Goodbye Vegas (thank God lol!).
Boys on flight, THIS close to missing it lol!
W Hotel – Ballin’ like hell.
Fulfilled.
Squint a little, you might see it.
Spotted.
Fuuuuck, this trip is cursed I swear LOL. Almost missed flight, some boys did miss it LOL, we’re so loose I think we should just come back home LOL!
If you love the Cross, you’ll love Vegas. If you hate the Cross, fuck Vegas!
Hertz so good.
Adam’s the driver of the JDMyard WTAC EG Civic, he’s been doing ALL of the driving on this trip too (champ!).
Piss Stop. Our shitty rental for the day. It had a pretty bad wheel vibration in the back unless we did at least 100 miles/hr lol.
First stop, Hoover Dam.
It’s damn huge!
We then spotted this lake, and thought we’d head towards it.
At the lake.
Then we had In-N-Out Burger again. 100% love the burger, still not sure about their chips. Super impressed that they make them in-house, but they’re just a little too tasteless and clean for my liking.
Best Song Ever came on the radio (if I ever get married, this is my wedding song!).
Breaking Bad.
Our Destination.
We were so thirsty after the lookout. The general store was shut for stock count, the fuel station’s drink machine was bust but we found this bar, it was pretty freaky lol so we skulled our drinks and got outta there pretty fast.
It was late by the time we got back, we were hungry to we had Korean BBQ close by to the Wynn.
Hite, it’s my fave Korean beer. SUPER CRISPY. If you like Asahi, you’ll like Hite!
Super chill day today. We had planned to get to The Grand Canyon, but on realising just how far away it was (and a few of us couldn’t make it back that late due to a dinner meeting) we had to drop the idea, so we checked out Hoover Dam and Death Valley instead. SO glad we did this today, was great to be out there in the middle of nowhere!
This was shot INDOORS!
We headed next door to the Palazzo for breakfast this morning, they’ve re-created Venice, complete with wet look tiles, a gorgeous painted sky on the ceiling and real Gondolas!
Then we headed in to SEMA again.
I spent this day socialising mostly. This is Ravi from V2LAB who I’ve been in contact with over the net for years now. So great to finally meet him, and his girl Nalanie, who are such an amazing power couple! Was awesome to watch them work, capturing both video and stills throughout the day.
Had to revisit this FD.
And I had to get better shots of the Old & New Japan at Toyo stand.
Pretty awesome (yes I’m partial to slant nosed Porsches!).
Greaser RPRSNT! John Lor and Simon, also from Sydney!
Art. The gold chrome engraved Nissan GT-R created by Kuhl Racing.
Widebody everything. S2K at the Konig stand.
Enjuku 350Z at the Konig stand, driven by Savanna Little.
LB everywhere.
FK2R, which we’re not going to get in Aus.
I then finally caught up with Antonio Logan, who’s been our USA Zen Garage contributor since early 2015. The guy is just SO Zen. I love his vibe. He’s motivated and super positive (despite missing his flight, and having his luggage go missing too!!!). Really looking forward to working with Antonio going forwards.
My man! I then caught up with another Antonio (!). Antonio Alvendia from MotorMavens, who I first met in Sweden for Need for Speed last year. We’ve not seen each other since but it feels like yesterday. LOVE THIS GUY!
As we were leaving SEMA a bunch of promoters on the street were handing out strip club flyers. Antonio was quick to grab some, turns out a little trick he likes to do when he hands out business cards to prospective clients is to “accidentally” spill out titty flyers as he’s grabbing a card out of his wallet!
Luke’s Lobster Las Vegas!
Lobster Roll FTMFW!
Crew!
We woke up a little earlier this morning and ate brekkie at the Palazzo next door, which has a fantastic, and quite trippy painted ceiling. SEMA was different for me today too. MUCH more social as I spent the day catching up with friends I’ve met over the net.
Being done with the big nights, we’ve booked a car to head to the Hoover Dam tomorrow, then on to The Grand Canyon. Should be a refreshing break from all the booze!
What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas… but fuck me dead. I woke up on the floor in my hotel room, with the neck of a T-Shirt stretched around my waist, leaving the rest of the T-Shirt looking like a skirt. I have ZERO memory of shit that went down last night. Pretty sure I was drugged. I’ve lost ALL of my money, phone has been stolen too, but thank God they left me with my passport!!!
Dave had checked us in online, and this somehow screwed up Qantas’ baggage check-in system! Not a good start! THEN Zi had his US currency stolen from him at the check-in at Qantas! Feds were all over it but we had a plane to catch so hopefully he’ll be able to deal with it all later on, back home.
Carbon seats in the A380 were actually quite comfy! Flight was still pretty hard for all of us though.
FINALLY! We made it, only to have to queue like sheep for 2.5hrs before getting out onto the street!
First thing, ciggies. $5!!!
Ken was waiting for us when we got out in his awesome TRD Tundra.
He drove us to the Avis car hire to pick up our Party Bus which ended up being this huge Ford bus with plenty of room and super cold AC too.
Dave ripped his shorts lol.
We then ate at Chick fil A, so good!!!
Spotted this super clean bagged karmann ghia in a carpark (where we were trying to get US sim cards sorted for our phones which ended up being a bit of a pain and took way longer than expected), he had a leak and couldn’t get the car up, he found the leak whilst we were there though.
