| Just so you know, this post is HUGE. I hope I don’t cripple servers and detonate cable modems. If I do, I’m sorry. But I felt that this ZCON deserved a hell of a write up. Something along the lines of a SeedyROM/JaimeZX classic. So, get comfy, make a sandwhich…and dig in. Cliffnotes: Good Times By now, most of you have seen the main parts of the week that went on. The track day, the Stillen tour, the TT.net Banquet, the car show, etc. I was there for all of them, and they were all a lot of fun, but simply because they were shared with good people. But I am here to show you what went down outside the planned events! What the core tt.net crew did when we weren’t around cars (with some of the regular stuff mixed in). First, let me echo Seedy in that this year was more evident to me than ever that the event has become so much more than about the Z. Obviously we all share a love for it and that is what brought us together. But it’s the people that keep us coming back. As the title of my post indicated, a good majority of us did NOT have our Z’s with us at the event. And really the only time I missed my Z was at Willow Springs. I would have loved to have my car there for the track day. Actually, I also missed my Z every time I drove my rental car, but more on that later. Anyway, a damn good time was had by all, regardless of whether or not they had a Z to drive. So here is my breakdown: Sunday (ironically enough, I have no pics from that day)
We (YugoBernie, Junxster, and myself) arrived at LAX around 12:20 PM local time. We picked our bags up and met up with Boileralum who had arrived minutes before us. We then proceeded to the shuttle to pick up my rental car. As we we’re boarding the shuttle, Bernie realizes that he has left his helmet in the terminal. Great. So he takes of to go get that while we wait for the next shuttle. Luckily, he finds it where he left it. I say luckily because I wouldn’t have wanted to spend a week with him after he lost his helmet minutes after arriving. He gets cranky when he loses things. So we get on the shuttle and head over to Hertz to pick up my “Mazda 6 or equivalent”. I’m looking forward to a Mazda 6 as it’s somewhat sporty and has decent power. I end up with what Hertz calls “equivalent”. A Pontiac Vibe. Close cousin to the Toyota Matrix. Ok, it’s the same damn car, minus the body kit. 
We go locate it in the parking lot and shove 4 people’s luggage into 3 people’s luggage worth of space. We head out and ask the lot attendant for directions to Long Beach. “405 south to 710 south will take you straight to Long Beach!” We are on our way. We find our way pretty good. It wasn’t hard. We did take a short detour and ended up at the Queen Mary. That was intentional *cough* because I wanted to see where the TT.net dinner was being held. We get directions to our hotel from the lot attendant. Finally get to the Long Beach Hilton and check in. It’s a very nice hotel, complete with Mr. K’s yellow 240 parked in the lobby for the convention. Our room is nice, with a beautiful view of a blank wall of the building next door! We quickly find that the wireless internet connection offered by the hotel is shitty (none of the 4 of us could connect on our respective laptops) and decided $10/day/person was not worth it. Junxster, who happened to be sitting close to the window, finds a signal from a nearby office building. It’s weak and intermittent, but it would be all that we would have for the week (thus the lack of daily updates during the convention). Hungry, we go searching for food on foot. The weather is perfect! We quickly find Pine Ave, the main drag in Long Beach. Lots of restaurants and bars. We choose Johnny Rockets (50s style burger joint) and eat outside. After the waitress nearly dumps 4 glasses of water on me, we get our food. Damn good burgers. After lunch, we decide to take a different route back to the hotel. Good thing it was in the middle of the day. While it was not the deep ghetto, it was not exactly the most welcoming to the 3.5 white guys walking down the street. We make it back safely and Snoguitar and Playboy meet us in the room. We decided to try to hook up our own wireless network in the room using the signal Junxster was getting. That turns into a trip to Fry’s. An electronic mecca that we don’t have on the east coast. Getting there involved following Playboy in SoCal traffic. Let’s just say we are lucky to be alive. We get to Fry’s (Best Buy who?) and mill around for a couple hours while Junxster looks for his equipment. We get our shit and leave. Then we decide on the Yardhouse for dinner. Several locals and former locals had told us this was the place to go. Also, the NBA game was on and they had TVs, bonus. They have 120+ beers on tap. And they serve them by the yard (roughly 72 ounces) in a 3 foot tall glass, complete with its own stand, and by the half-yard (roughly 36 ounces). After an hour or so wait, we get our table and have dinner. Good food. Boileralum also discovers that an 18 inch tall glass is hard to drink from. He ended up wearing half of his beer :). This was also our first taste of the SoCal type of women. Holy shit. They are all hot and they are everywhere. Snoguitar (aka the Sniper) will prove this with pics. So we watched the Lakers lose (!!) and then headed back to the hotel to chill for the rest of the evening. Sorry that was so long, but I have few pics from that day, so I felt the need to be detailed. The rest will be shorter and sweeter :) Monday
Monday morning, we get up and go register for the convention. What a clusterfuck. Badly organized and hardly anyone could figure out what they were doing. Right after that, Atti2de gets into town and meets us at the hotel. We score some breakfast at the hotel ($$$) and convene back at the room to decide what to do for the day. 
West Cost Choppers is literally 5 minutes from the hotel, so we decide to head over there. We meet up with Rodel and his wife and Kuah in the garage. WCC was really cool and we saw some of the Monster Garage vehicles and other cool shit in the shop.
3 wheelin.
 He had this fish tank with two sharks and an ell in it…badass.
 
