Survived the show, and all of it's antics both pre, and post show events.
Was a great time, and a ton of work from beginning to end, but well worth all the effort(s) involved by all.
I was greeted by the owner of TommyZDesigns, (Tommy) who graciously walked over to my car to introduce himself. Super cool!
Although I've chatted with him in the past (both online, and by phone mainly with the Dodge Charger project/build), I never met him face to face. He was in attendance at the show as well, not only rep'n his company, but also showing off his latest designs on a friends Cadillac CTS-V. It was a pleasure connecting an actual face with the previous convo. Great dude I'll add.
Moving along, attendance at the show was beyond amazing. Approximately 250 competitors entered. Most were of the Foreign "tuner/ricer" type vehicles as we would call them. The one's you'd see akin to the movie series "Too Fast, Too Furious". Caliber of the cars on display was impressive to say the least.
General Public attendance far, far, far exceeded the promoters own projections, and I attribute this directly to the incredibly (long overdue) nice weather we experienced here in CHI-Town. Previously, this annual event is/was held within the first two weeks of February. But the promoters caught a lot of flack from competitors due to the snow/ice and holding the event then, so they decided for 2015 to bump it back into March. Wise decision it would appear.
I am happy to report that my car received a lot of attention from both competitors and spectators. Most were in disbelief that A.) It was a Taurus B.) That it puts down the power that it does and C.) That I was able to transform it into the beast she's developed into.
I thanked all for their compliments, and in an overall sense, simply did my best to explain the platform, it's potential, and how great of an experience I've had owning her.
I am sad to report though, that due to the promoters changing up their past practices, I DID NOT win an award. That had me, and the owner of our car club in disbelief.
We found out afterwards, as the owner of our club inquired, that the judging teams were asked to place higher point values on the "ICE" category ("In Car Entertainment"). Of which, I lost out major points on, due to the fact that my audio remains stock up to this point, and I had no extra TV's, On-Board Game Consoles, etc.
Additionally, because there were so few Domestic produced vehicles entered, they simply awarded one trophy in each category of Chevrolet, Dodge/Chrysler, and Ford. Unlike the multitude of Foreign models entered, where they had "Best of" and 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place trophies awarded respectively.
So the window for me to have won, was very small, and based on a myriad of influencing factors.
I was fine with the loss, as the person who did win the Ford trophy, was a younger kid who is also in our same car club, and won for his Ford Mustang. Which had thousands upon thousands of dollars of audio/video/lighting upgrades. So good to see it go to someone in the club.
Oddly enough, the promoters also did not hand out any cash prizes like they had previously. A sign of the tough economic times I suppose. The trophies were also smaller this year.
Anyhow, enough babbling.
Y'all just wanna see the pics anyhow. Especially of the ladies, yes?
I had prime placement right near the front / main stage. Lots of GoGo girls being rotated all throughout the day, in addition to a bevy of beautiful models parading all amongst us. Good times let me tell 'ya.
I spoke with quite a few of them, and all were very nice, and very beautiful. Not sure, how many pics I can post at one time, so I'll just include a few here for your viewing pleasure, then add the link to my Photobucket Album simply titled "2015 Tuner Galleria Chicago" for 'ya to browse through at your own leisure.
I know my photographer pal Jeff was there, and is in the process of post editing his pics, but he did make up a short YouTube video on the event form his perspective, which can be found here:
https://youtu.be/7tRMV049vWsA few of my own photo contributions:
A big thanks to Kate (pictured below), and all of her friends (a lil further down) for providing all the entertainment they did all throughout the event. Hard working ladies.
This lil boy was to die for...... he had me, Kate, and the whole crowd going as he decided to show Kate a couple of his own dance moves. Funny stuff.....
And as you can see from this photo here..... I was literally right next to the main stage (look in background to the right):
Here's the link to the entire album for any of you who care to look:
http://s229.photobucket.com/user/bpd1151/slideshow/2015%20Tuner%20Galleria%20ChicagoAgain, walked away empty handed as far as a trophy surprisingly enough, but am filled with a lifetime's worth of wonderful memories and solidified friendships, both new, and old.
A great way to open the 2015 season and I look forward to many more.
