Despite my intermittent posting to LJ, it would be failure on my part not to mention my recent outing to the "ConFuzzled" furry convention held here in the UK last weekend. This is simply because that despite the fact that everything in Britain is supposed to be a bit naff, as you've no doubt found out by now the event proved to be an absolutely fantastic event! Sure, a couple of events overran or were questionably scheduled but then even that paragon of organization EuroFurence suffers occasionally from the same, and when you're finding yourself questioning the lack of pocket-sized schedules well then you really are nitpicking. I'd not even got through the front door of the hostel before someone dragged me into the lobby, thrust my registration pack upon me, shoves me in the direction of stuff, and I was done! I kept expecting Rod Serling to walk around the corner going "...and that's when Utlah entered... the Twilight Zone!"

( Con Report Contained Within )
So, to summarise ConFuzzled was an absolutely fantastic con at which I had a great time! There were some truly wonderful people I got to meet there too, which really rekindled a fondness for the furry community I've not had in a long time. It was a long overdue opportunity to fursuit as well, with some fantastic suiters joining in the fun, most of whom I regret not spending enough time to talk with but it's such a short con. I was a little sceptical of the location before the con as well, but having now seen the place clean and recently refurbished and with the great staff they had there, I'm sold. The rooms felt a little crowded but then I was sharing with two other suiters, a suit maker, and Vin's hips, so that didn't really help! (Thanks guys for being such great roomies BTW!)

So, what's next? Well EuroFurence is in a couple of months time, followed by MMF which will see Vin's debut stateside, followed by Further Confusion in January. Then I suspect a short break from Cons until ConFuzzled 2009! It's Victorian England as a theme, so I should imagine even wruf is sold on the idea of attending next year. ;)

The power of hips compels you... (Pic by Mikepaws)

( More Weasel Pictures! )

Last weekend was an interesting experience. Dog had invited me to his place for "something involving shotguns", which I could only surmise as being either clay pigeon shooting or a bank job. Fortunately it turned out to be the former, and on a sunny Sunday morning we found ourselves on a nearby farm under the tuition of a man with a cloth cap and large pockets. He also had a Beretta 12 Gauge Over-and-Under Sporting Shotgun, the exact model I'm unsure of but possibly a DT10 or something similar.

(I am certain it was not the Saiga-12 Automatic Shotgun which would be my "Zombie Apocalypse" weapon of choice; all the close range stopping power of a normal shotgun, but with a 20 shell drum magazine that avoids those nasty "ohcrapohcrapohcrap" moments when you have to spend an age reloading normal pump-actions a shell at a time. (And that's the closest you'll get me to a meme on LJ...))

For the benefit of US readers, even here in Nottingham the gun capital of the UK, guns are a rarity. You rarely even see a gun outside of airport security, let alone get to fire one, so this was a completely new experience for me. (Ignoring my past experience with explosives, of course...) I have to admit being a little apprehensive by the idea of having to handle a shotgun, by their nature guns aren't exactly safe. But I faced those nerves and let off a couple of rounds at the oncoming clays. The crack and recoil however wasn't as bad as I feared, the ear-plugs took away most of the noise and the recoil was not as bad as I expected. I was more shocked with the fact I was actually hitting the clays! So over the following couple of hours I let off just shy of fifty rounds at passing clays, and despite my somewhat dodgy eyesight I was still able to hit thirty clays. The biggest problem I had with the shotgun was the lack of upper body strength, the weight of the shotgun being held out in front of me fatigued my arms quickly, throwing off my aim. Tony, the instructor mentioned I'd probably do much better with a lighter gauge shotgun, but I suspect a bit more exercise wouldn't hurt either. :P What did hurt though was the light bruising on my arm, while attempts at correct posture saved my shoulder from the worst of it, I still managed to catch the side of my arm for some reason.

Long Gun is Loooooong

Overall, an interesting experience and my thanks to Megadog for a wonderfully unique birthday gift. Would I do it again though...? Probably not. :/ I appreciate the experience and I will still marvel at the technical aspects of weaponry in general, and it's quite engaging as a sport against spinning disks, but I still find guns in the steel to unnerve me. Ever since I saw a state trooper with a side-arm on a visit to the States when I was seventeen I realised that guns in the movies are all well and good, but when you're actually faced with someone holding them it's a rather unpleasant sense of powerlessness. There's too much power, too much potential to cause harm and violence there with far too little effort involved. Therefore no gunfight can ever be a "fair fight", and I see not point for any fight that isn't fair.

