NSXPO SoCal caravan

Joined
16 September 2001
Messages
389
Location
Orange County, CA, USA
Yes, it's still more than 3 months away, but past experience says it's not too early to start thinking about a SoCal caravan up to San Rafael for NSXPO 2003.

Numerous previous NSXPO caravan participants have commented that getting to/from the event was part of the fun and although the drive is relatively short for those of us in the SW region, it too should prove to be a good time nonetheless.

Unless someone else wants to step up and begin organizing the caravan, I'll throw this early post out as the initial inquiry to find out who is interested and to see if we can agree on a common set of dates and times.

So to get the ball rolling, according to Yahoo Maps, the distance from Orange County, Calfornia is 450 miles, and the approximate travel time is 7 hours. I won't dispute the mileage, but for the sake of argument, factoring in LA and northern CA traffic, as well as regular pit stops, let's assume the drive is more like 9 hours.

If the caravan leaves from Orange County at 6AM, we should be able to get through LA before things get realy ugly.

As far as dates, official NSXPO activities begin on Wednesday, October 8th. If the caravan arrives the day before, Tuesday October 7th, we can kick back on the 8th, clean our cars and take in the local sites (wine!).

NSXPO officially ends on Sunday the 12th and a 9 hour drive home afterwards isn't too appealing. Nor is the idea of drving home on the 13th with everyone else who may be off work that day since it is a holiday (Columbus Day). Driving home on Tuesday the 14th gives us a day to relax and take in the local sites (more wine) and skip the holiday traffic.

Summarized, the agenda looks like this:

Orange County CA to San Rafael, CA
450 miles, approx 9 hours drive time

Depart OC Tuesday, 10/7 @ ~6am
Arrive San Rafael @ ~4pm

Depart San Rafael Tuesday, 10/14 @ ~7am
Arrive OC @ ~5pm

It's hoped that NSXPO attendees from AZ and NM can join the caravan by perhaps arriving in OC on 10/6, ready to depart the morning of 10/7. San Diego attendees can most likely be in OC the morning of departure.

So there you have it, the first pass at a SW NSXPO caravan. Nothing is cast in stone, but if you have a differing opinion, don't wait too long to make it known so that we can try and pin down dates and times.

Oh, and one more thing. It's unlikely that we'll come up with a single proposal that will make everyone happy - it just doesn't happen that way. Express your opinions - I'll tabulate the feedback and present the most popular option to the masses.

No whining allowed!

Dave
 
SoCal Caravan to NSXPO

Dave, Thanks for getting this going. Driving up on Tuesday sounds fine but I must return Monday 10/13. I hoping there's enough of us going there so everyone can match up with someone. I'll sit back and see what the other member's schedule is. How can you whine in wine country with your NSX.;) Gil
 
Dave the clock Nazi

I'm in. I'll bring the gummi bears.
 
for those of us that may not be able to take that many days off from work, is there a rough agenda of the nsxpo currently available? So, that we can see the activities planned, and head up to nsxpo at a later date.

I hope I can join the big caravan, but will have to see how things go.
 
I am taking the wife, baby AND the NSX and want to travel together. The plan is to only stay Friday and Saturday, leaving Sunday morning(I can't take THAT much time off work!) So, I have been planning to have a covered cargo transport 6cars on Thursday and then taking the Amtrak up Thursday morning, staying the night and have the truck arrive and unload the cars Friday morning. This way, I make sure I see the cars both loading and unloading. I have 3-4 total cars commited to this and I am in search for 2-3 more. The cost(the lowest I have found in a reputable co.) is 3000 total round trip for the truck. Divided by 6 and you get 500 per car. Anyone interested?
Thanks,
John
 
The drive up...

Driving up together sounds great!
We are going to go up on Wednesday and come back home on Sunday. Is anyone interested in going on those days? We can't take more time off of work than that.
Maybe we can have several groups going up and coming back on different days......
 
SilverOne said:
for those of us that may not be able to take that many days off from work, is there a rough agenda of the nsxpo currently available? So, that we can see the activities planned, and head up to nsxpo at a later date.

I hope I can join the big caravan, but will have to see how things go.


Uhmmm......

www.nsxpo.com

;)
 
I'd like to caravan, but I'm still debating whether or not I want to head up in one shot or leave before Tuesday, take it easy along the coast, and make stops along the way (especially in San Francisco...as I have family there).

I don't want to miss a single day of NSXPO.

As for the return trip, I'll definitely want to make it quick and direct...so I'd definitely like to caravan back to L.A.
 
I say we all ought to take the nice pretty coastal route up and the very boring (but faster and more direct) I-5 on the way back.
 
Looks like the preferences are all over the map. Here is mine...

Wednesday is more of a pre-registration day. If we were to arrive during dinner time, we can register and ready to go on Thur. So I am thinking of taking 3 vacation days and be back to OC by Monday.

I do like the idea of heading up on PCH and driving back on 5.

If it takes 9 hours to get there, we can skip the LA traffic by leaving at 9:30 and try to be there by 7pm. That'll give the SD folks a few extra hours sleep. I just wished that there is a way to avoid the web of highways in the bay area at the end of the drive.

