Let’s go for a cruise, they said. Let’s chase the sunrise, the screamed. Why? Because the smell of hi-octane and ethanol fumes in the morning just smell better!
40 of us rolled out of our beds in pure darkness, warmed our engines and started our trip to Zen Garage for a 5:30am meet. Guys came from as far down as Wollongong and as high as Newcastle. As all the assorted exhaust notes assembled at the Garage the sounds of car after car bottoming out coming into the driveway put a cheeky smile on all our faces.
The first change of colour in the sky saw the drop of the hat, and the start of the cruise. 40 cars left Zen in a symphony of turbos, displacement and the one sound you only hear at this time of day… intake. The sound of intakes sucking in the ice cold morning air, clean and pure. A collection of 40 cars never seen by Sydney’s roads in one large convoy heading North, perfect.
We rolled up at the Spit Bridge to meet the 2nd part of the convoy which had everyone awake and buzzing. The realisation that it was our shop managers birthday, Bertoni and the saddening realisation that photographer and good friend Sebastian (he took these photos!) was leaving for Germany the following day. A farewell, and a celebration.
As we head North the sheer size of the convoy was becoming hard to manage and the group was split into 3. Luckily everyone had directions to West Head so even though different roads were taken, all roads were enjoyable and all roads lead to the group meeting up once again.
I’ll be very real for a second too, here at Zen we are blessed to be around awesome cars a lot of the time, but even I found myself left with cold shivers seeing the diversity and pure car porn of the cars that came out to play. Moments that I’ll never forget.
After a long morning of twists, turns and scenery that could be put on a postcard we found ourselves back at the infamous Dee Why Beach for breakfast. A huge group of hungry drivers took over a waterfront café and needless to say the laughs and good vibes continued.
From there we went our separate ways, some to Zen to open up the store and some home to their beds.
So what’s left to say from here? Well I’ll be honest, even bros have hearts and here is mine; Sebastian Voll (SlowNserious Photography) is a very good mate to all of us. I feel honoured to watch his skills grow and his friendships deepen within the Zen Family and his own crew. I’d like to thank him for always being there for us, lens in hand and his humorous German wit ready to blast off the tip of his tongue at any time. It was an absolute honour to see you grow from a kid into a young man, and now living back in your homeland Germany! Can’t wait to see the content he sends us. GodSpeed Seb!
Photos by SlowNserious Photography: https://www.facebook.com/slowNserious
