Call me crazy, but when you get an invite from Sean Lee to see the new Z in Los Angeles, with a cap on how many people can be in there at the same time. (COVID precautions), you go and spend some quality time with your new love 💕. The Z of course.
That Friday morning, woke up, drove to the airport, got picked up by a friend (Tyler Gray), grab lunch, and see the Z. Since my light was at 5, we had to leave the Z event a tad early so I could make it back on my flight back to Dallas. Take a peak at my weird video below that I threw together to document the day!
The SkidZ drift event and Z reveal at ZCON was a blast! Nothing broke on or off track except my wallet with all the tires I went through! I really want to thank everyone that did a paid ride along or bought a cup or shirt, that helps so much with being able to go out to these events and put on a show!
Please take a moment to watch the video that Momentum Media put together for the drift event/real life Z reveal!
The amount of build up for the new Z is absolutely crazy. Last year when the Proto Z was announced during ZCON 2020, I think every enthusiast was watching the reveal live on YouTube. I couldn’t have been the only one that was so happy they were on the verge of tears 😂 So when ZCON was coming around this year I knew I would have to go, especially since Nissan was making another announcement about the Z…and hoping it would show up. Well… it did! Here are a few photos…. I’m going to need one in white. Stat.
Thursday started a bit hung over and late with another Starbucks…just call me basic. We met up with Tyler and Steph with the Q50, and got some Mexican food for lunch. After lunch we all took a dip in the pool trying to catch a tan. At about 4:30 Eric with Momentum Media and I went back to pikes peak to try and get some more rolling shots and photos with different lighting. I don’t have all the photos yet, but the ones that are finished are below… and damn.
Wednesday started with a Starbucks at the hotel lobby. We met up with a few friends we’ve been hanging out with since the pikes peak run the day before and wanted to get lunch and a photo shoot in. The first spot I found on Yelp lead us nowhere, called the number and they were also closed for the rest of the year… who knew? So I quickly googled ‘pretty scenery restaurants in Colorado Springs’ and the third one that came up had the best photos of their views, it was called ‘The Grand View Dining Room at the Garden of the Gods’ we didn’t realize it was such a nice restaurant/club, so, a little underdressed we all really enjoyed a really good meal and some beautiful views.
Pictured from left to right: Curtis Lee Davey, Stephanie Perea, Tyler, Melissa Miller, Chance Goad
After lunch we hung out at the host hotel for a bit and caught up on some social media things, photo things, etc. We decided to go back to Garden of the Gods where we all did some filming for the ZCON video that I’ll be posting once it’s done… but trust, it’s going to be killer.
Pictured: Curtis Lee Davey, Stephanie Perea, Tyler, Melissa Miller, Chance Goad, Cameron Harris, Amanda Harris, Eric Early.
After watching the sunset we went back to the host hotel where we had dinner and drinks, cruised to the bar where everyone seemed to be hanging out, then off to the second floor were there’s a larger room where people in ZCON can hang out, drink, play cards, and chat. Such a fun night.
We took a normal photo followed up by a ‘no photo’ signature pose
My first day at ZCON 2021 was awesome! We started at Pikes Peak with a group of about ten cars per run group. We were told not to do over 30 mph, which is understandable, the speed limit on the mountain is 30mph and the hair pins are intense and banked. We started filming for my ZCON video with our run group… the footage sneak peaks I’ve seen are absolutely killer.
Once we got back from Pikes Peak, there was a Suds and Shine area at the host hotel. Basically an area with a car wash station to clean off all the dust your car accumulated up and down the mountain. It’s also a place where everyone can see each other and chat and hang out.
From the Suds and Shine we left for the Opening Ceremonies and the Z Reveal Party! The scenery was absolutely gorgeous there, and the venue was beautiful. It was an awesome feeling being literally surrounded by other Z enthusiasts while watching the new Z being revealed via YouTube. I almost had a ‘I’m not crying, your crying moment. If you missed it heres a link:
The time is here for me to start posting a few things I’ve been doing to make money to get to drift events… besides the bodywork and paint, I’ve been making custom insulated cups and custom license plate frames. Below are a few of the items I’ve created.