On a completely unrelated note, next weekend sees Confuzzled where Vin (and myself) will be putting in an appearance. Since I was somewhat nervous about leaving the Z unattended for the entire weekend in the car crime capital of the UK, I've rented a more mundane car for the weekend. Therefore in this unexpected availability of boot space and additional seating, there is the potential for lifts should anyone vaguely between Nottingham and Manchester be interested.

Tuesday morning saw myself and kyyanno arrive at some farm building out in the middle of the Oxfordshire countryside, miles from anywhere. The reason that we were there was because I'd given mah Kitteh (and myself) for his birthday a pile of rocks, gravel, mud and dirt...

...as well as a Subaru Impreza WRX STi to play in for the day. The Subaru Impreza (nicknamed "Scooby") is a 300bhp four-wheel drive saloon car, the WRX STi indicating that the specification of this particular car being the closest consumer available model to Subaru's world rally spec cars. Looking under the hood you see this woefully complex 2-litre 4-pot boxer engine with so much pipework you'd need a 27B/6 just to work on the damned thing. The car also had a few additional modifications to make it even closer to rally spec, such as a stripped out interior and roll-cage. So despite the fact it was running on something as slippery as marbles, this beast was fast.

The circuit we had for the day was fairly twisty and thankfully devoid of trees, rocks or large drops, so it was relatively safe and there was no straight that was long enough to need third gear. So while it did not represent a true rally stage, it certainly allowed us to focus on some of the more technical aspects of driving a four wheel drive rally car.

Now, I did a bit of rallying a few years back at Silverstone, however I wasn't quite prepared for the difference between the handling of a rear wheel drive car and a four wheel drive car. For example the points at which you apply the power are completely different, and for someone like myself where driving is habitual rather than learned, overcoming this instinct is a lot harder. Having done a couple of drifting days in RWD cars, I'm used to hoofing the power on during turn-in to swing the back end out, counter-steer, and power out of the corner. Not so with 4WD, you hoof the power and you simply go straight on as most of the weight is taken from the front wheels and whatever grip remains is lost with wheel-spin. Therefore you use power-off over-steer and a sharp twist of the wheel to turn the car on it's side, and then feed the power in as the car points towards the way you wish to go. You also have to take turbo-lag into account during the timing of all this as well, you hit the loud pedal and nothing happens for a few moments, and only once you've begun to doubt that anything at all will happen does everything suddenly scream and the thing launches itself forward. I recall one time I was chided by the instructor for being too heavy on said loud pedal, causing the car to squirm as it powered down the straight on a couple of occasions to which he referred to as "moments". I didn't have the heart to mention that I was enjoying those "moments" immensely and was actually being deliberately heavy on the pedal as a result. :3 Throwing the car sideways through the chicanes, power-on, power-off, turn, power-on, power-off, turn... hand brake turn at the 180s... Scandinavian flick into the longer corners... It was an absolute blast! :D

"Scooby Doo, Where Are You?"

( More Photo Goodness )

As I suspected though it was to the Kitty that took home the "driver of the day" award, anyone who can tolerate PGR 4's control system over Forza clearly has some warped sense of car control. :P Sadly I'm not able to consciously think about things quickly enough on the fly, especially when I become excited, so I tend to use a more intuitive approach to driving. It's more consistent but harder to learn, so for the last session where they reversed the circuit on the sly it made me realise I'd been learning the track more than the car. As a result I became flustered and messed up on the final session, falling back onto RWD skills and under-steering on the corners. Still, while I know I'll never be the fastest driver on the grid with either RWD or 4WD, taking a car like this and throwing it sideways around a corner means I'll give anyone a run for their money on who has the biggest shit-eating grin on their face! :D

If you take something that you're trying to find out more about, and type that into Google, then you'll find lots of information about your chosen subject. Take something you have a little passion for, but type it into Amazon instead, well then things just get expensive. For example I've just picked the Nissan 350Z and was pleasantly surprised to find a delectable choice of books, DVDs, and models to purchase. (Which I've promptly gone and done so, so sadly you can forget any of those as a birthday gift idea...)

