| What an amazing week. I arrived on Saturday with my wife, and bummed around SoCal - eating fish tacos and taking in the sights. The weather was a bit overcast and rather meh. It actually rained. I asked for a refund, but got nothing from the front desk. Tuesday was the official opening day to the week and I got up around 9am or so to pick up the San Antonio crew from the SD airport. They arrived in one piece and we immediately went to Hash House A Go-Go for lunch. The food and servings were giant and absolutely insane. After that we returned to the hotel and met up with various other tt.net folk for a bit before going to the opening ceremony. We were able to get some time with Yama-san & I tried to introduce him to as many of the tt.net faithful as possible. The opening ceremonies were a bit haphazard, but they went well enough. As I recall, that night probably ended with some drinking well into the night. On Wednesday, both Damon & Bernie arrive around the same time at the SD Airport. This quickly turned into lunch with the Japanese folks from Ultimate Z, which was at Slaters 50-50 This was pretty good, but we kindof slammed them with our party of 16... It all worked out in the end. That was followed up by a visit to JWT. Jim, Mike Smith & the otheres were awesome hosts and took a whole lot of time out of their day to entertain a bunch of Z32 gear heads. They were Dyno tuning the MotoIQ Proejct 240SX Land Speed Racer whice was absolutely amazing! Jim spoke at length about injectors, 370z head design, 3-d printing and all the other technologies that make JWT the powerhouse for OEM and aftermarket tuning they are. Absolutely incredible hosts. For dinner, Melissa Miller (aka melissadrifts.com coordinated a group dinner at the Brigantine Seafood & Oyster Bar, right around the corner from the hotel. It was great meal with many laughs, drinks and serious discussion of the Z32. The evening was ended with drinking shiner in the courtyard until the wee hours of the morning. (this basically applies to every night - it was a great party!) Thursday was the ZCCA Judged Car Show, which kept me occupied most of the day. I judged some cars in the Street Modified class, including some tt.net members. What a great collection of cars & congrats to all of the winners. There were some great examples out there. It was also the unveiling of the Z Sport Wagon (sorry, no link handy) and Katz's 432. This was the first 432 I had ever seen - but the first time I saw it was in Japan. Upon seeing it at Grand Drive, Katz invited me to jump in the passenger seat and we hit the track in it! What ana amazing car, and thanks to Katz for bringing it to the USA. Such a rare creature to ever see in Japan, much less on these shores. We're literally talking a $100k+ collectors car. After the show was the unofficial Twinturbo.net dinner, which quickly turned into a massive family reunion. Greg Dupree, Dave N, Greg (Denver), Kyle and so many others were in town that it was just an amazing get together. Around 10PM Yama-san showed up and the level of excitement was tangible. He was amazed to see so many Z32 owners together, and many thank you's and expressions of graditute for his designs were given. These cars have touched the lives of so many people, and its so great for them to finally have a person to associate with its design and development! YAMA-SAN is the MAN! Believe it or not, this dinner went until 11 or so, and was followed by drinking more beer in the courtyard. I believe this was about the time that Yama-san started joining us for fire-side chats. We were trying to help him get acclimated to the jet-lag by staying up late into the night. Friday was a pretty lazy day, as I recall it was mostly hanging around and eating fish tacos... Oh yeah, and a tour of Nissan Design America! The Japanese guests from Ultimate Z, along with many of the tt.net crew were able to get in to this limited tour. We heard presentations on vehicle design technology, materials and paint, as well as the vehicle design process lead by Randy Rodriguez (370z Designer). Bernie & I were able to grab Yama-san for the whole tour, who gave us cool insights into his design process as well. It was a great tour. For dinner, all of the "Mad Mike Japan Trip" alumni, as well as those going this year - joined the Japanese contingent, as well as Matsuo-san & Yama-san at the Corvette Diner. A good time was had by all, and as a final gift to Tetsu, I presented him with a massive cowboy boot Piñata. We have no idea how he'll get it back to Japan, but I'm sure he will. This evening was ended with (you guessed it) drinking in the courtyard with Yama-san and other tt.net members. Its hard to recall when we finished, but it was well after midnight. Saturday was the Peoples Choice car show. It was incredibly well attended and there was a great showing from 510's, a few Fairlady Roadsters, and all generations of Z's. Our own Woody won Yama-san's Z32 best of show, which must be ana amzing honor! Of all the Z32's in attendance, his was judged the best by Yama-san. Afterwards was the closing ceremony, where I had the opportunity to introduce Yama-san and we were audience to his awesome presentation on the development of the Z32. There were a few times where he asked me to explain a few concepts to the audience, which was a great honor. After his presentation he jumped down from the stage and gave me a big hug - which was just awesome. He really had a great time and I think enjoeyed being a TwinTurbo.net rock star! I'll be working with him over the next few weeks to get the presentation content published so that everyone can enjoy the information he gave the group at ZCON. Perhaps we'll put it on slideshare or something like that. The closing ceremony overall lasted FOREVER - going from 630 until 1130 PM. It was great, but a little long in the tooth - live auctions, car show awards, etc, etc etc. You may find it hard to believe, but this evening was concluded with drinking around the pool and then a move to the courtyard. Yama-san brought a bottle of wine and someone finally found a corkscrew. We drank well into the night, and I finally retired around 3AM. They were still going strong even then. Goodbyes were hard, with big hugs from Yama-san for Bernie, Damon and I. The Ultimate Z Club partied with us well into the night and our standard parting words are "See you soon", we don't do goodbyes.
Anyways, I'm writing this from the plane after taking a nap on the way back home. I'm sure others will fill in with pictures and stories as well. It was an incredible time and certainly a ZCon to remember. After all, its the cars that brought us here, but its for the people that we stay.
Zya in Memphis for ZCon 2015! ac
1993 Ultra Red Z32 TT Convertible
2011 Electric Blue D40
1997 Cobalt Green S14 (project fun 2.0) The Z Car Club of Northern Virginia
"boobies have power" - Bernie(NoVA) |
