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HOLY CAR GUY! How Batman changed Richard Griot's life--and enthusiasts everywhere are better for it.
Byline: ROGER HART
Many Los Angelenos have bragged about growing up near famous actors, but few have had their lives changed because of it. One is Richard Griot, who lived three doors away from Adam West, the actor who played Batman in the 1960s television series and a 1966 big-screen adaptation. Luckily for Griot--and for the rest of the car-enthusiast world--West drove a Ferrari 308GT4, which was ideal to spark a teenager's gasoline-fumed lust into full flame.
To this day, Griot remembers precisely when his epiphany occurred. That was when West, whom Griot calls his "surrogate dad,'' stopped by in his Ferrari and asked the 16-year-old to join him on a drive. On the return trip, West tossed Griot the keys, and a life and a lifestyle were forever changed.
"At that moment, I knew what I was born to do,'' Griot said. "I was always interested in cars, but now I knew why.''
Griot owns Griot's Garage, the car-guy catalog that sells everything from high-end power tools to floor paints and car waxes. Before his success, Griot was one of us: a car guy with racing dreams, dreams of owning cars and helping to define the automotive lifestyle. These car-guy dreams fueled his business accomplishments.
For the past 18 years, Griot has sold the stuff that encourages enthusiasts to "Have fun in your garage,'' which has been his slogan since the company's launch. Back in 1990, he realized two things: He didn't want a nomadic professional race driver's life--a passion he had pursued as a mechanic for the Jim Russell School--and he didn't want to continue in his profession as a clothing designer and maker. Although he knew how to sell, he didn't like the cutthroat aspect of that world; after a competitor copied and marketed a Griot design, he wanted out. That was when the words of his dad--who had an optical sales catalog--rang true.
"I have an entrepreneurial father,'' Griot said. "He taught me that the catalog business is not regionally dependent.''
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