Dear Paul,

I was a child when for first time Fast and Furious was released in cinemas in 2001. I was 15 years old. By that time I liked cars as other kids do but just that, liked them.

I still remember that day. Which Cinema an so. I remember that the first movie was awesome. Like nothing before, no even today any other movie was so great about cars. Since that day, my life had a significant change, I wanted to be one of those guys there and race cars in the streets. I wanted an import car.

By that time I turned more into the cars and specially japanese cars. When the only place to find cars on Internet was the Hot Import Night web page and a few magazines.

When I was sixteen I enter the vocational school to become a mechanic, I wanted to be close to cars. As much as possible, one day I will become a driver and get my license.

I remember that I bought the DVD movie as soon as it was released and watched the film one time after an other. At the school, I met a friend, my best friend Alex who runs ATJ Motor today. He was like me, young and with the same strong passion for cars. We used to spent the day in class playing the Fast and Furious dialogues, talking about those cars and sequences in the movie, it was so cool. He always was Brian, and always did the Toretto role. When not playing F&F then I used to draw tuned cars everywhere and buying magazines to talk about them. Dreaming all the day.

I remember wanting a Civic so badly, but in my country with 16 years you are not allowed to drive. It was a very long wait imagining projects and ideas all days, waiting the day for the driver license to come.

My first car was a Nissan Bluebird ’90, but a couple of years later I did get my first EG Civic in 2007.

I have did all those things I wanted to do, raced in the streets, mountains and circuits. Night meetings and events. I have been caught by police and I have travel everywhere in a Civic and I enjoyed as much as possible.

After owning an S14 Silvia in 2009, I decided that I wanted and R32 Skyline. I moved to England in 2010 and lived there to get my dream come true. This 2010 was when this blog was started. Then, when I got back to Spain in 2011 I raced my Skyline, I drifted it, I enjoyed it and damned it. Street, industrial areas and circuits. I had been amateur driver with FIA registration. I did my first drifting events playing to be professional drivers.

In 2013 I sold everything I had to move to Japan, to keep my dream going. My carlife dream. Now is very hard to study again, and is very hard to learn Japanese, but I need it and is what I want in other to get closer to the real JDM culture. There is no other places to go but Japan.

I am meeting people amazing here. I smoked cigarettes with Kei Miurs while talking about stories of the Osaka Loop and Civics fifteen years ago.

I did all this because Fast and Furious changed my life. I became myself because I have dreams and I believe in them. Maybe now you understand why Paul Walked was so important and influential. Now you know why sometimes life is to short to get bored.

Bye Paul, rest in peace.

Jose M. López

http://r32taka.com

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