So, today I went, for the first time, to a car club meet. Andy mentioned that the Golden Gate G35 club was meeting in Mountain View today, so after dropping by Halted Specialties (a surplus electronics store that was having its annual sale) I went to go check out the meet.
And apparently my mom has decided to play more with the "you need to meet more girls" issue.
Excluding a dealer, I've never seen 20+ G35s gathered in one spot before. The people were friendly; while looking over what people did to their cars they would make comments and inquiries and also introduce themselves to people they haven't seen before. I noticed that a decent number of the cars were lowered and had some cosmetic mods. I also met a guy who had a G35 auto sedan with twin turbo, intercooler, knock sensor, a handmade mesh grill, and a bunch of other stuff. (I forgot to get the spelling of his name, so I'll try to note that later) Says the car gets 400+ hp at the wheels or something to that effect. Whatever the case, when looking under the hood, I was impressed.
There was also some pizza and sodas as well as a raffle and demo of CrystalGuard, a sealant which is supposed to protect paint. Since we were using the CrystalGuard distributor's parking lot to meet in, it was reasonable that we'll listen and possibly buy some of the product. From what I could tell, it seems to be very similar to a crystallize epoxy. The idea is that a glass/flourine compound deposits harden into a layer that is supposed to be hard and shiny at the same time. So instead of a layer of wax, or polymer glue, or some other kind of plastic, you end up with a layer of crystal which is harder. The stuff's imported from Japan, so I guess there might be better explanations through google.jp if only my Japanese skills were up to par.
Anyhow, afterwards, about 10 of us went on a drive from Saratoga towards Daly City. We didn't actually make it there since the G35 with the twin turbo blew the engine somehow when we were up in the hills. Near Skyline/De La Honda Road, if I recall correctly. I feel sorry for the guy, as he obviously put a lot of work into his car.
I eventually had to leave to drive back down to Cupertino since my mom wanted me to go meet up with the CPA at 4:30pm to get an overview of what my IRA looks like and why.
While I was there, she introduced me to her niece, and encouraged us to go grab dinner together. She's from Taiwan and studied in Oregon. This week was her last doing training in San Jose for work. We went to a Chinese restaurant on Castro St. in Mountain View, and then to Verde for some pearl tea.
Fun person to talk to despite that we didn't really seem to have much in common. "I'm an engineer; She's an accountant," etc. Nevertheless, it was interesting to discuss stuff that sometimes doesn't come into conversation as much especially since some of it normally is well known here because it involves California as a state and hence involves the residents. (The governor recall stuff, number of Asians here, etc.) Discussion from the perspective of somebody who didn't spend most of their life in California adds quite a bit more.
Posted by hachu at September 18, 2004 11:19 PM