My first car and love for automobiles lasted almost exactly 11k miles.  Eleven thousand miles of pure joy.  I had installed a catback exhaust, HKS intake, and an aftermarket stereo and speakers.  I had new Motegi wheels and tires on the way.  It was a mildly foggy morning of my senior year in high school.  February 4, 2004, one of the worst days of my life.  I was driving to school and had just made a left hand turn onto a main road (2 lanes each way with a suicide lane in the middle).  I get up to about 30 mph when a car that was parked on the right side of the road suddenly makes a U-turn right in front of me.  I got on the brakes as quick as I could and did a non-abs skid right into her drivers door.  I was crushed and so was the front of my car.

I feared the worst knowing my car wasn’t monetarily valuable and awaited the insurance report.  Total loss.  To add insult to injury they offered me a whopping $2000 for my mint condition 87k mile FC.  Unacceptable!  I fought them on the value of the car and eventually got $3800.  I bought the car back for $200 and removed all my aftermarket parts.  I was on the hunt for a new FC.  I managed to find a very clean car down south and the buyers agreed to meet in Fresno, CA.  Again, I was unable to test drive the car because I had broken my ankle in a tennis match for the varsity tennis team. So Dad, test drove the car and everything checked out and we purchased the car for ~$3500.  Although it had around 135k miles it was a one owner car that was very well maintained.  It was even the same COLOR!  Most people at school didn’t even realize that I was in a collision and got a different car. I got some help from my friend Lisa in the RX7 club and installed the exhaust and intake along with the new Motegi wheels.

I made custom plywood mounts for some kicker L7 subs where the storage bins go.

So I was back on the road a few weeks later when my ankle healed.  But the story doesn’t end here…