MSA 2002 Wrap Up!

[Mikelly]

Well guys, I just got back from the left coast and I'm pretty beat, but also pretty amped up!

We flew into JWA Thursday Night and got checked into the hotel without a problem. My stepson

hadn't been to the left coast since he was an infant (He was born in Orange County), so he wanted to do the whole "See Hollywood" thing. We got in the car on Friday morning and headed towards LA! Within 45 minutes we were on the Strip! We drove Mulholand and then came back and parked on the strip and did the walk of stars. After that we did a little shopping, did the Ripley's tour and headed over to Venice for some lunch at the pier! Friday evening we realy got the happy hour hosed up, but I managed to meet Tim, Van and Pete at the resteraunt. We'll have a definative location next time and a table for our folks... Several guys showed up, went to the bar and never found us. Friday night we headed over to Dromo1 and Mark's wife loaned me her wrist band so I could run the kart course...MARK TELL YOUR WIFE THANKS!!!! By the time I got out of the cart, the guys from SportZ magazine had gotten there and were razzing me about my carting times... Oh well... Friday Night also found Pete paraska and I shutting down the Hilton Bar. Way to many Jack and cokes!

 

Saturday morning Pete and I headed for the Autocross school. Donna and Craig went shopping and then hung out at the pool! Pete had picked up a 2002 Mustang Convertible, but was too cheap to opt for the extra ponies! We looked like two old guys trolling for chicks.... Anyway, Irwindale was a bit further than I expected and we roled up to the track at about 11:20AM! I found out immediately that our car was running the top two times for the event. Now, I know that John C. and a few others will remind me that this wasn't a race, but make no bones about it, every guy there was jocky-ing

for the TT of day! I was soooo pleased when at the end of the day Steve Carlson in the ZF Racing FP car pulled out the Fastest ZCar time, bested only by one of the instructors driving a modified C4 Vette....She ran a 47.862 to Steve's 48.117! Ian ran a best of 48.661 and it is our collective belief (Particularly after an Instructor ran the car and couldn't best Steve's time) that we could have had another .5 seconds trimmed with better tires. The Yokohama tires we were running were hard as a rock! Saturday Night found us my group

eating at JT Schmick's and then a round in the hot tub. Pete joined us at dinner and the hot tub!

 

Sunday morning we headed out to MSA. Ian and Steve got there ahead of us and already had the car set up with Jack stands. I laid out the flyers, enlarged copies of the magazine article, and an example of the front and rear control arms. That's when all hell broke loose! Kurt, an Employee of MSA came over and gave us grief about the layout, a set of struts Steve and Ian had sitting on a bench with a forsale sign on them, as well as the pair of tires that came off the drivers side of the car. The tires didn't have a sign on them and would have been needed to get the car to the trailer!!! Anyway, Kurt informed me that if we didn't have the materials removed that he would have ME removed by the Orange County PD!!! I'm pissed at this point because this person is being extremely unprofessional! I held my ground and informed Kurt that I was gonna go straighten this out with Sal. Within about two minutes of conversation with Sal and the Owner of MSA, it was decided that I could stay, and that the struts being offered for sale would have to go. They were Tokico Illuminas and Ian only wanted $100 for all four... Needless to say, they are now mine... worth the $100 to make the problem go away, plus my car only has premiums on it!!! UPGRADE! During my conversation with Sal I was told that MSA would like to add my control arms to their inventory. So the storm had passed. We went back to work handing out flyers, bragging about the car, and enjoying the sun! I took over 200 flyers with me and we were out of them when we packed up at 2:45 PM! What a day! On the way out Sandy Smith, Wife of Owner Greg Smith,

Stopped Steve and Ian and gave them a brand New Seabring Exhaust for their hard efforts during the Saturday Autocross, and wanted a picture to put in the newsletter! I'll be calling them this week to discuss the issue of putting our parts in their catalog and just what they have in mind.

