Firstly I would like to thank everybody who attended the Berri Show N Shine this year. All in all there were only 6 Zeds, but we made the most of it. Personally I was a little disappointed with the SA crew who failed to make it, as the Vic Zedders who had to drive several hours were equal in number to the SA contingent!!! Very slack! And everybody wonders why nobody organises anything in SA?!?!? :wacko: Anyway..... back to the post The Vic crew consisted of Pete Wykked) & Jen plus kids ; Doug (Red32) with wingman Jack(zxtt-1); and Mark (Jedi77) and his fiance Judith. The SA Zedders consisted of yours truly and wife Amanda; plus new members Anthony and Tania(ANT & TAN); and Wes who was (i think) not previously a member of the forum but happened to be talked into going after being spotted at the hotel on the Friday night (i think that was how it happened, I am sure someone will correct me if I am wrong). SA members who participated minus the Zed were Dave, Mia and Lani (cheers for all the hard work you guys put in for the great event); Jarrad & Lauren; and Jim & Rita who set out with Zed and Eureka in tow, but ended up arriving in the Eureka (long story.... p.s. Amanda does love you guys, so really, the hitmen shouldnt be necessary.... ) Come award night, we were pleasantly surprised when Wykked (the car) placed 2nd in the Jap import category, plus longest distance travelled to be there, while Mark and Judith's Zed placed a well deserved 4th in the Jap import category. Jim's Eureka also scored 2nd place in its category (i think it was Ferrari's:thumbsup He also had a stint as guest presenter for a very prestigious award..... Drag day bought with it yet more sunshine and heat which only seemed to add to the sunburn and panda eyes from the previous day. With the shorter 1/8th Mile strip cars seemed to be circulating pretty quickly. The 3 Zeds who participated all seemed to have fun and cant wait for a proper 1/4 mile track. Unfortunately we had to leave after lunch with a few runs up my sleeve but it was still a great day for somebody who was new to drags! Cheers once more to all who attended and made the weekend such a great event. See you all (and hopefully others) at Berri 2006!!
Looks the goods again Rob. Sorry I couldn't back up this year as well. Would have been good to see the finished Eureka and the rest of the SA guys and gals too. Maybe Coonabarabran (sp?) Tim
More pics and writeup (lots of pics)... Well, this was my first long adventure in the zed, and it was so much fun that I will be doing it again (except next year because my wedding falls on the berri weekend). The Vic crew met at Gisborne, after which we set off for the long drive. It was either the WYKKED mobile or Blondie's little corolla in the lead, and doug and I just followed. At 7:30pm we arrived in Berri where we met up with the SA crew. You could not meet a nicer bunch of people if you tried. It was good to see both old and new faces. After a bit of a rest and a few drinks at the pub, the night ticked away over a BBQ, more drinks, and lots of mosquito bites (bastards). The next morning, the zedders were up early to wash all the bugs and crap that had accumulated on the drive to SA. Cars had to be on display no later than 9am, as judging started at 9:30am... and so it began.... we made our way over to the oval and arranged our cars. Nothing special, but a row of clean shinny zeds is always a pleasing sight. For anyone not familiar with zeds, you'd think that zeds only came out in 2 colors. Red and grey. Shinny JEDI mobile Robs sexy zed... Dougs "DREDZ".... never seen his engine so clean... Something always compells me to photograph Wykkeds car... maybe I have a weakness for engine bling... Yes its true. Pete has an inflatable doll. Anthony's cool zed decked out in Veilside... Sexy arses.. Humans would have to be the hardest object to photograph. Point the camera at them, and they all dissapear. The zeds were judged very early in the morning. Here's the JEDI mobile being looked over by 3 scary looking judges..(oh ok, not you dave).. Heaps and heaps of cars were present. Lots of new and lots of old. Personally, I like the old skool stuff.. This monster produced 395rwkw, and would have produced more if they could stop the rear wheels from slipping on the dyno... Anyone that knows me well, knows that I have an orange sigma as a daily driver. Well, I have found my inspiration. Whats that sticking out of the bonnet you say? Well this baby runs a sigma Astron 4 cylinder engine (with strengthened internals) with NOS. 89rwkw on petrol, 186rwkw on NOS... Nice little gemini... ended up winning some trophies A very nice EH holden.... Can someone tell me what these are??? I remember reading the badge but now I forget... Some jap stuff there as well.... Lots of detailing and lots of rice... but I cant talk, i have gold engine bits... I believe this 180sx ended up winning the Jap Import category. And has done so for a few years... This was in the back of a Nissan Exa.... does it come with hearing aids? Didnt know much about the Eureka's, but I really like them... Just some random pics of lots of old skool goodness... Someone likes "pus in boots"... This person has taste.... notice the gold engine bits? Some more zed pics.. After the show and shine was the dinner and award ceremony. It reminded me of the oscars. Loooooooooooooonnngggg.... but thankfully, dave (who was the MC) made it an entertaining and ammusing night.... Someone started throwing paper planes and alas, dougs secret talent was finally revealed. He makes the most intricate and functinal planes i have ever seen.. All the hardwork in cleaning paid off. From left to right: Runner up in Jap Import category awarded to Pete Saunders / Jen Copeland. Longest distance travelled awarded to Pete Saunders / Jen Copeland. Fourth in Jap Import category awarded to Mark Biondo (ME!).. All in all, a great weekend. Would have been even better without the mosquito's and the huge mossie bites all over my body.. Nice seeing the SA crew again, hope to see you all again soon... Dont have any pics of the drag day I'm afraid as Judith and I had to head back to melb, but I'm sure the guys that competed will have plenty of photos.. Cheers
We love you to (HITMAN) cancelled cant afford expense Check under your car each and every day Amanda 1.2.3. Z comes back to Adelaide on Thursday I just love Berri can we change venue or Berri's name.Jokes aside big thanks to Lauren and Jarrad for all their help extracting Z from parking spot in the great outdoors Will confirm damage after Friday Thanks Guys and Gals Rita & James:zlove:
What a great show !!! I can help with that photo Jedi. First of all...... well done to the Zedders that won trophies at Berri and also I'd like to congratulate those that made the journey from interstate. We just popped up from Adelaide for a look this year to see what the show is like and to hopefully meet a few of you guys. We were really pleased with the quality of the show and it was great to see other Z enthusiasts are such great people. Jedi - You ask what the cars are in one of your photo's. On the left is a 1969 Chev Camaro and on the right is a 1967 or 1968 Mercury Couger (of Ford Origin). Keep up the great work guys and good pics Jedi and Rob.
