Rallye Star!

	November 2-3, 2006 Lots of seeing at SEMA! It was that time of year again, time to load up my nicest ride and head out to Las Vegas for the second annual Rallye Star excursion to SEMA, the largest aftermarket car show in the world. Last year I was just a tourist. I didn’t even have a badge and I just kept sneaking into the different halls and handing out punk-rock style photocopied fliers. Luckily, I had fate on my side and I could move pretty quickly and I had dressed like a car model, so nobody really paid me much attention as I slipped past. This year was different. One of my sponsors had arranged for me to get a proper badge and I was going for two days with the specific purpose of making contacts in the industry and looking for new sponsors. I’d done a lot more preparation. I’d brought along my glossy promo fliers, business cards and a prospectus for next season as well as a new Rallye Star outfit that I’d made myself. This year it was all about business, and when I arrived, I was there when the doors opened with a movement plan to make the giant halls a little more manageable. I started off in the performance parts section with the objective of finding parts for my Pike’s Peak/time attack Evo 8, a 600+ HP monster who will need high performance parts; as well as bits for Vegas and things that I can use for drifting next year, although I’m not sure what car I’ll use for that. I know Anakin’s been lonely and little Miles doesn’t much like the rough roads out here in America... Well, we’ll see. There were so many booths to visit and I was quite surprised at the responses that I received, positive encouragement, possibilities for sponsorship and technical support. People were surprised to learn that I was actually Vegas’ driver- most people thought I was just a model! But that didn’t keep me from stopping to sign a few autographs and take lots of pictures. It still seems really strange to me that people want my autograph, but I’ve learned that if I act like I know what I’m doing, I can get a little crowd going and get people interested in me and my website. One of the other surprising things that happened came when I stopped to admire a really beautiful hachi roku (1986 Toyota Corolla, just like mine but the hatchback version). I started talking to the guys and I found out that the hachi was a D1 drift car and that most of the guys there knew who I was from my website, the Japanese Classic Car Show and the small amount of messages I’d posted on SoCalEvo.net. And then I’d met some more guys who knew about me from other rallying people and I even met friends of Tony Dela Cuesta who’d built Anakin for him! Wow! I can’t begin to describe how surprised I was to see that people knew about me. But then again, I’ve worked very hard for the past two years to get my name out there and it felt really good to see that my work was paying off. Oh, the things to see! There were lots of Evos but only two hachis. I found some nice wide body kits for the Pike’s/time attack car and made friends with some cute Silvias and 240s. There were turbos the size of my head and superchargers bigger than my shop vac! And of course there were pointless things that were just super cool- a Mercedes covered in rhinestones, iced out SUVs with TV screens in every conceivable orifice including the inside of the gas flap, a car that seemed to be more closely related to a boom box, an airbrushed portrait of Captain Jack, 27” wheels, and amateur monster trucks. And then there was the outrageous and the sacrilegious- see-through wheels, a turbo- and super-charged Scion (nice concept, stupid car!), a poor Skyline GT-R with silly gull wing doors and horrible glitter paint that made it look like it had gotten in between Justin Timberlake and a cheerleading squad; and to top it off a pink Hummer lifted to the roof with overly large wheels and giant rhinestones that reminded me of my old My Little Ponies. The rock crawlers were out in the parking lot again, but I wasn’t about to take a ride when I was wearing a mini skirt. On Friday, I was pretty tired, but I had only got through half of the hall on Thursday so I got up early again and started in the wheels and tires section. Tires are one of the most expensive parts that my cars need, so I spent a long time looking into potential sponsorship arrangements and just like the day before, I got a great response to my Pike’s Peak plan. Although I really wanted to push rallying, I found that I had such a great response to my drifting, Pike’s and time attack proposal that I’m seriously going to begin training for tarmac events. Although I love rallying in the dirt and most rallies in the U.S. are gravel events, there are many awesome tarmac rally events elsewhere in the world (Ireland!) so if I started training on tarmac, I suppose I wouldn’t really be betraying my rallying roots. And besides, with such a large family of modified Japanese cars, they should all get the chance to go out and stretch their legs. Back to Diary of a Driver.

