Forged Performance: Import Alliance Spring Meet Coverage
Once a year Import Alliance, one of the States largest import based events invades Atlanta, Georgia for a weekend of get togethers, cook-outs, dyno days, and any other excuse for automotive enthusiasts to converge and talk cars. Like in past years, the main event was scheduled for Sunday but word on the street indicated that pre-meets were being organized as early as Friday night! This year I made the decision to spend Friday night at home and relax in preparation for the insanity that I would be experiencing in the next 48 hours. After a healthy dinner and a good nights rest I awoke Saturday morning and made my way to the shop. I was meeting two friends/co-workers there to caravan to the Southrn Fresh: Welcome to Atlanta Pre-Meet. We left the shop at noon with Alex@Forged driving his track prepped 650whp 350Z, my good friend Richard responsible for the Forged Performance NISMO 370Z and I was gripping Sparco steering wheel of the Forged Performance Time Attack GT-R! We arrived and obtained our front row parking spots just in time, as the event was filling up very quickly. Within an hour after our arrival the meet had spilled over to adjacent parking lots! This event was hosted by Mainstream Performance and they had the grilled fired up and their DynoJet rolling all day long! It made for a great atmosphere and with over 300 people in attendance this pre-meet was a massive success.
Southrn Fresh's Welcome to Atlanta Meet slowly started to dwindle down as people started to venture back to the city for their dinner plans. As always, the late night activities in our city were a topic of much discussion. With thousands of out of town visitors here looking for something to do the night before Import Alliance it has been a yearly tradition for people to attend our local parking lot meet off Barrett Parkway in the Northwest suburbs of Atlanta. Luckily for me my house is less than a mile from the meeting spot that normally attracts 50-100 car guys and girls every weekend. This Saturday night was going to be different, after all it was the night before Import Alliance. I rolled into the parking lot around 10pm to find this massive lot jammed with cars from every make and model! We say everything from Mustang Cobra's on slicks, Audi R8, 600+ HP Civic's to GT-R's! I left my camera at home so I could take the time to be social and hang out with local and out of town friends so I apologize for the lack of photos.
Sunday morning started with my alarm clock screaming at 7 AM to alert me it was time to drag myself out of bed and open up shop to prep for our 8 AM roll-out to Import Alliance. I arrived here at Forged Performance a few minutes early to make sure our vehicles were properly warmed up and everything was in order. Our caravan was small and organized yet impressive which included: The Forged Performance Time Attack GT-R, Sharif@Forged's 2013 Black Edition GT-R, Alex@Forged's 650whp 350Z, The Forged Performance NISMO 370Z, a customers 720whp STi, and a friend in his newly acquired GT-R. We were able to hit 75S toward downtown Atlanta shortly after 8:00 and fell inline with another 20+ cars that were clearly headed to the same event(who ever was taking rolling photos on the interstate please post them up!). Our 20 minute convoy to Tuner Field where this years event was being held was epic to say the least. The sounds our cars produced while traveling through tunnels in downtown was nothing short of orgasmic, I'm sure I caused a few seizures with perfectly timed downshifts in the Forged Time Attack GT-R as the brutally loud exhaust note echoed off the buildings in Atlanta. Upon our arrival at Turner Field it was clear we should have left a little earlier since the line to enter the parking lot was wrapped around Tuner Field. After waiting what seamed like an eternity we squeezed into the very heavily crowded event and made our rounds attempting to find and secure a group of parking spots for our crew. It was clear we were bound to the back lower lot and we carefully placed our cars together where we felt safe. After climbing over the NASCAR style roll cage bars that is the interior of the Forged Time Attack GT-R I grabbed my camera bag and started to survey the lot. A short time later our very good friend and long time customer Roy decided to come hang out with us for a few hours, he cruised into the meet with his #003 Lexus LFA that many people have seen around the shop. His car always draws a crowd of people just begging to hear that notorious exhuast note! Roy is a great guy, is very passionate about the Lexus LFA and always eager to talk cars with anybody! Last years Import Alliance event had over 3200 cars in attendance and it was clear that this years event was going to be on a completely different level. By noon last years participation numbers were completely shattered it is was clear nobody, including Atlanta PD were prepared for colossal amount of cars that take over our city. By mid-afternoon we got word that the Atlanta Fire Marshall had all interstate exit ramps blocked off and were not allowing anymore cars to enter the event because they were not prepared to have over 6,000 cars invade downtown Atlanta! When one of the busiest interstates in the country is blocked off by State Troopers and Atlanta PD, I'm pretty sure that we can call this years Import Alliance Spring Meet an unequivocal success!
I hope everyone enjoys the photos of this years spring meet and as always please visit the FORGED PERFORMANCE BLOG for additional photos!
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Originally Posted by Chadbee@Forged
