RIP: MikeZ (1957-8/3/2024), aka: Joe Bob - MEMBER #5 Options

[euro911]

I had to go back a couple pages to see this - Bummed (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

Yes, he was one of a kind (IMG:style_emoticons/default/stirthepot.gif)

[JOEPROPER]

I never had the chance to meet him in person. He had a great avatar and an even better sense of humor. Sad news. RIP

[lbubba42614]

RIP sending prayers to his love ones, so young

[racerbvd]

He was a good guy, i recently learned that he passed .

[Mueller]

Holy crap, how did I not know this?

We must have spoken a few months before he passed. Mike would would call me out of the blue to just BS and talk.

I met Mike in '97 or there abouts when I had my 1st 914 (black '76 with the phonedials)

Sherryl and I drove from the Bay Area to San Diego and we met him at his house.

Picked up some parts and drove back home a few hours later with now having a new 914 friend.

He will be missed.

[ConeDodger]

Mike introduced me to a localish guy here in the Tahoe area that he went to high school with. I let him know when I first saw this. I enjoyed my times with Mike.

[danimal16]

Just found out Mike passed. Really great guy, helped me from time to time. We never met in person, he will be missed. RIP Mike.

[get off my lawn]

Fun times in the early 2000's --

Good memories, hooters in newport beach. ^^^

Mike and I were close friends once, even though he hoodwinked me on a more than a couple of "deals" over the years. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/poke.gif)
Sadly he got into an unfortunate incident about 20 years ago and it basically cost him everything.
That's when he got into the decals and referee work etc.
A hard lesson learned.

For some people, Mike could be hard to take in large doses unless they got past the persona and figured out who he really was. Not as easy as it sounds.
But if you were able to do that, you saw what I did: a guy with sharp whit and a heart of gold who only put up walls in defense.
Getting past those walls, even if only temporarily, was enough to endear him as a friend.

I hadn't made much effort to connect with him since and regret that.

[Zeke]

I knew Mike from The Don and Glen swaps in Riverside. He bought my 914 race car and complained about it, then won the first autocross he raced it after putting a piston or 3 in it because I seized it at Big Willow on a hot day running lean Webers. Which were sold to me by the typical type of person that you find on these forums. IOW, a liar.

Mike wasn't a liar, just an ass. Or should I say about as blunt and gouache as they come. But he was a friend of the Porsche air-cooled community.

He got injured pretty badly when someone from the soccer field he was at during his daughter's game collided with him bigly at the sideline. As a result he ended up with a pain killer problem and his marriage went down from there. He had a great job with the Santa Barbara County Environmental dept that he did/could not continue with after the injury.

So he was forced out of CA after living in Orange County for a spell. If I had to guess CA was too expensive to live on disability which is a fact and a shame. So he bounced around for more than a decade trying to sell graphics produced by another that had the actual equipment. That arrangement wasn't ideal and deteriorated for whatever reasons.

If anything, mikez lived a hard life from the time he got clobbered injuring his back on that day at the soccer field. You never know when your life is going to turn upside down or, indeed, end.

Joe Bob, is the user name he took here and elsewhere starting at the time of the divorce. IMHO, his wife was just as much of the problem as he was.

RIP Mike/Joe

(This information was documented from years of forum posts. Don't ask me to provide a bibliography.)

[914 Ranch]

Damn, gunna miss that dude. Mike stopped by the house several times over the years. Gosh I'm totally flashing about some funny shit.
Rest in peace Mike.
Joe Sharp

[Steve]

Killer deal on his 911 on sale by his daughter on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/6...mibextid=wwXIfr

[campbellcj]

More from the wayback machine around 2000-2002

[Aaron Cox]

Man....

Been out of the loop for a decade. Mike Z was my favorite aresehole I met in Porsche land. Lots of fun with him over the years. He was in OC for a bit and swung by one day while working on a 993 top to graft onto his earlier 911 with some body shop in Norco.

Saw his car posted for sale, and thought the worst. Confirmed when I found this thread.

RIP bud.

[Rand]

Sigh. An end of an era here. Mikey. It won't be the same without you.
Banned to infinity motherfucker!! With respect.