After WCC, we head over to Pine Ave to get some lunch and shoot the shit. John(Houston), his wife, HaloZ, Milo, and michaelkih all meet up with us for lunch at Taco Beach. 
When we parked, Atti2de’s meter would not accept change. So he improvised.
 The walk to taco beach…Reservoir Dogs style.
 
Quality periodicals available on the street in Long Beach
 Had to take this for obvious reasons.
 Inside Taco Beach…most of us pick up where we left off after 2k2. Fun ensues. 
Atti2de ponders the fish taco, while Snoguitar avoids being seen (he’s shy).
 Milo and HaloZ, roomies.
 
Ate lunch, then left. Then we stood on the street trying to decide what to do next.
More RD reenactments
 
Atti2de’s money was still there…sorta.
 I had no idea Jason300zx and Enlite were going to be there. But I got a pic of them.
 HaloZ got unruly so I locked him in the back of the Vibrator
 Back at the hotel, a local visitor shows up. It’s SeedyROM!
We chill for a little bit then decide to go to Rock Bottom for dinner. Junxster is so excited to see Seedy that he tries to hump him in the elevator.
 On the way, we discover the Japanese Z’s that have been shipped over.
 
We make it to Rock Bottom and snatch up a few tables outside, where kuah, rodel, and his wife are already ordering. More fun with Camera WARS!! (BTW< our waitress was smokin’ hot, and cool as hell). Snoguitar works on his over the phone mind control
 Guapo met up with us as well…and you can see colocomp on the far right of the pic.
 colocomp and Woody75 (on the right)
 Seedy happy that his pics of himself covered in oil and wearing a feather boa came out clear.
 Told you she was hot
 A call from the “Boss” (Damon, not Bruce).
 Poster in the bathroom
 After dinner, we decide to hit Hooters for some drinks and ‘asset’ watching.
Rodel and Seedy make a new friend on the way
 HaloZ showing Seedy how he wants to lick him up and down
 Milo, Kuah, and Rodel share a Texas Joke.
 Me and Snoguitar agreeing that the joke was not funny.
 Seedy’s opinion of camera wars thus far
 Junxster and Atti2de starring at ‘assets’ without genic’s name on them
 HaloZ driving Milo, Junxster, and Seedy back to the hotel….at 5mph.
 Tuesday
In the hotel lobby waiting for the busses to arrive for the Stillen tour.
 
On the bus that was 60 years old…
 
michaelkih (aha the narcoleptic) and HaloZ volunteers a finger.
 
I will reiterate how awesome a guy that Steve Millen is. VERY friendly and personable.
 Junxster and YugoBernie riveted.
 colocomp and Woody75 ponder steeling the 75 car.
 damn kids
 
HaloZ asks Steve if he likes Nine Inch Nails
 
Despite their size, the wheels and tires from the 75 car are as light if not lighter than a stock Z32 wheel and tire.
 
On the way back to the hotel, we see this. I quickly learned that they will put wheels on ANYTHING out in SoCal.
We get back to the hotel and Mr. K is just getting back from pumping a little iron and scoping hotties at Venice Beach.
 Hanging out before the ACON welcoming ‘dinner’, we meet up with Dave N. Bernie shows him the pictures of pretty birds and flowers that he had taken during the day.
 HaloZ sees Bonnie for the first time this convention…
 at the ‘dinner’ camera wars continued…
 
“Mom, they're being mean to me!”
 ….
 
Mr. K doing his best Daniel Boone impersonation.
 EEEEK!
 [sarcasm]The speakers were riveting [/sarcasm]
 
After the ‘dinner’ some of went out to Dromo1 to get in a little practice for the TT.net event on Friday :)
Wednesday
Today started out at Denny’s. It was cheaper and you got more food than the hotel place.
Boileralum needs his coffee to wake up.
 
