenting
with different things.
You know, we were okay, what ifwe put a 360 camera in the car
and drove around?
We got some drone footage andstuff like that.
Um, and we thought, okay, thisis gonna be great, everyone's
gonna watch it.
But you know what actuallypeople care about is just
someone explaining stuff.
(13:47):
Yeah.
So so as we went along and wegot some of these just
incredible instructors that umjust are excellent
communicators, really engaging.
It's like, all right, let's justdo like, you know, uh 20 seconds
for TikTok or three minutes forYouTube.
Just explain something that likethat that's that's helpful.
And so that's a lot of whatwe're doing now, is just like
(14:08):
these little snippets of ofsomething that's like, oh, how
do you drive in the snow?
Boom, like uh that kind ofthing.
And and it's it's I I thinkpeople uh it's resonating with
folks.
SPEAKER_00 (14:18):
Absolutely.
And these aren't two hourvideos, they're just a few
minutes of pop, like Ninja wassaying.
And and so, you know, I can'twait to sit down with my son and
we can just kind of watch ittogether, spark the
conversation.
What do you think about this?
What do you think about that?
And I guarantee you, when we'reout on the road and this thing
happens to us, we're both gonnabe thinking the same thing
because we kind of started fromfrom here reading about it.
(14:40):
What do you think, Doug?
SPEAKER_02 (14:43):
I'm thinking I'm gonna drag my daughter in front
of YouTube and uh have her seethe video.
What it's good stuff, it's allgood stuff.
Yeah, she's already had herfirst accident, but it wasn't
her fault, but you know how itgoes.
SPEAKER_03 (14:55):
Well, have her it does it's you're your your fault
or not, it's still it stillshakes you, you know.
Oh, she was crying.
SPEAKER_02 (15:02):
She called me.
I just happen to be nearby.
But what do you do when you'reaway?
Right?
She's going off to college.
SPEAKER_00 (15:10):
Absolutely.
Yeah, good stuff, good stuff.
So um I know Doug wanted to getin the conversation here, or
really, or are we ready to hopback into the time machine?
Your call, your play.
Yeah, uh, time machine.
We're gonna have some fun.
And I'm sure the RX7, whoseshirt you're wearing, has got a
flux capacitor tucked deepsomewhere inside of the car.
(15:32):
So, Nigel, we're gonna put youin the way back, go 88 miles an
hour.
Let's talk about the first caryou ever owned.
What was it and where did itcome from?
SPEAKER_03 (15:42):
Yeah, my first car was a Skoda 135 GLI.
Uh, it was a short-lived ummodel that uh uh it was um made
in Czechoslovakia, uh where uhyou know.
Oh, was it so it was made?
(16:02):
I know it was a Czech company,it was made there too.
It was made there, yeah.
Gotcha had more cardboard in inthe dash and door cards than uh
you know, the than othermaterials.
It was it was uh it was made forthe masses, um, but it was
actually kind of a cool littlecar, you know.
It's less than 100 horsepower,but uh mid-engine and uh just
(16:23):
like super weird.
Um and uh it was uh one of myneighbors had this and his
parents had brought it fromEurope, and so like uh they had
this for a while and it was likethey were getting rid of it.
I bought it for 500 bucks, and Iwas so stoked.
(16:45):
You know, I I saved this moneymyself.
I was 15 years old.
I was like, yeah, I got my firstcar.
Uh, still about six monthsbefore I could get my license,
and I was like, you know, neededsome work.
So I I brought it into uh theauto shop at my high school
where I was taking shop class.
Nice.
Um, started tinkering with itand everything, and uh, and then
(17:07):
just uh a few days before my16th birthday, which was the my
first opportunity to get alicense in in British Columbia,
Canada, uh, my brother totaledit.
SPEAKER_01 (17:16):
So never quite got to dagger.
SPEAKER_00 (17:24):
Oh I can I could just yeah, I can feel the
historical frustration fromhere.
But uh I got I know I know Dougwants to wants to geek out on
the cars, but I gotta squeeze inon the Skoda.
unknown (17:35):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (17:35):
When when I learned that that was your first car, I
got really excited because wewent to Ireland last summer, and
scotas were everywhere on theroad.
Um drove around the wholecountry.
There, Renault's, Peugeot's, alot of Skodas.
Um no American cars, obviously,but very sharp, so still smaller
(17:58):
cars.
I'm sure more than 100horsepower now.
But and so we looked into it andand and now Skoda is owned by
Volkswagen.
