Whilst the car was 'hospitalized' in Melbourne, we headed off to see some family friends in Auckland, New Zealand.
My chum Richard, currently works at Southern Spars, who build the Carbon Fibre masts for Super/Mega yachts, Volvo Round the World Racers, and America's Cup - as far as I am aware there are only two facilities in the world that have the capability to build such stuff, and I wasn't going to pass up the offer of a walk round - I used to be in the yacht race scene, and worked in a yacht yard - but that was early days of carbon fibre, and comparatively this was like the chance to visit NASA when you are a hanglider enthusiast! What Southern Spars do is simply awesome, the scale of the super yachts stuff defies belief, the best part of two hundred feet long, and maybe three feet in 'depth' and made in two parts (front and back) then glued together and 'cooked' in a two hundred foot autoclave, the detailing and finish required when you are producing stuff to be used on the toys of the richest people in the world is simply unbelieveable, even 150ft above deck level screws are covered by monogrammed screw caps! The scale of the rigging is also amazing, and again, whilst the bits are big, they are just beautiful. The effect that these new materials have can be remarkable - when PBO rigging replaced rod a few years ago 2.5 tonnes was taken out of the rig weight, which then means 25 tonnes can be taken from the keel, for the same righting moment - so your oligarch can either have a lighter boat, or 27 tonnes of extra 'goodies' for the same performance!
We took a long weekend down in Waihi Beach down on the Bay of Plenty, pretty stormy and wet weekend, but on the Sunday we took a drive 30kms up to Whangamata (pronounced something like Fonga-matar!), where we knew their annual Beach Hop was taking place. We had no idea what it entailed but on the switchback road through some impressive rainforest scenery we must have passed at least 200 Hot Rods, Muscle Cars, and mainstream classics. When we got into town there were still a couple of hundred left, including some great machinery, ranging from Model T Rods, the ubiquitous Chevy BelAirs, hopped-up Lincoln Continental "barges" plus 'Vettes, T-Birds, Mustangs, Holdens, Toranas and Impalas galore. Great to see mainstream classics mixing with the Rods, in the UK the two scenes seem mutually exclusive, which I feel is a shame, as I fully appreciate the superb engineering and beautiful presentation of many of these cars. The antithesis of something like Phillip Island but great to see (and hear of course!)
Cath, Greg, Charlotte and Amelia, and Richard, Megan, Nicholas, Matthew and Annabel - thanks for your hospitality.
Thursday 31 March 2011
Back in Oz
Flew back from NZ to Melbourne this afternoon, bus to CBD then a train out to Hallam to hook up with Geoff Kelly, who has refitted the metering unit, sorted the car and given it a pre-Targa once over, changed the pads, oil etc. Thanks Geoff, I'm hugely grateful for your assistance both at Phillip Island and since - the cheque is in the post!
Jason is halfway here, and should be here by breakfast time, complete with luggage full of yet more spares!
Car is once again in the car park underneath the Olsen in South Yarra. It is filthy, so I'd like to give it a clean tomorrow if feasible, but I don't have anything with me, will talk to the friendly concierge. It does need a clean, as it is time I got the Sponsors logos stuck on it ... The XL logos that I got made up here, and some stickers from OAMPs who've been very helpful with a couple of insurance issues I had.
I've also got to sort out hardwiring the in-car camera into the car, and fitting it somewhere it'll get a decent view when Jason and I are both in the car.
We're off to David Ogg's tomorrow pm, to load up cars (which means unloading some of my stuff into his, it will be good to be able to see out again!) We also need to fit Jason into one or other of the cars! David lives just 500m from the Spirit of Tasmania ferry, so once we're done we might actually grab a beer!
Next stop - TASMANIA!
Jason is halfway here, and should be here by breakfast time, complete with luggage full of yet more spares!
Car is once again in the car park underneath the Olsen in South Yarra. It is filthy, so I'd like to give it a clean tomorrow if feasible, but I don't have anything with me, will talk to the friendly concierge. It does need a clean, as it is time I got the Sponsors logos stuck on it ... The XL logos that I got made up here, and some stickers from OAMPs who've been very helpful with a couple of insurance issues I had.