 

After we left the show, we headed back over to JT SCHMICKS and had the 2nd annual post MSA HybridZ get together! I met more guys than I can remember, so I hope they will all chime in here! We sat, talked about Scott's ZED, Dragonfly's stroker, Dave's Z, Tim's and Owen's projects, as well as the two guys from Arizona who had their respective projects under way. And of course, Pete and I were bummed NOT to have our cars there AGAIN! After the group departed, Pete and Craig

shot down the I5 in the Mustang with the top dropped, and Donna, Gail and I drove down in the family car! The running joke of the weekend was how fast I could loose Pete in traffic! I'm apparently a little aggressive behind the wheel, and by dinner Sunday night the rental car was making a funny grinding noise in the front axle!

 

Again, Pete and I finished up the night in the bar drinking and chatting up the weekend and our experiences!

 

What a trip! I'm glad we went, very happy that the ZF Racing entry was so competitive, and realy pleased at how things unfolded overall!

 

Mike Kelly

ZF Racing LLC!

[Guest kc6wfs]

Was really nice meeting you Mike.

This was my 1st year at MSA and had tons of fun.

Will never miss it again.

 

Dave

[Z-Dreamer]

Wow, what a great time my wife and me had at the MSA event! It was great meeting many of my fellow HybridZer's. Mike, my wife says you're welcome reguarding the "green bracelet" I want a Kart now! I must first finish the Z though! So many Z's and such little time to really appreciate them all, I can't wait till next year when I can show my car! It's late and I'm still beat from the long drive, so I'll say good night!

 

Mark

[pparaska]

Hey Mark, good meeting you - those carts are a blast - I doubt I can talk the wife into THAT hobby though ;D.

 

Mike forgot to mention that I got the drop-top Stang for a song - $35/day! I guess I just got lucky - $27 for a mid-size on Hotwire and the sweety at the counter offered the drop-top Stang for another $8 a day. I don't think they had any V8 versions, and I'd never spent much time behind the wheel of a convertible, and figured that SoCal was THE place to do that! His Alero sure did leave my V6 Stang wanting more power! I think Mike has a binary accelerator foot though. He was either stopped at a light or foot to the floor!

 

My guts are still recovering from way too many Jim Beam and Cokes!

 

I got to spend Friday afternoon talking about Z's, kids, wives, women, Cali, life, etc. as we sat around in two different restaurants before the partially failed El Toritto HybridZ meet. We need to work on that next time.

 

Had a blast!

[Owen]

Lot's of homework too I expect! Your mailing address for the R230 shafts when you have the time

 

Owen

[Mikelly]

....Well I can honestly say that this being my second year, I'd just as soon have a true ALL HYBRIDZ show somewhere. I think I will take the business dollars next year and probably go to the national convention instead of MSA. So what does that mean? Does that mean I won't be going back to Sunny Southern California? Not at all. What it realy means is that the wife and I will be back there next year for a week driving the coast and enjoying everything without the cramped timeline.

 

I spoke with Kurt at MSA for a while yesterday afternoon and MSA is NOT interested in my control arms, as he claims they only sell very limited numbers of real racer parts, such as coil overs and big brake kits. I think MSA is missing a huge market opportunity with the Pro Touring, and real street racer types buying up everything that will make their cars fast and furious. Kurt was skeptical at best when I gave him my gross profit numbers from last May/ June thru yesterday, which is fine by me. ZF Racing LLC will continue doing what we do, while expanding the product line.

 

I look forward to meeting all of you guys somewhere in the near future. These HybridZ gatherings are realy the main reason I like coming out west, as Pete and I agree, the true performers are among our ranks!

Mike

[Mikelly]

...Well I'm an idiot! Apparantly Sandy Cook, Owner of Jim Cook Racing, was the lady that stopped Steve and Ian and presented them with the exhaust! MSA apparantly had nothing to do with it! As far as I'm concerned, I'm done doing business, trying to do business or being nice about MSA, my association with them, or cleaning up what happened at the show. Screw them. You guys want to know off line, contact me and I'll give you the skinny! As for Kurt...If he were my employee, I'd fire him. The man is NOT a people person and seriously lacks professionalism!

 

Mike Kelly

ZF Racing LLC

[Dragonfly]

Mike, I feel that you are doing the best thing you can considering the circumstances, to me I think they are starting to get to big and they are forgeting who put them where they are. After they piss off enough people and it starts to hurt there business things will change.

 

I will still go to there show each year because I live so close and it is a great Z gathering, if I had to travel anything even remotely close to what you did I would not be back after your ordeal with them.

 

Dragonfly