Wallpaper Wednesday #11

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After a short break away, Wallpaper Wednesday returns with 2 new full size photos for you to use as wallpaper at home!

This shot is from a recent DWYB day at Santa Pod – where the driver of this Sil80 had just clipped the cone trying to get as close as possible…

The next shot is one of my favourites from this years JAE – a simple shot showing the shadow of a decal on the drivers seat of this owners EP3 Civic Type R.

As always, click the photos for the full size version.

My top photos

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Not much of a post for those that follow this blog religiously, but for those that don’t (shame on you!) here is link to a set of my favourite photos from this year taken by myself!

If you want to see the rest of the set please check out my Flickr set here

The Fast and the Fuzz

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Yesterday was a SUPERB day! After signing up to Fueltopia a couple of weeks ago, I was told about an event that I simply had to attend.

To celebrate the launch of the latest Fast & Furious movie on DVD and Blu-ray, Santa Pod was open all day long for free RWYB action on the 1/4 mile. Thats right, totally free! To find out more about the event, check out the event page on Fueltopia here.

I headed over to Santa Pod with Lex (from AceImageUK), Aaron (from LaidBackRacing), George, Sarah and Leo from Civiclife and spent the day watching the action. I also had a few runs myself but as my car is up for sale and needed a service I didn’t push it anywhere near the red line so ran a pretty poor time.

The main focus for the day was Lex’s EP3, which quickly turned into the Drag mule for the day with everyone running it several times in an effort to set a hot time. Needless to say Lex and Aaron set the best times, but everyone had a great time and to be honest I think a few of us got bitten by the drag racing bug!

Lex’s Ep3 Civic Type R started the day out as it turned up but was quickly transformed thanks to Aaron @ LBR who brought some Weld skinnies and M&H tyres along as well as a KPro’d ECU (although due to an unforeseen incompatibility issue, the KPro was never run). Having never run the car down the 1/4 mile before the first few runs were more about getting a feel for things and working out a launch strategy, with the worst run on the day a 16.9 by Leo due to a terrible launch and a bit of fear about damaging someone elses car. Needless to say he improved massively on this (Leo ended up setting a PB of 15.4)  and I actually ended up with the slowest PB in the EP3 of 15.6… which I will have to fix for next time! Aaron’s knowledge was invaluable in helping Lex lower his times, as well as the classic benchmark effect – where Aaron set a faster time than Lex who then knew that the car was capable of more so managed to beat his personal best time by a big chunk. Lex finished with a personal best of 1/4 ET – 14.8687 @ 93.68Mph which for a stock EP3 (with Injen intake and BC exhaust and then Weld skinnies) is pretty good.

There was a great range of cars running the quarter mile yesterday, with everything from R35 GTRs (3 of them) to an LPG powered Skoda Rapide (which the owner seemed to be loving every minute of the day which was great to see!). There were several serious drag beasts such as a V8 powered Triumph TR7 and MG with the classic bonnet stack associated with drag cars. The fastest time I witnessed of the day was from a modified Nissan GTR which ran a 10.8 (If I remember correctly!)

The day was superbly well organised and there was next to no queuing for runs, often with cars finishing a run, and driving straight back to the lights and running again. As soon as I got home I started working out what I need to do to be able to afford to run a drag only car. I am bitten by the bug and want more!

As always, click any of the photos above to view the rest of the gallery. I have more photos to add at a later date but was too busy enjoying the action to get tons of photos I’m afraid!

How Much Fun Is This Thing!?

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While doing my daily read of a bunch of the best blogs on the net, ColdTrackDays had a superb little video of Ken Block and Chris Atkinson thrashing a fully rally prepped Mk2 Escort around some forrest roads… Why? Just for the hell of it! I want a go!

JAE 2009 Photos

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Ever since I recovered from last years  Japanese Auto Extravaganza at Mersea Island in Essex, I have been looking forward to JAE 2009. The combination of cars, mates, beers, bbqs and sunshine makes it such a laid back and enjoyable weekend that its hard not to love it. JAE 2009 had a new home (Wicksteed Park in Kettering, Northamptonshire) but was superb! Unfortunately this year I was unable to camp due to other commitments on Friday and Saturday night but seeing as the new home of JAE is only 20 minutes from home I was back each day.

JAE 2009 had sensational weather on Friday and Saturday with Sunday being a little cooler and overcast (see the PS13 photo above) but was still warm enough for mid-September. Friday and Saturdays awesome weather meant that BBQs and Beers were on the go all day each day, which as JAE is a static show means that its a great chance to unwind and take a weekend to relax with mates and chill out.

The quality of cars at the show this year was simply amazing with some stands (like those crazy Scots @ JDMyO) rocking only awesome cars with no duds whatsoever! Seriously, I loved their stand and as I was on the next stand over spent most of Saturday staring and drooling…. The trade area was pretty small and weak this year with only a few stands such as Tegiwa, Sumo Power and Banzai really showing some hot cars (Banzai had the new Mugen FN2 Civic Type R on their stand). In truth the trade stands served a purpose and didnt detract from the event at all, but it would be nice to see some more traders next year.

The new venue worked well, apart from having monster speed bumps on the entrance and exit with good facilities on site and plenty of space for campers and stands. Seriously though, for next year please run a route across the grass so that those with low cars don’t have to scrape on EVERY bump! My Civic isnt actually that low yet I scraped on all the bumps apart from one.

So what did those of you who attended JAE this year think? Leave a comment or drop me an email.

If you would like to see the rest of my JAE 2009 Photos click any of the photos above or here