I've also got to sort out hardwiring the in-car camera into the car, and fitting it somewhere it'll get a decent view when Jason and I are both in the car.
We're off to David Ogg's tomorrow pm, to load up cars (which means unloading some of my stuff into his, it will be good to be able to see out again!) We also need to fit Jason into one or other of the cars! David lives just 500m from the Spirit of Tasmania ferry, so once we're done we might actually grab a beer!
Next stop - TASMANIA!
Wednesday 30 March 2011
Phillip Island Photos?
Are there any Aussies watching, who can point me in the directions of websites with photos from Phillip Island - I've done all the obvious Google searches, and drawn a blank so far... have found a couple, but no photos of Yours Truly in action!
Phillip Island
VHRR put on a great show here, some 25,000 are thought to have passed through the turnstiles, and certainly the grass banks were well packed. The excellent weather helped of course, I understand that Phillip Island isn't always so blessed.
They run a bewildering 45 races over the two days of racing, giving most categories 4 races, we had one 5 lapper and 3 races of 6 laps; they have a pit return road half way round the circuit, enabling cars to be pulled off after their finish with merely half a lap cooling down, at which point the next race cars are released from the pit lane for their formation lap, extremely efficient. At one point the programme was 30 minutes behind schedule on Sunday, but that's all, which is a simply mighty effort by all involved.
As well as conventional racing, over here they have something called Regularities, which I'd not heard of before, where your performance is judged by how similar your lap times are, against a benchmark, this enables a wide range of cars to compete, with a 1906 GP Darracq, Lago Talbot GP (driven by someone calling himself Hugh Jarse (sic!) then everything/anything through to 70's Corvettes ... This all went a bit wrong when it transpired that some cars where well over 120kph faster than others on the straight, so they ordered everyone to run no quicker than 2:07, at which point some of the quicker cars decided to pack up and go home - this was about the only poorly thought-out issue that I saw all weekend.
Headline cars this year included 3 Maserati 250Fs (pleased to report that the one I'd seen in the pitwall on Thursday suffered merely superficial damage). Obviously the Porsche factory cars were impressive but they weren't actually being raced. Two private Porsche 956/962 were though, and they are always great to see, especially as these tow ran nose-to-tail for many laps of the race I managed to see. For me the highlight was the Gurney Eagle F1, simply the most beautiful race car ever built, to my eyes at any rate.
Great dinner in the Saturday night, with two engaging speakers, John French, well known Aussie tin-top racer, an old boy with a twinkle in his eyes and some good stories. I am sorry that I didn't get to meet Murray Carter, another Aussie legend, still racing modern cars in his eighties - now in his 63rd year of racing apparently he's just building a Corvette, paddle shifts and all - awesome! At the dinner I was sitting next to an ex-pat Brit, Chris Wilson, who now has the ex-Ray Bellm GT40 which he was racing here, and it turns out we have a good mutual friend in common from outside the motorsport scene, small world! Nice to meet you Chris.
I didn't get to see much racing, but the Touring cars looked like the best races, especially the over three litres group, and the Formula Fords, always good to watch, despite quite a wide ranging field from early generations to much later ones.
It was good to meet some of the Formula Junior fraternity, including old acquaintance Kim Shearn, who has lost 60kgs ... Yes really, and now fits into a Lotus 20, which he is bringing to Europe for some events this summer, 4 Formula Juniors are coming over, which is great, as it'll give me the chance to return some hospitality.
Despite the TR5 being a rather humble piece of machinery by comparison with the other cars brought in for the event, the VHRR threw practically the whole "International Competitor" package at me, it is simply fantastic to receive that sort of welcome and hospitality, and I'm hugely grateful.
Fabulous meeting, fabulous track, and super hospitality - if you ever have the chance to come down here and race - DO IT!
They run a bewildering 45 races over the two days of racing, giving most categories 4 races, we had one 5 lapper and 3 races of 6 laps; they have a pit return road half way round the circuit, enabling cars to be pulled off after their finish with merely half a lap cooling down, at which point the next race cars are released from the pit lane for their formation lap, extremely efficient. At one point the programme was 30 minutes behind schedule on Sunday, but that's all, which is a simply mighty effort by all involved.
