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.
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.
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.
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
Generationz
Generationz
Generationz
Generationz
Video taken by Billy Buzbee
Man in video running and owner of supercharged 370Z; Josh Gains
MelissaDrifts.com 