We really didn’t do much else on Wednesday. We had planned on going to the beach, but the weather was shitty (for once) so we decided not to. What ended up happening was another adventure to Fry’s and its God forsaken parking lot. After that, we met back at the hotel room and the amount of people in the room slowly grew. I believe our room number got posted on tt.net and people started showing up. After a run to the liquor store, it was a mini-party. We had dinner plans at PF Changs with Damon. But he bailed at the last second (understandably so, as he had a lot of shit going on). Anyway, we had late reservations, so we partied in the room for a while.
 Redd300ZX(SoCal) watching office space
 
Shiner flowed freely.
 Ghoztt (aka richk, aka Rich@SPL) and Marshall take part
 
Walking to PF Changs
 KILLER300ZX joins us and gives us his best scream face.
 More camera wars at dinner….Seedy loses again :)
 YugoBernie holds his audience hostage…er, I mean tells another story.
 Walking back, RD style again
 Narco
 We ended up chilling in the hotel lobby lounge for a couple hours.
 
Snoguitar hitting the Guiness
Thursday: Track Day
We got up relatively early to head out to Willow springs to watch the track event. We all met up at Denny’s and HaloZ followed me following Guapo. The scenery on the way up into the mountains and desert was awesome. The Vibrator sucked going uphill carrying 4 guys though. Actually, the Vibrator just sucked period. Anyway, Bernie got some pics of the scenery, I was busy trying to squeeze more power out of the Vibrator.
We arrive at the track and the weather is 94 degrees, but barely any humidity and no clouds. Beautiful! 
The Guapinator
 
We found loud mouth, err, I mean SactoTodd and hung with him for a while :) AbnormallyAspirated stands by on the left.
 Drift demonstration put on by one of the Japanese D1 drivers
 
The nixit mobile
 I got a ride in Scott’s94Z32
 
The TT.net dinner was also that night on the Queen Mary. A good time was had by all!
 
Nixit and Greg(Dallas) discuss what to do while Bernie is bent over the table.
 300degree display
 Damon and Seedy work on getting the projector up and running.
 Mad Mike tells everyone how much he adores the Z32 and that it is by far the best Z ever created!
 Tetsu shares a few kind thoughts with all of us.
 The gift to Damon and Greg that the Japanese brought over.
 Nixit gives out the “Carbon Fiber Car of the year award.”
 Scott shows us the winning smile
Friday
We got up a little late as we were up late the night before with the tt.net dinner and after party and stuff. Headed off to Super Autobacs to check it out before hitting Dromo1 for some karting. Autobacs was awesome. There really is something to be said for being able to handle/feel/test/compare parts in person instead of looking at pics online. Everyone bought something (some more than others) and then we headed off to Dromo1. What a fun time. Racing head to head with other Z enthusiasts! It doesn’t get much better than that!
The bitches…I mean, the Rich’s
 Alex Lee and Snoguitar fight over who will get to polish nixit’s knob.
 
Anyone recognize this Z?
 
Saturday
Car show day, then off to Fontana for the REAL show :)
Don’t see too many of these
 
After she gave me the tattoo, she whispered in my ear “Who is that crazy guy with the camera who is stalking me to take pics next to his red car? He is SO annoying!”
 Me and SactoTodd showing off our new ink.
 *sigh*
 We leave the show and head to California Speedway in Fontana. We see this beauty in the parking lot.
 
The Lotus camp
 The one we came to see (note the coincidental file number)
 
Back in the garage after one lap :(
 
The best part was that we had FULL access to all the garages. Steve was once again gracious enough to come and chat with us. I have most of that on video ;-) This day was definitely one of my favorites, hands down. Completely non-convention related, but spending time with good friends (tt.netters) while admiring all the cars and history and common interest was just about perfect. Also, watching nixit fold himself into a Lotus Elise was quite entertaining as well :) After leaving the track, we head back to the hotel to get ready for the closing dinner. I have no more pics since my camera ran out of memory and my laptop was dead so I could not dump them. Anyway, the dinner was a blast, we were once again the “rowdy table”. Sunday Packed our shit, made one last trip to Fry’s, dropped Rich off at his hotel, dropped off the Vibrator, and flew home….exhausted, but full of new memories. I’ll have a conclusion on the whole week in another post; I am too damn tired to write it out now.
Later,
Spencer
AIM: sbsTT14 PETZ member #4 '91 300ZX TT Stage IV+
'96 Jeep Cherokee Sport
    
Sorry if Im just too damn smart for this forum sometimes. Ill try to dumb myself down to the level of "Spee and Nixit"- Stealth021 03/16/04 18:57:51JAMChitlen (8:01:35 PM): I vote to ban anyone who uses "hot" to describe anything other than a chick
sbsTT14 (8:01:48 PM): 2nd "gotta admit, i do like sac." - Chris(NJ) 15:28:40 05/16/03 "Welcome, and I'd listen to Spee" - BigTDogg (MA) 18:21:41 02/17/04 |
Z(less)CON, as I saw it. (LOOOONG) (T1, cable modem…lol) - 
The message posted by Carlo$-91NA-2+2-5$p on 08:58:14 06/23/04 was removed by the members on 11:36:33 06/23/04
