When people refer to New York City, they say it has a million stories…in being around car people my whole life I would say that we had a million stories as well. When I received a submission TAPE, yes, on VHS tape, I knew I would either see a poorly made submission or it would gold, I am happy to say it was the later. Richard’s story is unlike any other that I have ever heard… Richard had to grow up faster than most kids since his Father had left him, his younger Brother and Mother when he was just 8 years old. Like many other people in this difficult situation Richard somehow found the strength to become the man of the family at this young age taking on a lot more responsibilities that a man twice his age. Through focus and resilience, the 8 year old grew up to be a honest and hard-working young man. Just a few weeks before sending off his submission to Fine Tuned, Richard had encountered probably the strangest chance meeting of his life. Richard had been driving a 1994 Honda Civic that was on its last legs, the car was a mess but it got him from Point A to Point B, and that’s all that mattered to him. At home Richard had a girlfriend with a 3 year-old Daughter from a previous relationship; the girlfriend was going through custody battle and needed to pay legal fees to retain custody. Not thinking of himself, Richard decided to sell his Civic to get what little money he could to help with the legal fees. Putting the happiness of his girlfriend and her Daughter first, Richard went to the 99 cent store to buy a sign to sell his car, as he waited in line something told Richard him that the man standing behind him was his long lost Father. I know this sounds like some “movie of the week” but I swear that this story is true. Richard awkwardly turned around and struck up a conversation with this man, and within a few moments both men realized that they were indeed, Father and Son. At that point Richard knew that that had to be an men on many different levels. Although he didn’t want to sell the car, Richard put it up for sale at the same time he made a last ditch effort and submitted his tape to Fine Tuned. Just days before he got offers to sell the car for practically nothing, I received his VHS tape and knew he had to be on the show. The 8-day emotional build was extremely taxing on Richard as well as for our entire build team that knew in their hearts that we were building something more than just a fast and cool car. This hit especially home for our co-Host Lucky Jay who had never met his real Father, who had been killed just weeks before their scheduled reunion. The unveiling of Richard’s car was an emotional one for everyone involved culmiting with Richard introducing his little Brother to his Father for this first time on camera.
When I received Art’s submission, I thought to myself there is no way a 19 year-old guy could be selfless enough to have one of the crown jewels within the Tuner world, as in the Toyota Supra yet somehow resist pouring every cent he had into it instead of doting every dollar he made to help support his family. His submission DVD was sincere to direct: please help me and my car become cool, I can’ do it on my own because everything I make goes to my family. This was the exact reason that I created Fine Tuned in the first place, car guys helping car guys. Art is 1 of 8 children, who had just graduated from trade school to become an electrician, however when most teens and young adults get their first jobs and start making a little money they usually blow their paychecks on themselves, but it was so refreshing to know that there are young people out there that still respect and will sacrifices for their families. In addition to Art’s amazing character, he owned a really special car that I felt could be turned into a beast of a car. When we were done Fine Tuning the Supra, we were told by many people within the industry that we had built one of the baddest Supra they have ever seen; Art, was at a loss for words.
Thor, yes that’s his real name, is typical of many guys and girls within the ‘Tuner’ world (and for that matter, the automotive world) in that he owned an amazing car with aspirations of making it into a one-of-a-kind performance car, the one problem, the car was up on blocks in his drive way and he was simply out of money…a universal theme within the restoration community. Thor’s 1995 MX-7 was mean and lean, but had been sitting on blocks for just over 2 years; his parents would grate at his nerves asking him repeatedly, “when are you going to get that out of our driveway?” For years Thor had no answer for them since the job he had was just enough to pay his own bills. Like many within this age group, Thor had only one place to turn, FINE TUNED. He wrote to us letting us know that he didn’t even have enough money for a video submission so all he could do was email pictures begging us to help him before his Dad sold his car to a junkyard. The day we surprised Thor, we had arrived at his house but learned that he had left for work early; not to be defeated we decided to simply kidnap him from work (with his Boss’s approval of course). After stealing him from work we got a chance to look at the RX-7 up close and personal and realized that it wasn’t running, this was a first for Fine Tuned. Again, not to be discouraged we flat-bedded the RX-7 and brought it back to Fine Tuned headquarters and tuned it into what to date has been our favorite car. The RX-7 is truly a one of kind car with probably one of the most creative and possibly expensive paint jobs one will ever see.