And a few minutes later his crew arrived. So rad!
Mmmmm Mega Moist. We then checked out the local Wallmart (lol).
Random, right?!
Cray.
We then dropped past The Chronicles Year 8 Anniversary Event. So rad as I’d seen so much of this event footage on the net over the years.
The event had some pretty clean cars parked up inside, outside though was a much more realistic affair with a fair few cars that were modified, but far from perfect, much like our local scene in Australia.
Loved this clean S2K. Lots more Hondas than any other make as expected, chill tunes, chill people and great vibes despite the super harsh sun that was pretty much burning us alive!
Noice.
Pretty cool to finally see USDM clean shaven bays in real life.
WILD!
Drank.
Loved this Trueno.
The only GT-R there, an R32 and it was pretty cool overhearing the locals say that the engine looks a lot bigger in real life (IE: they’d not seen an RB26 before!).
Spoon kit. Polarises people. I personally love it!
Toyo spotting.
Evasive EVO!
This guy had the right idea bringing an umbrella.
And my fave car of the event.
Exit left!
Central driving position!!! Apparently it’s the fastest Civic in the US on the circuits here.
Pretty much a cup car.
More Toyo spotting! R888 RPRSNT!
The trophies.
Yonas and Joey, AKA: @stickydiljoe
Great to finally meet the guy!
Then we ate some more. YAS!!!!
The sky went whack and then we were off on our road trip to Vegas. Man we were absolutely wrecked at this point. Adam’s a champ for driving the distance!
The scenery just got more and more baron as we went along.
Group shot in the Nevada Desert.
Go the bus!
Tesla chargers. It was dark by the time we got into Vegas.
And our hotel, The Wynn, is huge, busy as fuck and bang in the middle of the strip. It’s halloween here too so everyone’s super dressed up!
The hotel’s nuts, and feels like The SIMS! Getting to the hotel elevators is an experience in itself as you have to go through the casino to get there.
8AM and we were all at Sydney International Airport, quietly excited about our huge trip. We ran into John Lor and his mate Simon at the airport SO RAD! I had NO idea John was coming!
It’s been a HUGE day of travelling. I’m buggered, sitting here in the hotel room after having a much needed shower (OMFG so greasy all day). It’s 10.30PM local time now, we’re starving again so we’re going to head downstairs and explore! More tomorrow!
VEGAS, BABY!
Hotel booked (lol, look at it!), and even better, MEDIA pass approved!
WHAT A DAY!!!!! Check out the full feature on Zen Blog. Visit: http://www.zengarage.com.au/2016/09/forza-horizon-3-experience/
Sydney journos arriving at Peppers The Sands Resort in Torquay.
Our Sydney to Melbourne Jetstar flight was delayed by half an hour so we unfortunately missed out on dinner (we got to the hotel at around 9.30PM). The team scrambled quickly and ordered us some Pizza and Beer, perfecto!
My room. Lovely.
6am. Old man is up! Turns out my room looks out onto the golf course!
I’m in Melbourne again this weekend for the Forza Horizon 3 experience, where 10 journalists have been flown in to Peppers The Sands Resort in Torquay to drive 10 exotic cars featured in the game on The Great Ocean Road all day today. The Forza/Microsoft/XBOX team here are being super tight lipped about which 10 cars we’ll be driving today. Either way I’m excited!
I just got in the door and my mobile went off. A number I don’t know… usually I’d just let it ring out, but this time I picked it up and it was Ogilvy, who let me know that one of my Zen contributors Lewis couldn’t make the Forza gig. I’m now taking his place! So Melbourne, see you again next week!
They have iPads on planes now?! Whack.
We’re staying at The Hotel Windsor as Rosamina’s Photographer was going for a 20’s Oriental themed shoot.
Looks like we scored a special suite! Excitement!
Lounge room.
An old liquor cabinet.
Lovely.
Rosamina’s make-up artist Leah was in town and Rosamina ended up organising a shoot with Melbourne based Photographer James Juranke. I didn’t want to crowd his style so I headed out for drinks!
All the downforce!
Tattersalls Lane.
This is Brett! He’s one of the newer contributors to Zen Garage. Was awesome to finally meet the guy face to face!
Brett’s photos of me, way better than mine of him!
Mojito at Section 8.
We hooked up with some of Rosamina’s friends and ended up at The Meatball & Wine Bar on Flinders Lane. Great conversations, great food! SO GOOD!
I’d read that Whisky and Alement were doing a Japanese Pop Up. I’m not a whiskey fan, but I am a fan of mostly anything Japanese so I was totally up for it. I got educated some, mainly, do not skull Whiskey like Vodka!!!
The good stuff.
Rosamina x Pokemon.
Rosamina and I are in Melbourne for the weekend! Super spontaneous trip for me as I only just realised she had a shoot booked. I joked about coming along, nek minnit I’m here! Craziest thing is that the shoot she booked fell through, so now we have one amazing hotel to shoot and hang in, expenses paid! Just my luck, right?!
PS: Had some really lovely conversations with randoms all day and night. Hard not to make comparisons to Sydney. Also, the concierge guessed I was Indonesian/Chinese! I mean, seriously?! The first man ever to guess. Turns out the hotel is owned by Indonesians!