And I thought it was curiousthat they their the the product
line, Skoda, is second in profitmargin only behind Porsche in
the Volkswagen portfolio line ofautomobiles.
So I thought that was I thoughtthat was interesting.
(18:20):
Doesn't help you at all for yourheartbreak going back to the car
being smashed up, man.
That's a bummer.
I we've never had a story likethat.
SPEAKER_03 (18:31):
This was definitely a pre-Volkswagen group Skoda
built to serve the uh the um youknow USSR uh with just cheap
transportation.
SPEAKER_02 (18:43):
Uh yeah.
Yep.
Yep.
Did you did you ever dream aboutor have the have the thought to
go buy one and relive that?
Or a more modern one, asChristians said they still need
it.
SPEAKER_03 (18:56):
You know what?
I totally and actually in in intrying to find pictures uh for
this show, you know, it's goingback through memory lane and
thinking about this, like, ohman, that would be so cool.
Like, what if I could get one ofthese, you know, mid-engine, put
like a you know, K24 in thereand like how fun would that be?
Um, but they're they'reexceedingly rare now.
I don't think they were meant tolast uh that long.
(19:20):
Uh and actually though the eventhough it was uh damaged, you
know, not like it wasn't likecrumpled in half, it just uh it
had enough damage that it it wasnot worth repairing a$500 car.
Someone drove uh a thousandkilometers with a flatbed,
picked it up, and towed itacross the country uh because he
was a collector.
And so like people were intothese, you know.
(19:42):
Um there's still a there's stilla few around, but it's it's it's
pretty hard to track one downthat's not full of rust.
SPEAKER_02 (19:47):
Yeah, yeah.
It just happened to be aneighbor, otherwise you never
would have known about it,right?
Versus this guy who's gonnatravel that far to pick it up
and do something with it, right?
Yeah, make some good of it.
Hopefully it's still on the roador yeah, lives on pieces of it
have lived on in other scotas,right?
Do the transplants.
And uh speaking speaking oftransplants, but I let's let's
(20:12):
talk about your second car,which I you actually had two
second cars concurrently.
Tell tell us about them.
And I think one of them did havemini transplants.
SPEAKER_03 (20:22):
It did, yeah.
So so the immediate replacementwas a uh a Mark I Jetta GLI,
which was a really cool car.
Uh, I would love to get my handson on one of those or a first uh
a Mark I GTI.
It was just like it had a lot oflife to it, you know, not a
crazy powerful, but it was lightand small and like just it's
(20:45):
just like a happy car.
You get in, you you you youpress the gas, and it just kind
of jumps to life.
Like um, and so that was likereally the daily.
And around that time, I also gota Mark I Toyota MR2, and that
was like my enthusiast car.
I was super into it.
And uh that went through fiveengines under my ownership.
(21:06):
Uh starting with the first onevery soon after I bought it
because it ran out of oil.
Uh I want to say not my fault,but I feel like everything's
your fault.
If it's your own car, you know,if it's if it's leaking oil,
that's that's not uh you got toown it.
Um and then uh just you know,first and first engine swap I
did was uh you know, a usedengine from uh Japan, you know,
(21:31):
they come into these big crates,and it had uh it had a like
really loud ticking valves assoon as I turned it over, like,
oh shoot, okay, I don't want todeal with this.
I'm gonna just pull it back out,send it back, they give me
another one, try it again.
Um, and over the the over thelife we we had to we had to do a
lot of work on that car.
SPEAKER_02 (21:52):
Wow, that that is uh that is something and yeah,
guts, guts.
And I guess the high school shopclass probably helped you quite
a bit.
SPEAKER_03 (22:01):
Totally, yeah.
And the MR2, uh Mark I MR2 iskind of cool because to swap the
engine, the easiest way to do itis to support the engine from
the bottom and then lift the carover up, uh just with like a
like it use an engine lift, butyou're lifting the chassis and
it leaves the engine behind.
It's like uh yeah, I mean, Ididn't know any different then,
(22:24):
um, but now that would be apretty funny way to to do uh an
engine swap.
SPEAKER_02 (22:28):
Yep, and you and you didn't have to take the
transaxle out to do it, justengine only.
SPEAKER_03 (22:34):
Uh yeah, exactly.
You know, and um it's it's kindof squeezed in there, but access
wasn't terrible.
Um and uh yeah, it it it cameout pretty uh came out pretty
easy.
SPEAKER_02 (22:44):
Yeah, that's that's cool.
