We’ve made quite a few (online) friends the past three years here at Carscoop, and Jalopnik’s Mike Spinelli is definitely one of them. Today we learnt that Mike is stepping down as Editor in Chief of Jalopnik handing his position over to Ray Wert. However, Mike will remain at Jalopnik as Editor-at-large.

Despite the fact that Mike was in charge of one of the most popular automotive blogs in the world, he was always a down to earth guy who’d have no problem to reply to a mail or a request even at times when Carscoop hardly managed to surpass 100,000 visits a month.

We we’re supposed to have our first official “date” with Mike at the Frankfurt Show this September, but things didn’t quite work out as we planned due to our overly-tight schedules during the press-days. Hopefully Mike will be at the 2008 NAIAS Show so we can give him that bouquet of mini cars we bought for him in Frankfurt.

Link: Jalopnik