<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"         A few months ago, a colleague mentioned that he wanted to introduce me to a friend who&amp;#039;s a big fan of the magazine, and a real car/life enthusiast. I&amp;#039;ve heard this offer before \u2014 that person is usually a longtime reader who just wants to talk about his favorite old cars \u2014 so I politely dismissed the request. And besides, he lives in Chicago, far away from Los Angeles, even farther for someone who hates the cold. No chance.   Call it fate, but I found myself in Chicago on a cold February day with some time to kill, so I arranged a meeting with this enthusiast. Turns out, he&amp;#039;s David MacNeil, founder and CEO of MacNeil Automotive Products Limited. His name should be familiar because his company advertises not only in our magazine, but nearly a dozen other publications.   The moment David sat down at the conference table, he burst into a 10-minute sermon about the ridiculousness of the 55-mph speed limit law, saying it was unjust and made no sense whatsoever (he obviously had a recent run-in with the Illinois State Police for going &amp;quot;warp&amp;quot; speed).   I liked him already.   After a brief tour of his state-of-the-art facility that makes injection-molded floor liners and floormats (where he answered all of my queries by saying, &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s PFM,&amp;quot; which I later found out was short for Pure Frickin&amp;#039; Magic), we chatted casually for an hour or so. Turns out, this is the guy we all want to be.   He&amp;#039;s an avid amateur race-car driver with many victories to his credit. He also has an amazing collection of mouth-watering cars, and he&amp;#039;s an accomplished pilot, holder of the exclusive ATP (Airline Transport Pilot) certificate, the highest level of pilot certification. David explained that he retired from racing in 1999 to concentrate on flying.   &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;ve done races like the 24 Hours of Nelson Ledges and the 12 Hours of Sebring where I took 2nd place in both races. In 1999, after running the 12 Hours of Thunderhill (now a 25-hour race), I decided to retire from racing. And then, I started learning to fly the following February. The way I saw it was I should concentrate on one or the other. If I tried to concentrate on both, I would be a mediocre race-car driver and a mediocre pilot. And both have the potential of killing me.   &amp;quot;Six years later, once I reached a certain level of flying \u2014 getting my ATP certificate \u2014 I decided to get back into racing. This was in 2007. I&amp;#039;m back,&amp;quot; he said.   And he&amp;#039;s back with a vengeance, winning all five races he entered in 2008, including the SCCA June Sprints in his BMW M3. His sights are now set on the STO Class where he plans to race in the SCCA Runoffs with a GT3 Cup car.   Our conversation turned to business and how he got his start.   &amp;quot;In 1985, I bought my first house, and on the same day, I started working for AMG, as vice president of sales for North America. I feel like I had a lot to do with Mercedes-Benz buying AMG because I sold AMG parts to authorized dealers around the country, having the parts installed on customers&amp;#039; cars as dealer options. I left AMG a couple of years later and became a classic-car broker, just like Tom Cruise&amp;#039;s character in Rain Man. Then in 1989, while in Scotland for my wedding, I took particular notice of the floormats in my rental car. I checked to see who made them; it turned out to be a company in England. I contacted them at the soonest opportunity and, within a few months, I became the sole U.S. distributor of these floormats. In order to start my new business, I needed to take out a second mortgage for my house \u2014 yes, that one I bought four years before. As the company grew, I came to realize that I could make a better product myself, using American workers and resources, so I decided to manufacture my own line of floormats and floor liners.&amp;quot;   After 20 years, his multi-million dollar company is still growing. David now devotes his time, in no particular order, to flying, racing, spending time with his three children, Roderick, Cooper and Devon, and overseeing his company. When asked how he would describe his life to this point, he answered with cool subtlety, &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s interesting.&amp;quot;   Actually, David, it&amp;#039;s PFM. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/a14604/i-wanna-be-like-dave/>