Rowans Trip to Houston

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With my job I luckily get to travel quite a bit, especially for someone my age. Typically my business trips are rather uneventfull, being stuck in motels and working 12 hour days.. fun fun fun.. But my last trip was different, for I knew I was going to Dallas, and I knew people in Dallas, good people, Z people :-)
Dallas is the home of "DamonZ", the kind gentlemen who devotes a fair chunk of his time running www.twinturbo.net - an online forum for 300ZX Owners. I have been on this forum for over a year now and have gotten to know some of the characters (all interesting, be it good, bad.. or baaaad).

Uh hello

Sunday Morning arrived much to my body's disgust (Jet lag is not fun) and knowing that Damon would be arriving in a couple of hours I dragged myself out of bed and got packing. Making a mental note not to stay in the Preston Suites motel again (roach rating). Damon arrives and I finally get to shake hands with the dude, and meet his lovely Girlfriend Tracy. We pack up and ship out for Houston. So many hundred miles later we arrive, after enjoying Southpark sing alongs, and good ole educational experience on country vs country things. (You mean you have Wendy's in New Zealand!) (You don't have Dr Peppers!) (You don't have snakes!).

Bow down and pay homage

Well we arrive and pull up into the parking lot, at first I was disappointed, I thought it would've been bigger, but as they say quality not quantity - in the parking lot, Z's, Z's and more Z's (plus a slick RX-7 - and dare I say in a riced out Integra). Kyle comes out to greet me.. finally.. meet these dudes. And theres Fred, and theres Mark. Littered around the parking lot were various high HP Z's. I couldn't believe it, even the #001 SR71 that was featured in Sports Car International.



So we all get to talking about things, I was completely jet lagged so really quiet. Plus the heat was incredible.. Tracy had the right idea and spent most of the time in the Cherokee with the a/c on. I couldn't believe that everyone was in Jeans! I was just about ready to expire.. After marvelling at all the cars and talking some I took a "few" pictures.


f*?#g finger prints (see Kyle, they don't come out on photos!). This is Freds engine bay and was the center of many discussions - I feel for the dudes there, they worked their asses of to get it ready for the weekend and it still wasn't right. Although it sounded great and was very very very professionally done. Damn I wished that SGP were in NZ!

Some pics of Kyles / SGP Racing's seriously quick Z



Clockwise from top left:
The engine bay is astounding, heaps of polised pipes. The things that you can't see that makes it all happen are the Greddy TD05-16G Turbos.
Stillen guage console with 3 HKS Guages to tell you what the engine is doing.
From the back, showing rollcage and the Nitrous Oxide bottle in the boot (trunk?)
Momo Course race seat to hold you in place.

The Ride
Okay so I have to get a ride in Kyles monster. To whet my appetite, I was sitting in the drivers (race) seat and Kyle got me to start it up - oh boy.. a Z with a lumpy idle! The idle was gently rocking up and down, the exhaust had a seriously healthy bark to it, courtesy of the 3" B&B triflow system :-). Then Kyle starts fiddling with the Apexi Super AFC demonstrating to Damon how it worked, everybody was of the same opinion that it was a seriously cool gadget and how much did it cost!
So after a bit of milling around and talking everyone decides to pack up and head for Pappasitos. So we're onto the motorway and my first impressions are a) it's noisy (wastegate was rattling against something) b)the suspension is stiff (front tires were still at 40psi) c) when was Kyle going to plant boot???
Well he answered my question shortly thereafter and gave it some welly from approx 50-60mph upto some speed.. pulling up along the inside of Damon in his Cherokee. Well Damon being a clever lad decided to take a picture, but in order to take the picture he had to take both hands off the wheel.... We're passing up on the inside of him and suddenly this Jeep starts getting closer.. and closer.. and closer.. Luckily we avoided a major incident by the actions of a quick thinking Tracy! At least the photo he took was good:



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