As well as conventional racing, over here they have something called Regularities, which I'd not heard of before, where your performance is judged by how similar your lap times are, against a benchmark, this enables a wide range of cars to compete, with a 1906 GP Darracq, Lago Talbot GP (driven by someone calling himself Hugh Jarse (sic!) then everything/anything through to 70's Corvettes ... This all went a bit wrong when it transpired that some cars where well over 120kph faster than others on the straight, so they ordered everyone to run no quicker than 2:07, at which point some of the quicker cars decided to pack up and go home - this was about the only poorly thought-out issue that I saw all weekend.
Headline cars this year included 3 Maserati 250Fs (pleased to report that the one I'd seen in the pitwall on Thursday suffered merely superficial damage). Obviously the Porsche factory cars were impressive but they weren't actually being raced. Two private Porsche 956/962 were though, and they are always great to see, especially as these tow ran nose-to-tail for many laps of the race I managed to see. For me the highlight was the Gurney Eagle F1, simply the most beautiful race car ever built, to my eyes at any rate.
Great dinner in the Saturday night, with two engaging speakers, John French, well known Aussie tin-top racer, an old boy with a twinkle in his eyes and some good stories. I am sorry that I didn't get to meet Murray Carter, another Aussie legend, still racing modern cars in his eighties - now in his 63rd year of racing apparently he's just building a Corvette, paddle shifts and all - awesome! At the dinner I was sitting next to an ex-pat Brit, Chris Wilson, who now has the ex-Ray Bellm GT40 which he was racing here, and it turns out we have a good mutual friend in common from outside the motorsport scene, small world! Nice to meet you Chris.
I didn't get to see much racing, but the Touring cars looked like the best races, especially the over three litres group, and the Formula Fords, always good to watch, despite quite a wide ranging field from early generations to much later ones.
It was good to meet some of the Formula Junior fraternity, including old acquaintance Kim Shearn, who has lost 60kgs ... Yes really, and now fits into a Lotus 20, which he is bringing to Europe for some events this summer, 4 Formula Juniors are coming over, which is great, as it'll give me the chance to return some hospitality.
Despite the TR5 being a rather humble piece of machinery by comparison with the other cars brought in for the event, the VHRR threw practically the whole "International Competitor" package at me, it is simply fantastic to receive that sort of welcome and hospitality, and I'm hugely grateful.
Fabulous meeting, fabulous track, and super hospitality - if you ever have the chance to come down here and race - DO IT!
Tuesday 29 March 2011
Normal service will be resumed shortly ...
Sorry Everyone, we are staying with friends in New Zealand, and have no Wi-Fi access, and we haven't found a local Hotspot to work from, hence lack of recent posting. I have drafted a report on Phillip Island and some other stuff, so should be able to post that as soon as i have wi-fi, even if that's only when I fly back to Melbourne on Thursday. Greg, thanks for the loan of your PC for this brief post!
I can tell you that as soon as Jason gets off the plane on Friday morning we should have a plethora of metering units and fuel pumps, as the stuff that was damaged at Phillip Island has been rebuilt (it was a close run thing as the specialist Injection man was off sick for a couple of days last week - typical of the way my luck has run on this whole exercise - just enough stress to test my High Blood Pressure Prescription!). Obviously now we will have no more issues with those bits of the car - so for those believers of Murphy's Law, the big question is ... what else DIDN'T I bring ...?!
I can tell you that as soon as Jason gets off the plane on Friday morning we should have a plethora of metering units and fuel pumps, as the stuff that was damaged at Phillip Island has been rebuilt (it was a close run thing as the specialist Injection man was off sick for a couple of days last week - typical of the way my luck has run on this whole exercise - just enough stress to test my High Blood Pressure Prescription!). Obviously now we will have no more issues with those bits of the car - so for those believers of Murphy's Law, the big question is ... what else DIDN'T I bring ...?!
Tuesday 22 March 2011
Stress!
