11.12.08
Posted in
Motoring
at
7:15 pm
by
Andy
At the end of September Espe and I went over to Castle Combe circuit to watch the Mini World Action day where hundreds of UK minis come together to be thrashed around the west country circuit.
It was an entertaining day watching various Minis being hurled around the track, with interesting consequences at the chicanes. The somewhat sick noises of bike engined and massively high boost turbos was incredible. Of further fascination in and around the paddock, for me at least, was seeing the impressive engineering feats of shoe horning big engines into very small cars.
Given how, since the Nurburgring trip, my thoughts have been occupied by my intended Mini project I felt that I couldn’t miss the opportunity to pop over to Castle Comb, see such cars and speak to the owners and builders. It is more than a small ambition to build a rather special Mini. There are various kits out there and the weeks leading up to the trip I was down to a choice of two. The Pro-Motive one that fits a Yamaha R1 engine into the front of the Mini or the Z-Cars Honda Type R lump which squeezes into the back.
There are various pros and cons for both kits which I will refrain from boring you with here, but in short the decision is a hard one based on cost, drive-ability and retaining the original Mini feeling. At the beginning of the month I’d pretty much set my mind on the Pro-Motive R1 kit, but speaking to Anthony the previous weekend, a keen biker, he’d pointed out the rev thirsty nature of bike engines would make the car not particularly suited to road driving. The lack of a reverse gear is also rather impractical. The Z-Cars kit is better in that respect, but you loose the rear seat’s and have a rather unmanageable oversteery beast that, as we saw on one of the corners, will spin out rather rapidly if you’ve got a heavy right foot. But with about a 4 second 0-60 time we are talking supercar performance here. So much for not boring you with the details…
Anyway, enthused by the multiple cars on display, I’m now even less sure which to go for (in fact some of the quickest, best handling cars out there were original a-series powered). Not too much of a dilemma right now though, as any such toy is financially out of reach right now. What was most disheartening about the day however was the realisation that, by seeing these cars and their owners, such a toy / project takes over your life in terms of time and money (take the blue Z-Cars Honda vtec pictured above for example… I’ve just read in MiniWorld that this particular car cost over £40,000 to build!). I’ve been there before with my MG, and although I wouldn’t change it for the world, I’m not sure I could go down that route again…
28.11.08
Posted in
Germany, Motoring, Travel
at
10:12 am
by
Andy
The words Nurburgring and Nordschleife will set the blood of any proper car enthusiast flowing. This place is motor sport Mecca and I had the pleasure of taking my first petrol head pilgrimage to the place with Niki and a whole load of his Lotus chums. I received an email from him in June asking if I’d be interested in joining him for a long weekend in August. I didn’t have to think twice about that one, even though I knew it would only be as a passenger.
Once I´d got the OK from both bosses I was set to join Niki and the SELOC Lotus club he’s part of for the drive down to Germany. This alone was great fun with many looks of awe as we passed people by in a convoy of 10-15 Lotuses. We even had time for a stop of in the Belgian town of Spa for a quick Leffe in the sunshine. Niki, being a man of my own heart, had planned a route taking in some of the twistiest, most picturesque roads possible for the last stretch through the Eiffel Mountains before arriving in the town of Nurburg.
Over the weekend I was treated to several laps out with Niki and one of his friends (who drove a Type R powered series 1) which was truly amazing. True grin factor, enhanced by memories of watching racing at The Ring on TV as a child and dreaming of coming here myself. The track is unreal. So long, fast and flowing better though of one great B road with no oncoming traffic. Racing games and simulators such as Gran Turismo and GTR give a good indication of what it is like, but they give no idea of how much the track changes in altitude. This is one hilly place!
Almost as amazing as being out on track was watching the assorted weaponry being thrown around. The Porsche 911 GT3 RS and BMW M3 CSLs were as common as muck and being absolutely pushed to the limit. The sights, smells and noises were incredible. There were also shed loads of motorbikes. I will never forget a true ring meister on an R1. We were spectating when he came past us, round a corner over a crest at about 200kph lifting the front wheel while cornering pretty much with his knee down scraping the tarmac! Incredible.
Due to the popularity of the place, the track gets pretty busy and hectic during the weekends. The best times to be out, and thus concentrate on the track rather than other cars, are Friday evening, first thing in the morning before breakfast Sat & Sun and on Sunday afternoon after everyone else has gone home. We were out enjoying the final Sunday afternoon laps when Niki’s brakes failed which, despite my own depth of expertise in brake failure, was a tad disconcerting. Thankfully we didn’t leave the track, but it could have been much worse.
