Twitter: @TurboJayhall
Instagram: @turbo_jayhall
Some people would look at us and dismiss us as nothing but
no good trouble makers, street racers, no good hooligans. Well in some cases that might not be far off,
but as always there are two sides to each story. I’m going to back up to last week and tell
you all a little about my weekend before I get to my point.
Friday morning at 9:30 I am waiting at the trailer rental
company’s parking lot for them to open so I can get my rented flat deck home to
load my car up and hit the road. I am
heading south of my home country and province to spend the weekend in Portland
Oregon for the 2014 Pacific Northwest Supra Nationals. A yearly event that brings people from all
walks of life together because of our love for old Toyotas. Just a quick history lesson, Toyota made the
Celica Supra from 1978-1986 when they split the Celica and the Supra into
separate cars and the Supra was continued for sale in North America until
1998. Points being that these are not a
car that is still in production. So I
get my car loaded up and I hit the border, wave my nexus pass, talk to the officer
for a minute then I am off to meet my friend Cory who lives in the town
directly across the 49th parallel. I
told him the shell station on the wrong street
but after about 5 minutes I went to the right station, met up with him,
and we were headed south on the I-5
trying to catch up with the rest of the Canadian caravan. We ended up meeting them at a fuel stop and
it was time for a quick lunch so we found a pizza place with a buffet. Perfect.
We stuff ourselves full of pizza and as we get back to the
parking lot we find that someone had hit Mihir's car and literally tore half
the bumper off the ground and left it lying on the ground. To our surprise there was a note with an
apology and a phone number on it. Mihir
was rightfully heated and wanted to tell this guy what he thought of his
apology, keep in mind these cars are our pride and joy with countless hours of
work and thought put into them. I knew
that wasn't the way to go so I borrowed Cory's phone and gave this guy a
call. He couldn't have been a better
guy, had all his insurance information for us and he even offered to come back
and help us get the car roadworthy, as he saw that we were from out of state
and didn't want to leave us high and dry.
His simple gesture was so much more than just a note; he also left an
impression on our hearts. Seriously he
fucked up, then stepped up to the plate and took responsibility for his
mistake, a real man. Luckily in my truck
I had every tool I owned including drills and an assortment of different bits
and we were able to jerry rig the bumper up where it belonged and carry on our
way. Mind you we had to wait for the
sheriff to show up, document that it happened and gave us an incident report
for our insurance purposes. By the way,
the sheriff was cool as fuck. Once we
finished up with the business end of our encounter he returned from his cruiser
with his Iphone and showed us his Audi.
So naturally him being a car guy we stood around and talked cars for a
bit (while listening very closely to his dispatcher on his radio of
course)
So we hit the road and got stuck
in some really bad gridlock, which was not good because now Cory's electric
cooling fans have decided to stop working.
So we pull over, and luckily I had all my tools and hardware to re wire
his electric fans on the side of the 405 in Everett. Let me tell you everything under that hood
was incredibly hot and we somehow managed to not get burnt. Bonus. So we got
those working and 40 minutes later we were on the road, in gridlock for 2.5 more
hours but hey, such is life.
Let's fast forward to Friday night. We check into the hotel at about 9, get my
car off the trailer and we head out to meet up with the locals who are going to
a go-kart track for some laps. We end up
meeting up with the rest of the Canadian crew there as well. After the go-kart we all head back to the
hotel and then once everyone is checked in we discuss what is on our
minds. Obviously it’s food. So we are looking for something in walking
distance as we are all tired of driving.
You might not believe this but around 11 pm on a Friday night in
Portland it is very hard to find a sit down restaurant that is still serving
food. As we are wandering around the
streets contemplating just getting snacks and beer at the gas station down the
street we see our friends Duane and Don (not to be forgotten is Duane's wife
Marylyn). This was unexpected to see
them so we go running over and everyone says our hellos as some of us haven’t
seen each other in a while and it was a very joyous occasion. Either way they were looking for food too and
together we figured out that the gas station snacks and beer was really our
only immediate option. So over we go, like
a bunch of insane people we choose our snacks and select our beers so that we
can head back to the hotel. 10 or so of
us was too much for one hotel room and some of us were at different hotels that
were actually next door to each other.
So clearly we have a parking lot party, hanging out on my rented flat
deck car hauler, telling jokes, poking fun at each other and laughing the night
way.
Now comes Saturday, and let me tell you it was far less
eventful than Friday but still special nonetheless. Saturday we all went to a high performance
shop with a dyno so that everyone can talk about how much power their cars make
and then prove it. Which is great fun,
everyone gets to talk about what they've done with their cars and what they'd
like to do to make more power, hang out in the sun and just have a really fun
day in general. One thing that is
notable is that Duane set a personal best of 1035.92 horsepower. You read that right, and yes that’s a huge
accomplishment. SO after the day at the
shop everyone takes off for a scenic drive through the beautiful state of
Oregon - drive was amazing, and there is something really special about driving
down I-84 with 30 other Supras at the same time. For a guy who's into those cars, it’s really
tough to top that.
Now the thing about the meet being over is that it felt like
it only just began - the point of all this is that the people made this event
so amazing. Magic is really the only way to describe it. As I said a lot of these people come from
different walks of life, but we were all brought together by the love of Toyota
Supras. A bumper gets pulled off in a
parking lot, we rally together and fix it, get it back together and get the
info we needed. Electric cooling fans
stop working in grid lock and we get them re-wired and fixed so that we can get
to Portland come hell or high water. We
see our friends in the parking lot and immediately set up something so that we
can all socialize and enjoy each other’s company. Duane breaks his own personal record on the
dyno and the entire crowd cheers. We
drive together and then meet up together to all shine our cars up and show them
so that everyone can see what you've done, maybe inspire someone else who has
just got into the Supra game to further their mechanical knowledge and desire
to work on their car. This is what I
took from this whole weekend is that it is very important to get together with
people who share the same interests and passions as you. It’s refreshing, it’s always the best weekend
of my summer when this annual event comes around. Whether your passion is knitting quilts,
drinking craft beer or even my little pony I suggest that you go to one of
these meets, conventions or quilt sales.
Whatever it may be, no matter what it is just do it, get yourself out
there and get inspired, or inspire someone else. You won’t regret it I promise you that
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