One 9sec GT-R coming right up

Posted on August 20, 2008

Australia has a few advantages over the U.S., and one of them is the fact that GT-Rs are plentiful here. Although only 100 GT-Rs were officially brought in by Nissan Australia (the R32), they’ve been a big hit on the grey import market. One well-known GT-R fanatic is Din - who competed in our Street Car of the Year competition with his notorious DINZLR R32 GT-R - and this is his latest creation.

Currently its being built over at IS Motor Racing, and this one’s going to be a dedicated drag car. It brings back a flood of memories as when the Auto Salon Industrie Racing S15 drift car was a shell it was in the exact same position in the workshop, bare on and jack-stands. Heck, it was even a similar hue of silver. Can’t wait to see it completed.

Big Pot

Posted on August 19, 2008

Alexandria, the Sydney suburb where ASM’s HQ resides, is pretty much a mirror image of your typical industrial area. Which means the food in the area is absolutely crap. The arty cafes of Danks St are the closest (still a good ten minute drive away), while Crown St in Surry Hills is even further.

(above photo Mark Pakula)
Saving us from eating hamburgers and chips from the local store on the corner is a Thai restaurant called Big Pot which opened up recently. The place is tiny in size, but the food is stellar and surpasses many of the more well-known Thai restaurants in Sydney. Unfortunately we’ve eaten there so many times that we’re now sick of it, so the hunt for a virgin eatery begins once again…

Finally arrived

Posted on August 18, 2008

Finally my Fatlace tees arrived. Been hanging for them as I ordered over a month ago. Not sure what the hold up was, but I’m just glad they turned up and weren’t lost in the mail.

The two tees I picked up were an Illest in charcoal and a Cursive design in white on white.

Designed by Mark Arcenal, there’s some nice touches such as on the tags. Willy’s heading over to San Fran at the end of this week, so I might get him to swing by Fatlace to pick me up some more.

Hitting the snows

Posted on August 18, 2008

Perisher is a good six hour drive from Sydney, but news of the awesome snow coverage we’ve had this winter made it too good to resist. I haven’t been to the snow since I was in Year 7, so it was great that we could spend the weekend down there.

When it comes to travel, I always bring my DAKINE bag. Its been my companion all over the world, and even though its endured years of being thrown about by airport baggage handlers, its still just as sturdy as ever. The inner compartments are all the right sizes to fit anything you can throw at it.

With ten people going on the trip, finding the right accomodation was quite difficult as it was right in the meat of peak season. We ended staying at an awesome property called Edzelle, in East Jindabyne. Located about 40mins from the snow, it was fairly expensive considering its proximity ($2600 for two nights), however the facilities more than made up for it. After the debacle of the Melbourne hotel I stayed at last weekend, I admit didn’t have high hopes.

There were countless rooms and hallways - so many that it was easily to get lost - with two dining areas, two fire places, four bedrooms, two wet bars, and a gaming room complete with pool table, fusball table, and 50-inch plasma with surround sound, DVD player and cable TV. There was even a tennis court, but our focus was on hitting the slopes…

Weather-wise we were a bit disappointed that the blue skies were sporadic, but luckily it only snowed lightly. On the first day it was -1 degrees Celsius, and on the second day -4.

(above photo Valentina Schulte)
Snowboarding was hella fun. We stacked it heaps of times, but by the end of the day we all got the hang of it. The first time off the chair-lift was a bit interesting, as we fell like dominoes. Apparently I was the cause, but I’m denying that fact!

Willy’s new toy

Posted on August 14, 2008

Deputy Ed William recently purchased a Suzuki Cappucino. Ever since high school he’s wanted one, although I have no idea why as I don’t think he’ll even fit inside it. Here it is at Motorware getting a fresh lick of white paint. You really have to come up close to one to appreciate how small it is. Its almost like you could pick it up!

An empty wallet

Posted on August 13, 2008

Arrived back home in Sydney to find that the two boxes of snow gear I ordered online ages ago had finally arrived. The timing’s perfect, as the boys are heading down to Perisher this weekend.