It was a truly excellent weekend, especially with the added social element of being surrounded by like minded car nuts and enjoying many beers and several steaks (not to mention the tacky jumper competition). The weekend also served to reminded me of what I love and miss about all things cars. It re-lit the fire if you will. I spent a lot of the weekend day dreaming and planning my next car (something that I’m still doing a lot of 4 months later). Stripped out, light weight weapons and drivers with track knowledge were king at the Ring. Old VW Golfs were harassing Porches and Ferraris. And so, lightweight and stripped out my next project car will be. The current dilemma is what it will be. I’ve currently narrowed it down to Peugeot 205 GTI, Peugeot 106 Rallye or my Honda Type R powered mid engined Mini (although ideas of a modified MG Midget are beginning to creep in). All possible with varying scales of budget, but that very word there, budget, is the real show stopper. Still, with such an assorted array of beautiful cars being driven how they were designed to be, one can only dream…
26.05.07
Posted in
Malaysia, Motoring, Travel
at
5:22 am
by
Andy
No, nothing to do with atoms but the cars. Malaysian in case you didn’t know (although if you didn’t you probably didn’t care either). Having crossed the border many differences from Thailand and the previous countries we’ve been to were obvious. Apart from the afore mentioned increase in visible wealth the level of English here is much better (colonialism to blame again I fear) and I’ve spotted many Malaysians reading books (something not at all obvious in the countries further north).
Something that wasn’t immediately obvious though (probably as we were on a road less island), was the lack of motorbikes here. Such a refreshing change, as is the fact that people use the horn very rarely here. So pleasant. In place of the motorbikes, however, there are loads of pimped cars, and being Malaysia most of them are pimped Protons. Some are tastefully modified but as is often the case it’s the oldest bangers that are pimped the most / worst.
All of this reminded me of a Proton that Lotus worked there stuff on (did you know Proton own Lotus?) producing a decent hot hatch. A quick google search turned out that the model is the Satria GTI. Mental note to self, could be a nice choice for next car (along side my project Mini). Ah, just checked prices on Autotrader. Perhaps not. And before any of you abuse me for desiring a Proton, at least I don’t currently own one… (Yes Niki, I’m referring to you).
Next post will be interesting. Promise.
08.12.06
Posted in
Motoring
at
10:16 am
by
Andy
Ever the impulsive buyer, while browsing around ebay, Marc bought this Mini…
This deserves a mention, firstly as it is so similar to Christie, and secondly, as it is so much fun. I do not know of any other car that has a grin factor like a Mini. I will have another.
28.08.06
Posted in
Motoring
at
12:09 pm
by
Andy
The Mongol Rally is altogether a pretty stupid idea. Last year Tom introduced the idea of taking a Honda C90 pizza delivery bike. This year “Fatty B” accepted the challenge and set of with the intention of doing just that… and he arrived in UB!
Fatty B arrives!
www.londontomongolia.co.uk
28.07.06
Posted in
Friday Fun, Motoring
at
1:07 pm
by
Andy
I’ve been pretty busy over the last week having been in three different countries. Full report to follow but I’ve been tied up with webmaster work for both the mongolminis and the Mongol Rally to even produce that. Sometimes I think I’m just too nice…
So, in the meantime here’s another fun little link: How to perform a reverse barrel roll….
19.05.06
Posted in
General, Motoring
at
6:46 pm
by
Andy
I finally went round to Philippes last night to have a bit of a play with his Honda ZFR 800. Something we’ve been meaning to do since I convinced him to invest in a Haynes manual a few months back.
We set about adjusting the chain which had far too much slack. Reasonably simple to do, but it still resulted in a skinned knucle for Philippe. First rule of car/bike maintanence learnt: You will hurt yourself.
Having adjusted the chain we decided to take the fairings off the bike and have a good look at all the fun stuff below. Something Philippe has never tried before, but for some reason he was very comfortable doing it with me around to help out. We also moved the fuel tank away on it’s hinges and stiffend the rear suspension that is adjustable as standard.
Really good fun. The first bit of playing I’ve done since fixing the Mini’s brakes in Mongolia and something that taught me a lot more about the finer details of motorbikes. Cool. And it seems like Philippe’s been bitten by the bug as well, as we’re gonna service it ourselves in about 3000km.
We treated ourselves to a few beers and a nice steak on the local terrace afterwards and were joined by Jon & Nico.
And now for something completely different: Simpsons Philosophy
15.05.06
Posted in
Motoring
at
1:03 pm
by
Andy
Congratulations to Jen, one of my work colleagues, who just won her first bike racing trophy. She got 2nd place on one of the races this weekend at Brands Hatch as part of the Bemsee Clubman 400 series.
A phenominal feat for someone who only got her bike license 5 years ago, and is in her first race season. She also won Rookie of the day. Read her blog at blogs.sun.com/racerjen
Jen mentions another racer, Conrad, in her blog. As it turns out this Conrad chap also works for Sun and he has a rather intersting pic on the internal directory:
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