As ZCON came to an end, the festivities close with a banquet. Everyone looks nice, they hand out some awards, and we all eat.
That last photo is how the ideas started for the new Z. Pretty neat stuff.
Tag Archives: 240sx
SkidZ Raceshop Drift Event @ZCON
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!
ZCON Tuesday
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:
No coast X
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).
Saturday morning, as everyone was waking up, still being in my tent, I could hear the drift cars starting and rolling by. I crept out of my tent, said a few good mornings and started cooking some bacon on my little Coleman portable grill. (lifesaver if your ever camping. 10/10 would recommend for track days and camping, link below). https://www.academy.com/shop/pdp/coleman%C2%AE-perfectflow%E2%84%A2-2-burner-propane-grill-stove#repChildCatid=25951
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)
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 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.
-Melissa
Lone Star Bash 2018
Lone Star Bash 2018 Video;
ZDAYZ 2015; Journey
This year ZDAYZ for us started in San Diego, stopped in Tucson AZ for Mothers Day to visit my mom, went off-roading in her new jeep, then off to Dallas.
West Texas is not for pussies. Going eastbound there was a series of potholes and raised ground… avoiding one patch of shitty road led us directly into another patch of even shittier road. We got a bit of air in the Z and then lost all tire pressure in the left rear tire. The Drag Wheel was perfect, not even a bend, just a tear in the sidewall.
In Fort Worth we stayed with a long time friend of mine John Gamble and his girlfriend, caught up on his recent move and crashed at his house. From there, the next morning we visited my Z32 that Mitch from EP Racing has rebuilt and was at Wireworks Performance for the tune, took some pictures to let people know the car still exists and it is still mine 😉 and headed out to Dallas where we met up with Billy, Vince and the guys ant Courtesy Nissan, grabbed lunch, and headed out to Birmingham, AL to stay with Todd and Nicole Weld.
Once in Birmingham Nicole and I stood in the grass for .5 minutes while we watched Chris Waters wash my Z when I got so many mosquito bites that my ankles formed kankles—tmi? nahhhh.
Leaving Birmingham with Chris, Todd, Nicole, and Amanda, our next stop… ZDAYZ.
ZDAYZ this year was a little bit mellower than years past, maybe i’m getting older, maybe everyone else is getting a little older, maybe a combination. The Z1 Deck party was still awesome as usual… got a little rowdy at midnight when a couple cars turned on in the parking lot and started rev’ing and shooting flames-thats how I knew I wasn’t in CA anymore…Freedom…’Murica… yah.
Chris Forsberg showed up with his rig of awesome. He brought his 240Z, NOS 370Z FD car, and the really mean M45 and took out the 370Z out for a little drifting in Fontana Village streets.
Photos by @Chris_Waters^^
Video of Forsberg Below by Killboy.com
SpecDrift @ Horse Thief Mile
At the start of this trip to Willow Springs I had a series of unfortunate events, which started turning around. Cruising up from San Diego to Lancaster I’m cruising up the 2-lane highway and hit a tire-which surprisingly keeps my front lip in one piece, but takes the paint off of it 😦 We make it to the hotel the day before the event, and everything was fine, wake up the next morning and I’ve got a flat tire… which means drift spares are going on…less tires to cruise on during the event! We start driving to Willow Springs from the hotel in Lancaster and there was a cop that was going the opposite way as me, noticed i was speeding a little bit (flat tire made me late for the event so I had to hurry!) and turned around to start following me on the freeway…. I managed to downshift and slow the car down enough so by the time he actually did get behind me and follow me for a few miles he realized I wasn’t going to do anything wrong and got back on the median and busted a U-turn…phewww!
Overall this event once we got there was a blast. Much more structured than the usual drift events I’d been in attendance to. I only had the tires at this point that I had rolled in on for the whole day of drift and to get me the 4+hour drive back to San Diego. Horse Thief is a much faster track than just your basic parking lot event or skid pad, so conserving tires was hard… Some straits I wouldn’t manji and I would just cruise, and other times I would go all out. At the end of the day, my last run I ended up hearing “THUD THUD THUD THUD” on the second to last corner…oops… i babied myself off track, took a razor blade I had in the car for times like these and cut off the excess tire tread, packed up the car, and went home. I basically closed my eyes, crossed my fingers and hoped that everything would be OK and I would make it home safe.
And I did… but it was sketchy.
Photo Cred. @Chris_Waters
ZDAYZ Oh My!
I have been sitting here for the past five minutes thinking about how to start talking about Zdayz when I came to the conclusion that there isn’t a series of words that can describe it. Its 24 hours of Z craziness every day. The days include Z chats and driving the Tail of the Dragon, pretty normal stuff. The nights… The nights are like a cocktail of bonfire craziness surrounded by everyone that has the same passions you have mixed with many shots of moonshine…many.
The pictures I have are kind of scattered. but take them in whatever order you’d like. They start with the drive there, getting there and all that is ZDAYZ, and the long rainy drive home.
Formula Drift Long Beach 2013
FormulaD Long Beach is always the season opener and sets the tone for the upcoming season. With a lot of changing sponsors coming and going, the show was just as awesome as usual with what i’m pretty sure was a sold out crowd.
I hope you Can smell the smoke through these pictures!
(Photo Creds; Chris Waters, Mark Sternberg, Melissa Miller)
Pictures By; Chris Waters, Michael Hill, and Melissa
MelissaDrifts.com 