However, you end up finding some quite bizarre stuff as well. Now, I love Nissan, but in the same way that you're fond of your crazy mentally-disturbed grandfather. Sure Nissan came out with the Z's and the Skylines, but then they also brought us the Micra and the Almera as well. But it seems that they also come out with other, more esoteric, stuff as well. One thing I've mentioned in the past is Nissan's homage to old driving movies with it's short promotion film "The Run", for which they shut the entire city of Prague down during filming. That's kinda cool, but then there's the "Mr K" bobble-head figure which was just pretty damned weird. However what I didn't realise is that they also produce music albums. Yes you read that correctly, and Nissan haven't just released the one music album, oh no. They've created at least four that I can find. These are basically compilation albums to drive to, and while a lot of the tunes are familiar Western tunes, the selection and the styles of the covers are distinctly Japanese. Can you imagine "Staying Alive", but with Japanese female vocals and a samba beat, or perhaps a rendition of Queen's infamous "We Will Rock You" that's positively soothing? Or would you consider tracks such as "Uptown Girl", "Ghostbusters" or anything by Samantha Fox to be a prime choice of tunes to drive to? Let's face it, you can't, because you're not as mad as a brush like Nissan.

So please, please, please, if you have a copy of any of these albums in your possession then could you kindly... stay the hell away from me! You're even weirder than I am, and while I love the Z even I'm not devoted enough to buy these terrible albums. :P

Has anyone else come across any strange and baffling items that motor companies have produced in their time?

Crossposted to motor_furs

I hereby wish to classify Earthquakes as a form of weather, just like sun, rain, snow, and that kind of grey damp fog that's not quite drizzle. It's not that I'm mad (officially anyway), I do have my reasons for this.

The British have a reputation of talking about the weather a lot, and I have to admit it's fairly accurate. We're quite the eclectic bunch and when meeting someone for the first time we rarely have any real common topic for discussion to aim for. Since the weather can be somewhat varied on occasion here in the UK, and unsurprisingly it's something everyone experiences, it's only natural that it becomes a good base on which to strike up a conversation with a complete stranger.

So give us one little earthquake and suddenly the whole country is buzzing about it. And it was just a little one, remember that the Richter scale is logarithmic and while 5.2 sounds significant, in the grand scheme of earthquakes it's barely a belch. But to us Brits it has a certain novelty value to it and so for at least one day earthquakes become the new weather. My sympathy goes out to the poor news reporters expected to make news of this threat to chimney stacks everywhere, and anyone in California who knows what a real earthquake is like and having to read all this...

...Hmm, I wonder how long until global warming is blamed for "the quake"? "It's the planet expanding under the excessive heat!" :P

The weekend saw both myself and Megadog attend a track day with a difference, in that the tracks were on the vehicle itself and we were basically driving around an open field. Yes, with great inevitability we were finally let loose with tanks and other armoured vehicles with big guns. This probably won't bode well for the rest of humanity...

After the usual coffee and safety briefing we first drove the Chieftain Main Battle Tank. With over seven hundred horses produced by its Leyland L60 diesel engine, I gunned the engine for all it's worth, and the tank leapt down track accelerating quickly... Well I say "leapt" but it was more of a lurch, and acceleration was hampered somewhat by it's 55 ton weight. To put that in perspective, that's around the same weight as 37 cars all stacked on top of each other. So needless to say it could only reach a heady speed of 30mph. Because of the expense of maintaining and running the beast and it's propensity to catch fire we only got to drive it forwards then backwards along a straight dirt track. Driving a tank forwards is fine, driving one backwards is a little more... complex. It's not as if you have a rear view mirror, and looking around all you see is the turret behind you. So the instructor basically stands up and looks behind the tank and guides you backwards.

It's at this point I should point out the controls, which was similar for all the tracked vehicles. Most will be familiar with your "Battlezone" two lever approach to tank driving where you have two levers, one for each track. Push both forwards for forwards, back for backwards, one either way to spin on the spot. These vehicles didn't quite do that however. You'd actually use the accelerator pedal to go forwards, and gears to control the speed to some extent. You still had two levers to steer with, but each basically controlled the brakes on each track like demented hand-brakes. Apply the brake to the right track and you'd slowly turn towards the right, and visa-versa. Apply both and you'd just stop dead. Because of this system and the single gearing mechanism you're actually unable to turn one tread in one direction and the other tread in the other direction, so you're unable to spin the vehicle on the spot.