Stress 1: Car - is now with New Best Friend Geoff in the Dandenongs suburb of Melbourne; the borrowed fuel injection unit has been removed, and that along with my own unit has been delivered to some Injection specialists in N. Melbourne - then we went to the Zoo (great zoo, by the way!). Injection specialists are talking about a shortage of parts and it taking the sort of time we don't have ... impressed upon them the urgency of everything - have to see what happens. Sensibly though I have started work on Plan B - it looks as though we can get an injection metering unit set up for my camshaft, and into Jason's luggage before he gets on the plane next week from the UK - hopefully that'll be a spare but you never know ... also seeking a spare fuel pump, just in case the fuel issues cause any knock-on effect - unfortunately the pump i use isn't exactly available on the corner of every street, but i am 'pursuing several lines of enquiry!'
Geoff is also going to give the car a pre-Targa check-over, as it ran very rich over the weekend an oil change makes sense. Geoff will also bleed some brake fluid through and do a couple of minor jobs - all things i'd planned to do at Phillip Island during the downtime - but that got swallowed up by other activities, stresses, and chatting. I told you I'd be famous for 15 minutes, they even put my name over the Pit garage, and i was intereviewed on camera too!
Stress 2: WiFi, multimedia and all that jazz ... bit of a struggle at present, this is being typed on an exorbitantly priced hotel lobby PC - hopefully i'll have the chance to upload some photos, in-car footage, and do a proper report of the meeting when we get to Auckland tomorrow.
Geoff is also going to give the car a pre-Targa check-over, as it ran very rich over the weekend an oil change makes sense. Geoff will also bleed some brake fluid through and do a couple of minor jobs - all things i'd planned to do at Phillip Island during the downtime - but that got swallowed up by other activities, stresses, and chatting. I told you I'd be famous for 15 minutes, they even put my name over the Pit garage, and i was intereviewed on camera too!
Stress 2: WiFi, multimedia and all that jazz ... bit of a struggle at present, this is being typed on an exorbitantly priced hotel lobby PC - hopefully i'll have the chance to upload some photos, in-car footage, and do a proper report of the meeting when we get to Auckland tomorrow.
Sunday 20 March 2011
Sunday at Phillip Island
Started to get 'hooked' up on the circuit, and with the car. Of course the last time I had raced this car was june 2009 at Castle Combe, where I shunted it having hit oil at Tower Corner ... So that partly explains why I was quite nervous in the car this weekend, coupled with the fact that this trip is a major 'investment' and I really didn't want to bend or break the car. Having had fuel injection issues on Friday, the car was running but not 100%, so that put me at the back end of the grid.
Saturday went well, two confidence building finishes, including successful avoidance of some slightly wild driving around me!
Sunday started with an early rain shower, but track was fully dry by the time of our race. Again some wild antics, coupled with some fast guys coming through from the back after previous DNF's led to a cautious first two laps, but then I got a clear track, and started to put in some better laps, getting several cars back. Got my best down to 2:07:3 from 2:10.0 so a big improvement, still struggling on the brakes at the two slow corners, Honda and MG, but also at Lukey Heights, where I lack confidence to carry decent pace into the climbing corner. A big lock-up there on the last lap didn't help the confidence! A big grin after the race.
Race 4 was almost an exact repeat, with cautious early laps, avoiding 'missiles', and letting some guys go through; but then hooking up some pretty good laps, and getting back by several cars, and reducing that best further to 2:06:3. Finished 20th in final race, having started Race 1 from the back of the grid of 40+. A even bigger grin! Sure I'd have been below 2:05 if the car had been on song - I'll just have to come back to prove it! There's a bit of difference in development levels with the cars here, allegedly the TR6s in my class have 180bhp at the rear wheels, I have about 180bhp at the flywheel, which would likely translate to a 20% shortfall (and that's if it had all been working perfectly!), on top of that they are a bit lighter. I guess the other types are similarly developed, certainly the MG Midgets, MGA and those Merc 190s were a surprise, in the UK Roadsports class I wouldn't expect to have much trouble with them!
There's in-car video of Race 4, in two parts - search on "tr5aus" and look out for the Porsche 914 - sorry I'm struggling with multi-media, loading footage or even photos direct onto this blog, via the iPad and hotel wi-fi! I'll load some from the earlier races too tomorrow.
