Following on from Suga’s carbon front lip, mirrors and airbox we’ve just fitted a new carbon rear valance. Pulling the old one off was a little nerve wracking but it came off with a bit of force and with a bit of TLC the new one went on fine and the fit is perfect (to be expected for the the $!).

The car is looking hot. I need a better camera. Most of these modifications are Japanese, the car is not finished.

Oh my.

Fitted.

MMM Carbon.

Jasmine!

Shot from my little pocket camera. YAH, IT WAS PRETTY CRAZY.

Massive weekend. Defqon.1 on Saturday was nuts. The drive out to Penrith was ridiculously boring, watching people get done by the sniffer dogs was amusing, the banging beats took me back to Welcome 94, even the happy ravers with their massive pants and flouro bits were still around. Heaps of Asians, everyone was drug fucked, Optimus Prime hosted the event (too cheesy and geeky for my liking) but I had a good time.

Some pics:

Jon.

Kay’s sexy Connie’s.

Suga and I.

Caroline and friend.

The crowd.

The main stage by day.

The main stage at night.

Kitchen before.

Kitchen before.

Kitchen before.

Kitchen after! The pendant lamps are adjustable in height, more of a set and forget thing though, the floors need a good buffing.

The sink is actually recessed into the CaesarStone benchtop.

Zip – instant filtered boiling and chilled water. This guy is going to my new best friend.

Double drawer dishwasher so you can do a small load, or a huge one.

Microwave donated by my sister :) Thanks Mie!

We used CaesarStone for the splash back too. We had the option, and were tempted to go for an induction style cooktop but we both decided we wanted to use flame as there’s just something right about using fire to cook with. All the goods in the kitchen are Fisher & Paykel except the microwave (LG) and this pimp minimalist (easy to clean) stove top by Electrolux.

Outside IS Motor Racing, oh someone cleaned my car! :)

Papz’s car on the dyno.

A sign I saw on one of the cars in the Dyno room.

Stock airbox?!

Back at home.

Walkaround.

I got my GT-R back from IS Motor Racing today.

Indy and team have done a lot of what I’ve asked them to do but I’m still waiting on a quiet/er exhaust to come in from Japan. Whilst I was gone Indy thought he’d try and get it engineered as is, but the exhaust failed. Everything else was good though, Trust plumb back BOVS, stock airbox, cage out etc. I’ve got tinting on the rear 1/4 done too (1/2 cage back in? Maybe).

The tune is out of whack now that I’ve put the stock airbox back in but I’ll wait until the new exhaust is on before a re-tune. The new Excedy heavy duty clutch feels ridiculously easy in comparisson to the twin plate that was in there before (easier than the Jazz?!), there’s no more induction noises… it’s all very tame (except the exhaust). Yeah I feel a little sad about it, but I’m going to stick with my plan.

The carpet guys came today to lay down our carpet in the bedroom and the retreat. Christina’s mum suggested spending up on quality Cavalier Bremworth carpet as she’s had it in her place for 6 years and it’s still looking as good as new.

Unfortunately the carpet wasn’t quite wide enough to be split at the step, so there’s a line where the carpet for the retreat joins up. They assure me the line will settle though. I hope so.

Before.

After. A shot taken from the ensuite looking out into the bedroom and retreat.

The ensuite, yet to be cleaned (it’s covered in dust!). Also missing a wooden bench at the far end on the right side.

Just another shot of the guest bathroom.

Deck/narrow steps before.

Deck and wider steps after.

Another deck shot.

House painted, floor painted, new guttering, roof painted.

Kitchen before.

Kitchen after.

Last night Kelvin Ng sent me the photos he took for ImportStrings.com of my new Ibanez RG Prestige RG2550ZL.

I have to admit I’ve not been playing it since I’ve been so busy cleaning up the house (carpet goes into the bedroom today!). I’ll be moving back in next week hopefully.

You can view more of his images, in higher res, here.

Yonas’ EGK24A. Photo by Mark Pakula.

I’ve just read DJ Chesta’s feature in Auto Salon Magazine (yes I’ve been catching up). I’ve read Winnie’s feature on Eddie’s crazy Jazz which I now own. I’ve just interviewed Yonas about his never ending love affair with his EG Civic. Last night I was speaking with Kawasaki/Mugen Steve on msn about his EF which is “almost done”. I’m really really really enjoying driving a manual again. I hate it that I’ve bought someone else’s modified car and I have no fucking idea what modifications have been done to it. I’m now truly happy to be working on both the Jazz and the GT-R again (with the GT-R, even if it is “de-modding” it’s still modding!). Suga’s going mental on her R32.