After the Chieftain it was something a little more lightweight with the FV432 Armoured Personnel Carrier, which at only(?)15 ton was significantly more agile and quicker than the Chieftain. We also had a large track to circuit (circuit to track?!?!) for the APC and Abbot and were able to take them around various corners and get a much better idea as to their handling. The APC was surprisingly easy to drive despite the completely foreign method of steering and shear weight of the vehicle. This was then followed by a passenger ride in the back of said APC. The British Army doctrine dictates that its soldiers shouldn't be pansies and that they should get out of an APC and fight, so there are no gun ports or windows in the back of the APC. As well as being unable to see either where you're going or where you've been, you're thrown about the inside as the APC lurches over various bumps and ruts, pressed up against the other occupants in a tiny space with little airflow. It was very similar in fact to travelling around in the London Underground, except you're less likely to get shot at.

The final armoured vehicle was the FV433 Abbot Self-Propelled Gun. Very similar to the APC it's a couple of ton heavier due to the large turret mounted on the top. As a result while similar to drive it wasn't as agile or as fast as the APC. In fact steering proved so difficult at times that on a couple of occasions I had to resort to using two hands on one lever just to get the thing to turn the corner. I also learned that when slowing for corners you merely drop the revs slightly and then reapply the revs immediately. Failure to reapply full power quickly meant that the Abbot failed to keep it's speed through the corners and quickly became a large metal sitting duck.

The final vehicle of the day however were the quad bikes, a rather contrasting vehicle compared to the rest of the day's choices, in that it was lightweight, fast, exposed, and controllable. OK, I lie about the controllable part, I can only look upon quad bikes with a form of bemusement as they seem to me a completely strange form of transport and I can only surmise they are someone's attempts to make motorbikes more dangerous. O_o It didn't help that our instructor was, if such a stereotype can be applied, a "surfer dude", who's mind would flip between various random pointless anecdotes and comments on how keen the quad bike was on causing death or personal injury. Once we feared for our lives we set off on these quarter-ton beasts, only to have one of your party swerve off into the bushes. Unharmed but clearly unable to ride the thing with any ability he was left to walk back. For those of us who could get the bike to move in a reasonably straight line, the instructor would stop randomly and without warning in an attempt to catch out the people riding behind him. I actually had the bike nearly sideways under braking in an attempt to avoid the instructor at one point. But clueless instructor aside they were interesting vehicles, if somewhat fundamentally flawed for their thumb based throttle control. All in all a rather fine outing!

FV432 Armoured Personnel Carrier

What does this button do?

And so we learn the folly of naming a character with a name beginning with "V", the last few photos from the EF photo-shoots have now been put up and Vin is finally available for viewing. I wasn't entirely happy with the photo-shoot session, I'd been waiting in suit for about an hour for my turn and so by the time my turn came around I was feeling drained and I didn't perform in front of the camera as well as I would have liked. The organisers did their best for the waiting fursuiters however, with gophers on hand for water and a chilling breeze through the waiting area. (Not that I could tell, I could only guess by how much the non-suiters were shivering by!) Still, considering how busy the photo-shoots were I'm thankful to have got the photos at all, because as always the photo-shoots are the best way for showing off a new suit. :) As always my thanks to Thalian for his work behind the camera, BBF for his organisation, but also the poor gophers run ragged looking after the suiters and doing a sterling job!

Click here for Vin goodness!

"Looks a bit dicey to me..."

( Bonus Photo Goodness )

It has become a somewhat small goal of mine to have driven, ridden, piloted, guided, or generally moved, any and all types of vehicle going. I've driven numerous exotic cars, I've flown a Cessna plane and a Robinson helicopter, and piloted several different types of water craft. Most of these have been detailed in journal entries passim, however at the weekend alng with megadog I added to that list with a rather unique class of vehicle, hovercraft. It has to be said the hovercraft is very British vehicle, in that it's very creative, truly bizarre and any attempt to use it commercially outside of niche uses has ultimately failed. :P

