15 years ago

[Tom Paule]

I *think* I bought my first SE-R in December of 1990, but it may have been as "late" as January 1991. I was looking at the Mazda Protoge and Honda CRX when I read the infamous Car and Driver review for the SE-R. I bought one that weekend and drove it for a year, and the only complaint I had was it had no sunroof, so 1 year later I went and traded it in on my second SE-R which had sunroof and cruise, but no ABS. That car is still with me 245,000 miles later, and is putting the hurt on any other SE-Rs that dare try to keep up with it in NASA's SE-R Cup on the west coast. It has only DFN'd one race, and that was due to a severely bent rim.

 The #157 has been solid as a rock, which is in line with the friendships I have become friends with people like Mike Kojima, Rob Cadle, Sheening Lin, Jared Holstien, Jim Howard, Jeff Naeyaert, Tim Rogers (actually met Tim in high school!!) along with many, many others I don't have time to list.

 Girlfriends have noticed that my closest friends are other SE-R guys, and mentioned that they found it odd at first, but once they met my friends realized they were some of the nicest, most genuine people in the world. Also recruiting for the SE-R Cup series is a breeze, as some of the non-SE-R guys that have joined recently have told others that "there's a comeraderie in the SE-R guys I have never seen before, they all have each others backs on and off the track". I'm not sure what it is about the car that attracts the kind of people I mentioned before, but others notice it too.

 I'm not sure what it is/was about the car, but "the SE-R guys" are some of the most trustworthy, loyal, helpful and genuinely kind people you could ever meet. I will never sell/trade or get rid of my car, and the same goes with the friendships I have made with the "SE-R Guys" I have come to know these last 12+ years from the SE-R list and SE-R meets in SoCal.

 Here's to another 12 years (and many more after that)!