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: 350z
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 Thursday
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.
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:
Club Loose Texas
📸 Jack Hsu
Motorsport Cups and Licence Plate frames!
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.
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
Social Distancing
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!
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)
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.
Just a ‘Smoke’ Break
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
Ten Week OverHaul
Saying we were going to change the complete paint job/livery AND install a GTM Supercharger and all that goes with it in less than 10 weeks was going to be extremely challenging. I wanted it to be ready to drift at the DriftKitchen event in Memphis. We all set goals, some are easier than others to obtain, I got laughed at when I set this one. All in all, we did it. We completed everything but the final color sand and buff on the car. I still cant Thank Chris Waters, Tom Sippel, Kristy Sippel, Daulton Cockerell, Russ Rana, Country-ass Jon, and Z1 Motorsports enough for getting this done!
The Drift Kitchen Event was really fun, smaller track, more technical than fast, and the girls were all super supportive of everyone else. There was even a little gift bag and snail mailed thank you for coming!
Thanks girls for getting this event together and making my ‘break in’ event so much fun!
Every time we go to Memphis we have to hang with our Memphis Z club friends. Really great group of people I’d like to think of as an extended family. Thank You Burch and Erin for letting us stay with you guys! Your house/Garage set up is inspiring!
Photos and Video taken by Melissa Miller and Chris Waters.
Drone footage in the beginning of video by Tom Sippel
MelissaDrifts.com 