Greetings!
Sorry about the delay, but work was starting to pile up for me, and here we go!
The annual TX2K events in Houston is a tradition for myself and Khiem, our photographer. Earliest I can recall going to these events were back in 2002. The series of events happens over the course of 4 days, with each day being a little more different than the previous. Drag, Road course, 60 to 130 to name a few. Of all of the days, there is always one that I look forward to, and thats the Dyno Day and Show N Shine.
A little history of why I like this day more than the others: back in my ricier (is that even a word?) days, having a fast honda was cool – if you were comparing it to another Honda that is. If you were in a Honda, you were often greeted with ridicule amongst the Domestic V8 owners. “Imports suck!” was a chant you would hear often.
Of course, that chant was quickly revoked once the real Japanese Musclecars made an appearance. The RX-7’s and Supras were the Kings of the import world in the late 90’s, often seen at local dragstrips and street races with domestics. It was the Honda’s bigger, distant cousin that was defending the Import name and while Hondas and Supras are two different breeds, there were essentially fighting the same fight.
Back then, “high” horsepower Japanese cars were few and far between. If your supra was belting out 500hp, you were the one to beat, and Domestic owners started to see this firsthand. Soon, the name Supra became a word quickly followed by FAST and Horsepower with the domestic crowd. These six cylinder beauties became the knights in shining armor to defend the Japanese name. So when I come across a Supra with a ginormous turbo and ridiculous amount of chrome, I can’t help but smile and think how far we’ve come as tuners.
Fast forward to present time, and 500hp in the Supra world isn’t much anymore. Now a days, only the 1000+hp Supras have show goers dropping their jaws after they wipe their race gas filled tears away from their eyes. It is this gross display of power that represents the TX2K10 Dyno day.
Lonestar Motorsports Park aka LMP, aka Hennessey hosts this years horsepower celebration with both a RWD and AWD dyno this time around. The RWD dyno is in-ground which allows for super slammed cars to be ran which proved to be extremely useful for some rides.
What’s nice about TX2K dyno days is that as long as you pay the $15 admission fee, you can run your car on the rollers for free! So of course, there were no shortages on participants. And it wasn’t limited to just Supras and 1J/2J machines either. Anyone could do it. So long as you were into high horsepower cars, this was the place to be. Turbo Porsches, Audi’s, and even turbocharged Gallardos were fair game.
With the Supras now extinct, there were some amazing specimens to be seen at the Show N Shine portion, from mild to wild, the show had examples from both camps. Also in attendance were a large amount of GT-R’s. This comes as no surprise, as the new Nissan R35 GT-R’s are the modern day equivelent to what the Supras were back in the day. A stock GT-R was a rare sight as most of the Nissans on hand that day were rocking upgraded turbos. And the numbers don’t lie. These modern day monsters are a force to be reckoned with!
There were plenty of vendors on display as well. PowerHouse Racing was predictably there as well as others. Products were in plain view for the public to pick up, manhandle, or make love to.
The event is not like your typical import car shows/dyno days in that everyone from all ages and races come out with the same common ground. Typically, most import shows feature FWD economy cars with nice JDM accessories. Not hating at all, just pointing out that the atmosphere is just a tad more mature here.
Of course, there were all sorts of tuners, from young guys to old ones, both men and women participated in the festivities. Do you find it intimidating that a woman can drive a 1000+HP Supra? How about a hot one?
We’ll close out this post with some random photos from the days events.
That’s it for now! Stay tuned for our Drag day and night meet coverage! (it won’t take as long this time!)
Pictures were taken by me and Khiem Pham Khiem125@gmail.com
To see all of the 348 photos in high res click HERE!
–David–
David@maydaygarage.com