Today it was a scorching 35 degrees inland (I was visiting the boys at JDMyard) and to make matters worse I was stuck without aircon on the M5 on the way home due to a savage car accident which stalled everyone for at least 30 minutes. Stevey followed me home though (he got there a lot quicker than I did on his motorbike) and we went for a swim at the rock pool down the road. Water was freeeezing cold but damn it was great. I brought a snorkel down with me and spotted a huge octopus, the largest one I’ve ever seen in real life. It’s body was the size of 2 fists and it was missing 2 tentacles. We dunked a few beers then we thought we’d get the death trap out for a spin.

Stevey has a go at the Deathtrap!

Quote: Originally Posted by Tonba: Apart from no aircon, how do you find the stripped interior? Do you get sick of it? What was your reason for doing it??

The reason why I stripped it? There are a few reasons. Sure, weight was one, the rear seats were sun faded and never fit right with the roll-cage back there. I had an audio system in there but prefered listening to the car than music, so that went (as well as weight).

I was, and still am, VERY inspired by race car interiors. How do you explain something you love so much? The rawness of it, how tough it feels, all the extra noises you hear, that sound deadening crap is like censorship. Seeing a freshly painted stripped interior with cage does more for me than a freshly painted exterior any day.

If I had the option from factory to not have all that tar/sound deadening material, extra wiring, audio etc I would go for it. Even with the Jazz. If it was an easy job to strip it to the level I took the GT-R I’d do it in a heartbeat.

Pics from last nights great Loftus night ride. Great weather yesterday made for a dry trail. At 7.30PM (our usual meet up time) there was still light.

The MCC boys (David, Sam and Ash).

Sam.

Jings new Voodoo SS.

David.

Felix.

David, freak face off picture!

Photography by Kelvin Ng.

With over 70,000 views, Babalouie’s Hakosuka build thread in the members rides section on JDMST is the most viewed thread on the forum and so it was an obvious car to feature.

I interviewed Babs (Kevin) over MSN (had to force him to download and install it! Old man he says!). He’s a walking JDM encyclopedia, a great driver and he’s been a great inspiration to me over the years.

Click here to check out the feature.

We were in Alexandria today buying an outdoor setting from Harvey Norman and we found this guy (his name is Justin too) writing a note to put on Suga’s R32. Nice to have the old and new next to each other to compare the differences. I love the old shape, lots. Boxy, squat (he did have it lowered) like a bulldog.

Now that the renovations are pretty much done I’ve started putting a bit of love into the aquarium again. I’ve got the protein skimmer working at it’s best once more and I’ve replaced a cannister of carbon (long overdue). New light tubes are in too. The road to recovery is going to be a long one but I’m sure I’ll get there.

I paid my Uncle John a visit this weekend. I’ve finally snapped a shot of him (he hates being in front of the camera!).

Here’s the shop on Beach Road in Bondi Beach, as my Dad left it back in the 80’s. John hasn’t done one single thing to it, the shop is so dirty and run down inside that a lot of people that walk in just walk straight back out.

My Uncle John, Dads youngest brother, the hippy (John the Beatle is what my family calls him). I love the guy.

The Locks often haunt Insadong, a Korean BBQ joint on Rowe St. in Eastwood. The place is always dead quiet, which is a shame as the food is great.

I love any crispy beer.

Bibimbap.

On every single Saturday, all year round the Locks have a table booked at Excellent Chinese Seafood Restaurant in Carlingford for yum cha. I’ve been on a few occasions now, basically anyone in the family that wants to rock up does which sometimes makes for a very tight squeeze. It’s just such an awesome thing to have.

Christina and I hit the framers this weekend. We have 4 great Kozyndan prints to frame and a small Amy Sol print too. All signed of-course!

Amy Sol print.

Kozyndan HORNY print. That’s them in the poster :)

Signed love.

Perhaps their most famous print.

Yup signed!

ADVAN are now officially operating in Australia, we have them on JDMST as advertisers at the moment (thanks to the guys at go2space) and they invited us to an industry night at Cargo Bar last Wednesday night. Great venue, great people, great presentation by Christian, their head marketing guy (I loved how many times he mentioned “JDM”!), heaps of food and drinks on tap till late too.

The Advan girls from the Advan industry night. The first thing I asked them was “Are you guys from Japan?”.

I’ve always had a soft spot for the brand and their products.

Used semis on display, nice!

Shida and Stevey.

Yesterday, at about lunch time, my internet went down. I tried to restart the modem, no go. I left it alone thinking that it was probably an outage in the area as there was some freaky weather here in Maroubra (very strong winds and some rain). This morning there was still no internet. I called Telstra, some guys wasted a shitload of my time and at the end of it he said he couldn’t help me any further because I wasn’t using a Telstra modem. FUCK! I am 100% sure the DLINK modem I am using is a Telstra approved modem (it says so on the box?!), in any case I called Telstra sales and ordered a new modem from them. $99 on special, great, but it might take 3-5days to get to me (not great).

Yesterday I also had a built-in wardrobe guy come around to give me a quote on a wardrobe for the bedroom + a linen closet for the hallway. He was going to email me the quote today but since I have no email I got him to send the quote to my Mums email addy (I’m at my Mums now). The quote came in at $4900 for the bedroom wardrobe and $2300 for the hallway one. FUCK! That’s a shitload of cash. I can’t see how I could justify that at all. One thing he did say was that the flor wasnd’t level in the bedroom, that freaks me out a little. If I bought an IKEA wardrobe ($1800-ish) it might not even sit right? I tried to call the guy but he didn’t pick up so I sent him an email, complete with sob story. I’m really hoping he will bring the quote down ($5k for both wardrobes would be AOK).

So, no internet = no work. I might as well read (something I rarely do, maybe a book every 2 years?!). I’ve just finished reading Dan Brown’s Digital Fortress, it was so crap but I couldn’t put it down. Christina bought me The Godfather to read (I’m 30 pages in and it’s reading like a bad 80’s porno). Friends on FaceBook have suggested a few books though, might run out and buy a couple of them.