So nice to see designs come to life. The Yokohama 86 (which I designed the graphics for) was dropped off to Zen today. I even got to drive it off the truck. It’s an auto, which kinda surprised me, but hey I drove my cousin’s manual one a week ago and I was curious to see if the auto was any good, or not. I took it for a spin and yeah, it wasn’t any good (the manual was way more engaging!). The car is going to live with us for a bit, should brighten up our space that’s for sure!
Momentary sad face. Thinking to myself “I’ll never make enough to own one of these”.
So I got to sit in a Ferrari 458 Spider the other night at the VWGolf.net.au 3rd B’day Party. What a lovely place to be. It’s other worldly. The display is so high tech, even the air vents are interesting but what really stole the show was the steering wheel. It had a crazy selector for sport and race modes which felt so solid. Metal, no plastics here. No indicator stalks, instead their on the wheel as buttons and the paddle shifters, those massive paddle shifters, fwoar. Amazing. Then I get the OK to turn the key and hit the big red ENGINE START button. Yeaha! I then get the OK to give it a little rev (inside Zen too!). So good!
Those of you at Top Gear Festival last weekend would have seen this 86 at the ADVAN Yokohama stand. I’m proud to say that I designed the graphics for it. Photo by the amazing Easton Chang.
Last Saturday night at VWGolf.net.au’s 3rd B’day Party Bash @ Zen Garage I took delivery of my new daily driver. Jose’s (JIG’s) ABT Supercharged MKV R32.
Build thread: http://eurostyle-tuning.com/forum/showthread.php?1190-Justin-Fox-s-ABT-Supercharged-MKV-R32
Spotted: Easton Chang!
Sounded so tough.
The Crew.
Black Series.
Never been a fan of cruises (because something usually goes wrong!) but went to an Exotics Cruise last week. Some amazing metal showed up. Heaps of C63’s, heaps of money!!!
My 911 dream is officially on hold, for now. The deal breaker? I was chatting to Carby (from Deus) and at some point in the conversation he suggested that having a garage for a 911 is pretty much a prerequisite.
I wholeheartedly agree.
I love love love the house I’m living in. And in the past I’ve thought about moving out to a place with at least a double car garage (a 7 car garage would be ideal!). I’ve even looked into pinning up the house and carving away at the sandstone to get a larger garage under my house, it’s a no go.
So for now, the dream is on pause. I’ve already bought a car (impulsive much?) and I take ownership of it next Saturday. It’s German, and a compromise… but in a good way! More news soon.
Miles isn’t so sure about the new Mazda 6.
The showroom (what’s that MX-5 smiling about huh?!).
Really liking the new taillights.
The workshop, very clean and tidy.
My sister bought a new car yesterday. They were set on a Mazda CX-5 2.5 (not quite released just yet) and they’d done a bit of bargaining down but thought they’d bring out the big guns (Mum and I!) to try and lowball the stealers down even further.
Was hard to do as the car has had great reviews, the 2.5 isn’t even available at dealerships yet and a dealer seeing a whole family hop out of a car knows we were there to purchase.
Mum’s awesome an low balling. I came in from a different automotive angle, catching the dealer out in regards to servicing fees, tinting, matts etc. In the end we did AOK not exactly what we wanted it for, but only $500 off the mark!
Had the day off yesterday so instead of cleaning up the house, doing the washing and doing the groceries I dropped in to see Indy at IS Motor Racing. I drove the GT-R to see if we could get the pesky power steering fluid leak fixed up once and for all, he was happy for me to leave it with him. Fingers crossed it’ll be ready for the private track day coming up next month!
Not smiling, at all.
Today I got to drive a manual 997. I’d semi-recently driven Sam’s old school 911 SC and it’s been years since I drove Howie’s 997 (with PDK gearbox) so despite the rainy conditions I was pretty excited to get in for more 911 time.
Love how you have to pull the door handle up to open the doors. Very cool. I instantly noticed the left of centre pedals again, not as pronounced as Sam’s 911 SC but still noticeable. Clutch in to turn the car on, clutch is very light. Reverse is left of 1st gear. Very strange.
We were away and I instantly liked the steering wheel. Nice size, perfect thickness. Steering is as light as a Honda Jazz and offered no feel at all in comparison to Sam’s car, but like Sam’s car it had a lot of grunt in first and nothing much in 2nd. Maybe it was traction control, or the soft clutch, or the mode the car was in (?) but grabbing 2nd from high revs felt really disappointing. Like there was no urgency and a big loss of revs, almost as if the ECU was kicking in to make everything smoother.
I did notice the traction control lights kick in one time and had I been in Sam’s car I wouldn’t ever have driven anywhere near as spiritedly in wet conditions, but that’s what I found really annoying about this car. It’s so quiet and the suspension is so soft. I felt totally detached from it, like driving a Honda Jazz. It’s just too easy to drive. I failed to see what was so 911 about it.
The shifter was awesome though, however I remember Howie’s PDK 997 being way more aggressive in that the loud pedal felt directly connected to the engine and the PDK car had a feeling of endless torque and tones of response.
All in all it was an essential drive which made me realise that a 996 (which I can afford, the 997 being at least $80k 2nd hand) is just not for me. And whilst Sam’s car might be too demanding for daily duties (I still think the non-power steering is going to get to me) the 964 with assisted steering and ABS brakes sounds like it could potentially be the perfect match for me.
50 years apart.
I’ve had 911 on the brain a lot lately. A 911 featured in my article on 10 cars to own before you die, and driving Sam’s 911 last month pushed me over the limit (I put my EVO IX up for sale that night and sold it a few days later!).
Turns out the hunt for a classic isn’t as easy as I thought it would be and it’s looking like I’ve sold the EVO way too soon. Kevin San (aka Babalouie) has been a true champ in helping me find the right car. That’s a car which has had a lot of mechanical work done so that I don’t have to fork out $25k+ on getting it working nice straight off the bat. Whilst the mission was a 964 for years I’ve fallen in love with the shape of the previous model 911 but I have my doubts about whether or not I could live with no power steering on a daily basis, that and the expensive upkeep on these older cars.
At some point a week or so ago I gave up (it’s all just too hard!) and made a serious offer on an NSX (manual, 70,000kms!). The buyer accepted my offer and I had booked in an inspection. A few days later he called to say someone outbid me by $2k. I wasn’t about to play that game so I let it go (turns out it sold to a guy I know through Zi at JDMyard!).
I’ve since been on car sales every single day. Morning, noon and night. I’ve looked at everything from Lotus Elises to BMW Z4’s to M3’s to Honda Jazzes (would be my 4th!) but it’s images like the one above that make me realise just how much I want a 911 and also how much more I love the old stuff better than the new stuff. The hunt continues!