Hovercraft are one of the most bizarre craft I've ever driven... err.. piloted... steered... ridden...? Anyway, in the single "seat" (thought there's no seat) Formula 2 craft we were using there were very few controls. There's a steering handlebar like a bike that operates the fins on the back of the vertical fan at the back, but other than spin you around on the spot it doesn't really do much. The throttle control on the handle controls engine revs, and therefore effects both ride height and to some extent forward propulsion. The one thing you should never do with the throttle is let it go, since if you drop the revs on a corner the craft sinks and will dig into the ground with the result that it stops a lot quicker than you do. For the most part the craft is controlled with your body weight, you lean to force more air out of one side of the skirt than the other, resulting in a kind of jet propulsion. It's like your body becomes the cyclic stick in a helicopter, lean left and you go left, lean forward and you go forward, lean back and you... err... still go forward... but more slowly. It's like a real life game of asteroids... except without a gun... or asteroids for that matter.

At least they're easy to drift around corners thought! ^_^;

Overall great fun, the only disappointment was that it was all on a field and there were no water crossings, but I must admit to a strong desire to find out if there's any way to get a bit more time on them. However I think that can wait until next year, as for next month it's going to be tanks! *muhahaha*

Less bovver with a hover? Nope, the grass is still long.

So after nearly five years of ownership it was finally time to say goodbye to my Lexus IS200 Sport, somewhat prophetically named "Jinx". Over that time there were some rather unsavoury moments, namely a couple of break-ins, a rock thrown at the windscreen at speed, and even a near head on collision down the motorway, but other than a seized brake calliper I never had any technical problems during the 80,000 miles I travelled with her, not even a blown bulb. The last few days was spent thinking to myself, "this is the last time I'll be driving this route in this car", and wondering if I'd miss the old gal when she's gone. But I won't. Five years and 80,000 miles is a long time to own a car, and she was starting to feel tired, it was time to move on...

To the Nissan 350Z! *fanfare* I wanted something more powerful, something that was genuinely sporty rather than just a tarted up saloon car with sport in name only. Lexus didn't do anything like that, so I had to look towards Nissan. Not exactly a step up in terms of manufacturer or dealer, however the 350Z checked all the right boxes. Rear wheel drive, +300bhp stock with potential for more, and designed for tail-happy cornering from the get-go. With a raging thirst, only two seats, and only enough luggage space for a couple of golf bags it's hardly practical, but I'd been practical with the IS200 and wanted something different.

The 350Z is certainly not without its quirks, and even in the new third generation model there are some things that feel like a bit of an afterthought. The obvious thing being their redesign of the engine only to realise that it no longer fits in the car, hence the somewhat odd looking bonnet bulge. Not really an attempt to hearken back to the days of the 240Z, but more an aversion to redesigning the entire drive-train or body-shell to make the revised engine fit. But quite frankly the car could kidney-punch me every time I entered the vehicle and I'd still want to drive it just to hear it's sound, the 3.5litre V6 engine growls and roars with a menace that distances it from any normal road car. I've not had chance to throw the car around yet as I tentatively work my way through the break-in period, but the way the steering firms up the faster you go, the feedback and the promise of more that you get from the car is incredible. Whatever the future holds for my Z ownership, it's certainly not going to be dull...

( Pictures of old and new... )

The past week was spent in Germany at the Eurofurence event, and I find it difficult to start writing down my thoughts and experiences of the event. In summary it's been such a positive and emotional time, greatly enjoyed and with the desire to return for future events. However such a terse and vapid entry would not give the event justice and so I find myself having to type more. (Damn)

Getting to the con location itself and back was relatively uneventful, flying out from Birmingham to Frankfurt at reasonably social hours rather than the ungodly hour required for the flight out of Stansted last year. The only real problem we had was with the car rental agency Avis, trying to make the matter of doing business with them as hard as possible. As much as I'd have liked another Corvette while abroad, this time we had to settle for a more practical Peugeot 407 estate to take myself, the kitty, and a Badgerguy to the con location. Even with the ample space we only just managed to fit our excess of luggage and a Badgerguy in the back of the car. I left the kitty to do the driving while we were over there, who coped admirably with what the German roads could throw at us.

The con location itself was the Ringberg Hotel in Suhl, a big East German pile of concrete on top of a hill. However money had clearly been spent on bringing it up to a more Western level of comfort and for the price it didn't disappoint. The layout was good, the rooms were fine, the views were fantastic. The staff struggled with the English language (but making a much better attempt at it than my German!), were absolute troopers with the bars staying open while there was business to be had which invariably meant until past 4am in the morning. The only real negative was that the food was a little mediocre, however you can't expect too much from buffet food and I found myself so pressed for time on occasions that the "eat now" option became invaluable.

