Day 2… oh how very difficult you were to wake up in time for.. especially since I stayed awake till around 3, waiting for the food coma to go away and the food to digest after eating at the Wynn Buffet. So horrible. Anyway, woke up sick early, got ready, and headed over to the track around 7:30. Parked, then met up with the rest of the Yokohama guys, this time including a lot of the XO’s from YTC and YRC. We began setting up everything, starting with the cars and making sure all of them had the proper tire pressure and that the tires weren’t worn down. The press and distributors coming down for sure wouldn’t be bored with the lineup, consisting of 5 RX8s (two of them 40th anniversary and one of them a Mazdaspeed edition), 2 Evo Xs, an Audi A4 and S8, and a Porsche Carrera S Cabriolet. Anyway, not too much to say about the event. Entire track was open to use, also set up an autocross track on the skidpad, and that everyone seemed to have a very positive response about the new AD08s. I’ll let pictures do the rest of the talking.
Stopped by to pick up a bottle of water before heading over to the track. If you know me, or were with us at Formula D Vegas this year.. you know what kind of fear I have developed for Iron Skillet LOL.
The G Trailer.
International Press and Distributors arriving.
Before allowing to drive solo, they were required to ride along with one of the drivers to show the course layout.
One of the many RX8s
Getting ready to go on.
The MS joint. Pretty cool actually.
All cars were also equipped with GoPros, so drivers could put their SD card in and record their drives.
New Neova AD08s. Amazing tires.
RX8 on left equipped with AD07s, and RX8 on right equipped with AD08s.
Out on the track snapping a few shots.
Evo X.
Driver was getting pretty nutty hahah.
Evo X MR.
After a quick session, it was lunch time, so everyone migrated to the meeting room.
List of what cars run Yokohama tires as OE equipment. Yep your eyes are not deceiving you.. they do supply to Boeing.
Features of the new Neova.
Advan A048. Still my favorite R-Compound tire to date.
Advan STs
Advan Sport.
The star of the show: the Advan Neova AD08. Will be running these on my C63.
Group shot!
Audi S8. Would love to have one of these as a daily hahahah.
Pro drivers now taking press along for rides to show how far you can really push these tires.
“Hey I’m going to string the first three turns into a continuous drift. That’ll make the press happy.” LOL. You do what you gotta do man.
Evolution Racewerk’s 135i. So sick. Crazy fast on the track.
Can’t ever go wrong with bright orange wheels LOL. Evo was running hard until it started losing power. Not sure what happened.
The three pros ready to roll.
Waiting to be driven.
Took a shot while JC was shooting down the straight hahah.
Would love to try driving this later on today.
After all that, they went over to the autocross course for the rest of the day. Me, being lazy, stayed at the trailer and just kicked it with the rest of the staff. After everyone left, they had to start replacing the tires on all the cars in order for everything to be ready for the next day.
Kevin taking off all four wheels on the 911
Kevin #2 working his magic on the (dis)mounter.
After all that, we ended up getting back to the hotel around 8, where Allen and I started burning copy after copy of CDs containing the Yokohama Press Kit, product guides, and photos from today. Took about 1 1/2 hours to burn 34 CDs. We then had to wait for Matt to come and pick up everything so we could finally go grab some dinner. Now how do you celebrate after doing work all day? Easy.. by blowing yourself up with food! So, per Francis’ recommendation, we went over to the Mirage to Carnegie Deli.
I ordered a “Woody Allen,” which consists of both corned beef and pastrami (REAL pastrami mind you.. not “stringy meat” ala THE HAT). I’ve already seen pictures of how large the sandwiches are, but really now.. how bad could it be?
BAD. VERY BAD. BAAAAAAAAAD.
WHAT. THE. DEUCE.
Yes. It really is that large. It was pretty much stacked to the height of a ketchup bottle. I ate half the sandwich, and the other half I just couldn’t hang and had to take home.
Total was about 16 per sandwich, which really isn’t too bad considering the portions.
Now feeling super blowed, we decided it would probably be in our best interest to walk back to Paris from the Mirage, since it wasn’t that far anyway, and we’d be saving money from the cab ride.
Walking out of The Mirage.
Nice chill weather. Perfect for a nice chill walk.
Still impressive every time I see it.
Anyway, took us about 15 minutes until we got back to Paris and into our room. I was planning to sleep early that night, since we had a sick early call time the next day, but that totally didn’t happen. I don’t want to get into specifics, but I’ll just say I got a call from someone, talked about something serious, and then the issue kept me up all night, to the point where I ended up going down and walking around the strip, ending up at the Bellagio, and staring out into the water, hoping to clear my mind. It kind of worked, but it wasn’t until I got a random call from Ms. Nancy Lin all the way from New York that I started feeling better. She, being the awesome person that she is, stayed on the phone with me for a solid two hours, listening and offering rather sound advice to me. Of course, also played catch-up during those two hours, since we haven’t seen each other for almost a year, so no worries it wasn’t just me being boring. Just kidding Nancy don’t kill me! LOL. But yes, thanks to her I actually got a few hours of sleep before having to wake up. Thank you miss, I shall treat you to dinner next time you’re back in town!
Yep. Vegas always brings troubles LOL. Just one more day before I can pack up and go home!
One mo’ gain.
LOL. Poor Kid.
Anyway, last post on Vegas coming on later today/early tomorrow!
- Charlie
