Moto's 20 years of Car History...made really short.
Wonder what I've been driving? Here they are... What have you been driving?
1969: Man Landed on Moon, Japan's Bullet trains went into service, and Kennedy was president, "Easy Rider" opened in theaters, Pan American Air creates world's first NON SMOKING section, Panda Bears arrive in Tokyo.
Moto was born...and immediately he got himself a car...Yeah that's me.
At age 3, I got a 3 wheeler chopper...
(Above, Right) Moto prepares for a driver's meeting...see my father's TA22 Celica back there?)
1978: Moto moves to the USA, the land of real cars (so I thought)... Finds that 70's American cars aren't what they used to be...?!
What happened to the real Mustangs? Bel Air and Sedan Deville??? What is that hideous thing in the back of that Seville?
My father buys a Malibu Classic and Buick Skylark...(OMG!?) Horrors! At least gas was like 25 cents a gallon!
(Dad got a 350 Chevy...in the form of a choked up exhaust equipped Malibu Classic Station Wagon - talk about Vacation just like the Cadiloldsmobuick! Mom's BMW 530i, purchased rusted in sky blue paint...)
1985 - I get my driver's license, Olivia Newton-John was like..."Physical'??!! Madonna was fat. Michael Jackson was Black. Duran Duran rocked!
I got me a Honda Civic 1500 S, which was $8700 new, compared to $11,400 for the Corolla GT-S that I WANTED!
Lifetime savings from toiling at my father's restaurants went to this car... It was a nice car.
ENKEI i-SPEED wheels and FALKEN 06C Tires (who knew then that I'd be sponsored by both of them 20 years later??)
Believe it or not, I had to lug those wheels all the way from Japan...hahah we'd be tossing them in "old school" trash bin nowdays! My high-school buddies used to call the wheels "the washing machine oscillators!"
1987: I graduate from St. Ignatius College Prep, San Francisco, CA and move to Washington State for some studying in college...that is studying how to drive in snow for 4 years. Lots of empty ski resort parking lots and back roads in Spokane!! Trashed the Civic and got a CRX HF...fuel miser but still lots of fun, then I got me a Subaru GL10 Wagon to hurry back home after college...so much of a hurry to get back to civilization that the turbo blew up!! Worked 2 jobs and got through college I guess...studying business, as I wanted to BUY cars, not build them for pennies...
1991: I move to LA to open a restaurant for my father's chain... Me a noodle empire prince?! I realize LA was the place to be for happily living with multiple cars. I buy me a Honda Accord to keep myself looking somewhat normal till I planted some seeds around the area... Also bought a Toyota Previa to do some hauling of shrimps and noodles.
1992: I got married...with my true love. Now I have plans for kids and more cars...realized both was really hard to do.
1993: I buy me a Celica All-Trac (ST165) used. (OK, no more Mr. Normal guy) and my bug with tweaking cars take over my life. "Wataashiwo Ski ni Tsuretette!" was the movie that featured the ST165 in 1986...I had to have one ever since... My first child also consumes my year of sleep but without regrets... ALL is GOOD.
(surf or snow! The Celica was fast and heavy, and damn reliable too, water-air intercooler, "step back! I'm gonna open the hood! )
1994: The Toyota four-pot Previa is now too slow for my taste and TOYSPORT had this idea... "Lets put a turbo on it!" "OH, look, an IHI-RHB6!!" Great! $5000 later of HKS this and that, I have a 265hp minivan of terror! 140mph to Vegas, the BIG mirrors fold and scares the hell out of me! So I bought myself a VW Jetta GL to keep my from killing myself on the way to work. Got rid of Celica and bought a rare Camry V6-SE 4 door with a 5 Speed Manual from the factory... What an ugly car that was but still very rare...
1995: I win a drunken bet with my friends at the bar (on a SUMO tournament) and I end up with a BMW 2002. So rather than throwing it away, I rebuild it as a Sunday project for 7 months till it looked good enough. I get thumbs up from BMW-files in the oncoming lanes...till the last guy who did that ended up buying it off me! That really fed my desires and confidence that I can rebuild more cars... Later in the year, I tried to do a Porsche 924, which came out OK, but I just could not get myself to like a AUDI engined car with backwards transmission placement, and sold it for peanuts. I drove a VW Passat for a daily use...noodle hauler...
1996: I find this frame of a AE86, my dream car... (that one that I could not afford in high-school) I immediately buy it and start to "restore" it. Silver Coupe with 4A-GZE...my first AE86 Project. Also began writing data and taking pictures, keeping tabs on stuff. interestingly enough, that collection of notes and photos I re-organized it and kept it on 3.5 floppies...was what served to become the first pages of Club4AG, originally intended as a scrapbook for my bookshelf... (OK, the net wasn't something for everyone to write on back then...and people were on 24kbs modems as high-speed!)
1997: I get another... bone stock but very clean coupe in Miata blue.
1998: I sell the two Corolla to KAAZ and left for Japan to some happy owners there... and I end up with 2 more... By this time, I am using them as daily driver and loving them both... red coupe for track and blue hatch for AC and full interior... I didn't spend much on the 2 cars though as I already had plans for another one... By November, I had so many Corolla friends full of questions and sharing knowledge, I made my logs online... My wife and kids play in a new Chrysler...
Birth of Club4AG Online...
1999: I buy my current AE86 in frame-only state and start my biggest restoration undertaking I ever did... A 20V Levin Project
Later this year Naoki and I form a track event entity called the Drift Association LLC. Club4AG now becomes an active organization!!!
2001: I get a Suburban to haul my cars to track events where I increasingly attend and kept getting stranded with broken stuff... Also, I begin to restore a AW11 Supercharged...
2002: Taka, Yoshie, Hiroo, Slonie, AndrewFever, and myself all head to Topeka for SCCA Solo2 National Championships and 4 of us come home with trophies for AE86!! Two of them 1st Place! Taka and Yoshie are not only first Japanese national champs but also first National Champions ever to take it in an AE86! I got a trophy for 10th...in Taka's car and Hirro Sumida took a plaque for Subaru too! I buy my wife a new RAV4...
2003: D1 Grand Prix comes to the USA and Falken starts a Drift Showoff event tour too. Finally someone recognizes that sideways is fun... (No one liked us before...what happened!!) Anyway, all are happy to see new people in the old game of sliding and slipping... Taka and Hiroo gets serious...and we take Alex, Andy, and a bunch of people off the mountains for raceway fun! Drift Day is now 10 events old... Nomuken comes over and reveals that we ain't even close yet...WOW...to Japan's D1. Venues become big so we get an Aprilia SR50 too.
2004: My Corolla gets fatter...must be the burritos! I buy an S13 and build it to see what the hype is about... I find out and sell it...LOL...the Nissan wasn't for me I guess. I buy a IS300 to get around town and patrol the race tracks too...and my wife I buy another Town and Country.
We also start to go places in a REAL TRAILER...a 40ft Haulmark... Carrying pylons and 2 cars to remote places all across the USA...and make lots of friends! The gas stations all love us now too! 6 mpg...DUHooo! Pulled by our new 2002 Silverado C3500, We tour... Taka, Hiro to Formula D with Falken Dudes!
2005...My New Addition to the sweet home of Club4AG...1989 Toyota Soarer 2.0 Limited (GZ21)