I’m obviously back. It was a great break. Here’s cheers!

Today I caught up with my mate Narada from Circuit Club. It’s been a while since I last saw him. Funny how the world works. One day someone pops up in conversation and the next day you’re having coffee with them.

Deus Cafe

We met up at Deus Cafe. I’ve never eaten there before but I’ve always wanted to. Same with Narada. We were too early for lunch so we settled for brunch and both consumed a plate full of baked beans, pork sausage and poached eggs. Hearty goodness!

Mash Cinelli. Whilst we were there we checked out the shop too (of-course).

I’m pretty stoaked that Deus are bringing in Honda Zoomers. I’ve wanted one for years now but Honda Australia have never brought them into the country. Deus have an estimated price of $3k. I’ll have to chew on it.

Catch-up with Nads was great (not so great for him as he had an accident that morning in his S2000, minor bumper incident and he’s not at fault, but that’s enough to ruin anyone’s day). I headed off to Bondi Junction Westfields afterwards. I’m not sure what’s the go with this place but I always have a fucked time in the carpark. I’ve seen so many road rage incidents, women stealing other women’s parks, horn bashing, you name it and today I copped it hard. For one they had blocked off the entire top floors of parking, that meant I was circling for at least 15 minutes looking for a park. I then found one, indicated, waited for the car to leave and a woman in a silver Golf sneakily stole my park! I beeped the shit out of her, hopped out of the car and tapped on her window (she wouldn’t open the door). I took the camera out and took a shot of her plate, then her face, to which she produced the finger at me.

BA72NE

The fucking bitch.

I was fuming, circled some more to look for a park, decided to give up and then queued up for 10 minutes just to get out of there, all the time burning my clutch going up ramps in traffic. I parked the car outside on the street and started to make my way back to the mall with the intention to key her car (yes I was that angry). By the time I got in the mall I’d calmed down a little and I thought keying her car might be a bit much, so instead I’d just deflate a tyre. By the time I had done what I needed to do in the mall I whimped out of doing anything to her car at all. *sigh* /vent.

Lately with the silver Jazz (which I just traded for this new yellow one) I had gotten lazy with using the bike rack/tow hook combo (using it means I can’t open the boot see) and since I had no love for my filthy interior I had been chucking the bike in the car.

For last night’s Loftus ride I got my bike and Ash’s in the boot of this new Jazz but damn it was hard:

1) I had leather seats to worry about, the pedals on these bikes are very sharp and they’d tear right into the leather.

2) The rear strut brace was in the way and the cage is in the way of getting the rear seats to fold all the way down.

We still managed but I don’t think I’ll be doing that again. One bike should be fine but 2 is a no go.

Oh noes don’t scratch the leather!

I’ve since taken the rear brace out.

400km/tank and that’s with a LOT of VTEC YO!

Another thing that happened today. I was just driving along, slow start off the lights in 2nd and the car lost power. Accelerator was down but there was nothing, it then kicked back in. Did it again and then after shutting the car off for 20 minutes and driving again, it did it again.

Water temp/oil temps were fine. Zi thought it might have been an ECU/tuning issue. On the way home from JDMyard I realised that this morning the fuel light was on, but now on the M5 back home the needle had magically raised up past the 1/4 mark.

I thought it had to be a lack of fuel!

I made it to the Shell, opened up the fuel cap and damn there was a lot of pressure in there, so much so that a shitload of fuel sprayed out at me (great!).

Filling up the tank drove the fuel needle way past the FULL sign, it now all makes sense. I’m not sure exactly how I’m going to fix the fuel needle calibration (?!). I might just not bother with it, and just fill up every time I get down to 1/4 tank.

Photo by Mark Pakula for Auto Salon Magazine (click here for higher resolution pic).

So I’ve had a weekend of driving the new Jazz. The aircon isn’t working due to a broken pipe in the engine bay somewhere. Dedy from Top One seems to think that vibration might have caused it to break. He’s ordered the parts needed in order to fix it and after a re-gass the AC should be back in action, which is a good thing as it’s been a hot couple of days.

I’m getting a loud knocking noise from the front suspension when cornering, especially on load. I can pretty much get it to knock from a stand still when turning either left or right. I’ll have to look into that pronto.

Apart from these issues I’m loving the car. It’s damn loud when the exhaust is on and super quiet when the exhaust is off. The loud setting has proven quite fun, especially in tunnels. ;)