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Upstate Z Club
Connecting Z Enthusiasts of the South Carolina Upstate
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04/23/2016   Our annual Spring Drive was Saturday. Some of us met at Cracker Barrel in Anderson and headed down to The Mitty at Road Atlanta while others just met us at the event.  However, there was a bit of a surprise in store for those who met at Cracker Barrel.  The president of the South Carolina Ferrari club wanted to come along so we headed over to meet him and got to look at some really cool Ferrari's.  Check out the photo album to see pictures from the event.

     
10/17/2015    We held our annual Fall Drive on Saturday.  The group meet at Cracker Barrel in Powdersville and headed up through Pickens and Oconee County stopping to see a few old Mills.  From there we went up into the Jocassee Gorges area to Sassasfras Mountain which is the highest point in South Carolina.  The picture on our Home page is taken from the overlook at Sassasfras Mountain.
     
 9/14/2015  
Another nice showing at our September club meeting.  The annual Fall Drive is scheduled for Saturday October 17 with the 24th as our backup date in case of bad weather.  Stay tuned for more details.
 
 
     
7/14/2015  
Despite ZCON taking place in Memphis this week, we had a nice turn out at the July meeting.  Bruce Hawkins of Hawk’s 3rd Gen came out and everyone enjoyed talking to him about superchargers, turbos, differentials, etc.  Paul Coppola (Yellow 77 280Z) and Andrew Gedeon (Blue 78 280Z) joined the club.  

As mentioned in a previous communication, Cars and Coffee of Easley was an overwhelming success.  Thanks to those members who made long treks to be there.  The biggest disappointment was that no Z cars besides club members were there.  Oh well, this is just the beginning and the event is expected to mushroom in size.  The next Cars and Coffee of Easley will be Saturday August 8th.  Spread the word!
 
 
     
7/11/2015
  The inaugural Cars and Coffee of Easley was a huge success! We had 125 cars show up and the Upstate Z Club had 7 representatives.  My only disappointment was that apart from the Z Club, no other Z cars showed up.  Spread the word and mark your calendars for the next one on August 8th.
     
6/18/2015    Despite many regulars being unable to make it, we had a great turn out and a good time. Bruce Hawkins of Hawk's 3rd Gen got tied up at work and time got away from him so he wasn't able to make it this time. He'll will be at the July meeting.  

 

The Chasing the Dragon Hillclimb is this weekend in Robbinsville, NC the the 28th Annual Z Car Convention (ZCON) is July 14th through the 18th in Memphis, TN.
 
The other NewZ is that I am working with businesses and the city of Easley as well as the Greenville Cars & Coffee to start an Easley Cars & Coffee which would take place on the 2nd Saturday of each month so as not to coincide with the Greenville, Atlanta, Charlotte and Asheville events.  I hope to have details worked out this week and begin promoting the event.


     
4/13/2015
 
The April club meeting was held at The Chandler School where we had a cookout and a surprise celebration.  After eating, Katie Danner brought in a car cake to which I asked "what is this, someone's birthday?"  Well,  I completely forgot that it was mine and it also turned out to be be Bill Wilson's.  Thanks gang!

 
     
 2/9/2015
 
Rafael Torres was our guest speaker at the February club meeting.  He spoke on various aspects of performance driving and fielded questions from the group.
     
1/10/2015
  Over the Christmas break, Jack Frasher, owner of Maserati/Lotus of Greenville donated $5000 to the Chandler Automotive Culture & Engineering (ACE) class. Up to this point, we have been focusing on automotive history and building a model engine. Starting this month, we are going to begin in earnest to tear apart our 75 280Z and rebuild it. That will be a whole lot easier to do with Jack's donation!

The kids will need to do a good bit of body work including media blasting and primer. As of now, we don't have a good place to do this. Please let me know if anyone has a setup or knows of a shop that would like to partner with us. All donations are tax deductible and there is free publicity.
     
12/07/2014
  We held our annual Christmas party on Saturday at the Chandler School.  Lot's a great food and good friends.  We collected toys for Toys for Tots.  It was decided that we would not hold our December monthly on Monday.  Everyone have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.  See you in January when we plan to have a guest speaker.
 
We are open to considering occasional alternative locations for our monthly meetings to accommodate those who either can not make it during the week or live too far away to come to the standard Greenville meeting.  In order to schedule these special gatherings, we need commitment from those who would benefit.
     
11/15/2014
   
11/15 - We had a Dyno event on Saturday 11/9 and held our November meeting at Quaker Steak & Lube on 11/10

Nov 2014 Meeting - People

 
We had a great showing on Monday.  Despite some core members who could not make it as usual, we had 12 cars.  The Miata club meets at Quaker Steak on the same night.  Normally, we blend into the normal parking lot crowd.  But on this night, we were actually a presence.
 

    
 
 
Our Dyno Day event was on Saturday 11/7.  Dana Blackhurst and a few of the students from the Chandler School came.  Check out our Zpotlight section for more information on our work with The Chandler School
  
Here is a great time lapse video of a portion of the event that was put together by Haydn...

 
When the young guys had seen enough, they occupied themselves with old tires in Bill's back lot and played bowling for tires.
 
Other than talking about our Fall Drive and the Dyno event, Greg gave another update on the Chandler School and we discussed the upcoming Christmas Party and Car Photo Shoot that is planned for Saturday December 6th.
     
9/8/2014
 
We had a very good showing including two people who joined.  Additional pictures can be found in our Photo Albums section -2014-07 Meeting.
 