I'll write more about the meeting tomorrow, it was fabulous, a great track to drive or spectate, also a great meeting. Very happy to bring the car home in one, fully-functioning, piece.
Saturday went well, two confidence building finishes, including successful avoidance of some slightly wild driving around me!
Sunday started with an early rain shower, but track was fully dry by the time of our race. Again some wild antics, coupled with some fast guys coming through from the back after previous DNF's led to a cautious first two laps, but then I got a clear track, and started to put in some better laps, getting several cars back. Got my best down to 2:07:3 from 2:10.0 so a big improvement, still struggling on the brakes at the two slow corners, Honda and MG, but also at Lukey Heights, where I lack confidence to carry decent pace into the climbing corner. A big lock-up there on the last lap didn't help the confidence! A big grin after the race.
Race 4 was almost an exact repeat, with cautious early laps, avoiding 'missiles', and letting some guys go through; but then hooking up some pretty good laps, and getting back by several cars, and reducing that best further to 2:06:3. Finished 20th in final race, having started Race 1 from the back of the grid of 40+. A even bigger grin! Sure I'd have been below 2:05 if the car had been on song - I'll just have to come back to prove it! There's a bit of difference in development levels with the cars here, allegedly the TR6s in my class have 180bhp at the rear wheels, I have about 180bhp at the flywheel, which would likely translate to a 20% shortfall (and that's if it had all been working perfectly!), on top of that they are a bit lighter. I guess the other types are similarly developed, certainly the MG Midgets, MGA and those Merc 190s were a surprise, in the UK Roadsports class I wouldn't expect to have much trouble with them!
There's in-car video of Race 4, in two parts - search on "tr5aus" and look out for the Porsche 914 - sorry I'm struggling with multi-media, loading footage or even photos direct onto this blog, via the iPad and hotel wi-fi! I'll load some from the earlier races too tomorrow.
I'll write more about the meeting tomorrow, it was fabulous, a great track to drive or spectate, also a great meeting. Very happy to bring the car home in one, fully-functioning, piece.
Saturday 19 March 2011
With more help from my New Best Friends, Geoff and Grant, we got the car back together and running, it's not perfect as the replacement metering unit is set up for a car with a wilder camshaft than I'm running, but at least it's over fuelling the motor not leaving it lean - which can be expensive!
So I got two races and finished both, we're down on power and having to use a max of 5000rpm for safety, but we got to race. Finished both, took a few cars in the first, (although I have to say the back of the grid has turned out to be a bit faster than I'd anticipated! Starting on the back in my usual races in UK I'd expect to take 6-8 on the first lap alone, but not here!) Second race I was moved up the grid a bit and had some interesting dicing particularly with an Aston DB4 and Porsche 914. The Aston came by on the straight, but looked pretty wild, so I backed off expecting to watch him spin out, but it took longer than I expected, and when he did gyrate at Lukey Heights half a lap later he ended up in the tyre wall... After some close quarters stuff with the Porsche I managed to get back by and held him off, but I expect more of the same tomorrow. Shame we can't the car on full song here so I could play with some faster guys, but it's fine, I'm out there racing, and it really is a great track.
So I got two races and finished both, we're down on power and having to use a max of 5000rpm for safety, but we got to race. Finished both, took a few cars in the first, (although I have to say the back of the grid has turned out to be a bit faster than I'd anticipated! Starting on the back in my usual races in UK I'd expect to take 6-8 on the first lap alone, but not here!) Second race I was moved up the grid a bit and had some interesting dicing particularly with an Aston DB4 and Porsche 914. The Aston came by on the straight, but looked pretty wild, so I backed off expecting to watch him spin out, but it took longer than I expected, and when he did gyrate at Lukey Heights half a lap later he ended up in the tyre wall... After some close quarters stuff with the Porsche I managed to get back by and held him off, but I expect more of the same tomorrow. Shame we can't the car on full song here so I could play with some faster guys, but it's fine, I'm out there racing, and it really is a great track.
Friday 18 March 2011
And then some days don't go so well...
