Staff Bio's >> Chris (cnichols)

Hybrids Moderator

Personal
Born and raised in Elizabethtown, KY, I moved to Henderson, KY at 15 to finish school. Shortly after graduation, I moved w/ my family to Bowling Green, KY that summer but only long enough to get settled in and head off to the University of Kentucky in Lexington, KY where I earned two Bachelor's Degrees (Finance, Decision Science & Information Systems). I was hired in 2001 by Airgas-Mid America and have been with the company ever since. I'm now located in St. Louis, MO, but plan to head back to KY as soon as possible.

Automotive
I first fell in love with 240s at the age of 15 as my 16th birthday approached while looking through a Consumer Reports magazine covering all the cars released for that year. It was literally love at first sight.

I borrowed my parents' cars until I was 17 and my father made me a deal. "Get a full scholarship to college and I'll buy you a car." So, I did...and the search was on. I hadn't forgotten about the 240 and I came across a pristine 95 base model S14 (Concord Grey) w/ 29,xxx miles in the winter of 1996. Unfortunately, while driving in the rain one day on an older road w/ less than adequate drainage, I lost control and slammed sidways into a parked car on the other side of the road. Too bad I had no idea what drifting was back then or I might have been able to save it. My next car will remain unnamed, but let's just say it was a domestic pile of dung. Soon after, I ran across a beautiful white 95 S14 w/ under 50K and got back behind the wheel of a real car. Drove "Whitey, Sr." for 8 years as a daily and she never let me down (Uncle Ben of NICO is the proud owner of "Whitey, Jr."). She can still be seen gracing the roads of St. Louis from time to time.

This car needs it's own paragraph. The third and final installment of S14s in my series is a 1996 Mediterranean Blue 240 that can only be described as an engine whore. From turbo KA to SR to Ford 302 to LS1, this car has been nothing short of an epic project. Purchased in 2002 to be the "race car" while Whitey got me where I needed to go, I used this car as a learning tool and proceeded to teach myself about automobiles...I just wish I was a quicker learner. Luckily, it was shortly after this that NICO was founded and I discovered a place to discuss all the "fun" I was having with my car and absorb the large amount of information that I lacked but needed to get the car on the road. At one time, I thought it (or I) was cursed. But, either through insane persistance or sheer hardheadedness, I vowed to make this car run and run well. The alternative, which I considered to be unaccepatable, was to sell the car and live with the fact that I had failed. I refused to let it beat me, and this winter I finally succeeded in dropping a Chevy LS1 into the sub 60K mile chassis that I had developed a love/hate relationship with.

Shortly after completion, Repoman came to me asking me to help moderate the Hybrids section....something I gladly accepted now that I felt I was no longer a "failure".