Book review - Allan Moffat Climbing the Mountain

I grew up on a diet of late 70's and 80's Australian touring cars where names like Peter Brock, Dick Johnson & Allan Moffat did battle in more road going style of cars all-but with a truckload more power.  None of this modern parity racing in V8 Supercars, just drive it like you stole it from the dealer(or were given the car from the dealer in many cases) with different cars obviously suited to different tracks and many classes run in the same race.  Not to say cars weren't prepared professionally, they certainly were with custom engine builds and cars given thorough going over.  In Moffat's book he talks about having a 'magic surface plate' allowing millimetre-fine accuracy and helping to build stronger straighter cars than anyone else, leagues ahead of the times in 1979.

My first and only time I've seen Moffat on track in real life was watching a practice session at Bathurst in 1988 as a 10 year old.  My family took a vacation to Port Macquarie and Canberra.  My dad who's always been a Motorsport enthusiast racing go karts and competing in Sprints and Hill Climbs himself organised a brief stopover in Bathurst on the way through to watch a practice session in the lead-up to the Bathurst 1000. 2 things stick out in my mind, 1 being Brock getting it all crossed up at the final corner, gathering it up and standing on the loud pedal taking off down the start finish straight.  The other was Allan Moffat in a Eggenberger Motorsport built ANZ RS500 Sierra leaving the pits and laying down 2 liquorice strips.  Eggenberger being the leadding Sierra development house in Europe at the time.  Sadly Ruedi Eggenberger passed away a couple of days ago aged 79.

The autobiography is written by Allan Moffat and John Smailes who might be better known for his distinctive voice commentating for the Australian Rally Championship.

As a motoring enthusiast I found the book a light enjoyable read.  I was a bit disappointed with what I felt was a cheap shot at Bowden's who now look after his iconic Coke Cola Trans Am mustang.  Something to do with the car being 'fettered with' and not being the same as when he drove it back in the day.  I also thought Dick Johnson was omitted with only a couple of passing comments with the focus largely on Moffat vs Brock battles who Moffat has obvious great respect for.

Moffat also addresses 'that crash' at 200kph at Skyline in practice for the 1986 Bathurst 1000 when he joined Brock's team.

I knew Moffat was Canadian but I wasn't aware of how extensive his racing overseas was.  His focus was always Australia but had many races in the USA, Europe and Macau.

All in all I'd say it's a good read that adds another perspective to motorsport in the 70's, 80's and 90's from both a driver and team owner perspective.  Moffat doesn't mince his words and calls is as he sees things, admitting that possibly he could have gotten further my taking a more amicable approach, on the other hand maybe that's just part of what helps top performing drivers.

Nerd Alert (and not the sugary snack sort)

You all know I enjoy gaming. But did you know I enjoy watching it?
Rather than watch overpaid actors following a script a good commentator working through a decent game is much more fun.

And a game that fascinates me, but is largely unwatchable, is Eve Online. Why? Well, firstly it's a MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online) and is set in space. And it's huge, really huge.

For instance, four years ago there was a space battle where various 'clans' came together and had a sorting out. This involved an online battle in which assets (spaceships) that were actually bought by players were destroyed. The upshot... US$300k of lost ships. I.e. real money.

See all those little lights, they're ships. It was called the Bloodbath of B-R5RB, exciting name innit.
7,548 players over 21 hours, basically it was an epic thing played out in a virtual universe.

Why do I post this? Because that's the small war, or it might be as there was unsettled nonsense then and as a result there's a US$1million battle in the offing. Like kids toeing up and going to the bike shed after class, some thousands of players online are doing the same...

This thread talks all about it
This forum is ablaze about it
This is where you watch it

What's this got to do with motor racing, nothing, but it's my excuse for being a bit tired over the next few days - I want to see things unfold!

p.s. no I don't have any ships to get blown up, tempting as it is!

Update: What happened? Nothing, nada, zip. Well, a fair bit, but essentially a paltry assault on an impenetrable fortress resulted in a strategic withdrawal. Wasn't exciting. Wasn't $1m in funds lost.

I need to start wearing a full body sweat band or something...

Favourite online racer of the moment going large with the 935...

"You're just not driving the car right"

Nuff said:

When reality strikes..

This last week I had an opportunity like very few others...
You see, someone I know, let's call him David, happens to own a McLaren 650s, and he said we should go out in it, this one to be precise:

And yes they are every bit as awesome in real life as you'd imagine.

So David met me in some far out suburb in Sydney that allowed us to take a relatively short trip out to some bendy bits of road without anyone else on them. And fair play to David - he's bought a car that he's going to use...

You'll all know the stats on this car, but the acceleration on it is brutal, as demonstrated, I don't mind a fast car, but the punch into the seat on booting it was intense - I think I braced (you know foot on the brake and hand on the ceiling) and swore out loud. And that was on a relatively straight bit!

And then the road, I won't share location, Mr Police please stay away, but it's a popular spot apparently. Anyway David did a sighting run, all good I thought - the sighting run was probably the fastest I've ever been around a bend in my life. My word that car hangs on! Mind you kudos to the pilot for using every inch of the grip of the car, we were scrubbing into the corners on brakes, around the corners on grip and out of the corners under power. Seriously intense and seriously fun!

At the bottom of the hill/run we stopped (and pics above) and as we jumped out you could smell the brakes, tyres, engine... remember driving your econobox past the limit and smelling thrash? Turns out you can do that with a supercar! Good stuff.

And then, and then it was my turn!!! OMG.