If your interested in letting me create something for you please inquire at melissadrifts@yahoo.com. I can do pretty much any color combo and it can say whatever you want!
Pricing;
License plates; start at $45 for one, or two for $75. Plus shipping if not local.
Insulated cups; start at 45.00. Plus shipping if not local.
Add logo or graphics +5.00 (each color)
Premium glitter +10.00 (includes holographic, and ‘messy/starry glitter’)
The cups can be solid colors as well with no glitter. Solid color/no glitter cups are 55.00 and include an up to two color graphic/wording.
Now how can you describe an event like this? A blast? Super Fun? Freaking awesome? None of those seem to grasp what this event was. Although I was incredibly tired from the 10 hour drive from Dallas to Albuquerque, we unloaded minimal items and I had to jump on track and see what it was all about. I followed Missy Waters (A No Coast Veteran) for the first few laps to get a feel for the layout, and then we were off!
Over the next couple hours we were drifting (with some breaks in between) and we were done for the day around 10:pm. We got to meet a lot of new people and reconnected with a few familiar faces. Our campsite at the track was in an awesome location with the Texas peeps. We called it our ‘shanty town’ because it was just a bunch of tents and all of our canopies. Some decorated with lights (that was the smartest thing to do as the track lights end up going out at a certain time).
Cruising into Friday night and things were pretty tame, people were setting up camp, Thaison (AE86) and Samantha made some of the best food all weekend, and not a lot of shenanigans happened Friday night. Photos above are of our groups set up (partially).
Dan Brockett held the drivers meeting that was at like noon and it was hot as balls out. It was the usual stuff, but on a bit more kicked back way of delivering the message of track etiquette.
Below I’ve put just all the weekends worth of drift pics of us. It’s hard to keep track of which day had what. Special Thanks to the photographers that make us look rad. Thanks to Christopher Ladd (@Yurei_Media on IG) and Eliza Kirberger (@mechanicalfeedback on IG)
^^My favorite photo of the weekend^^
Saturday night was something else. We stopped driving around 10:30ish, I think? I have been challenging people to drink offs as long as I’ve been doing car stuff. I can generally handle my liquor. But when I challenged Juan B (AE86) I didn’t know I would be such a pussy. Needless to say, I have no pictures from Saturday night, finishing driving so late, and making up for lost time catching up on drinking… I ended the evening sneaking away (I thought I was sly, I wasn’t) to my tent and the booze came back up, at 3:48am I get a text from Juan asking if I ‘quit’…the fact I didn’t get that until like noon the next day told him everything…smh.
Sunday morn/afternoon, I wake up and its basically my run group that’s about to go on track…definitely missed Sundays drivers meeting, I have to get my shit together. Two Advil, tons of water, and a little taste of food from Thiason and Samantha and I was back out on track…yes…still feeling the night before. Everything was under control and I was driving well, until another car had to be towed off track, and everyone on track had to stop for a few minutes. Longest few minutes of my life, I thought I was going to see vomit in my helmet and then made my way off track as well.
We did a Texas family photo on the track around sunset. And here are the photos from that;
Sunday night I think everybody pretty much took it easy, I was in my tent by like 9:pm to get some sleep for the 10 hour drive the following day back to Dallas.
Monday Morning ^^ Sunrise before the drive back. The 370 on drift spares.
Monday morning we had a quick breakfast with the gang and headed back!
I can’t thank Dan Brocket enough for holding this event. It was my first NoCoast, and it won’t be my last. It’s crazy that everyone pretty much policed each other, since he only has a few volunteers to put on the event. Good job everyone for not being idots… Well most of you.
MelissaDrifts.com 