Rather a disappointing day ... Car ground to a halt just one and a half laps into Free Practice this morning. Turned out that the fuel injection metering unit seized, yet another 'first' that no-one seems to have come across before, and again a unit that had been recently rebuilt... Albeit could be as simple as some grit in the fuel ... Had a massive amount of help, particularly would like to thank Geoff and Grant Kelly, and Michael Heaton who've spent a lot of time with me today; Ian Watt who has loaned me a replacement metering unit (but it's not exactly 'plug and play'); Brian Richards and my pit buddy Californians who've loaned tools etc. As of now the car is still in 1000 bits, but I'm confident now that it'll be running by Race 1 tomorrow, and starting from the back of the huge grid can be great fun! Not only that, but there's specialist fuel injection man in N. Melbourne who can sort it before we head to Tas ...
Bit grumpy right now, but standby for more upbeat report in 24hrs...
Bit grumpy right now, but standby for more upbeat report in 24hrs...
Thursday 17 March 2011
At last ...
Been an interesting day... The Good Shepherd David Ogg met me at the Olsen this morning and we had a hot slow run through the Melbourne traffic to get the TR Roadworthiness test completed, then we went up to VicRoads to get the "Club Permit" red plates that mean we are now road legal here at long last (although gaffer taping them the inside of the front and rear windscreens may not be 100% 'by the book'!)
Off we go to Phillip Island. I arrive mid-afternoon to find I'm missing a briefing for International drivers that no-one had told me about, and not only that but there were familiarisation laps available to overseas drivers this afternoon. Now this was a small snag ... When we'd parted this morning we hadn't been too concerned about what stuff went in which car, so Nic and the kids had my race suit, gloves, boots etc., but very handily I had a bag of dirty kids clothes and a fresh packet of nappies/diapers for Freddie. Fortunately I managed to get a briefing, two laps of the track with the organisers, and Nic was on the island and bundled the kids back in the car to come and bring me the stuff I needed.
So, completely unexpectedly i have been out on track this afternoon, they may have been familiarisation laps officially, but I guess some were more familiar than others as a few boys were not far off race pace ... only a small number of cars out though, so plenty of track. Sadly my first run was curtailed after just two laps when one of 3 Maserati 250Fs here span into the pitfall ... Ouch, driver unharmed, but that's a bad way to start the weekend. On the third lap of my next run I come across my own pit garage buddy - Jonathon Ornstein from California in a CanAm car - pulled off the track with what turned out to be a terminal engine failure... Felt very sorry for him, just hope Garage 12 isn't jinxed... I ran another 8-10 laps, then pulled in for fuel and to check the car over; with lots of people coming up to chat I never got back out again before the track closed. No problem, I wasn't expecting to get out at all today, and the few quiet laps will stand me in good stead tomorrow.
Super circuit, lots of long corners, and more undulating than it appears on tv. Great meeting and everyone very friendly, and excited to see a Pom come all the way to take part! At one point I was on track with 2 250Fs, a GT40, a Lola T70 Spider, and a couple of F1 cars, of which one was Alan Jones' 1981 World Championship winning Williams!
Off we go to Phillip Island. I arrive mid-afternoon to find I'm missing a briefing for International drivers that no-one had told me about, and not only that but there were familiarisation laps available to overseas drivers this afternoon. Now this was a small snag ... When we'd parted this morning we hadn't been too concerned about what stuff went in which car, so Nic and the kids had my race suit, gloves, boots etc., but very handily I had a bag of dirty kids clothes and a fresh packet of nappies/diapers for Freddie. Fortunately I managed to get a briefing, two laps of the track with the organisers, and Nic was on the island and bundled the kids back in the car to come and bring me the stuff I needed.
So, completely unexpectedly i have been out on track this afternoon, they may have been familiarisation laps officially, but I guess some were more familiar than others as a few boys were not far off race pace ... only a small number of cars out though, so plenty of track. Sadly my first run was curtailed after just two laps when one of 3 Maserati 250Fs here span into the pitfall ... Ouch, driver unharmed, but that's a bad way to start the weekend. On the third lap of my next run I come across my own pit garage buddy - Jonathon Ornstein from California in a CanAm car - pulled off the track with what turned out to be a terminal engine failure... Felt very sorry for him, just hope Garage 12 isn't jinxed... I ran another 8-10 laps, then pulled in for fuel and to check the car over; with lots of people coming up to chat I never got back out again before the track closed. No problem, I wasn't expecting to get out at all today, and the few quiet laps will stand me in good stead tomorrow.