The format of the con was relatively unchanged from last year, or from most other well established cons for that matter. There was numerous panel events, the art show, dealers den, stage events and dances to attend. For the life in me though I only remember attending a couple of panels this time around, instead I was finding numerous distractions outside of the scheduling to keep me more than busy. I'll refrain from describing the events of the con since I'm somewhat late with my entry and these have no doubt been covered in numerous other journals and forums. However the Pawpet show cannot go past without some honorary mention, as it really helps to stand EF out from the crowd of other furry cons. Its popularity is justly deserved and my thanks go out to the entire crew for such a wonderful performance.

Of course the most important aspect of the con for me was the "Weasel". Casting my mind back to FC, the response to the "Utlah" partial suit was the same for most partials, lacklustre at best. It's a sad fact that the Furry community is dismissive of partial suits, even well made ones with good costume ideas. I think too many furs use them in combination with normal street clothes and so lack a solid theme or character, and that contrast of normal clothing and furry appendages causes too much of a dissonance and so as a result people can be stand-offish. From that you might get the impression my partial at FC was a negative experience, but was still enjoyable and proved very educational, helping me to realise the difficulties in fursuiting in character, rather than just "goofing around inside a suit".

There was to be no such problem with the full suit of "Vin" however, the amount of attention he got was absolutely incredible. whiteyfawks of Arend Studios has done an incredible job on the suit, and the haunch idea proposed by sandroo has worked exceptionally well, elongating the body to make a more weaselly shape. Everyone was stopping me for pictures and making comment on my child-bearing hips. :P The suit just oozes character and allows me to just be silly and mischievous and generally mess around and have a lot of fun in suit. But when you have the likes of Cheetah, the con organiser, approaching you and commenting on the suit, and the guest of honour Lance Ikegawa saying "you've got the best suit I've seen at the con" (presumably besides his own!) you realise you have something... a little special. I am very pleased with the suit, the only downside is the difficulty in moving such a bulky suit between countries!

Vin!

( A couple more photos... )

The squeaky chicken was purchased while in Germany, during a hunt for squeaky toys (a wonderful memory in of itself) with the idea of installing a squeaker in the weasel's belly. This was because everyone seemed to insist on poking the padded cheat, and it seemed too good an idea to waste. The chicken worked well with the weasel theme, however it was interesting to note that the squeak it made rapidly became the voice of Vin. I could be much more expressive (and attention seeking!) by strategic use of the squeaker. (Though I've since learned this is best left for open areas and not confined rooms!) This even led to one of the most memorable moments for me in suit, when towards the last day Vin came across a family consisting a two girls aged around three and five. Kyy caught the whole thing on video so I'll have to upload it at some point, however they were enamoured with the giant weasel. After an initial greeting the mother lifted the three year old up on her shoulder and brought her close to my face. As the little one reached out to pat Vin's nose I squeaked the chicken and I watched the kids just light up. "Squeak the weasel" became the new bestest game ever for them, both repeated reaching to pat the nose to squeak it. I get such a big kick out of making people grin like that. :)

Sadly EF is all over for another year and I find myself back at work this week, and incredibly stressful it's been too, the stark contrast showing against the warm buzz of an enjoyable break. However tomorrow at least I get another grin, as I go to pick up the "Z"... :D

I caught this article on the BBC News website and thought I'd share it with the rest of you. Must admit I do find the main story quite concerning, especially given the locality of the event. I hope that it doesn't cause too much impact on the EuroFurence event next week...

( Cut for large BBC website screenshot )

Something's escaped and is on the loose! PANIC!!! FLEE!! RUN!!! RUN AWAY!!!

A now empty box...

In 1976 Claude Lelouch created a short nine minute film called "C'était Un Rendez-vous". The plot was very simple to nonexistent, a driver hares through the streets of Paris in a Ferrari to meet his sexy French date.