Yeah, that's the thing aboutmid-engine cars, right?
They can be difficult to workon.
That's what's kept me frombuying a uh Honda Beat.
That part of availability.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But yeah, just just trying towork on it.
Uh, I don't know how you how youdo it.
Um yeah, so uh you've had somany cars.
(23:08):
You were telling us in thepre-show about your Suzuki when
I asked you what was your mostdangerous car and why.
So if if you could regale uswith that story, it's a great
story.
SPEAKER_03 (23:22):
So I got this Suzuki Forza, it was uh mid-80s, um,
and it had been built as a fulltrack car.
So it was roll cage, Lexanwindows.
The three-cylinder engine hadbeen bored out, uh um and uh
just uh used Subaru turboslapped on there, and it was
(23:45):
this like man, it was raw, youknow, no noise deadening,
everything completely stripped,only one seat.
Um and uh it was just such ahoot.
Uh um, and if if I was uh uh I Iwould I would instruct my my
(24:07):
students today that this is notlike a really great way to uh do
as I say, not as instructordoes.
SPEAKER_00 (24:13):
Yeah, and yes, your instructor has a past, but yes.
SPEAKER_03 (24:16):
Um but it was just it was so it was so light, um,
because it was completelystripped down.
I I think we we figured it wasprobably around uh 1,500 pounds
uh uh around there.
And um, and I mean it was no endof problems, right?
I mean, this is it was like waymore power than this tiny little
engine was supposed to supposedto take.
(24:39):
Um I uh through cooling issues,I I um blew two turbos on there.
And each time the compressorwheel would snap off and find
its way into the like into themuffler.
And so we used to joke it had atwin turbine exhaust.
SPEAKER_02 (24:55):
Um made it all the made it all the way through.
And you had that car in highschool.
SPEAKER_03 (25:03):
Uh that was uh very beginning of college, yeah.
Okay, gotcha.
Right around the end of highschool, yeah.
Gotcha.
How how long did you keep thatcar for?
Probably about a year.
Um you know, long enough that Ihad a lot of fun in it and then
realized that you know, everythird time you drive it, you
gotta fix something.
It was like uh not not superreliable transportation.
SPEAKER_02 (25:24):
Yeah.
And and which which of yourcars, and maybe it was the
Suzuki, um, got you into thetrack.
SPEAKER_03 (25:32):
Yeah, that was that was my first, no, my second
Miata.
Um I I did autocross um as a asa younger person, which uh which
was super fun with the um I haduh an NC Miata um and a uh and
the and the MR2s, you know,those I did autocross in, which
was a lot of fun.
Um but it was when I moved toCalifornia and got the NB Miata,
(25:55):
um that I sort of discovered thewhole world of track driving.
And I that is addictive, youknow.
The the um just there's so muchto learn, it's so intense.
And uh uh yeah, I I just I justlove it.
SPEAKER_02 (26:10):
And and that NB Miata, which I think you told us
you sold uh uh somewhatrecently, about a year ago.
Yeah, you did some work on thatcar too.
Transplant from a totally othercompany, let alone built in the
US, right?
The engine.
Can you can you tell us aboutthat?
SPEAKER_03 (26:30):
Sure, yeah.
Well, so it started.
Um it it it was a wrecked car.
Uh uh, so it had been uh it hadbeen written off, and I got it
in its damaged state, towed itto my place.
Um, I actually I did the work onit.
Living in San Francisco, Irented a storage unit that was
like one of these storagecontainers, and I put the car in
(26:53):
there, and that was also myworkshop, was like a like a you
know, 20 storage container,uh-huh.
Uh shipping container.
Um, so fixed up all the damage,started driving it, started
driving it on the track, startedwanting more power.
So first I turboed it.
Uh then I did a um uh swap foruh this Chevy 2.4 liter EcoTec
(27:15):
engine um with a just a tinylittle turbo that was um that I
added.
Then I uh I I blew that engine,unfortunately, and then I did
the same engine but fully built.
Rods, pistons, fully port andpolished head, like just the
just the just threw everythingat it, and uh slightly bigger
(27:38):
turbo.
And that was an absolute beast.
It was like 2500 rpm, it was itwas 500 foot pounds of torque.
It was just a just a monster.
SPEAKER_02 (27:50):
Yep.
SPEAKER_03 (27:51):
Yep, for the track, right?
For the track, yeah, exactly.
So my my home track at the timewas Laguna Seca, and you know,
you got this uphill.
Um, and so I was always justlike, you know, I'm not that
good of a driver, right?
