Tag Archives: 350z

Uncategorized

I started this page before Social Media, So here are some updates:

Leave a comment

I started this page before Instagram, Facebook was still relatively new to the general public, and Myspace was on its way out. Its crazy to think about that. I keep the page around so new people when they google MelissaDrifts, they find me here and it shows the longevity that I’ve been in this. But with Youtube, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook…etc, its a literal full time job to keep up with everything and find the balance of just ‘being’.

So much has been going on over the past 11 months since I posted an update here last. One of the biggest things I’m so proud of, is the growth of the Ladies Drift Day events/clinics. Not just the ones we were putting on in Colorado, but across the US, the ladies in the drift community are really pushing to make things so inclusive and expand.

I started a little bodyshop this past year, learning the balance of trying to make it to events, getting jobs in, working on them to make money, trying to take care of people while still keeping my lights on at the shop with raising rent has been a challenge!

Updates on the cars:

Tesla: with nearly one year of ownership, I will say-done buy one if you don’t have an at home charger. Buying the at home charger was a game changer. For the first few months I was always at Superchargers for like 30 minutes every couple days. while it was nice to have ‘alone’ time and watch some Netflix, It definitely was more convenient to just throw the car on the home charger overnight and have a ‘full tank’ in the morning.

350Z: we did a little shakedown at CAMS in Oklahoma, I noticed the car was getting hot after a few runs, I would even drive it around and it would take a considerable amount of time to get it cooler again. Thinking it could be the thermostat, we replaced that, then took the car to USAIR, it was like 35 degrees, and on my second lap-i got hot again. Long story short, we now ordered fan motors and will be replacing those this weekend. *fingers crossed*. To see the CAMS shakedown day see video below

370Z: Chris hit a wall of tires with the back end at CAMS, I plastic welded and bodyworked it back together-because Nismo bumpers are expensive! He took it to USAIR and just killed it, unlimited laps all day on one pair of rear tires-crazyyy. See the Video below for the USAIR experience we had.

300zx: I started a build video series on YouTube. I’m going with the Twin rear Widebody and ’99 front. The reason I’m not going Twinz on the front is because they don’t sell the kit separate. You can buy the rear-which I did, but I didn’t realize you couldn’t buy the front separate. I couldn’t afford the complete kit at once, so I figured I would piece it together. Don’t do what I did. I’m sure it will still look awesome, but I really wanted to be wide all the way around but I didn’t want to have to re buy the rear to have the full kit. Below is the first video in the series-give it a watch if you want to see the rebirth of the Z32.

Thanks for reading, please subscribe on Youtube. I appreciate yall.

ZCON

SkidZ Raceshop Drift Event @ZCON

Leave a comment

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

    ZCON Thursday

    Leave a comment

    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.

    📸 Momentum Media
    ZCON

    ZCON Tuesday

    Leave a comment

    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:

    Link To Nissan Z Reveal

    Photos by Momentum Media
    Uncategorized

    Motorsport Cups and Licence Plate frames!

    Leave a comment

    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.

    350z, 370z, Drifting

    No coast X

    Leave a comment

    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)

    ^^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.

    -Melissa

    350z, 370z, car shows, Drifting

    Social Distancing

    Leave a comment

    During Covid Quarantine it was super important to keep busy. Trying to take on some work at the house to keep myself creative, obtained a puppy, went to ‘the drift spot’ in Dallas, and did a little road trip.

    Meet Shiro (She-row). She is a Great Pyrenees who’s named after the ‘Shiro edition’ 300zx (Z31 chassis). Shiro also means ‘white’ which is fitting!

    My friends Craig and Kimberly have a Great Pyrenees who ran away for a couple days and got knocked up by another Great Pyrenees and had 9 puppies. (Craig restores older Z cars under the name Simtec Motorsports; IG @simtecmotorsports). When I brought Shiro home that day, my neighbor saw her and they went to go pick up Shiros sister… now the sisters get to grow up together!

    img_1121

    The first order of work at the house was to complete brakes, hard wiring in a dash cam and radar detector on our friend Zahids GTR.

    While we had it, Zahid started thinking about making the car his, and doing some customizing to it to make it pop. We started with new Nismo orange lugs and powder coating the wheels gold.

    This looked great, but we needed something that really makes it stand out. I prefer to draw out ideas than build them on the computer… (I know the computer way is better and more accurate, but I really enjoy using my hands to draw it out!) So to the drawing board I went! I drew out three different ideas for graphics and texted Zahid to see what direction he wanted to go. (pictured below is the office, taking a break from the vinyl and looking at new couches)

    img_0436

    The final design reflected the Fast and Furious GTR, but with a little twist. Matte black vinyl over a sliver of gold to match the wheels. It came out really nice!

    Some fun still had to be had out of the house and in my Z, so we went to the drift spot and showed Hayley (Silver GTR pictured below IG @stig_gtr) what that spot was all about! It was a freaking blast, it always is.

    The 370Z also got a make over during this ‘down’ time. We had been sitting on a full new style nismo kit for it, a Seibon carbon fiber hood, sweet wing, and some little side skirt inserts.

    Car cruises still existed during this time, and in my opinion that was the best part of social distancing! Thanks to Maly and George for getting a few sweet shots out there! (George IG @_alphalyfe)

    Ending ‘Quarantine’ we took the dogs to San diego, and Tucson, visited family and made a planter for some herbs! Very productive.

    350z, 370z, Drifting

    Just a ‘Smoke’ Break

    Leave a comment

    Everyone is entitled to a 10 minute break/Smoke break. My buddy Josh at work and I decided to take the term ‘Smoke Break’ into another form…a bit healthier.

    Both of us are Supercharged now, we initially came out to take photos of our cars, but then I sweet talked him into letting me do some fancy driving around his car…took more coaxing than you would think!

    Thanks Josh!

     

    -Melissa Miller

    Video taken by Billy Buzbee

    Man in video running and owner of supercharged 370Z; Josh Gains