HOT! Easily sums up how last Sunday's autocross event was. It was the hottest day of the year and the event started at least a good hour later than usual which left me running home at about 3pm to the comfort of A/C.
Thanks to the event from the previous day not cleaning up their crap that was left all over the parking lot it took members of the SRRSCCA a long time to clean up and set up the course which is why the event had to start hours later than normal putting the majority of the event into the hottest part of the day. At least it was still able to happen. Of course I didn't get there until pretty late so wasn't able to walk the course and find a really good place to set up my camera and video gear but my roommate was able to point out a pretty good spot.
It was a good thing that I went out there since there was a good number of different cars that haven't been out before including a nice older Porsche 911 with whaletail. I love those types of 911's but holy hell it was SLOW at least during the first session. Some other interesting cars were a couple of race cars that I haven't seen before and a new EVO X.
The second run group was a bit annoying since it was a bit of a cluster fuck getting the spotter and I ended up with one that liked to chitchat a bit which is OK so long as they don't make any remarks about the cars and drivers but does throw me off my game a little bit and you can see that with the videos.
After getting lunch which was a much needed several glasses of water and a Milkshake we headed back and I decided that I had had enough for the day and didn't want to stay much longer so decided to call it a day after taking some more pictures of the cars out in the parking lot even some that were not out running in the autocross event.
Ended up with a few more than a hundred pictures but only posted 88 of them on flickr and also only ended up with 68 videos (the new ones go to page 4 with the last new video being the Nissan 240SX) since I skipped the second session of the event after lunch. I did go for one ride along in the packed Subaru Outback for a little ride, which was fun. All in all it was fun but damn hot and it's only going to get hotter still.
Here's just a sample video.
Showing posts with label Honda. Show all posts
Well just until the season starts anew in the Spring. That's right the autocross season is over with the last event being held last Sunday. And what an event it was. The last event was held in the large parking lot at Expo Idaho and the course layout actually took up the entire parking lot this time. This of course proved a pain for a lot of the drivers in the beginning as it was easy to get lost until you had run the correct course a couple of times. It was also a pain for me as well during filming but funny at times because if you watch some of the videos you'll see on screen something like a Miata that sounds like a Viper. Then there's also me just messing up with the camera and playing with the zoom later on in the day.
The early morning first runs were pretty exciting due to the cold asphalt and cold tires but I didn't film any of that because I went on a couple ride-alongs with some folks. The first was with Jonathan in his Honda S2000 and while I had a real fun time and thought it was a blast even spinning out on the second to last corner Jonathan didn't like it to much. Oh well he did much better later on in the day when it got warmer. Then I went with Leo in his Mazda RX-7 and he did a lot of tail wagging and got a bit lost on that first run, yet again a blast for me. The last ride along was with my roommate in his Mazda RX-8 and of course it was more tail wagging wrong way going fun for me. After that I hoped out and went about filming some of those races but by then people were getting the hang of things and the weather was warming up and so was the asphalt.
Due to mother nature's call I missed filming one of my roommate's runs where he took out 5 cones at once. It was funny to watch but I wasn't nearly set up yet to film so totally missed it on camera. Maybe they'll have a winter event and we can all have fun really sliding around on snow and ice. So the last event was a great time were most people were just out to have fun and enjoy the wonderful smells of gasoline, burnt rubber and egos. I did miss something fantastic though when I went home early (stupid battery life) I missed out on seeing the monster wing that used to be on the Viper (replaced by a much more suitable wing thankfully) being run instead on a Corvette. Oh the humanity. In any case that's it for the year and folks go back to tinker with their cars during the off time for the next season. And I go about working out how to use that umbrella and pick up a few extra batteries and a much larger Memory stick for next year. Since I didn't take the DSLR I didn't get any static pictures so borrowed one from Chris Wold.
The early morning first runs were pretty exciting due to the cold asphalt and cold tires but I didn't film any of that because I went on a couple ride-alongs with some folks. The first was with Jonathan in his Honda S2000 and while I had a real fun time and thought it was a blast even spinning out on the second to last corner Jonathan didn't like it to much. Oh well he did much better later on in the day when it got warmer. Then I went with Leo in his Mazda RX-7 and he did a lot of tail wagging and got a bit lost on that first run, yet again a blast for me. The last ride along was with my roommate in his Mazda RX-8 and of course it was more tail wagging wrong way going fun for me. After that I hoped out and went about filming some of those races but by then people were getting the hang of things and the weather was warming up and so was the asphalt.
Due to mother nature's call I missed filming one of my roommate's runs where he took out 5 cones at once. It was funny to watch but I wasn't nearly set up yet to film so totally missed it on camera. Maybe they'll have a winter event and we can all have fun really sliding around on snow and ice. So the last event was a great time were most people were just out to have fun and enjoy the wonderful smells of gasoline, burnt rubber and egos. I did miss something fantastic though when I went home early (stupid battery life) I missed out on seeing the monster wing that used to be on the Viper (replaced by a much more suitable wing thankfully) being run instead on a Corvette. Oh the humanity. In any case that's it for the year and folks go back to tinker with their cars during the off time for the next season. And I go about working out how to use that umbrella and pick up a few extra batteries and a much larger Memory stick for next year. Since I didn't take the DSLR I didn't get any static pictures so borrowed one from Chris Wold.
