Well, HIN is over here in Dallas, and it completely wore me out. I was there from 2pm on Saturday to 2am on Sunday. I'd just like to say that the guys representing Mazda were very nice guys. Steve Hainbach and Dean were awesome guys, he even gave me a MazdaSpeed shirt. They said that they lurk around in the background here all the time to see whats new in the Protege community, but sadly never post. Shawn from www.mazdarformance.com was also a very nice and helpful guy. I got to see their prototype turbo kit they will be producing for the 2.0 motor. It looks VERY good so far. I know he will be able to provide us turbo guys with some great info that they discover through their R&D. He even learned something from me and my turbo setup that he might incorporate into their kit. All in all it was a very good time and got to meet some very nice guys from mazda. I got to meet a guy that works for Mazda in the DFW area and used to race Miatas. I forgot his name but he was a very cool guy. There were 6 protege's there though. I also got to meet Hunter from www.protegetech.com he was also a nice guy. He's starting a big North Texas Protege club now. All I'll say about that is if you are in Texas, you might want to join because he has some great plans for us, and this fall there is a very good chance that there will be a barbque for everyone and there will be a certain "car" there that we will get to test drive. That's all I'll say about that for right now. To join the club, just go to www.protegetech.com , it's $25 per year. Mazda is also getting behing this site in the near future also. I'm not promoting that everyone leave here and go to their site, Protegetech.com is mainly a site to learn new info about the protege. This site is still the best forum for this car. But I can say that the future for the protege looks VERY good from everything I learned from the Mazda guys at the show. Some guy from Overboost.com wanted to talk to me but I wasn't there when he came by, I never got to talk to him though, oh well.
I have one big complaint about HIN though. Kenny Tran was there with his awesome drag integra, if you can call it an integra. It's not really a car anymore. But he was allowed to enter a couple of cars into the show. Well of course he has unlimited funds, not to mention that he most definetely gets all his parts and mods for free. Well, he of course won two $1000 awards, (like he needs any more money). I just think that that is totally unfair. I asked Shawn from mazdaformance.com if he enters the black protege that they made. He said they wanted him to but he wont because that would be totally unfair since they can pretty much spend whatever they want on the car. I just think that people like Kenny Tran should show some sportsmanship and opt not to enter into the competition. That's my rundown of my experience of HIN Dallas. I'll post my pics later today.
I have one big complaint about HIN though. Kenny Tran was there with his awesome drag integra, if you can call it an integra. It's not really a car anymore. But he was allowed to enter a couple of cars into the show. Well of course he has unlimited funds, not to mention that he most definetely gets all his parts and mods for free. Well, he of course won two $1000 awards, (like he needs any more money). I just think that that is totally unfair. I asked Shawn from mazdaformance.com if he enters the black protege that they made. He said they wanted him to but he wont because that would be totally unfair since they can pretty much spend whatever they want on the car. I just think that people like Kenny Tran should show some sportsmanship and opt not to enter into the competition. That's my rundown of my experience of HIN Dallas. I'll post my pics later today.
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