Catch Up of August Happenings

So it's been quite a while since I last updated posted.  A lot has gone on since then and I'll be attempting to catch up in chronological order.

August 14th, 2010

Well the first thing that happened in August of note was the Nissan of Olympia's Nissan & Mitsubishi Meet, on the 14th.  Put on by Russell Moore, manager of Internet sales at Olympia of Nissan, and sponsored in part, amongst others, by S12Silvia.com.  The turn out was much larger than expected and a total success.  As part of my job as the representative of S12Silvia.com, I assisted after the meet where it was possible, donated a replica S12 Silvia bonnet badge, and donated a set lanyards to those who dropped by. The lanyards were the first out of the three batches to go, which was a good sign.  The bonnet badge was won by a customer of U.P. Garage of all the people.  He knew Randy, the tech. whom I've worked on for years on my S12, and was willing to trade the S12 bonnet badge for some random S13 parts that Randy had.  In the end, it worked out great for the both of them.  I walked away with a Nismo SR thermostat, which I can trade for an RB thermostat, and a Nismo key fob.  Afterwards, I went out with U.P. Garage to the nearby Red Robin where the shop and all those associated do their traditional after event meal.  Driving home was an event as I followed Randy and Doug.  Doug knew that the freeway would be packed, so he took many back roads that were quite fun to drive though, seeing that much of it was through windy roads int he forests.

August 22nd, 2010

A week later on August 22nd I attended the Infiniti of Fife car show/meet.  The showing was a bit poor, mostly due to the weather since it appeared that rain was virtually imminent.  Thankfully, it did not rain at all.  Despite the eighteen cars that showed and a plethora of trophies... something like nine total, it was pretty biased.  I was not aware of the extent until after when I got back to U.P. Garage.  There was a guy by the name of Jason, whom I had heard about before, in attendance.  He brought out his show S13 that the only time it was ever seen was at show.  I knew of the car for it was swapped years ago by Dave&Cody.  Dave and Cody had lost their business years ago for attempting to import too much and unregulated to US laws and such.  Those were very much back in the Pit Stop days... four years ago.  Anyway, Jason had been featured in a magazine, which turns out that he carries it in his S13's glove box at all times.  Jason's presentation was pretty dang good and of a higher caliber of mine.  I knew he would win, which he did take home three trophies.

I figured I would win Best Engine Mods, but it went to a Z32 that only had bolt-ons and supposedly an engine rebuild.  However, some people knew of the owner of the Z32 and filled me in that the engine wasnt as high caliber as it seemed to be by the owner's embellishment.  Looking at the engine bay, it looked stock with some matching couplers and such.  Other than that, the engine bay was not even detailed or looked like anything was really done of any seriousness.  I was awarded Honourable Mention for I owned an S12 and the judges appreciated the fact that the chassis existed still.  They made a point that they were not expecting an additional prize, therefore no trophy, but I was awarded a pair of Nismo number plate frames.  I am thankful for them and appreciative that my car was recognized in some manner.

Now to explain a little on the bias judging. The judges by way were those who were employed by Infiniti of Fife, and the head judge was Shae.  From what I was told, the year before, Doug had annoyed those from Infiniti with his line of cars and took home a fair amount of the trophies with his shop's car.  In the past year, Doug changed his supplier from Infiniti of Fife to Nissan of Olympia partially due to the price and also due to the availability of parts in stock.  The parts department of Infiniti made it clear to Doug that they were not happy with the turn of events.  To make matters worse, Shae used to work at Nissan of Olympia.  When Russell Moore was hired at Nissan of Olympia, he moved parts like no one's business; stock that was supposedly unable to be moved while Shae was in charge.  Seeing that Russell was doing a better job put Shae on edge.  Shortly after, Shae left Nissan of Olympia and was hired at Infiniti of Fife.  Since then, Shae has not been on good terms with Olympia nor Russell while constantly complaining to Russell to raise his prices to match Infiniti's.  In addition, he has made several attempts in obtaining Doug's business back and while I was at the show, Shae went out of his way to tell me all about the RB parts that were available and told me to contact him if I ever needed anything.  Well knowing the position of the Infiniti dealership, I had two strikes against me: one for having U.P. Garage decals over my car and another for sporting Nissanparts.cc decals as well - Nissan of Olympia's parts website ran by Russell.

After the Infiniti of Fife Show, I ended up heading to Ruston way and Point Defiance with some other mates.  Mike from U.P. Garage showed up in Doug's white R32 GTR, Manuel who came down to check things out, Raj came over from the M Meet in his red 97 M3, and Jason (previously mentioned).  Driving down the 509 bridge from the Port of Tacoma to Downtown Tacoma, I decided to see what I could get out of my car.  I took off leaving Raj in his M3 behind easy enough.  Driving along Ruston way, there were several heads turned, especially when the tuners there recognized the R32.  Due to the poor parking, we ended up hitting up Point Defiance where we settled on a parking spot near Fort Nisqually.

In the order from left to right:
Jason (S13), Mike (R32), Colin (S12), Manuel (S12), Raj (E46 M3)