2011 Toyota Pro Celebrity Race at the Long Beach Grand Prix

[Nick Winn]

Here are some pictures from this past weekends Toyota Pro Celebrity Race at the Long Beach Grand Prix. Meguiar's was on hand all weekend to make sure the race cars were always looking their best. Enjoy!





























One of Meguiar's Special Events Semi-Truck was also at the Race for the weekend!

[John Keeling]

Re: 2011 Toyota Pro Celebrity Race at the Long Beach Grand Prix

Great pics Nick! You made us all proud out there.

[Marc08EX]

Re: 2011 Toyota Pro Celebrity Race at the Long Beach Grand Prix

Nick or Mike,

I see that Nick's MF towel is really dirty as seen below...


Would it be ok to continue using a towel that dirty without scratching the paint? Does the QD being used help prevent swirls/scratches?

[John Keeling]

Re: 2011 Toyota Pro Celebrity Race at the Long Beach Grand Prix

Having worked the races in the past, those towels get very dirty and we use multiple towels on the cars. It looks like he is using the folding technique, so that may be the last surface on the towel. It also could be a clean towel that is just stained. Nick has always done exceptional work!

[Marc08EX]

Re: 2011 Toyota Pro Celebrity Race at the Long Beach Grand Prix

Having worked the races in the past, those towels get very dirty and we use multiple towels on the cars. It looks like he is using the folding technique, so that may be the last surface on the towel. It also could be a clean towel that is just stained. Nick has always done exceptional work!

Thanks for the response John. I believe we met in the Barrett Jackson event in Scottsdale, AZ.

How far would you use a microfiber towel until using another clean side? Doing a quick detail on a car will get your MF towel dirty with just a couple of strokes.

[Michael Stoops]

Re: 2011 Toyota Pro Celebrity Race at the Long Beach Grand Prix

With regards to what looks to be a very dirty towel in Nick's hands, there are a few things to keep in mind here:

• that towel could just be an older towel that has permanent staining to it
• that car could well have been covered in heavy dust and what you're seeing is the last of the wipe down, meaning the towel has picked up a lot of dirt but it has been folded over a few times to expose fresh material
• these are race cars and pace cars, not show cars
• there is no facility to wash these cars on site and they get dirty after having sat on the lot for a week or longer prior to the event
• these cars are a few years old, they've been beaten pretty hard, and there's a lot of vinyl on them that isn't necessarily in great shape any more

So, would you use a permanently stained towel like this (assuming that's the case here, it's a bit hard to tell from this image alone) to wipe down a car following a full correction? No.

Even though the shine on this car looks pretty darn good, to see it in person you'd be less impressed. Now, given the hard life these cars live and the way they've been used over the years, they actually look pretty good. But they are a long way from being show cars, or having a show car shine. Plenty of swirls are present, we're just getting the dust off.

[Marc08EX]

Re: 2011 Toyota Pro Celebrity Race at the Long Beach Grand Prix

With regards to what looks to be a very dirty towel in Nick's hands, there are a few things to keep in mind here:

• that towel could just be an older towel that has permanent staining to it
• that car could well have been covered in heavy dust and what you're seeing is the last of the wipe down, meaning the towel has picked up a lot of dirt but it has been folded over a few times to expose fresh material
• these are race cars and pace cars, not show cars
• there is no facility to wash these cars on site and they get dirty after having sat on the lot for a week or longer prior to the event
• these cars are a few years old, they've been beaten pretty hard, and there's a lot of vinyl on them that isn't necessarily in great shape any more

So, would you use a permanently stained towel like this (assuming that's the case here, it's a bit hard to tell from this image alone) to wipe down a car following a full correction? No.

Even though the shine on this car looks pretty darn good, to see it in person you'd be less impressed. Now, given the hard life these cars live and the way they've been used over the years, they actually look pretty good. But they are a long way from being show cars, or having a show car shine. Plenty of swirls are present, we're just getting the dust off.

Thanks for the response Mike. I was just wondering if it's safe to let the MF towel accumulate that much dirt/dust and continue to use it on a well maintained vehicle. I tried doing a quick detail once but I never got comfortable with it because I feel that the QD doesn't have enough lubrication like a traditional soap wash and second, the MF towels get dirty quickly. I didn't know how far I can go until I need to flip over to a clean side of the towel.

[Rick McDonough]

Re: 2011 Toyota Pro Celebrity Race at the Long Beach Grand Prix

Cool pictures Nick, thanks for sharing those with us! Looks like it was a cool show!