So, you know, you just think,oh, if I just had more power,
then when I go up this hill,I'll be able to, you know, I
won't have this like, you know,flat coming around the corner
(28:12):
and then just thinking, come on,go faster as all the Porsches
pass you.
You know, it's like, no, I wantto go fast up that hill.
SPEAKER_02 (28:19):
And Laguna Seiko was owned by Mazda or still is?
It was sponsored for many years.
SPEAKER_03 (28:25):
Yeah.
Now it's the Weather Tech uhraceway.
SPEAKER_02 (28:30):
Gotcha.
So it was good that the Miatawas there and you got rid of it,
and you're um but you're nostranger to Miata's.
I own two.
Sounds like you've owned atleast two at this point.
SPEAKER_03 (28:42):
I've had all four generations, actually.
SPEAKER_02 (28:44):
All four.
Yes.
Yeah, and you're and you'recurrently on the ND, right?
That's your current car.
Yeah.
And how how does that compare tothe other generations?
SPEAKER_03 (28:57):
You know, um, it is, I feel like they really
perfected it with the ND.
Uh especially the ND2, where youknow, 180 brake horsepower, you
know, it's not like this is nota super powerful car, but that
engine is great.
And it's um, it's just such ajoy to drive.
Everything is really in balance.
Um, so I'm both tempted to startmodifying it.
(29:20):
And also, every time I get inthat car, it just it just makes
me smile.
You know, it's it's it's notsuper stiff, it's not super
powerful, but it's just reallyenjoyable to drive.
And and where I live, uh the thehighest speed speed limit is 35
miles an hour.
So it's kind of like, you know,it's perfect.
SPEAKER_02 (29:41):
Yeah, yeah.
Well, top down, it always feelslike you're going faster.
SPEAKER_03 (29:47):
For sure.
Wow.
unknown (29:48):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (29:49):
And this is the RF too.
So when the top's up, itactually looks looks really nice
and it's a bit more dry.
So yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (29:55):
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (29:56):
The the the targa, right?
SPEAKER_02 (29:58):
Yeah.
The targo of the Us.
Yeah.
That's it.
That's a neat car.
We had um actually we had uhJohn Everett, who is a new
product launch manager for MazdaUSA, and he had a lot to do with
the latest ND, like doingcomparisons and working to
launch that in the US.
And he got to give some feedbackback and he got to drive like
(30:21):
the last ND versus this new onebefore it came out and did it
back to back.
Just and wow, I could justimagine doing that.
SPEAKER_03 (30:29):
Great guy.
It was so cool.
I was listening to that episodewhen I was driving my ND in this
twisty sort of mountain road,and I was just like, it was that
was a joyous moment.
SPEAKER_02 (30:41):
Comes together.
It all comes together.
For us to hear that story.
SPEAKER_00 (30:45):
Yeah, yeah.
That that guy really knew hisstuff.
And talk about uh just the dreamjob where all of this guy's
passions just sort of cametogether, and he had a smile on
his uh on his face the wholetime we were interviewing.
One one happy dude, Doug.
He was one happy dude.
SPEAKER_02 (31:04):
Yeah, yeah.
So what what is your uh is theMiata your daily driver?
SPEAKER_03 (31:09):
I have um I've got a Tesla Model 3 and I've got a
Ford Maverick.
And so uh because I've got aI've got a kid and you know we
got stuff to move around, soyeah, I don't always get to
drive the Miata.
That's it's sort of like thecar, the only car that doesn't
have a real purpose in my uhfamily place.
But uh, you know, I I wheneverI'm driving by myself or just
(31:30):
with my son, we always take theMiata.
SPEAKER_02 (31:32):
Yep, awesome.
SPEAKER_00 (31:35):
Good deal.
SPEAKER_02 (31:36):
Good deal.
All right, so um oh, let's see.
Oh, oh, oh, oh did we talk aboutthe Oldsmobile?
How can we forget?
No, we did, we did, we did.
SPEAKER_00 (31:48):
Sorry, did we Yeah, no, that that's fine.
Yeah, so as we as we okay, thatactually is the perfect segue
there.
Um as we guide the podcastgently to the off-rant, Nigel.
I have to ask you, speaking of,what do you have against
Oldsmobiles, man?
SPEAKER_03 (32:07):
You know, I am just I'm a small car guy.
I just love the feeling ofgetting into it.
