Ray addiction to anything with a motor started when his father bought him his first mini bike at age 11. In high school, he worked as an apprentice mechanic at Armando’s Foreign Sport Car in Youngstown, Ohio. He escaped Cleveland in 1978 and moved to California, where he worked as a lead technician at Sun Datsun in Whittier, and later as a Jaguar mechanic at California Coventry in Costa Mesa. He soon moved to Doctor Jaguar and eventually bought the business. Nierlich’s first Jag was an E-type, and his love affair with (mostly British) cars continues to this day. He also tinkers with English motorcycles from time to time. Nierlich sold Doctor Jaguar in 2006 and semi-retired to Salinas, California, where he has a hobby shop to play with his collection of cars and motorcycles.