November 2-3, 2006

Lots of seeing at SEMA!

It was that time of year again, time to load up my nicest ride and head out to Las Vegas for the second annual Rallye Star excursion to SEMA, the largest aftermarket car show in the world. Last year I was just a tourist. I didn’t even have a badge and I just kept sneaking into the different halls and handing out punk-rock style photocopied fliers. Luckily, I had fate on my side and I could move pretty quickly and I had dressed like a car model, so nobody really paid me much attention as I slipped past.

This year was different. One of my sponsors had arranged for me to get a proper badge and I was going for two days with the specific purpose of making contacts in the industry and looking for new sponsors. I’d done a lot more preparation. I’d brought along my glossy promo fliers, business cards and a prospectus for next season as well as a new Rallye Star outfit that I’d made myself. This year it was all about business, and when I arrived, I was there when the doors opened with a movement plan to make the giant halls a little more manageable.

I started off in the performance parts section with the objective of finding parts for my Pike’s Peak/time attack Evo 8, a 600+ HP monster who will need high performance parts; as well as bits for Vegas and things that I can use for drifting next year, although I’m not sure what car I’ll use for that. I know Anakin’s been lonely and little Miles doesn’t much like the rough roads out here in America... Well, we’ll see.

There were so many booths to visit and I was quite surprised at the responses that I received, positive encouragement, possibilities for sponsorship and technical support. People were surprised to learn that I was actually Vegas’ driver- most people thought I was just a model! But that didn’t keep me from stopping to sign a few autographs and take lots of pictures. It still seems really strange to me that people want my autograph, but I’ve learned that if I act like I know what I’m doing, I can get a little crowd going and get people interested in me and my website.

One of the other surprising things that happened came when I stopped to admire a really beautiful hachi roku (1986 Toyota Corolla, just like mine but the hatchback version). I started talking to the guys and I found out that the hachi was a D1 drift car and that most of the guys there knew who I was from my website, the Japanese Classic Car Show and the small amount of messages I’d posted on SoCalEvo.net. And then I’d met some more guys who knew about me from other rallying people and I even met friends of Tony Dela Cuesta who’d built Anakin for him! Wow! I can’t begin to describe how surprised I was to see that people knew about me. But then again, I’ve worked very hard for the past two years to get my name out there and it felt really good to see that my work was paying off.

Oh, the things to see! There were lots of Evos but only two hachis. I found some nice wide body kits for the Pike’s/time attack car and made friends with some cute Silvias and 240s. There were turbos the size of my head and superchargers bigger than my shop vac! And of course there were pointless things that were just super cool- a Mercedes covered in rhinestones, iced out SUVs with TV screens in every conceivable orifice including the inside of the gas flap, a car that seemed to be more closely related to a boom box, an airbrushed portrait of Captain Jack, 27” wheels, and amateur monster trucks. And then there was the outrageous and the sacrilegious- see-through wheels, a turbo- and super-charged Scion (nice concept, stupid car!), a poor Skyline GT-R with silly gull wing doors and horrible glitter paint that made it look like it had gotten in between Justin Timberlake and a cheerleading squad; and to top it off a pink Hummer lifted to the roof with overly large wheels and giant rhinestones that reminded me of my old My Little Ponies. The rock crawlers were out in the parking lot again, but I wasn’t about to take a ride when I was wearing a mini skirt.

On Friday, I was pretty tired, but I had only got through half of the hall on Thursday so I got up early again and started in the wheels and tires section. Tires are one of the most expensive parts that my cars need, so I spent a long time looking into potential sponsorship arrangements and just like the day before, I got a great response to my Pike’s Peak plan. Although I really wanted to push rallying, I found that I had such a great response to my drifting, Pike’s and time attack proposal that I’m seriously going to begin training for tarmac events. Although I love rallying in the dirt and most rallies in the U.S. are gravel events, there are many awesome tarmac rally events elsewhere in the world (Ireland!) so if I started training on tarmac, I suppose I wouldn’t really be betraying my rallying roots. And besides, with such a large family of modified Japanese cars, they should all get the chance to go out and stretch their legs.

Back to Diary of a Driver.