While this isn't specific to just road racing, it does involve the 350Z T3/Spec Z racecar campaigned for the past five years. One of my uncles that I'm responsible for resides in a Denver area skilled nursing facility (SNF) and his nursing home was interested doing a car related activity. So last month, I loaded up the trailer and took the road race show to them!



My uncle is the taller man using the walker in the picture above. The activity department had the residents came out into a part of the parking lot that was held open. I could just manage to get the Titan and trailer in and they became part of the show. The racecar was certainly different than what most of these folks usually get to see and experience. Many of them have physical or mental deficits, but you should have seen the smiles that day! Everybody loves a loud racecar- even if it's just a UpRev-tuned VQ35HR with test pipes and race exhaust.



You don't really think much about this, but there's just not many SNF activities for the dudes. This gentleman talked a lot about how I might have to race his buddy in a "hot Camaro with a 454" down in the area of Denver he used to live in. "He NEVER loses a race", he said. Damn straight.



Another male resident said they really never get an informal, fun car related event that comes to them. He said he really enjoyed it. Lots of them looked at, touched and laughed while they moved around the Z. One lady in a wheelchair looked at the rollcage and asked the aide if she could get in. We laughed and told her it would be a pretty difficult transfer to get her in there. Her deadpanned response was: "Why not? I could go for a ride. I'm single."



While sponsors like Nissan, BFGoodrich, UpRev, Motul and SafeRacer won't gain a lot of exposure out of this, it remained a worthwhile activity for everybody involved. Perhaps other Nissan racers around the country should consider contacting their local nursing home to show off your beautiful race Zs. God knows, you won't find a more appreciative audience who enjoy seeing a REAL racer!

 

Very cool! That is wonderful of you to take time to do that!

 

Nice! Sounds like a good event.

 

Good Man!

I have taken my rig to two local Elementary schools for Show & Tell

BTW: my wife is a principle...so I didn't have much choice :-)

 

That's awesome!

 

Very cool, and nice job.

 

More people should be active like this in their community. Too often these days people are too focused on themselves. Mad props for taking time to make others happy.

 

Thanks guys! Beyond the altruistic nature of this event, it's good exposure for each of the organizations associated with the car. That's something racers often overlook, but every iota of positive exposure we can squeeze out of our efforts can be valuable. The case could certainly be made that a sponsor's return on investment is higher when they're associated with even a small number of events like this.

 

This is great!
I did a ride day at my local track for kids with cancer and their familys. My local club does it every year but it was the first time i had done it.
Like you said, huge smiles that day!

 

Great story man.

 

Good job. I'll see if I can convince my Z club to do something like this.

 

Awesome stuff man...

I like the pic with the one eyed man scoping everything out...

He sees the work...#badjoke

 

I like seeing things like this!

Very cool op that you took your time (and Z) and made those people happy for a day!

 

That was very nice of you to do that.