Monthly Archives: November 2011

GoodGod


GoodGod.


The Lev’s Dawg, best hotdog I’ve ever had, period.

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Nanami

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Shirley & Jing get married


Photo by Matthew Mead.

I attended Shirley and Jing’s Wedding last Sunday. I’m so happy for these guys. I had a great time, it was an awesome celebration! I’m sure you’ll find new entries on Jing’s Blog and Shirley’s Blog soon.

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Zen Garage Working Bee


Sean and Rob worked on installing some wooden flooring for the shop which was very kindly donated to us by VWGolf.net.au member Stephen Lee.


Flooring installed.


We’re getting there!


Rob also got busy installing carpet tiles in the office.


It’s a dramatic change and acoustics are now much improved (less echo!).


My new ergo chair has a billion and one adjustments!


I was sweating it out in the gallery installing a picture hanging rail system.


The gallery is now all ready to go! Keep an eye out on our first gallery opening soon.


The Capozzi Brothers came in to drop off some awesome JDM FD literature for our library, they ended up helping us paint the front of the space too.


Sergio and Claudio are huge car guys, so too their Dad who owns this refreshingly different Lancia Montecarlo.

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Selling the GTI, or not.

A week ago I put my GTI up for sale. I’ve had a lot of people get in touch regarding parts, but as usual (like with all my cars) I like to sell them as they are, with all modifications in tact.

I had a solid offer on a straight swap with a Mitsubishi EVO 8 MR, the guy even suggested I keep a few modifications (seats and suspension). This offer tempted me for a good few days. I did hours of research on the MR, amazing car, amazing technology but ultimately I could get over the way it looks. I just think the newer EVO’s are so damn ugly. Long, narrow 4 door lancers with a huge wing, they really don’t do it for me at all.

Yesterday I had a guy inspect the car. I even let him test drive it. He loved it (as cheesey as “first to see will buy” sounds, it’s usually the case when I sell my cars) and wanted to put a deposit down, but I refused it.

I’m awesome at creating my own problems (!). After the track day earlier this week I’m 50/50 on selling it or keeping it.

Pretty frustrating as I want to move on and start a new project, but my GTI is so good. Perfect power, perfect response (no lag!), amazing on fuel, cheap to insure, not a cop magnet (just another Golf!), amazing on the street, amazing on the track, racey but luxurious at the same time (auto HID’s, wipers, icy cold A/C, lovely dash design, solid euro build). It’s such a trap and I’m so stuck on it. I said I’d sleep on it, maybe I need another night’s sleep.

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A visit to IS Motor Racing


Open class winner at WTAC.


Can’t believe the owner dares to actually drive this thing on the street. Balls!


And another track prepped EVO. Indy’s basically an EVO workshop these days.


Indy chooses to use Royal Purple, it’s great stuff.


I was thirsty and found this stuff in the fridge!

Dropped the GT-R to Indy’s the other day, only to find out it’s got issues due to me not driving it enough! Go figure! Seals have perished, stuff is leaking, sigh…

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Private Track Day


Photo by Jing Li.

Hit the track yesterday! I had put the GTI up on carsales last week but after yesterday I’ve decided to keep it!!! What a car :) Full feature up on Zen Garage: http://zengarage.com.au/2011/11/private-track-day/

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VWGolf.net.au Photoshoot


Club shoot last night for an upcoming magazine feature.

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Zen Garage flatpack challenge


2 of 4 shop counters.


A well deserved beer.

Yesterday we took delivery of some shop fit-out gear. Rob, John and I put 2 of the 4 big counters together. I was fearing the worst (got to hate putting together IKEA flatpack goods) but to my surprise, despite horrible instructions the stuff came together really nicely!

At one stage, we were sweating it and Rob and I were talking about Dayton from The Malt Shovel Brewery, and whether or not it would be rude to call him up to let him know that we were out of beers, then literally 10 minutes later Dayton appeared, with cold beers! Our positive Zen manifestation skills must be gaining strength!

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Need For Speed: The Run Launch Event


Exotics outside, exotics inside, beautiful people and tunes a pumping, there was a buzz on entry.


CD DJ, note F430 outside too.


We made a bee-line straight for the booze (as you do).


Swimsuit Edition on the big screen? Nice.


Convertible 911 in Automatic, one of 2 cars on display.


It was a packed event, people just kept on pouring in throughout the night.


At one point these 3 guys in hip hop atire (apparently from some talent show on TV, X-Factor?) broke out into a dance. Serious?!


Spotted this gorgeous Maserati Gran Turismo S outside, we had to leave the party momentarily to check it out.


One entire wall was reserved for gameplay.


Interestingly the R35 GTR was the car chosen for all contestants.


Tate and one of the NFS promo girls.


Tate told me there was an F40 upstairs, turns out it was a Testarossa (another one for the Tate wall). I hadn’t checked out upstairs as I hadn’t broken the seal yet, but it turns out Scuderia’s stock pile of cars were all crammed in hard a level above the party. This is where the party’s at!


Testarossa, so much retro goodness.


We bumped into Photographers Kory Leung and Matthew Everingham upstairs, car guys hanging around cars, that makes sense right?!


This gorgeous creamy 964 was tucked away in the corner, what a car.

Last night we were invited to the Need For Speed: The Run Launch Event which was held at Scuderia Graziani on Crown St. East Sydney. If you’re a car guy that’s ever driven down Crown St. you’d know of Scuderia Graziani, a brightly lit head turning showroom loaded with exotics.

We made speedy way through horrible Sydney traffic in Tate’s beaten up Suby complete with asthmatic blow off vale. Maybe it was only speedy because we were cracking jokes all the way, and scaring John, who had never set foot in Surry Hills before in his life (he was freaking out!).

Having our Zen Garage Forza Motorsport 4 launch still fresh in our memories we were keen to check the event out. Comparing the 2 events was inevitable, but it proved difficult as both events couldn’t be any more different to each other.

Where our event focussed primarily on drivers and driving (the main attraction being the Xtreme Sim Gear simulator set-ups which helped to blur the line between driving a real car and playing a computer game), EA Australia’s event focussed on living the dream. Objects of desire, baller lifesty

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