Monthly Archives: March 2010

Sonny came around yesterday and we spent the whole day building his single speed bicycle (which turned out totally rad!). You can check out the images and words here: Sonny’s single speed build

OooooooK…

He’s no Doberman but damn he’s cute! We came really close to bringing this little fella home today. We’ve even called our mothers for advice!

OK, so I’m after a VW Golf to play with but I’m having troubles selling my V35 Skyline (the thing just won’t sell!). In typical non-logical fashion I’ve decided to start modding the Golf I’m yet to own. (couldn’t help myself). Here’s my 1st modification:

A short stubby antenna to replace the huge radio controlled car like antenna on factory MKV Golfs.

Yes it’s a small mod, but a mod nonetheless! I’ve broken the seal now, she’ll be flowin’ from ‘ere!

Suga and I are beginning to plan the ultimate VW Germany Tour for next year.

Here’s what we’ve come up with so far:

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VWGolf.net.au 2011 Germany Tour

You love your VW, chances are you’ve dreamt about going to Germany on more than one occasion so here’s your chance to take part in a tour of Germany, tailored specifically for Volkswagen car enthusiasts (I.E: US!).

Incorporating a two day visit to Wolfsburg, Germany, the headquarters of Volkswagen AG, Volkswagen’s ‘Transparent Factory’ in Dresden and the infamous Nürburgring, this most certainly is going to be one amazing experience.

Wolfsburg, Germany, the headquarters of Volkswagen AG

There is little that can prepare you for the complete immersion into a world of Volkswagens when you arrive in Wolfsburg. From the time you enter the city there is virtually no car to be seen that isn’t a member of the Volkswagen brand family – Volkswagens are everywhere. Fans of the marque may feel like they have died and gone to heaven here. From the rare air-cooled split window bus to modified Golf models with flared fenders to the New Beetle RSI, there isn’t anything you’re not going to see on the streets and in the employee parking lots.

Volkswagen’s Autostadt

The Autostadt is like a VW theme park and has a large variety of multimedia activities including two cinemas (one of these cinemas is located in its own purpose built sphere building), a car museum which shows off some major attractions and famous cars. Two 60 meter/200 ft tall glass silos are used as storage for new Volkswagens. The two towers are connected to the Volkswagen factory by a 700 metre underground tunnel. When cars arrive at the towers they are carried up at a speed of 1.5 metres per second. There’s a 4WD track built through the Autostadt (yes we get to drive!) and 6 Pavilions to tour: Volkswagen, Bentley, Škoda, Lamborghini, Audi and SEAT.

Volkswagen’s ‘Transparent Factory’ Dresden, Germany

The Phaeton assembly plant in Dressen might very well be the cleanest in the world. It features amazing architecture, interpretive exhibits, partially assembled Phaeton components and cutaway models and even a 6 axis full motion W12 simulator complete with a visual system to allow you to ‘test drive’ a W12 on the autobahn at any speed up to the full capability of the Phaeton.

Nürburgring

They say The Ring is, quite simply, the ultimate driving experience. 13 miles and at least 73 bends add up to what even top racing drivers describe as the most demanding circuit in the world. Apparently it’s impossible to describe just how good it is until you’ve been there, but if you can imagine your favourite mountain road and your favourite race-track, and combine the best bits of the two together you might get the general idea. Get driven around Nurburgring at speed by a pro in a BMW Ring-Taxi (or ‘taxi through the green hell’ if you need that sickness bag). We can fit up to three people in the BMW for 180 Euros.

Details

Our very own translator, dates, length of stay and package price including flights, accommodation, transfers and entry fees are yet to be decided but please register your interest now!

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So far there’s been a fair bit of interest on the forums but the best part about it is that we’re going no matter what! Tonight we were in Borders and we grabbed a Germany Lonely Planets Guide (hey you’ve got to start somewhere right?!). When we got to the counter we saw this:

Swoit! Their magazines were on sale too:

Excellent as I hadn’t bought a magazine in a long time (funny as Charles, Narada and I got together just the other night to talk about the death of print (which David Carson had right all along).

Today we took delivery of our VWGolf.net.au invite cards which are designed to be left on the windshields of VW Golfs we find out on the streets. With over 200 members (and going strong!) we’re hoping that members from all over Australia will have a few in their wallets in a few weeks time and they can get busy getting these out there!

Narada’s bought a Postie Bike and he’s going to ride it from the Blue Mountains to Mt Buffalo in VIC and then all the way back again. The trip is going to total around 2,500kms, which is almost the distance from Sydney to Alice Springs!