The film was shot early one Sunday morning and no streets were closed or permission for filming provided. Considering the somewhat risk-taking and taboo nature of the film it was somewhat of an underground success, though as a result many myths and claims were made about the film. While it certainly sounds like Claude's own Ferrari 275 GTB racing through the streets, the footage was actually taken using a borrowed gyro-stabilised camera that was being used for another of his films mounted to the front of his Mercedes-Benz 450SEL 6.9. Also, the reason for such a short film was also down to practical limitations, the film reels used by the camera had a run time of only ten minutes. Just as well he filmed it when he did, since the same run in today's traffic would take over two hours to complete given the same time of day!

Speed wise the film looks very dramatic, however while some claims of 120mph have been made the actual highest speed reached is only(!) 85mph. What makes the movie so impressive is it's somewhat artificial soundtrack combined with the low-down camera view, exaggerating the sense of speed. It's still a fantastic little cinematic gem however. I really miss these old-school 70's style car chase scenes, other obvious examples springing to mind being "Bullitt" and "The French Connection". I love their raw, believable driving scenes and unpredictable outcomes. These days it's all flawlessly produced with precision timing, distancing it from any credibility. (Though of course, extra credit has to go to "Ronin".)

Nissan decided to emulate "C'était Un Rendez-vous" and other classic car movie scenes with its promo video for the 350Z called "The Run".

Sadly it doesn't really work. :( The car seems almost lazy, there's no sense of urgency or danger about the video unlike the predecessors it tries to emulate. The view that worked so well within "C'était Un Rendez-vous" cannot be used to any effect in the video, since to do so would mean you never get to see the car they're trying to sell you. :P A nice attempt but doesn't really work, but thankfully I'm already sold on the car. :D

Not that I'm counting the 49 days until mine arrives...

Inspector: "He was killed by a wolf twice the size of the hound of the Baskervilles."
Priest: "What else inspector?"
Inspector: "The experts said the wolf attacked the man while standing on its rear legs, that would make it over six feet tall!"
Priest: "Do you know what kind of wolf killed this man?"
Inspector: "A very big one!"

I've just watched "Howling VII", and I'm left wondering what else I could have done with the 90 minutes of my life lost on this appalling werewolf movie. I still enjoyed it though, I'm such a werewolf movie slut. XD Did you know you can make any Australian into a Californian by simply ensuring they wear a Harley-Davidson T-shirt or a Stetson hat? Making them sing Country and Western works too, however mainly as a form of torture for the audience...

I've been looking at getting a new car for nearly half a year now, mulling over my various options carefully based on my key criteria.

Front mounted engine and rear wheel drive (FR) was the must-have factor especially given the way that I wish to drive on track, not the fastest but simply the one having the most fun. Hanging the back end of the car out while going around the corner is a hell of a lot of fun, and it's a FR layout which allows me to do that the best. I also wanted a car that was at home either on public roads or on the track, I didn't really want to go down the route of a track car for occasional circuit drives and then suffer something more mundane as a second car for daily driving. (No matter how tempting the Atom may be...) It also had to be something new or nearly new, with the mileage that I do then a classic car would neither be reliable nor comfortable for long trips. Practicality wise I have no family and for the most part I'm in the car alone so I could live without four seats and lots of luggage space.

Those requirements narrowed my choices quite dramatically, at least within my price range. (Unlike one of my work colleagues who's just bought himself the Aston Martin V8 Vantage in black...*envy*) The BMW Z4 briefly got a look in but was dismissed on being too expensive for what it was, being butt ugly, and quite frankly being a BMW. The Mazda range had some appeal, however as much fun as the MX-5 is I don't cut hair for a living, and the RX-8 is surprisingly under-powered. The Monaro and VXR8 have what it takes in the engine department but build quality is poor and they're not the best looking cars. In addition to that they're saloon cars with questionable handling rather than being particularly sporting or even predictable. The VX220 and Lotus Elise are great little track cars, but they're pretty sparse to save weight and on a long motorway trip the excessive road and engine noise they would drive me insane. The same went for the Honda S2000, despite the fact it's a fantastically well made car, looks good, lightweight and powerful. That little highly strung engine grates when pegged at 7,500rpm for three hours, and doesn't really provide much in the way of more power with additional tuning.

Which left me with a final option. A car with more cylinders than wheels, and more wheels then seats. A car so cool it could be described with only a single letter...

Z.

Or more specifically, a brand new '07 model Nissan 350Z GT Coupe in Ebisu Black.