Super circuit, lots of long corners, and more undulating than it appears on tv. Great meeting and everyone very friendly, and excited to see a Pom come all the way to take part! At one point I was on track with 2 250Fs, a GT40, a Lola T70 Spider, and a couple of F1 cars, of which one was Alan Jones' 1981 World Championship winning Williams!
Monday 14 March 2011
Great News
Great news this morning ... The car is now free to leave Gibson Freight, all I have to do now is take it for a Roadworthiness test, then to the offices of whichever club David Ogg has organised to support my temp road permit application, then round to VicRoads for the permit... Should be a breeze now .... Wish I hadn't said that!
More confident of getting on track at Phillip Island on Friday than I had been a couple of days ago ...
Hopefully some real petrol-fuelled stories to come soon ... Might still include stories of wildlife encounters and sandcastles for the sake of the broader audience...!
More confident of getting on track at Phillip Island on Friday than I had been a couple of days ago ...
Hopefully some real petrol-fuelled stories to come soon ... Might still include stories of wildlife encounters and sandcastles for the sake of the broader audience...!
Sunday 13 March 2011
First taste of competition
Whilst the car might be still locked away, here in Lorne we have found other competitive opportunities ... The Lorne Sandcastle competition ... At the point we registered I reckoned we had a reasonable chance of a podium (we were the second team to enter!), so we constructed a 'Proper Anglo-Saxon Castle', complete with Norman Keep, crenellations, inner and outer defensive Walls and moat, to keep the marauding enemies at bay - in fact the marauding 'enemy' was 10 month old Freddie - look Son, at your age I wasn't expecting any creative input, but if you just want to destroy it, can you attack someone else's! Our castle was modelled on Arundel (I'm a Sussex boy!) - anyway the rest of the Aussies turned up, made Geckos, turtles, Mermaids (bit saucy too considering the age of the audience...) and sea monsters... I did think of calling for a Stewards' Enquiry as it distinctly said sandCASTLE (but didn't want to explain 'gamesmanship' to a 4 year old) ... we were 'Highly Commended', the only genuine 'Castle' to be so.
Later in the day, Emily and I were climbing some steps up from a viewing point above the coast, when we came face-to-face with a Koala, maybe 3-4ft away, he/she (they're fluffy, i've no way of knowing!) ambled off completely unperturbed; we, on the other hand were very excited to see one so close in the wild.
This blog is supposed to be about the motorsports elements of this trip, hopefully I can fulfil that promise soon and get away from stories of the beach or wildlife encounters!
Later in the day, Emily and I were climbing some steps up from a viewing point above the coast, when we came face-to-face with a Koala, maybe 3-4ft away, he/she (they're fluffy, i've no way of knowing!) ambled off completely unperturbed; we, on the other hand were very excited to see one so close in the wild.
This blog is supposed to be about the motorsports elements of this trip, hopefully I can fulfil that promise soon and get away from stories of the beach or wildlife encounters!
Thursday 10 March 2011
I've had a specific request for an update on the activities of the band (more specifically the groupies of the band) that was staying at our hotel in Melbourne. Well, I'm as disappointed as you will be to report that today's rockstars really aren't like those of our generation ... Having heard no wild late-night shenanigans I asked the concierge as we left what they got up to, and the wildest thing he could report was that they got their laundry done! Of the ladies travelling with them one might indeed have been the Mum of one of the band members too, (allegedly)- I'm sure John Bonham's Mum never toured with him...
At the recommendation of Melbourne-based Targa competitor David Ogg, I found myself spending 45 minutes in the convivial company of Mariana from Sao Paolo, practicing my Portuguese ... Before you leap to conclusions, she was programming and cutting XL logos to stick on the car for Targa. Also ordered some logo'd t-shirts from some local 'dudes' who mainly do hoodies ... I had more to talk about with Mariana!
We've now moved down to Lorne, about 40kms down the fabled Gt Ocean Rd, fantastic scenery and views, but a Subaru Forester isn't what you want to be driving, even if it is a hire car!
