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Meet Fireball Tim as he introduces MTM’s new

car column, Malibu in Motion.

B y F i r e B a l l T i m

The Automotive Heartbeat

MALIBU

Malibu is in motion, every day. Men and women seek to better their lives by going place to place. Many, however, are asleep at the wheel,

not realizing that life is lived in the moment and not worrying about what will happen when

Fireball Tim joins MTM to take readers into the world of cars and Malibu car culture with Malibu in Motion. Here, he’s pictured with one of the many cars showcased at the monthly Wheels & Waves car show.

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The Wheels & Waves car show provides enthusiasts an opportunity to immerse themselves in car culture.

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they arrive—let alone what they left behind when they started driving.

Accidents happen when people are distracted and lose sight of the present. We all know this, yet we still fight the urge to worry. Early on in my life, I learned cars were a place of peace for me. With the excitement of where I was going, who I was going to meet and what coolness I might discover, I became an explorer.

And now, car culture is booming like no other time in the world. Car design studios have moved out of Detroit and into Southern California. Cars and coffee shows are popping up in every parking lot and car show culture is explosively rampant on an epic scale that is unprecedented. People love cars—and we’re here to help them discover where they can go.

Fireball is my real name, but you can call me whatever you want. What you really need to know about me is that I’m a “car guy.”

I’m not just a guy who loves cars; I’m a person who lives and breathes the value of what cars bring. When I was young, my parents introduced me to Hot Wheels, Corgis and Dinkys. These were die-cast cars you could race and play with, but more than that, they were tools for the imagination—little metal dreams.

Alas, my youth was filled to the brim with a car’s purpose. The purpose of a car was to not only take us from one place to another, but also to have experiences that would help build me as a person and ensure a worthwhile destiny filled with what most people would consider and elusive entity—joy.

Every weekend, our family would pile into the station wagon and go experience something new. Many times we didn’t know where we were going to end up (all seven of us), but we did know it was going to be cool, whether it was feeding ducks or seeing an air show.

Cut to 50 years later and I find myself in a town with one main artery: a pulsing, cruising vein filled with tens of thousands of vehicular contraptions on a daily basis. Malibu is a car town. Malibu is in motion.

The universe responded to my love of

cars and it set me on a path that brought me in contact with cars of all shapes and sizes.

I went to ArtCenter College of Design to be a car designer, Walt Disney Imagineering to design ride and show cars, worked on more than 400 movies designing cars, developed aftermarket parts and now continue to design car toys—I’ve lived this passion.

Now, I don’t tell you this to somehow impress you, but to make this point: If the universe can respond to my love of cars in this way, leading me to this town, having my own car show at the Malibu Country Mart, living through a TV show about cars and beach-life, and designing automotive coloring books—then just imagine what it could do for you.

Malibu in Motion is not an article or a column—it’s a state of mind. It’s an exploration of the automotive soul, eager to discover, share and tell blissful stories of our experience. It’s the largest enthusiast base in the world, and it’s centralized here in the ’Bu, vibrating to San Diego and San Francisco.

Whether you’re into exotics, rat rods, customs, lowriders, bombs, trucks, muscle cars, sleds, classics, Woodies or vintage, we let the world know that through cars, peace can and will prevail.

The Wheels & Waves car show at the Country Mart is a place each month where race, creed and color have no meaning. It’s where horsepower can talk with electric, muscle with tuner, classic with custom and exotic with concept. I created this for you. We respect each other as people and share our love of automobiles.

So, join me on a journey of a lifetime. Let’s show the world what car culture can be by sharing our Malibu experience in a positive, joyful and caffeine-induced way. We even welcome tea lovers. Let our passion radiate to the world.

And though it can be fun and silly sometimes, the power that we wield together can and will affect the world through our love of the four-wheeled (and sometimes two-wheeled) contraptions. And let Malibu in Motion be your guide to infusing that love into every area of your life. n