This last Saturday was the first ever Shakotan Matsuri held downtown Boise ID. The Shakotan Matsuri (Japanese Lowered Car Festival) is the first car show held here that is only for Japanese manufactured cars. For a first time event there was a large and very nice turn out of cars. There wasn't much there that I didn't like. I for one was happy to see a large and professionally done car show here that wasn't about muscle cars and old school roadsters for a change and I'm definitely looking forward to next years event. As with all things everyone has their own opinion of how things went and since I'm not a paid journalist (I'll gladly accept bribes though) you get my opinion instead of some white washed op-ed piece. So of course I'll bash some things and praise others. So let the bashing and praising begin.
There is actually very little that I didn't like about the show but I do have some creative criticism of how some things went down. First of all the music was a bit to loud I don't like having to scream at my friends in order to talk to them when they are standing three feet away from me. I also think the BBoy Battle thing went on way to long but that might have more to do with my opinion (definitely not my cup of tea) of it more than anything else. But here is something they really should have had for the battle...a freaking stage. More than three people deep and you couldn't even see what was going on. Just an idea for next time guys. Another thing that got me was the MC and his switching back and forth from the "oh this is a family event and I can't say that" to swearing like a it wasn't a family event. As this was a family friendly event even later at night he should have kept it g rated for everyone in attendance. I don't care if you swear but I'm sure the families with the kids probably did. That brings me to my last little quibble they needed more people judging or needed to start judging earlier and maybe a few more categories and awards. I would have liked to see an award based on participant votes.
With all my bashing out of the way all I have left is praise and I have a lot to hand out. I have to say for a first time event this was pretty well sorted out. From what I could see there were only minor hiccups so you have to give the organizers a big pat on the back for putting on a good show. The audience in attendance was all well behaved and for such a diverse group of people that really does deserve some praise even if we all take it for granted here I've heard some horror stories at other shows like this. Of course I need to show some major praise to all the folks who brought out their cars for people to look over and discuss. Without you there just wouldn't be a show.
And about those cars. This is what you really came to read anyways right. There was a large turn out of interesting cars. There was a good number of right hand drive cars including two Skylines (both for sale by the way, actually there were a lot of cars there for sale) a couple different Hondas and a Toyota Supra (who's owner probably watched The Fast and Furious a few to many times in my own opinion) this was a nice change of pace for me as I've only seen one RHD car that wasn't a mail carrier car before. There were two VIP style cars (both Lexus) but odd to me anyways neither of them entered the VIP class. Of course there were gobs of Hondas an assortment of Nissans, Mazdas and Toyotas with a small smattering of Subarus and Mistsubishi cars. All of which were looking nice, there wasn't much in the way of RICER Boy stuff and you could tell that people put in a lot of effort to show off their cars and were having a good time hanging out with fellow car crazy people. That's it for me but you can see all my pictures on Flickr and make you own judgement. Here's to next year being bigger and better.
There is actually very little that I didn't like about the show but I do have some creative criticism of how some things went down. First of all the music was a bit to loud I don't like having to scream at my friends in order to talk to them when they are standing three feet away from me. I also think the BBoy Battle thing went on way to long but that might have more to do with my opinion (definitely not my cup of tea) of it more than anything else. But here is something they really should have had for the battle...a freaking stage. More than three people deep and you couldn't even see what was going on. Just an idea for next time guys. Another thing that got me was the MC and his switching back and forth from the "oh this is a family event and I can't say that" to swearing like a it wasn't a family event. As this was a family friendly event even later at night he should have kept it g rated for everyone in attendance. I don't care if you swear but I'm sure the families with the kids probably did. That brings me to my last little quibble they needed more people judging or needed to start judging earlier and maybe a few more categories and awards. I would have liked to see an award based on participant votes.
With all my bashing out of the way all I have left is praise and I have a lot to hand out. I have to say for a first time event this was pretty well sorted out. From what I could see there were only minor hiccups so you have to give the organizers a big pat on the back for putting on a good show. The audience in attendance was all well behaved and for such a diverse group of people that really does deserve some praise even if we all take it for granted here I've heard some horror stories at other shows like this. Of course I need to show some major praise to all the folks who brought out their cars for people to look over and discuss. Without you there just wouldn't be a show.
And about those cars. This is what you really came to read anyways right. There was a large turn out of interesting cars. There was a good number of right hand drive cars including two Skylines (both for sale by the way, actually there were a lot of cars there for sale) a couple different Hondas and a Toyota Supra (who's owner probably watched The Fast and Furious a few to many times in my own opinion) this was a nice change of pace for me as I've only seen one RHD car that wasn't a mail carrier car before. There were two VIP style cars (both Lexus) but odd to me anyways neither of them entered the VIP class. Of course there were gobs of Hondas an assortment of Nissans, Mazdas and Toyotas with a small smattering of Subarus and Mistsubishi cars. All of which were looking nice, there wasn't much in the way of RICER Boy stuff and you could tell that people put in a lot of effort to show off their cars and were having a good time hanging out with fellow car crazy people. That's it for me but you can see all my pictures on Flickr and make you own judgement. Here's to next year being bigger and better.