Emily and I went to check on the TR yesterday, still sitting in 'jail' at Gibson Freight, pending completion of paperwork, Customs Bond is paid, Quarantine guys are booked, after that I can take the car away, but only far enough to get an inspection to then get the local VicRoads Registration papers that I will need to use the car on the road here. Been a laborious and time-consuming process to be honest, but hopefully we are near the end, although it's now clear that I won't get the chance for a daybreak blast down to the 12 Apostles in the TR, which I was hoping to do to test the in-car camera set-up. Shame. I can report that the car started, a bit hesitant, but after blowing six weeks of salt out of its throat it did run clean ... I think it's looking forward to getting out on parole!
At the recommendation of Melbourne-based Targa competitor David Ogg, I found myself spending 45 minutes in the convivial company of Mariana from Sao Paolo, practicing my Portuguese ... Before you leap to conclusions, she was programming and cutting XL logos to stick on the car for Targa. Also ordered some logo'd t-shirts from some local 'dudes' who mainly do hoodies ... I had more to talk about with Mariana!
We've now moved down to Lorne, about 40kms down the fabled Gt Ocean Rd, fantastic scenery and views, but a Subaru Forester isn't what you want to be driving, even if it is a hire car!
Emily and I went to check on the TR yesterday, still sitting in 'jail' at Gibson Freight, pending completion of paperwork, Customs Bond is paid, Quarantine guys are booked, after that I can take the car away, but only far enough to get an inspection to then get the local VicRoads Registration papers that I will need to use the car on the road here. Been a laborious and time-consuming process to be honest, but hopefully we are near the end, although it's now clear that I won't get the chance for a daybreak blast down to the 12 Apostles in the TR, which I was hoping to do to test the in-car camera set-up. Shame. I can report that the car started, a bit hesitant, but after blowing six weeks of salt out of its throat it did run clean ... I think it's looking forward to getting out on parole!
Sunday 6 March 2011
Kind of difficult to quibble about the costs of the 'Family Holiday' side of this trip, considering the costs of motorsport elements... But it did concern me rather when we arrived in Melbourne this morning to find our hotel is really rather nice, is about 50yds from a Lamborghini showroom and that we were sitting at breakfast next to a Rock Band from the US who are playing here tonight -sure they aren't exactly Springsteen, ZZTop or Nirvana (rip) but I'll be scrutinising my bill nevertheless to ensure I'm not paying for any tv sets they lob out the windows in the early hours ...! If I suffer a sleepless night after the flight here I might just pop down to the lobby to check out the Groupies... Mind you the band looked to have an average age of about 15, so maybe their Mums won't let them stay up late...
Thursday 3 March 2011
Car has arrived
The good ship Orchid was scheduled to have docked in Melbourne on March 2nd, so I hadn't expected to hear from the freight forwarders until a couple of days after that; however at lunchtime on the 2nd itself, I was surprised to receive a mail advising that the car was already at the Forwarders' Depot, and awaiting Customs Clearance and Quarantine inspection. Very exciting to hear.
We leave Singapore tomorrow evening, arriving in Melbourne early on Sunday, so I hope to get everything sorted early next week, and get the car parked safely in my friend, David Ogg's, garage. I also need to get some stickers made up to reflect the sponsorship I have secured late on from XL Insurance, my employer. I need to get some t-shirts printed up too.
Then I need to get on with the family holiday part of this adventure, before my wife runs out of patience! I'm not sure I'd mentioned yet that on top of all this petrol-fuelled adventure, we are also travelling with 4 year old Emily, and 9 month old Freddie!
We leave Singapore tomorrow evening, arriving in Melbourne early on Sunday, so I hope to get everything sorted early next week, and get the car parked safely in my friend, David Ogg's, garage. I also need to get some stickers made up to reflect the sponsorship I have secured late on from XL Insurance, my employer. I need to get some t-shirts printed up too.
Then I need to get on with the family holiday part of this adventure, before my wife runs out of patience! I'm not sure I'd mentioned yet that on top of all this petrol-fuelled adventure, we are also travelling with 4 year old Emily, and 9 month old Freddie!
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