Well, you get into the car and that's easy enough, step into the well and slide on in. The doors hinge closed and the last bit is an electronic snick as it latches in.
In terms of seating, obviously hugging seats and sat on the floor pretty much, but I was surprised at how comfortable the cabin was - no compromises in seating to fit it into such a small package.
And the steering wheel... well, I had an issue with that as it felt way too game system, in a good way. Lovely feel, nice size (not too big) and well placed flappy paddles!

So what does one do when given the opportunity to drive someone's 650s, after dark on a road which was all bends?

I booted it!

No way I was going to get the warp speed of the downhill run, but certainly I think I did the car justice on the way up. I know we both stopped talking, me because I was concentrating like nothing else, and David I suspect was going with equal enjoyment/remorse depending on the way I was driving it.

So how does it feel to drive a half million dollar car? Easy is the word I could use, but that's a gross over simplification I think. Considering it's a very long time since I've driven a fast car (not the same as a normal car fast I might point out) and I've never sat in a car like this let alone given it some beans... It's an amazingly compliant car to drive.
Someone asked me why bother having such a fast car in Australia (200+Mph), the answer is that within the limits of the roads, or at least around it, the car drives and handles far better than you can imagine.

Be it booting it and letting it rev, or short shifting to enjoy the insta-power, be it hanging on the brakes, or indeed (look away David) wanting to really press on them at least once, be it turning in and what you do with the wheel is instantly and clearly reflected in the wheels, the car fully supports the driver in what they want to do. Amazing.

I didn't get anywhere near traction limits, thankfully, and probably didn't even warm the brakes up. But to me I pushed on, and had an experience in what has to be up there in the short list for motoring perfection.

And how do you thank someone for lending you such an amazing drive, I'm not sure, I'll have to think of something for sure.

Of course, now my everyday car feels like a tractor balanced on top of a jelly to be frank. So I'm back to sims to try and do driving the McLaren what methadone is to cocaine.. it's a poor substitute I can tell you...

We've all done it

On the start line at Brands Hatch, there's that slight lean to the right... the lights change, you put your foot down and career off to the side of the track.

Why do I mention this? Well, watching the first round of the BTCC at Brands Hatch reminded me of many online races. And for that it's excellent!

Behold (it is well worth watching!):

More Please

We all lament F1 and the woes of faded exhaust note, excessive politics and generally lacklustre racing.
And then there's this, GP2 racing at Monza - this should be televised internationally...

True, the commentating helps, but the close racing is marvellous and no mistake!

I laughed

30 Minutes into this and I can't stop chuckling at the outright realism of Truck Sim.
Honestly if you have the time, it's worth grabbing something alcoholic and sitting back and listening to a pro-streamer make road hauling fun!

Bosozoku Buddies

Well not quite, and this is good TV over dinner...

And spot the difference, this:

Compared to this:

I reckon those Bosozoku crew folks have something...


//edit//

Bonus content, Tsuchiya (Drift King) abusing a Zonda...

It's like Cheesecake

This is like Cheesecake (yes, that deserves a caps).

Why? Well... lets look at the core ingredients of Cheesecake:

1. Cheese
2. Cake

What's not to like hmmm?

And like Cheesecake this video has Tiff* and Singer Porsche. Which doesn't make it an awesome desert, but I surely want to watch and digest what is a great vid nonetheless.

Enjoy:

For the lawyers - I'm not implying Tiff is a cake, a bit harder to say he's not cheesy I suppose...

Lost soul

So it's all about Project Cars 2 at the moment.
I've not got any screen shots but I will put a few words down about it...

To round it up, Assetto has depth, PCars2 has breadth. There, that's all the review you need!

But seriously, things to do in PCars2 that work and make you think that it's a great sim:

• Take the XJ220 TWR for a spin around Bathurst
• Take the Group A R32 on the California highway
• Do old Spa with weather
• Start your career with the Ginetta racing
• Do spend an hour getting your HUD to be less than all over the screen
• Do set your steering FFB to raw

And here's the things to avoid:

• Don't do the Escort 1600 at Brands short - especially as you can do the same in Assetto
• Don't take the McLaren F1 out, errr, on any road
• Generally avoid the road cars for now
• Avoid the 935 for a bit, then drive it at Red Bull
• GoKarts - authentic maybe, but my word...

Do I like the game? As a game yes, I like it. I like the endless choice of track and cars. I like the racing, the Ginetta at Cadwell was an excellent race. I like the general simness of it, but it's not a sim.

It's hard not to be the smug Audi owner at a party of Hyundai drivers with this. Once I got over the physics shock (so very unique) and dialled in I still couldn't shake that compared to Assetto, well, it doesn't. If I want to play a game I'll happily play this. If I want to drive a car - I'll always go to Assetto.

I will say on one track I had dappled (HDR) sunlight across the track, that was special. But graphically it's not a million miles away from Assetto, and for ball ache beauty I think the venerable Driveclub might still have an edge - how the hell is that possible!
My Pro also has a sold state drive, arguably much faster in load times - my unit of "skyrim" which was about a week on the PS3 is little more than 30 seconds on this bad boy. And the loading of everything is still reasonably slow in this game. A lot going on I suppose.

And part of that will be the weather, as mentioned above it is awesome to have a go, though I think a 956 at 250Kph will have some water related 'issues' on the bends when it's pouring down - though not that I noticed.
And beyond a few goes to see what the fuss was about, and a minor grizzle at not seeing a torrent of water coursing down into Eau Rouge, I have gone back to 'red centre' spec racing - that being uniform blue above and hot below.

Am I disappointed with my purchase? I think not, but then last night I invested a heady $18 on Need for Speed, so I'm buying another game within 24 hours. hmmmm.

And because this is my roots for now, how about this for Assetto, a nice bit of driving..