It'll be my first track event. Do you track junkies have any suggestion of what to prepare, besides a pair of brown underwear?:o
 
As you might have suspected, there's no shortage of opinions regarding the itinerary for an NSXPO caravan, which is cool. We've got plenty of time to sort things out, but the important thing is to start thinking about it now. We may very well end up with a couple of different caravans heading north, which is realistic based on the number of NSX owners in SoCal.

I'll keep this thread alive for the next few weeks to allow those with an opinion to express it, and from there we can propose an intinerary(s) based on popular opinion.

Dave
 
Hey Dave-

Do you know of anyone up there that I can send my track wheels to ahead of time and can help with shipping them back at the end of the event?

That way, we can drive the NSX up PCH rather than trailering it up I-5. Maybe one of the event organizers can set soemthing up with one of the trackside shops up there (the Racer's Group, etc., etc.) for anyone who wants to do this..
 
Sounds like there's interest in a "CalCoastal" caravan....perfect! :D

Marc, you've been to NSXPO before, right? How rough are NSXPO track events on OEM tires? I'm concerned because I expect my current set to have between 3,000 and 3,500 miles on them before we caravan up...and, obviously, the drive to and from NSXPO will use a good percentage of what remains on my rears.

Marc, I see you're trying to get away with an animated avatar...hope no one yells at you (I had done something similar when NSX Prime updated the forums).
 
Well, you are running regular street tires, right? Unless they are close to giving up the ghost, probably not a big deal. How much they wear on the track has a direct correlation to how aggressively you drive! This will be your first event, right? If so, you be spending much of the first day on the basics, and will probably only be building up speed by the middle or end of the second day. It’s just very tough to estimate how many miles of street wear a track event equals, but probably a good way to eyeball it would be to figure out how many street miles you normally get on whatever rubber you are running, and deduct conservatively from there. You might get yourself some better piece of mind if you get a new set of rears before the drive up there.

So we aren’t allowed to have animated GIF’s?? I wanted to try to put part of that motorcycle chase as my avatar (you can tell I just learned how to make an animated GIF and im putting them everywhere! :) But the rules just said 150x150 and a max of 40kb. I did not see any rule against animations, so im “grandfathered” in! :)
 
Yeah, this will be my first track event and yes, I'm referring to the OEM Yokos. I'm anticipating that they'll only be half used by the time NSXPO begins, so I'd feel foolish replacing them before driving up to NSXPO.

As for the animated GIF, I interpreted the "rules" to mean exactly what you did...and I maximized the quality of mine to fill the 25KB size limit. Here's the thread I started when I first discovered this new "feature"..
 
CDub said:
Looks like the preferences are all over the map. Here is mine...

Wednesday is more of a pre-registration day. If we were to arrive during dinner time, we can register and ready to go on Thur. So I am thinking of taking 3 vacation days and be back to OC by Monday.

I do like the idea of heading up on PCH and driving back on 5.

If it takes 9 hours to get there, we can skip the LA traffic by leaving at 9:30 and try to be there by 7pm. That'll give the SD folks a few extra hours sleep. I just wished that there is a way to avoid the web of highways in the bay area at the end of the drive.

It'll be my first track event. Do you track junkies have any suggestion of what to prepare, besides a pair of brown underwear?:o

Sounds like a great idea. ;)
 
>>Do you know of anyone up there that I can send my track wheels to ahead of time and can help with shipping them back at the end of the event?

That way, we can drive the NSX up PCH rather than trailering it up I-5. Maybe one of the event organizers can set soemthing up with one of the trackside shops up there (the Racer's Group, etc., etc.) for anyone who wants to do this..<<

Hey Marc:

I don't have the exact info you're looking for, but I do recall that when we drove to Wisconsin for NSXPO 01', Bill Zachar (and maybe others) shipped their track tires directly to the hotel we stayed at, and the hotel held them for him to pick up on arrival. At the end of the event the track tires were loaded onto the transporter we hired to ship our cars back home.

You might want to post this question on the NSXPO forum, as well as contact the hotel directly to see if they can accept and hold your track tires for you.

HTH,

Dave
 
Bounce back to the top:

Now that some time has passed and official invitations for NSXPO have been sent, I've bounced this thread back to the top to keep it fresh on our minds. Based on feedback in this thread and several PM's that I've received, it looks like we'll be coordinating a couple of different caravans from SoCal. Hopefully friends from San Diego, Arizona and other points in the southwest can find one to hook up with that suits their schedule.

To get things started, I'll take the lead to see if we can form a caravan to leave SoCal on Tuesday, 10/7, returning Monday 10/13. My plan is to take the 5 all the way north. As beautiful as PCH is, this time of year with tourists (read motorhomes) the drive is not as enjoyable as you might think IMHO (been there, done that).

If other caravan leaders want to step forward with alternate dates, please do so and we'll be able to get a better handle on who is going when.

I'll start a new thread titled NSXPO caravan 10/7-10/13.

Dave
 
I've changed my mind about heading up the coast (since my wife and I plan to return home via that route at a more leisurely clip). If anyone is still interested in caravaning up I5 on Wednesday, let me know.
 
Back
Top