Created:
7/20/2001
Last updated: 7/20/2001
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Well Folks, this has to be one of if not the most exciting Club Z events of the year. Three days of Club Z fanatics hanging out, talking cars, and seeing other Z cars. We had a large turnout this year: Amir A, Bruce C, Benson C, Paul C, Adrienne C, Nicole D, Sarah F, Ray G, Jeff, Steven H, Joe K, Dale M, Kevin N, Glenn N, Bright S, Paul S, Roy T, Mike W, Andy W, Robert and son, and Mike. I apologize if I failed to mention anyone else.
As usual, we met down in the San Jose area at our usual meeting spot-- in front of Albertsons and Starbucks off Blossom hill and Santa Teresa. First to show up was Kevin, Mike, Benson and myself at around 6:30 AM. One by one, members began to show up. Of course, the organizers, Andy, Amir, and Mike, didn't show up until 8:00 AM which was the scheduled time to leave for LA. It must be nice to have everyone meet in your neck of the woods. Guys, when we organize an UZW, guess where the meeting place will be? Radio checks were performed, and several members were without Tekk radios, so Dale loaned me his extra Tekk radio. Benson and myself attempted to coordinate communications between the Tekk radio users and the Motorola Talkabout users.
With everyone accounted for and all cars fully fueled, we hit the road. I don't have to mention how awesome it is to see this many Zs in one place and traveling together in a caravan down the interstate. Unfortunately, due to injector harness problems, Dale had to return home to diagnose the problem and repair it. He would meet us later in LA at Motorex. While driving, Paul, Mike, and Andy swapped lead positions and good ol' Amir brought up the rear to make sure that everyone knew where to go. Thanks for your patience Amir. We all know that you have one of the faster cars and you deserve to be in the front of the pack. An abundance of radio chatter from jokes to stories kept everyone alert and on their toes. Hmm.... my radio ran low on batteries and some people seem to think that resulted from a lot of chatter coming from my car. That is what happens when you coordinate communications between the two different types of radios =). Of course, everyone had digital cameras and video cameras ready so there is definitely an abundance of photos and video footage.
Our first stop was to get gas. Something about so many Zs in one gas station--netted us a lot of attention. That alone was worth the trip. One item worth noting though... There were two rice rockets in the gas station, a Ford Focus with a spoiler larger than Amirs, and a stickered out Honda Civic. As if that wasn't bad enough, the Ford Focus driver decided to light up a cigarette while he was parked at the island. Needless to say, I told several members and we high tailed it out of there.
After refueling, we roared down the 5 for a little longer and found out that one of the members was low on gas. Note to selves, make sure to fill up before we all leave together and get gas at the same time as others. We stopped off for gas again and then proceeded to have lunch at a local restaurant. This allowed us the opportunity to introduce ourselves, talk about our cars and current modifications, and introduce new members to everyone else.
Can
we say Beer?
Bloody Marys? Coronas? No, just a cool pic. We slurped down non alcoholic drinks since we had to drive..
Sarah, Andy, Mike,
Joe, and Benson.
Mike, Amir,
Bruce, Bright, and Paul.
Sarah, Paul, Adrienne,
Nicole, Kevin, Mike, Jeff, ?, and ?.
We finally arrived at Motorex in Gardena. This my friends, is heaven... at least for car nuts like me. This, is home of the sole importers of Nissan Skylines. If you don't know what a Skyline is, do some research. This car is a marvel of technology, a 2.6 liter inline 6, twin turbos (some ceramic), all wheel drive, four wheel steering, traction control, ATTESSA, SUPER HICAS, NVICS, etc. This bad boy has 280 manufacturer claimed horsepower which seems farily conservative, and... it is a 2+2. This is definitely my next car. We were greeted by Justin Sykes, one of the sales people there. He showed us the grand tour of the facility. They had several Skylines in the shop and also had a left-hand drive conversion GT-R parked in the corner. They also export American cars back to Japan. As stated before, they are the sole importer of skylines and they performed all of the EPA certifications including crash testing, smog, lights, and other certifications. As they are the only ones that have that information, they are the sole importer of Skylilnes to the US. Pictures speak a thousand words.. so here they are:
Mike M. paid us a brief visit to see Motorex also. As some of you may know, he used to live in San Francisco but moved back down to LA. He just had to show us his new AP 6 piston big brake kit that he just installed. At least we know that he is still part of our club. Mike... we are nicer than people in other clubs, j/k. Mike W had also broken off from our caravan earlier in the day to pick up his friend from LAX. He met us at Motorex as did Dale. He finally made it. Dale said that he is having problems with the injector harness possibly and he will replace it when he gets home. After we bid adios to Justin, we went to our hotel, the Howard Johnson hotel. We had a chance to get our rooms, move personal effects into our rooms, and kick it a while before dinner. After dinner, we sat around the pool and chatted for a bit before hitting the sack. We had to wake up and leave for the dyno session at R&D Dyno Services.
