NOS ForumFest 2010

Only a week after Formula D and the One of One car show and I was already hitting up yet another car show.  With the shows at a minimum this year up in Washington, I dont have the luxury of picking and choosing as I did several years ago.  Despite that, a show that actively promoted to the entire Pacific NW and was as large as it was, it would be one of the few shows to definitely go to.

The event was not just aimed at a car show competition but included drag races and a drift competition.  The venue opened at 9am and continued until 5pm.  A very long day indeed.  For those participating, 6-7am was arrival time; show cars, drift cars, and drag cars alike.  With the exception of drag racers, all entrants had to be here at such an excruciating early hour.  I for one am still surprised that I somehow made it through the day seeing that I woke up at 5:15am and arrived shortly after 6am.  The best thing car shows are known for, hurry up and wait.  So that's what I did early am in the morning when I'm never up.  Waited until a bit after 7am until anyone was admitted.  If I had known that, I would have slept in a bit longer, but at least they recognized that I was early and waiting and gave me a prime spot to park.

It was then a couple hours of the typical prepping of the car and setting up of the display.  I took with me both my framed Reader's Rides, my Guest Blog that was hosted on SpeedHunters.com, and a mirror to highlight the engineering of the engine's mounting and the mandrel-bent aluminum dual downpipes from the twin turbos.

I met up with some older and former S12 owners in addition to forum members who have ceased to be active for various reasons.  Many of them were impressed with my additional upgrades to my S12 since the last time they had seen it.  Some were keen on starting their project up again after a year or more of dormancy.  Then there were the several who never thought about owning or tinkering with an S12 who suddenly saw potential in the chassis and seriously considered giving it a go.  One such person was a Mitsubishi guy who worked at a Mitsubishi dealership and would never have thought that such an older chassis could be adapted so well with that of the such modification procedures the S13s and S14s have.

In the end, it was quite a surprise.  To date in the States, an S12 had never won a trophy or much official recognition at a car show.  There is the usual surprise at seeing the chassis at a show and being so clean and for me personally the expected "Oh my God" reaction; however, despite being a crowd teaser, when it comes to the judging, the S12 has never seem to have gotten much love.  It was last Sunday that this changed.  A first for me and a first for the S12 in the States that I am aware of in the past decade or possibly more, an S12 won.  I ended up with two trophies amazingly.  I won "Best Performance Engineering with Dyno" and "Best Sleeper Build."  The first award goes fully to U.P. Garage USA.  It was their work that engineering the final stage of my car.  I give them full credit.  I did not do anything this time with the actual mechanics of the car.

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