Why? Well it’s actually something many people do but he’s doing it to raise money for MS Australia. So while his journey is going to be tough, rough and definitely uncomfortable, it will be nothing compared to what MS sufferers go through.

Check out his fundraising page here – http://www.everydayhero.com.au/daniel_and_narada

I noticed my internal hard drive not showing up on my list of drives a few times last week. Bells started to ring. “Backup your content man!”. I’ve heard it from so many people, especially PC users but I’ve never actually bothered until this time. I backed everything up last Friday and the drive completely died last weekend. Saved by the bell?!

I dropped in to see Jing today at PC Express (his PC Shop). He’s nursing a broken elbow from a fall at Loftus, perhaps one of the easiest mountain bikes trails around. Jing knows this place like the back of his hand (he could even do it blind folded!) but It just goes to show that anything can happen.

He took the faulty drive out and replaced it with a new one and he’s going to see if he can get the old drive working again for me but since I’ve backed everything up, it’s all good!

This afternoon Tendy came over. Tendy’s a guy I met at Top One Automotive. He has a highly modified Golf GTI and I introduced myself as soon as I saw it. He’s now an active member on Christina’s Golf Forum and since then I’ve also designed a web site for Naroop, his olive oil company.

Today he handed me the keys to his GTI and boy was it fun. The excitement was building as soon as I sat in his R32 Recaro bucket seats. Not as grabby as real race buckets but a lot more grabby around the shoulders that the stock R32 seats in Suga’s car. I then noticed the aftermarket paddle shifters which are huge and have an interesting grippy texture to them. I started the car and a familiar Defi gauge intro sequence blinked to the right of my field of vision, awesome!

I was off and at the first corner I dabbed the brakes and realised they were as touchy as Suga’s R32 (these cars have way too much grab!). On my short but spirited drive I realised just how different the car was from Suga’s R32. The car was quiet but on shifts it made a damn loud and very pronounced “BRRAP” sound from the exhaust which sounded a lot like it was dumping a whole lot of fuel out the back on each shift! The shifts themselves were damn aggressive too, a lot like the MKVI GTI I test drove last week. I loved the way it shifted. Cornering felt very light like the MKVI GTI too. On parking the car the screen came on and showed me a video view out the back of the car with projected guide lines to help me park straight as well as nice and close to the gutter. A nice luxurious touch which I thought might have been more at home on the R32 than the GTI.

Overall I was just in awe and how different it felt to Suga’s R32 Golf. Surprising as they share the same chassis. Tendy’s GTI hits hard from 3000rpm. Got to love that turbo rush. Suga’s car is also peaky up the top but in a totally different way. Much smoother, much more linear, more refined and more luxury than sports.

I’m convinced a GTI is the way I want to go if I sell my Skyline. I’m also quite sure I’ll be getting a MKV GTI and not a MKVI as I was more than happy with the aggressive shifting on Tendy’s DSG GTI.

Naroop!

Brembos FTW.

RPRSNT!

Defi love.

The inside is a nice place to be.

So today was one of those days where Christina and I were stumped for something to do. Darling Harbour? We never go there, maybe there’s something on? Manly? Nah too much hassle. Bondi Beach Markets? Mmm, nah too cool for skool. Pub food? I feel like a Pie! Hmmm, which pub though?

It was a nice day so we ended up deciding to head to Centennial Park for lunch and some people watching. When we got there, there was a long queue to get into the park, we persisted though and parked at the top where we knew there was going to be parking. It turns out that there was an event on. “The Taste Of Sydney”. A Food Fair? Perfect!

A few minutes later we paid for the $30 entry fee (x2) and headed inside not knowing what to expect.

You had to buy “crowns” which was the currency you used to buy food and drinks.

The first thing we ate was a Seafood Paella which was yum yum.

Hey Matt! We then hit up Matt Moran’s Aria stand for his family lamb special.

Yeah it was juicy and yummy but it the bread and sauce weren’t great. Next!

Christina spotted someone with a pie and we hunted it down. Beef Cheek pie? Oh so so good.

We saved the best for last. Guillaume, the restaurant in the Opera House had a stall and were serving up Wagyu with Mash and they served it up with a plastic fork, no knife was needed as it was that damn soft. It was a lot like a perfect braised lamb shank. To braise meat of this quality is just so pimp. The people eating it around us were just blown away at how good it was. Killer!

A lot of stalls had food samples to give out, we tried a few things, here’s a dessert sample. At this stage we were full, and over it. We ran into Dave from Import Strings (Hi Dave!) who reminded me to watch the F1 tonight (awesome go Schumi!). Full and exhausted Christina and I headed home.