Like I'm I'm 6'2, you know, I'mnot like a small guy, but when I
fold into a little car, and it'sbasically just like the car is
just wrapped around me, and youdrive, and it just feels like
you know, just it just wants tojump when you hit go and it
wants to stop when you hit stopand it turns sharply, all that
(32:28):
kind of stuff.
I love that.
So um getting into this big,huge Oldsmobile where you just
wasn't for you.
SPEAKER_00 (32:35):
Just wasn't for you.
SPEAKER_03 (32:36):
Yeah, like 15 degrees in each direction, and
it's just going straight.
SPEAKER_00 (32:39):
You know, it's like it was a boat.
Yeah, those cars were justboats.
Um okay, so seriously on the wayout here, um you mentioned shop
class, and we see less and uh orfor some reason I'm seeing a
lot, maybe because I have kidsthat are kind of moving towards
after high school, what are wegonna do?
(33:01):
And so I'm more aware of it.
There's so much more focus thesedays on trades, on trade
schools, on alternate ways.
You know, college doesn't haveto have to be you know the way
to go.
In other countries, in Europe,man, at 15, you were you were an
apprentice, right?
Make some skills, get a job likethat.
(33:23):
That's a way to go.
So I would like to hear, if youcan, your top three moments from
shop class, if you have them.
What did you make?
What do you remember?
Who was your teacher?
Who were your friends?
Because you just, you know,you're a tech executive, I get
it, but you just like to dothings with your hands.
SPEAKER_03 (33:42):
Yeah, I I loved, I spent more time in shop class
than anything else in highschool.
Oh, wow.
I found my way in, uh, you know,because it was always open,
which was cool.
I found my way in there all thetime, before school, lunchtime
after school.
Sometimes, if uh, you know, Ijust ended up ended up there
instead of another class.
Um, you know, learning to weldwas a really cool experience.
(34:05):
Fantastic.
Um kind of the amazing thing wasour our shop teacher, you know,
yeah, he'd teach us how to dostuff, but there were it felt
like there were no guardrails.
And I'm sure that there were.
But it was just like, okay,here's how you do it.
Do to hold this, you know,shield your your face, blah,
blah, blah.
All right, now go.
And I'm like holding thiswelder.
I'm like, really?
Like, I just get to do this now.
(34:26):
Like, it's so cool.
Um, that was that was a topexperience for sure.
Um, and uh, and then getting towork on my own cars, you know,
being able to just like havetons of space in the shop.
You're like, oh, great, you wantto bring a car in?
All right, roll it into thecorner there.
Like, you know, if it's gonna bemore than two months, let me
(34:46):
know.
You know, it's gotta be out ofhere before summer.
Uh just go for it.
I was I like that.
SPEAKER_00 (34:54):
Great memories, great memories.
Thank you for sharing that.
Well, we have come to the end ofour time, Nigel, but I have to
tell everybody very importantmission.
And uh, let's see, as as Nigelsaid it in the beginning, uh,
let's eradicate car crashes.
How do you do that?
How do you do that?
How do you do that?
You get them out, you get themon the road with someone that
(35:15):
knows what they're doing.
And we just had a blast gettingto know you, Nigel.
Um, Coastal, oh, I'm sorry.
The company is CoastlineAcademy.
Check them out,CoastlineAcademy.com.
He is Nigel Tunacliff.
Nigel, it was a distinctpleasure to meet you and have
you on the show.
Thank you for your time, and wewish you the best of everything.
Thank you, guys.
Thank you.
(35:36):
Fantastic.
You have just heard the highrevving, low mileage, late model
heard, round the worldauthoritative podcast on
automotive nostalgia.
He's Doug, reach me at Doug atCarsLove.com.
I'm Christian.
Reach me at Christian atCarsLove.com.
He's Nigel Tunaclip.
Check him out.
And if you like what you'rehearing, please follow and
telephone.
(35:56):
Helps us grow.
Check us out at carslove.com.
I am sure we'll see you at thenext local car show, showroom,
race trip, car museum, orconcorse.
We appreciate your taking alaugh with us, and we will see
you next time.
Popular Podcasts
CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist
It’s 1996 in rural North Carolina, and an oddball crew makes history when they pull off America’s third largest cash heist. But it’s all downhill from there. Join host Johnny Knoxville as he unspools a wild and woolly tale about a group of regular ‘ol folks who risked it all for a chance at a better life. CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist answers the question: what would you do with 17.3 million dollars? The answer includes diamond rings, mansions, velvet Elvis paintings, plus a run for the border, murder-for-hire-plots, and FBI busts.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.