Forged Performance: 5th Annual ZDayZ “Top Dawg” Airstrip Event

Hendersonville, NC Airport- May 17th

Photography By: Tony Nguyen

Driven Lifestyle Magazine staff had the pleasure of riding shotgun up to Hendersonville, North Carolina, Airport to attend the 2012 Forged Performance “Top Dawg” Airstrip event. This event was part of ZDAYZ, a four day long celebration of Nissan enthusiasts who participate in testing, tuning, showing off their rides and enjoying each other’s company. While this event is officially part of the Nissan based ZDayZ Event, participants from the past years included not only Nissan owners but also the owners of American V8′s, Honda guys and the Evo/STI crowd. The diversity of this event generates friendly smack talk and makes the competitive nature even more enjoyable.

With cars from a few hundred horsepower up to 1000 horsepower and above, there is sure to always be someone to “test” your cars performance against no matter your power level! This makes for the perfect opportunity to legally test the performance of your vehicle against others in a safe and controlled environment. At this year’s event, various vehicles staged up at one end of the runway in preparation for a quick trip down the track. Once everything was clear, pairs would roll to 25-30 mph and then it was pedal to the floor, easily reaching top speeds in the 140′s. From one end of the runway to the other is 3075 feet, which is just over 1/2 a mile. All day long these guys ran their cars in pairs down the strip, headed back so that the next cars could run and then lined back up to re-lap. Taking periodic breaks in running for the inbound small planes to land, as the airport was still operational throughout the event; there were all sorts of makes and models gunning for the coveted crown of being the “Top Dawg”. Nissan GT-Rs, Acura NSX’s, Pontiac G8 GT’s, Corvettes, Rat Rod Trucks, and other various makes and models ran down the track.

At the end of the event, Doug Fulk in his 1000 HP Forged Performance Built GT-R was the victor. Good times are always had at this event, as once again both the trip to the event and the event itself were an adventure worth experiencing.

For more photos visit:

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Written and Photography by: Tony Nguyen

About the Author

Tony Nguyen

As the main feature photographer for Driven Lifestyle Magazine, Tony grew up around the automotive industry. Since 7 years old, he has been wrenching on cars and learning every aspect that he can of the business, always wanting to learn how to do things on his own. Tony has been industry involved as a salesman, manager, installer, fabricator, and at one point even owned and operated his own modification, sales, and consulting business. He believes that a large part of who you are is inspired by those who you surround yourself with. He is very grateful for all of those people who are in his life and credit them to the successes and learning experiences that he has encountered. More recently he has found himself living behind a lens, a camera lens; always having the passion of capturing the lifestyle that revolves around everything that makes us move. In his own words, “Be on the lookout for the Asian dude behind the lens with Driven Lifestyle embroidered on his shirt, as chances are your images are being captured so that we can share with the world what the lifestyle is all about.” Not only will Tony be handling most of the feature photography, but he will also be assisting in marketing and social networking for Driven Lifestyle Magazine.