DREDZ gets owned!!! Lotsa words, no pics Once again (second time there) a brilliant weekend, catching up with the SA crew, and new member-to-be Wes. I would also say a big THANKS to Max and Kay , managers of the Berri Riverside Caravan Park. This place would have to be one of the best parks in Australia... so clean and neat, especially the shower blocks. I took a few pics of the trip up while Jack was driving, nothing worth posting, and then lost interest. Friday night and Saturday have been related above, so I'll concentrate on the drag day (Sunday) The temporary strip was located at the Wakerie Gliding Club Airstrip, some 60km from Berri (so another early bloody start), with the generous support of the local council. The event was a huge public push for a proper drag-strip in the region, something the Show 'n' Shine organisers have been supporting for quite a few years now. I guess there would have been 6-700 paying customers there during the day, with never less than 3-400 lining the strip. The days racing was sanctioned and run by ANDRA. Driver registration and scrutineering of cars eventually happened, and things got underway. First pass was by a AA fueler, which quite easily overpowered the track. The airstrip there is a fairly rough grade of hotmix designed to give aircraft some grip, even in the wet, and not really suited to drag racing. Next up was the HQ Monaro coupe which had previously made fun of the dyno (395rwKw, with wheel spin). It did this massive burn-out, then proceeded to smoke the entire eigth-mile. Eventually, I lined up against Blondie in the Wykked mobile. Now, here's where I would have liked a pic to have been taken. Pre-stage on the water, brakes on, get the wind-up from the marshall, 6 grand on the tacho and still not moving, ease the brakes off, start moving slowly forward in what should have been the worlds biggest burn-out.... no freakin' smoke from the tyres, not a skerrick. Bugger. Anyway, back-up and stage, 2500rpm with brakes, yellows then green, brakes off and GOOOOOo! Entry form had a section for estimated 660ft time, so I put what I ran at Heathcote... 9.9 secs. First run at Wakerie, 9.98/71.31mph. Given the high ambient temperature here (25 at midday) compared with the low-teens and proper drag strip surface at Heathcote, I was pretty impressed... the new headers must be doing something. The 60ft time was a little slower than at Heathcote... even my auto NA was wheel-spinning off the line. Blondie was a bit intimidated by the crowd ('They're not my Zed-friends') and missed the start, left the gear selector in first and eventually crossed with a 11.1/53.8. As the temperatures rose (topped at 30degrees) my times blew out into the 10.0s, but still not too bad. Second run against Blondie was won on a hole-shot 10.02/71.31 to 9.97/80.07. Third run was aginst Rob's manual NA, again a hole-shot win to me 10.09/71.43 to 10.62/69.33. Fourth run, again with Blondie in the Wykked, win to Blondie 9.64/84.11 to my 10.14/70.64. That can't be right, have to go again! Fifth run, Blondie champing at the bit after a little in-pit stirring by me (I did the Ambrose/Murphy confrontation re-enactment after she beat me in the previous run... 'had to spoil my day, bloody women', etc). Pre-stage, burn-out, stage, best R/T of the day (0.74 secs), away we go. Bugger! Blondie has a hole-shot 0.60 (where did that come from?). Never mind, get into it. Then BANG! Huge backfire. Engine settles, then a series of backfires... Blondie/Wykked is well gone by this stage so I get out of it to cross the line 13.37/29.31 to Blondies winning 9.57/79.78mph. Limp back to the pits, visual inspection, nothing obviously amiss, engine now running and revving sweetly. Pete hooks up Consult, all OK, so we put it down to very low fuel level (I started the day with a quarter tank to save weight (or to compensate for my personal overweight). No more for me after this, too risky. So we packed up and left what had been a really great days fun (At this stage I wasn't too sure!) Drove back to Berri, but stopped on the way to put some more fuel in. Leaving the servo, another big backfire, so it wasn't the fuel level causing the problem. Monday morning, started the car to warm the engine, idling smoothly for a while, then... putt, putt, putt... it drops a cylinder. OOOhhh Shit! Bonnet up, look around, eventually found a loose coil-pack connector on #1 cylinder. Push it back on and it's been sweet ever since. Phew! But I think the most interesting aspect of the Sunday drags was the improvement in Blondie's reaction times and ET's as her confidance grew, to my detriment. The fact that Wykked is a TT probably also helped! Drive back to Melbourne with four drivers swapping between three cars. Have you ever got to the stage where you're so tired that your eyes don't focus... well, that happened to me on the way home. Nearly ran up the rear of the Wykked when I didn't see that Jack (who was driving Wykked at the time) had slowed. Oops! Next stop, said too tired to drive (not ashamed of that, it would have been stupid to continue), got to ride in the Wykked machine as PSA... awesome. Last stop at Maccas, Calder Park, wave goodbye to all, then home, to dinner, a couple of beers, and this. GREAT WEEKEND.
