Who's in Austin?
 

We should meet up sometime in Austin.

There are several active members in the Austin area. We meet up fairly often. It has been a while since we have met up.

JD

I'm in Austin, and have my Z now. Finally:p

Black Track
 

Just picked up my Black Track yesterday. I'm lovin it!!

Capital Z of Texas
 

For those that don't know, there is a local Z car club.

Capital Z of Texas

Our next meeting is Monday December 30, 2002 at Amaya's Taco Village. Check out our website for more details. Of importance for this next meeting, we will be voting for the 2003 officers.

We already have a few 350Z members but we would like to see more. Come on out if you can.

Also, the club website lists events and meets for the club every month.

i'm in austin, no z just yet, waiting till q1 to order.

who on the board has the plates "Dads Z" (i think) that i saw/met on the s2k drive last sunday?

I am a Austin guy, I have met a few of you.... But, I am moving to Dallas at the first of the year, of course it seems like I am never home (in DC now)....

Dads Z
 

That's me...

That drive with the S2Ks was a mess.. out of control drivers smashing into stop signs and drowning their cars in rivers...

Not sure I'll join the S2Kers on their drives again, got me a little spooked.

Nice people and all, just a little to wreckless for me. Good to see the Z's represented though. I could pull on every single car there that day - really made me feel good about our car.

Chris
CS 350Z Track with ALL the options, incl leather.

the water part really pissed me off. was quite dangerous too, i was at the front of the pack ... 5th car back we came around that turn before the creek at about 85-90 and as i saw the water stood on the breaks with the traction control on, and barely stopped before hitting rudy (the guy who hydrolocked his car).

his car is perfectly fine, which is good ... he says it even feels stronger.

i will definitly be joining them on thier drives in the future ... as long as thier is no water involved ;p.

id love to see a statewide z meet/drive. that would be alot of fun ^^

Re: Dads Z
 

Chris,

Dont you think that might be a little overboard? The drowning was due to that car having a cold air intake...I'm thankful that I sold mine before I ever installed it.

I won't speak for Ricky's incident, as I wasn't there, but it's only the second incident we've had in a couple of years doing this (the first being an NSX that joined us). We stress that everyone drive w/in their own comfort zone. If you were spooked, you should have just slowed down...nobody gets left behind on our drives.

Oh yeah, I don't recall you ever being in a position to pull on me...besides, "street racing" is reckless too, eh? ;)

One thing I'll say about the S2000 folks is that we actually like to go out and drive, not just stand around and BS in a parking lot. I hope y'all will progress to that point and invite local S2000 owners along for the fun.

Chris,

"Pull" meaning keep up with. I was in the slower group and didn't know if I would lose you guys. I was able to keep pace with the slower group and got some sense that the Z can hold its own, even out of the factory.

The drive itself spooked me, what else can I say. Two major incidents, two cars damaged, people could have gotten really hurt, especially with the stop sign incident. That's all I'm saying.

I like you guys a lot, my note says that. I respect your group too, and you and Jeff in particular are without question two of the most serious and experienced automobile guys on the road.

2/15 significant incidents was a little much for me, especially considering it was my first drive with the group.

I hope that's not over reacting, just being honest. Perhaps what happened last week was a fluke, I don't know. It's the only first hand experience I have with the group's drive.

It is over-reacting.... by a very wide margin!

In a couple of years years of these drives, this has been all that has ever happended. We very clearly warned everybody at the start of the day to be smart, leave appropriate spacing between cars, stay very alert ahead.

But, one person out of 17 cars DIDN'T do that. His immediate on-the-scene comment was "I couldn't see what was ahead of me". Well, duh, slow the F*** down if that's the case. And, the upcoming stop sign was marked with a "stop ahead" sign. It was taken at - according to him - 35 MPH. That particular intersection handled improperly - or simply a turn in your own neighborhood - could produce the same result whether there are a bunch of cars in it or not. In a neighborhood, it could have been a child that would have been run over.

There are places to do "spirited" driving and places not too. The decision of how much speed is appropriate for a particular place (turn, or even a straight) is not a group decision (unless you are a leeming), it's an individual decision based on maturity and experience. And, having stopped several times during the day to wait for people to catch up, I know that nearly every other driver backed off when called for.

The other "incident" was a driver going too fast thru a crossing of 4" of water, and with a very low-inlet "cold air intake". Too fast = dumb; much larger "bow wave" resulted. CAIs like this one, not good. Anything that low is going to pick up nothing but hot air in this state anyway. I myself went thru at about 15 MPH, and the water didn't even reach to the side of the sill. While we didn't expect water that day, this is Texas, water happens, and 4" isn't going to hurt anybody with a normal car. I walked thru the 4" of water twice, and it barely touched my ankle.

Here is what the "water crossing" looked like, showing the approx. 10th driver going thru it intelligently:
http://home.austin.rr.com/jwfisher/s...2.05/cross.jpg

So what was a very good thing has been irreparably tarnished... future drives will be limited to a very small number of people, and even then only to people we know and who can drive using proper judgement. Not limited to a certain type of car, but to a certain type of driver.

Chris,

I've been out driving with the S2K folks 3 times (dinner, Salt Lick, and Hill country weekend) in the past few months, all without any incident. Each time, I always drive with a relaxed pace so I can enjoy the outing. I had a lot of fun with the S2K group. Sorry to hear that the incidents happened on your first time. Hope my positive experience help offset and balanced yours, from statistically perspective.

Jeff/Chris S.,

I agreed with both of you that the incidents were reflecting some individuals, not the group as a whole. Hope we all can learn from this and make the future outing safer.

I'll join you guys again for future drive.

Re: Who's in Austin?
 

mf01,

I live in Round Rock. Got mine around end of August. As JD said, we already met many times, mostly in September and October.

JD, Chris (Bishop_TX) and I are member of the Austin Capital Z club that doodz referred to. I attended the monthly meeting and some other events regularly. Hope more Austin 350Zer can join.

I plan on joining the club once I own a 350z. I ordered it near the end of November, so it should be here by the end of February.

Yup, it was very dissappointing - especially after we made such a big deal about warning people to drive maturely. And, it wasn't a speed type of thing, in both cases it was extraordinarily poor driver judgement.

I live in Canyon Lake (about 15 mi NW of New Braunfels).

I'd like to come up to one of the meets sometime. :) Maybe I'll bring my RC51 too so me and Chris S can compare tire wear. :D

Sounds good. So, does yours have a healthy appetite for rear tires (not to mention gas)?

Yes it does! I get pretty bad (for a bike) gas mileage. Probably only around 135-140mi/tank. I think that's only 31mi/gallon or so.

I did a Moriwaki full exhaust and PCIIIr, that didn't help matters. ;) Made it faster though! :D I also disabled the flapper in the front air intake.

I'm going to do an undertail soon so I can have turn signals again (pipes are very high, no turn signals atm).

I want to do a carbon front fender and rear hugger too. :)