I'm home.
Our flight from Japan arrived yesterday at San Francisco and after getting to my family's house here in Fresno, I promptly hit the sack to get some MUCH needed sleep. After getting rested up, I spent most of today was spent running around taking care of bank accounts and other things to get reestablished here in the USA. If you can believe it, I've actually been enjoying checking out cars on the road around here and seeing all the new models that hit the market since I left for Japan. Hmmm…USDM car sightings anyone?
Since I knew would be returning to the United States this month, I had spent the past couple months checking out all the online classified ads for car projects. I ended up finding this '97 Miata for sale locally and my dad was nice enough to check out the car, purchase it, and store it for me until I got home (and paid for it of course!). If you look in the background of this shot, you will see his '69 GTO convertible restoration project sitting there. I took the new Roadster out for a spin this afternoon, and I can't even describe how nice it felt to get behind the wheel of my own "sports car" after so long. I only drove down the wrong side of the road a few times!
Well, I have a lot of work to catch up on so I should end this here. It feels great to be back and I'm looking forward to another great year of Speedhunting, USA style.
-Mike Garrett
OFFICIAL SPEEDHUNTERS SUPPLIERS
Welcome back Mike.
It'll be interesting to see if you what you blog about here in the States.
Can't wait to see a Speedhunter blogger car project feature looks like? You can't dissapoint with some weak high offset wheels you know.
Welcome back to the west. Cool pic of the garage, old vs new(er), jap vs usa. My family is similar, we have the muscle car guys and then me who's into everything but mostly jap cars.
Sooo, we're all invited to your welcome-back barbecue, right? I'll bring the keg.
just let EA foot the bill
the wealth of car culture you have surrounding you in California, however, should be more than enough to keep you busy in the future, you're really very lucky down there! what little we have up here is very grassroots type stuff, the autocross scene is basically run by one man (who also drives a miata! :)) and basically everyone knows everyone, nothing like the wild diversity i see reported on here at SpeedHunters. again welcome back and i can't wait to see what you have up your sleeve!
(just kidding!)
.
welcome back to north america Mike, while i can understand your newfound fascination with USDM models, my guessing is it will fade soon enough
Hey man if your in the Bay ,theres a forum (http://www.norcalroadsters) its a local bay area roadster forum,mostly miatas and some other dope cars .Check it out.
wow dude how old r u? this has to be the most beginner post on speedhunters ive seen....
@tek did you follow Mike during the last years then? If so you would understand why.
the irony of asking mr garrett how old he is while you type like a 12 year old boy who just learned how to text message is too much. out of all the bloggers in the automotive scene, mike garrett is IMO one of the best.
the only thing i wish is for auto-otaku to come back to it's regularly scheduled postings... *hint hint*
NOW LET'S SEE THAT ROADSTER AN INCH OFF THE GROUND!
Can't wait to see you at a KINOD event, Mike. Welcome back to the states!
No more JDM stuff? ))))))))))))))))))):
Hmmmm... Yummy car there Mike. Can't wait to see what you're doing to it!
Who's gonna cover Japan events now, though?
Well it is sad that you had to leave Japan so soon, feels as if it was only like yesterday that you started blogging about the JDM scene in Japan, and felt even shorter since you joined Speedhunters. Good to hear your back in the U.S, and already have a nice Miata waiting for you at home. Can't wait to hear more about the project, and also do please update your blog Mike. Just because you work for Speedhunters doesn't mean you don't have the time to update Auto Otaku, I mean even Alexi knows how to separate his times posting stories on Speedhunters while updating Noriyaro at the same time....
Thanks for the nice words everyone! Living in the US doesn't mean that you have seen the last of my Japanese material. Still have family there so I have a place to stay whenever I want AND I still have a lot of Japanese photos I haven't even published yet!
Hey Mike, welcome back !
I have few project cars I'd like to show you.
I'll email you the details....
Cheers.
Is that a hardtop?? Very nice. What are your plans for this thing?
Welcome back mike! can't wait to see you on track!
Welcome back and nice car choice.
Welcome back Mike! Hope to meet up with you sooner than later!
California love Mike San Jose and Modesto
How nice to come home with a little present, in the form of a Miata!!! Amazing.
Welcome back, Badass car. hope to see it running low with some old school rims, haha.
Also hope you used japan to your advantage for used parts