First thing out of the box were the snowboard boots.

While I was initially going to buy Burton boots, for some reason I changed my mind at the last minute and grabbed DCs instead. Not sure if I’ll regret it or not, but as I’m not a regular ‘boarder I don’t think it will make any difference really.

Graphix Boas in black/silver. It uses Boa lacing - a coiler system with metal cabling rather than laces - which should come in handy when you have frosty fingers. Also has a pump system to make the fit more snug.

Outer wear-wise I went with Burton. For the jacket I bought an Andy Warhol series parka. Pop art rocks!

Lining the inside of the parker is printed satin. Awesome detailing and so many pockets I’ll probably forget where my iPod is.

Wearing matching top and bottoms isn’t really my style, so I went with plain black Burton Ronin cargos. Also picked up a pair of Burton snowboard gloves as well as a pair of Powerliner stretch gloves to wear when not falling on my ass.

Unfortunately while in Melbourne I kind of forgot about the snow gear I had ordered (well that’s my excuse), and so I splurged on things I probably shouldn’t have. Picked up two new pairs of Chucks to replace my old ones which are well and truly destroyed.

Recently I’ve been hunting around for some new jeans too. Since I missed out the a rare pair of Hedi Slimane (Dior Homme) jeans that I always wanted, I instead settled for some G-Stars. Bought a pair of Radar Narrow Ropes along with a pair of Submarine Slims. I’m truly in love with the latter. My wallets been obliterated, so I’m going to have lay low for a while I think!

Sleep is for the meek

Posted on August 12, 2008

Apologies for it being a bit quiet on here of late, but we’ve been uber busy flying around grabbing content for ASM. The lack of sleep started on Saturday night, when coincidentally both Kula and I had weddings to go to. I don’t think either of us got home until 3AM, and we had to wake up a couple hours later to grab a flight for a one-day trip (or ‘hit and run’ as we call it) to Adelaide for the Auto Salon.

Here’s a voyeur shot of Mark grabbing some Zs on the plane.

Straight after the show finished we were to fly straight to Melbourne - well that was the plan at least. Due to bad weather all flights were delayed, and so we were stuck in Adelaide’s airport waiting. It was absolutely packed with people, so we passed the time by sitting on the floor in the middle of the waiting area.

Rental cars suck. We arrived in Melbourne at close to midnight, and we were given a well abused Hyundai Getz by the rental company. Although Korean cars have improved in terms of quality, they still leave a lot to be desired. Even the leather trim on the steering wheel had shrunk and was peeling off quite noticeably. At least the Getz didn’t complain too much with our clutchless shifts!

Never believe pictures you see on the Internet. We stayed at the Hotel Grand Chancellor due to its location in the heart of Melbourne’s CBD, and the room pictures we saw when we booked made it look new and modern. Not so.

Unfortunately it was the complete opposite. Questionable stains on the carpet, tiny beds, and the shower drain was blocked meaning the water would build up to your ankles. This place sucks. Do not stay here.

After our shower-with-ankle-bathing, we headed out into Chinatown to grab some dinner. Luckily Melbourne has quite a few eateries that are open late (this was now 1:30AM on a Monday morning). Kula felt like dumplings and so we ate at China Bar. Bad food, like eating erasers with chilli sauce. Shit weather, shit sleeping patterns, shit rental car, shit hotel, shit food. OK, enough complaining.

Thankfully we were able to grab some half decent sleep as we didn’t have to be on the road until 8AM. After shooting some cars we popped in to Holford Motors to visit our friend Dom. This year they’ve been doing a stellar job in Drift Australia, and although underfunded compared to most teams, their driver Luke Fink is currently in second position in the championship.

Spotted this at a newsagency when we were hunting for coffee. One for the rice haters.

After lunch with the boys from Motorware, Kula and I hit the shops. Spent a bit too much dosh at Melbourne Central (above), which meant I couldn’t buy some Neighborhood and Originalfake clothes at a store called Someday.

