Just returning from the five day Z party and wondering if anyone has started a thread yet? Had a total blast. Drank a lot of rum. Did some seriously fun things and met a WHOLE BUNCH of people. Three gold medallions - a 300ZX twin turbo, a 450 mile original 280ZX anniversary edition and a modified 240 that you had to wear sunglasses to look at. Top score was 297 and the low was a 291 ? I think. Ed took honors with his car.

A bunch of us did the poker run in the rental car and got lost, but we did manage to find three junk yards, five z-cars and a running car for sale that had a vinyl top kit on it. Track day at Watkins Glen was a cool concept of combining it with professional driving instruction. I checked out Steve Millen and Bob Bondurant. "gnosez" gave me a couple of laps in the club car - thanks John. Two vintage Bob Sharp cars were there.

Both Mr. and Mrs. K went for hot laps in a 350Z with Bob Bodurant driving, I think? We slapped a Toyo Tire sticker on the windshield of the rental car and did three rather quick "warm laps" as part of the track tour group. I got a chance to chat with Mr. K for a bit and we exchanged gifts. The NISMO guys brought a 2006 350Z track edition to show us and we got to see the new ad campaign that will hit Monday Night Football this fall.

Next convention is in Dallas, June 1, 2006 and the 2007 convention is in Florida some time in October. My artsy - fartsy pictures will be up soon. I see that the overhead group shot posed from the track day event has not hit this site and I want to ask that it not be posted. Technically, Nissan owns that photograph and has copyright to it. I was up there with the Nissan film crew and was asked...kind of after the fact. It was a great time. Came home with a ton of stuff. Great to see everyone. And as I said, I drank a gallon of rum!

Man, I am soo jealous! Judging from all the pictures, this was one of the best events yet. And, I see that Mr. K made it again! I thought his last show was last year. What a plus!!!

I moved this message to the front page news forum because we've got to hear more from other people about their experience as well.

And post more picts!! We are all enjoying them! (especially me!!) Thanks again for starting the thread 26thZ.

Oh, and if anyone wants to see picts of the convention, you can click on the following link:

http://www.classiczcars.com/photopost/showgallery.php?cat=3227

-- Mike

A lot of fun it was! Being my first convention I was a little lost. But the organizers did an outstanding job. From the Hotel, to the convention and the awesome ride to Watkins Glen. They didn't miss a beat, my hat goes off to you guys. Good Job!

The convention was great, got to meet lot's of enthusiasts, Mr. K and some of our Zcar club members. It was a long day for me, I dropped my car off the night before since she was going to be inside for the judging. The next day I arrived at 8 am and started polishing and cleaning. I must say I don't know what motivates people to clean for so long. We had until 11:30 to get our cars ready before judging started but I think I spent most of my time walking around and drooling over all the cars. I particularly liked the unrestored original 240's. They are kind of like virgins, being unmolested. They say a lot about how these cars were built and I for one tried to keep as much as I could original on my car.

At around 4 pm news came around that the "Gold Cup or Medallion (still confused about what is which)" eligables were going to meet outside for the rejudging. All cars with a blue sticker on the window scored over 280 points and were candidates. Hmmm, I was wondering what that blue sticker on MY windshield meant.

Outside we went, all 23 of us. there were 4 240Z's, 1 260Z, and 2 280Z's. The rest were ZX's, 300's and 350's.

Results would be announced at the banquet on Friday.

Thursday was Watkins Glen day. And that was a blast. I opted to do the "warm laps". After a few briefings and signing a few waiver forms we got in line. "Stay in a single file, were going to do around 55 mph and most importatant be safe." Was the announcement to all drivers. As the line started moving to the track I reached down and snugged up my seat belt. Closely following the car in front of me. The car in front of me turned right onto the track. There was a large baracade blocking my view so I didn't actually see it going onto the track. When I turned around the baracade much to my surprise the car that was right in front of me had already disappeared. She was 1/4 mile down the track already! Let's go! I said. 55 mph my butt! We screamed around the track, hitting speeds close to 90 mph on the back straight. Then testing the new 4 piston Toyota clipers as I would slam on the brakes before a turn. What a rush. Not a bad way to "break-in" my "new" car.

Just uploaded a dozen pictures or so. I'll add some more comments.

The indoor car show was in a mall that an auto dealer bought and turned into an "auto mall" for 10 different dealership showrooms, "Driver's Village". www.driversvillage.com The inside "streets" were lined with automotive oriented vender stores and the car show filled the central plaza and the two "wings" down to the Nissan dealership, Roger Burdick Nissan. The outdoor part of the show was at this end, just outside the Nissan dealer. NISMO brought the new 2006 350Z track edition and a red 350Z convertable was on the mall turntable just inside the entrance. What can be said about the caliber of the show when about a third of the judged entries score over a 280? Wow! I toured the outdoor people's choice show and I would have muscled a few of those owners into the judged show if I had had the chance. I can't go on enough about the quality of the cars at this show. I think about 160 entries plus the fire truck plus the vintage race cars plus vendors made for a great show.