Greg gave an update on The Chandler Z project .  The club is partnering with The Chandler School on a special project.to teach kids about Zs and many of the aspects of being a sports car enthusiast. It will also include a hands-on project car that we are calling The Chandler Z.  The club donated a 76 280Z.  A special section of the website is being developed and a link will be coming shortly.

Additional topics included the Fall Drive, the Highland Sports Car Club and planning for a Dyno Day in November.  

A few people will be attending the Highland Sports Car Club meeting Wednesday night (9/10) in Asheville.  They have a great reputation for their autocross events and the intent is to find out more about them so that we might participate in the future.

It was decided that the Fall Drive will be targeted for October 18th with a fallback date of October 25th if the weather does not cooperate.

We are open to considering occasional alternative locations for our monthly meetings to accommodate those who either can not make it during the week or live too far away to come to the standard Greenville meeting.  In order to schedule these special gatherings, we need commitment from those who would benefit.

If you would like a gathering in your area on a weekend, please contact me at 1977BLUEZ@gmail.com. If you know other Z owners in your area, lobby them to contact me as well. Given sufficient lead time, I'm sure that we could have a very good showing
     
7/7/2014
   For our July meeting, the club met at The Chandler School on Augusta Road.  
 
 
 
We are partnering with The Chandler School on a special project. This includes regular weekly classroom time teaching the kids about Zs and many of the aspects of being a sports car enthusiast. It will also include a hands-on project car that we are calling The Chandler Z
  
Food was catered by the The Gypsy Kitchen.
 
   

Our primary topic of the night was Pasti Dip.  Our guest speaker could not make it at the last minute so we watch a few videos on the topic; Myths About Plasti Dip and Glossy White Plasti Dip
     
6/10/2014
  Our first Monday monthly meeting took place yesterday.  The Miata club also was meeting at Quaker Steak which resulted in a good number of interesting cars in the parking lot.  But apart from them, the crowd was much more manageable than Tuesdays.  The big topic of discussion was the Chandler Z project.  More to come about this later.  
     
5/13/2014
  We had a great May meeting at Quaker Steak n Lube.  The only problem was that they are packed on all-you-can-eat Tuesday's and several regulars can't make it on Tuesdays.  So, we're moving our standard monthly meetings are moving to Monday! 

We are also looking at special gatherings to accommodate those who either can not make it during the week or live too far away to come to the standard Greenville meeting. In order to schedule these special gatherings, we need commitment from those who would benefit.

If you would like a gathering in your area on a weekend, please contact me at 1977BLUEZ@gmail.com. If you know other Z owners in your area, lobby them to contact me as well. Given sufficient lead time, I'm sure that we could have a very good showing
     
4/26/2014   For our Spring Drive, we took a scenic route through Georgia down to Road Atlanta to attend The Mitty.  The weather was perfect, we had the roads to ourselves and The Mitty was awesome.  Kudos to Larry and Katie, despite both of their Zs being out of commission, they made the trip in their Zaturn.  See Photo Album

Stephen Judkins of the Georgia Z Club has some great shots on his CARtography page.
     
3/11/2014   We had another good turnout at Quaker Steak & Lube with several new faces.  See Pictures  

The 2014 officers were elected with the only change being that Bill Wilson will take on the role of Vice PreZident.  It seems appropriate that he won the the embroidered sweatshirt raffle.

We discussed events coming up this month and next.  In March, the Carolina Z Club will be coming down for Cars & Coffee and then we will take a drive together on a route yet to be determined the the CZC folks.  In April, we plan to have a Dyno Day at Bill's shop and we will have our annual Spring Drive. 
     
2/22/2014
  Several people went up to the Clemson Autocross to watch and learn.  See Pictures  We hope to continue to make this a regular event.
     
2/21/2014   Despite the poor weather, we had a good turnout at Quaker Steak & Lube.  See Pictures  It was all you can eat wing night!!  Once gain, there were several new faces.  We had a raffle and discussed events coming up in the next month.  There is a lot of interest in combing a meeting with karting.  In March, the Carolina Z Club will be coming down for Cars & Coffee and then we will take a drive together on a route yet to be determined the the CZC folks.
     
     
1/25/2014   We attended Cars & Coffee.  Way too cold for sane people so we now know who the insane people are.  See Pictures  A few of us went up to the Clemson Autocross and scouted things out.  We will definitely be making that a regular event.
     
1/14/2014   We had our first regular meeting of 2014 on Tuesday January 14 at Gourmet Pizza.  There were several new faces.  The club membership structure, pricing and benefits were approved and we discussed events for this coming year.  Our new club t-shirt was also unveiled and will be available via our website storefront very soon. 
     
    Our EventZ calendar will get populated with 2014 events in the next few weeks 
     
     
 

     The February meeting will be held at Quaker Steak and Lube off Woodruff and Garlington Rd
     






  2/22 - Several people went up to the Clemson Autocross to watch and learn.  See Pictures  We hope to continue to make this a regular event.
     
    2/11 - Despite the poor weather, we had a good turnout at Quaker Steak & Lube.  See Pictures  It was all you can eat wing night!!  Once gain, there were several new faces.  We had a raffle and discussed events coming up in the next month.  There is a lot of interest in combing a meeting with karting.  In March, the Carolina Z Club will be coming down for Cars & Coffee and then we will take a drive together on a route yet to be determined the the CZC folks. 
     
    Check out the Events calendar for our 2014 events

   We would like to connect as many Z owners in the Upstate as possible so
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