Next morning we awoke to more rain, and the temperature was freaking cold, barely nudging into double digits. Rather than location shoots we were in a studio for the day, so there was some respite from the icy wind.

This was the first time we’ve used this particular studio, and it was a dream to use. Although not the biggest in terms of the size of the cyc’, they have everything you need and there’s some prime gear like Cambo stands. They do have crappy go-jacks though which are way too narrow to use on modified cars (especially the one we shot which wore 295 tyres).

Rather than lugging around our lights, we used the studio’s tungsten lights. Took a bit longer as everything had to be done on a tripod, but the results will be great.

After the shoot we were absolutely starving, so we popped into Port Melbourne for a late lunch. The car owner had recommended a burger joint called Urban Burger. Prices were a bit on the exxy side, but everything was cooked fresh. The restaurant has a bar-like layout.

Burger was pretty decent and the fries were the crunchiest I’ve ever had. Washed down with a vanilla shake of course!

With an hour to kill before our flight back to Sydney, we decided to head down to Albert Park to punt the Getz around the roads used for the Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix. Here’s the pit complex. When its not being used for F1, its actually a big sports centre, with most of the pits used for indoor soccer.

Those who aren’t into F1 wouldn’t suspect that an F1 race is held at Albert Park. Its a truly serene place with huge parks, a golf course and the famous lake in the middle. However there are a few cues, such as the astro turf run offs and these pit lane markings.

Bridgestone tyre marks are permanently tattoed in the pitlane, as its common practice for the drivers to lay down as much rubber as possible during sessions to ensure maximum grip for the pit stops during the race.

Inside the pit garages. Its bare of course, but you can still see the markings outlining the race car numbers.

Towards the pointy-end of the pitlane we spotted these tiny stickers on the asphalt. After a bit of head scratching we realise it denotes the BMW-Sauber team, with the German and Polish flags for their two drivers, Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica.

Traffic weaver

Posted on August 9, 2008

Spotting two Lambo Gallardos within 30 seconds of one another - on a weekday in morning peak hour - is certainly a rare sighting. The driver of this gunmetal one was thrashing the living f*ck out of it. He’d wait at each green light to create a gap and then gun it up through the gears, chopping lanes and swerving his way through the traffic. Probably not the brightest of drivers considering it was peak hour, but hey, maybe I’m just being jealous!

Yes I’m a nerd

Posted on August 7, 2008

Reading is something I did in high school with disdain. While English was always one of my stronger subjects, I absolutely loathed having to read the supplied texts. So when high school was over, I never even so much as looked at a book. Until recently.

I don’t know why, but I started reading again, and so far I’ve polished off around a dozen books this year. They range from books by ex-F1 mechanics to bios on stock-brokers to true stories about drug dealers. This book, called Marching Powder by author Rusty Young, was recommended by an old colleague, and is a true story based in a quirky jail in South America where prisoners rent their cells and their families are allowed to live with them. There are even stores inside! Starts off strong before dwindling off towards the end, but still enjoyable nonetheless.

Wiiiiings

Posted on August 6, 2008

Steph (Papz’s better half) recently started working for Red Bull and she was nice enough to tee up a drop-off of our fav energy drink to our office today. They rocked up in one of their Red Bull Mini Coopers, which have been extensively modified with a rather enormous, ornamental can on the rear.

Beneath the huge can are refrigerated compartments that are filled to the brim with Red Bull cans each day for distribution. We tried convincing them to give us the entire stash, but alas, we only got a can or two each. Oh well, beggars can’t be choosers!

The motherf*ckin’ super chef!

Posted on August 5, 2008

Nothing beats home brewed food, and when you move out the first thing you miss is that home cooked dinner you took for granted as a kid. I’ve lived out of home for nearly a decade now, and initially I used to eat take-away every freaking night. Was fun for a while, but nowadays I prefer to cook myself. It sounds iffy, but cooking is actually relaxing!

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