The track tour DID go pretty fast, didn't it Ed? We had a blast and by the third lap, we were going through the esses on the ripple strips in the Galant rental car.

Here are a couple of pictures of souvenirs I came home with. I took two of the posters with me to get Steve Millen to sign and bought two already signed from a guy in the Ohio club. The Z Day 2005 poster was a free-bee. The pen was a gift from Mr. K.

I'm one of the guys doing the convention in Florida in 2007. The way this works is that the ZCCA accepts proposals and selects a convention site two years in advance, but the plans aren't announced until the previous year's convention is over. This year we will focus on Dallas / Ft. Worth in 2006. Here is the front and back of the brochure for 2006.

Start making your plans now. I'm going to bring Her Majesty. I consider the Texas clubs to be Z-car home turf and this one ought to be way too much fun. Syracuse was my second convention, I did Long Beach last year, and I'll tell ya. This is five days of total Z-car immersion and wet-your-pants fun.

hey all, thanks for all the compliments-i can now see that it was worth the past 2 years work, all the weekends and hours stuffed into my regular workday [as well as all the other exec committee and all our volunteers] to make this happen. joe r, pete p, dave w and cygnus [i was trying to match screen names to real names & faces but didn't get them all, sorry], great to meet you all in person finally. sunday morning i had a real hard time draggin my butt out of bed-can't say i've been this tired in a looooooooooooooong time! weitz, hope the ls1 ran trouble free on the way home-thanks for the sneak preview drive for my own conversion! rags, glad the diff worked out and thanks for the help getting mine back on the road-funny, without the sc belt on i had some power-the boost gauge registered a max of -1psi [yes, neg 1]. made it home under it's own power. the worst part of the convention for me was not having any time to relax and hang. there were so many cars i wanted to see, take pics of, ask questions about, ride in or even drive, even more people i wanted to talk to. i guess it comes with being part of the host team. big thanks to dan baldwin for loaning me his crank pulley so i could get my z back home under power! running at wgi with the likes of mr. k, steve millen, bob bondurant as well as all the z cars was [as they advertised in the 80's] AWESOME! one of the best parts was when bondurant asked me if there were any changes to wgi since he was there last, he actually wanted me to give him a [verbal] run around the track! we had great success from our sponsors donations as well as the checks they wrote to support the event. for those of u who may not know, the track budget alone was over...$15,000! there were [from those i was able to briefly glimpse] some absolutely fantastic z cars there, i can't imagine the time it takes to prep a gold medallion or cup car, but they were there!

for those of u who didn't get to order your photo cd's [they are a lo res photo cd that u can use to order prints from-we put together a special deal for discounted prints] here's the link [btw-our photographers-steve rossini & ange lussuso are friends of mine, how have documented car & driver's one lap of america for the past 2 years;

http://www.highlanddesignstudio.com/order/products05Zcon.html#Anchor-NEW-35882

and we were able to have a videographer there as well, here's his info-call him directly for purchase of the dvd's he's putting together; [left field house productions] eric luhowey at 208.412.4884 or LFH-productions@cableone.net

[i'm sure it will take a bit before he has all 5 days worth of vid edited].

thank you to everyone who attended, without you all it would NOT have been possible!

sincerely,

david palermo

president, z car club of rochester [www.zccr.net]

zcon 2005 sponsor chair and motorsports co-chair

1tuffz car, parked and awaiting it's new ls1 heart-trusty old supercharged heart now for sale!

ed, the thumbnail on the right [coming down the front straight you're following my wife driving our "family z", silver 83 280zx turbo 2+2! can u email me that image please! thanks!

david

I was supposed to go! Had other important commitments tho.There were a whole bunch of people from my club (ZACO). The guy with the modified 240Z is a guy from my club. That car gets a 1st and Best of Show everywhere it goes :devious: But I dunno if I would have gotten on the track. My car takes a couple miles (so to speak) to get to to 100MPH. :eek:

As I decompress and look at some of the material I came home with, I see a couple of corrections I need to make. The car show yielded two gold medallions and one gold cup award. There were a total of three "Bob Sharp" vintage race cars at the convention.

My sincere thanks to everyone involved in the convention. It was a memorable one.

Chris, Are they going to post the show results on the host clubs website?

Vicky

I looked at the ZCCA site, Vicky. Nothing there yet. Shot an e-mail off to Jeff. I'll let you know what I hear. I do know that 154 cars entered the show, both judged and people's choice. 23 cars achieved a score higher than 280 in the judged show. Great show, great cars, and a great indoor venue.

I hope the Fla Zvention will be held indoors also. Seems a little more classy than on a parking lot (as you well know). Be nice to snap up Sebring for the track events also. :laugh:

Vicky

I'd go for a nice grassy area myself, except you can't clean your tailpipe on the grass.

Any way, there'sa rumor that next year or 2007, it's coming to Ohio.