What did I do?

As you know I have a project car, I even posted about it below. Anyway, looking through my collection of stuff I realised I have a heap of 'progress' pics. So I thought I'd share the journey, I've enjoyed it!

Where did project car begin? Here, it's where you saw it a few weeks ago:

And it was as standard as it could be, inside and out...

Seats are a bit worn, but they'll do for now.
Pro Tip: Those two cup holder flaps are easy to fix. Fix them before they break. It's a simple case of pulling off the centre console and putting in a tiny screw and a washer so the spring doesn't fall off.
One was broken on this car, the other on it's way out.

Engine bay is fine. Bonus was the factory strut brace - I wasn't expecting that, but in the end it saved me a few dollars. Mind you, it was lost in the engine bay, not very 'Because: Racecar" really...

And, because I'm not the idiot I used to be (search on Project Beemer) I actually made sure I had some upgrade funds. I reckon a fair proportion of the enjoyment of buying this car was searching for the bits I wanted.

This gave me an early Christmas...

I also ordered a new stereo (no usb on the one that's factory) and double din cage.

I will say the fitting of just about everything was super easy, partly as I only bought bolt on stuff, but also I think it's a very simple car to work on.

Soon had the interior done:

I wasn't sure of handbrake fitting, but it's been secure.

Double sided tape works it seems!

Ended up really appreciating the centre console cubby, shades go in there, followed by phone, and there's a lip so it doesn't slide out.

A comment on the stereo - the speakers in the car are fine for sure. What's more with the loom converters it's a relatively simple fit. And as a bonus the whole thing dims with lights on at dusk. I do recommend this Pioneer too, or at least one you can change the fascia colours on - matching orange/red looks awesome at night.

So that sorted the car, but it's not "Because: Racecar" in any way other than being great fun. Enter a peruse of eBay. On there you can pick up some bargains, and a K&N Pod filter was one of them. Less than half the price of one from the site, if you're careful you can get one that's a further 20% off the ebay price. Which I did...

Worth the discounted price I paid.

An easy half hour to fit. And, cheeky, an oil breather filter - note that this isn't replacing EGR stuff, that's still there, this is a crank breather that used to feed to/from the air filter. 

I also took off the strut brace, and sprayed it ceramic red.

Turns out I really don't like spraying, or rather the time it takes to spray. An agonising few hours...

The results were worth it though...

Probably not to everyone's taste, but not overdone I think, and I like it, it's enough "Because: Racecar" without setting me up for re-tunes and the likes. And frankly as my current tally of speeding fines tell me, cars are fast enough mmmkay.

Note to others, the stainless radiator shield is good, and is in fact a good price, but if you're being pedantic it doesn't cover the final bulkhead/radiator gap, just the bulkhead gaps. I'm pretty much fine with this, but I do keep an eye out for a discount on a full cover that's stainless or indeed carbon.

And the external bits?

I like it. And that's what matters!

The fuel cap I'd do again for sure, it really should have been stainless from the factory (was it an option?). The clear lights? Sure they make it look good, but the pricing was a bit brutal.

Next on the list?

Radiator - Funny story. Took the car in for a service and they found several leaks in various seals and gaskets. Those, the brake grinding and an oil change took me to $1k and wiped me out. On the way through the mechanics recommended a radiator upgrade. I'll do that with the help of ebay for a full aluminium one. Next project once funds are free...

Headlights - I can polish them, but I think I'll go with some after market ones and start afresh. I can then polish/sell the factory ones to cover costs - possibly all of the costs as they're expensive compared to non OEM.

Race headers & Exhaust back box - I like the sound basically. CX Racing does them but you're losing various sensors on the way through apparently. Research time, and expensive, so we'll see how we do.

Brakes - Had mine faced off so they're good for now, but I like the idea of a lot more feel. There are various suppliers of kits - I like the Wilwood set, they bolt right on there. Maybe need some new wheels and tyres at that point too.

Roll bar - As they say, don't have it unless you plan to use it. But I do like the idea of a track day, hillclimb or motorkhana or two with this car. But I don't like the idea of being folded up inside it...

For now though, and probably for  year or more, it'll be my weekend sports car, dressed up as it is. It's perfectly fine like that!

Senna

GT Sport has a use!

Controversial I know - but I just don't like GT Sport.

I'll even say it's a good game, but it's a good game when you use racing rubber (not sport), it's a good game when you choose a particular track/car combination, it's a good game when you're online and it's a good game when you've played it non-stop for months - unlocking a $20mil car (or stump up real cash for it).

And for me, PCars2 is a good game with all the tracks and cars and tyres. It's a better racing game and I never thought I'd say that.

So why do I fire up GT Sport a fair bit? To do art and to look at other people's art - a shout out to Ace here, he's prolific!

And so without further ado, here's a virtual gallery of stuff from me and from Ace...

This is a local town from where I grew up!

Homage to the greatest car I've driven

Ace's most excellent Moffat rendition

Lovely retro

There are more, many more, and in some ways that's a bad thing - there's so much content locked up in that game, and it's all social stuff. Shudder.

New Toy!

I'm a great believer in putting my money where my mouth is, which is odd as on that score I should never talk much as I don't have any money.

But mid-life crisis is a thing it seems, and I've hit mine - or rather it hit me and in fairness and I've had to stump up to get it off my ageing back.

What did I do - the stuff I can talk about on here would include buying a replacement for Project Beemer, or as it should be rightfully called Project Rolling Artistic Scrap.

And the list of requirements was many and varied:

• Have a roadworthy
• Not need a clutch, gearbox, diff, suspension, sub-frame bushing, every gasket, tappet replacement...
• Manual gearbox (that doesn't need new shift bushings) 
• Rear wheel drive
• And because mid-life crisis, no roof

Not that I'm bitter or anything of course - but a car I could enjoy was primo.

And what did I get? Behold:

Best. Purchase. Ever.

And there we have it, a car that I thoroughly enjoy, has only netted me 4 points in it's first three weeks of ownership and generally is something I'm looking forward to owning for years to come!

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!