After taking the Z for another test drive today, this time at a dealership that wasn't Sunwin owned and seemed to have a clue about customer service, I put in the order. I should hopefully get the car on my return from EuroFurence in September. (I could have had it this month had I gone for Chilli Pepper, or next month given the Night Blue... but nah!) Which means not only is it the latest model with all the nice engine tweaks, it'll also be on the new plates as well.

I'm very VERY excited! :3 All I need is a name...

It never ceases to amaze me just how draconian medical techniques still are. Perhaps I've just been watching too much(?) "House M.D." which has painted the medical community with puppies and sugarcanes, but the removal of teeth is no more advanced now as it was centuries ago. Sure, the tools are sterile now and the anaesthetic is more effective, but it's still a guy with a big pair of pliers dragging bits of bone out of your skull. (Or more specifically, MY skull!) You'd think by now there'd be some way to "unstick" a tooth, damage the bonds holding it in just so that it drops out of it's own accord. Still, despite the trauma of having a tooth pulled out in seven pieces, I find myself still relatively pain free so I can only assume it was a job well done. Should that change, well I have supplies of co-codamol and ibuprofen to go with the amoxicillin I need to take to avoid any infection arising in my jaw bone.

I did however find the whole process of having the tooth pulled somewhat long and very unnerving, and so in a sudden moment of sentimentality I tried to think of Kyy rather than focus on the surgical light above me and the sensation of crunching bone... at which point the "assistant" managed to accidentally squirt the water hose up my nose causing me to choke. O_o It was actually quite funny at the time, but then I guess these things are relative. :P

Anyway, once I've left the gap a few months for the surrounding teeth to shift and the bone to re-grow I'll be looking to have an implant done to replace the lost tooth. The Romans used to ram an iron spike in the jaw to replace teeth, and again not much has changed. It's just now we use titanium instead of steel since it doesn't rust, and to avoid looking like "Jaws" they're capped with a porcelain crown so that it looks natural.

The other pains in my life at the moment are having to drive a 1.2litre VW Polo while Jinx is back at the workshop. This is for them to re-spray the bumper for a better colour match and finally sort out the reversing sensors, from the damage caused by my little incident on the M69 back in Easter. (Still no news from the Police on that one...) Once it's all sorted hopefully I can move on and look at getting a 350Z ordered.

After only 11 months My XBox360 died the other week, with I suspect a warped motherboard. While I could use the "towel trick" to warp the board further and make it work again that way, I instead shouted at Microsoft to fix it. They were keen to try and get me to pay for the repair however I was having none of it, and they agreed to take it regardless. However considering I'm still waiting for them to send out labels and details on how to get a courier pick-up, I'm expecting to be without my XBox for a while longer yet, just in time for the release of "Forza Motorsport 2". :(

Still my attempts at real life racing has proved somewhat more successful, with our team winning the company karting event at the weekend. It gave me the chance to try out my new helmet as well, an "AGV Stealth" in gloss black with black tinted visor, very sinister... or "Streethawk", take your pick. :P Fortunately I wasn't just relying on the forces of darkness and there were some aspects to kart braking and balance that had eluded me up until now, and I was able to use this new found knowledge to great success. Sadly I was still ended up 0.02 seconds off the fastest lap of the event, but our team fought through the pack from 10th on the grid to win by half a lap after a massive 172 laps! I got a gold medal, trophy, and even champagne! ^_^ Rumour now has it of a trip to Milton Keynes for the 70mph twin-engined outdoor karts...

Hmm, sorry but it looks like I've no real angst at the moment, time for you to move on... :D

I spent the weekend visiting megadog who was taking his Scimitar out on track at the Castle Combe circuit. As the below clearly indicates this weekend included a large quantity of enjoyment!
( Cut for Graphic Content )
I'm not too sure it should have been classed a classic car day though, but simply "Random Car Day", since it was a somewhat eclectic choice of cars and some not so classic! At one point there was a Renault Clio fighting with an R34 Skyline and a Ferrari 360! But there were some interesting cars on display.
( Pictures... )
In other news I've split one of my teeth. O_o Thankfully it was the one that I had root canal work on, hence the reason it's split and why I don't currently feel any serious pain. However I suspect it's going to have to be dragged out of my skull at some point and something else bolted into place, which I suspect will hurt... a lot. :( The two things you should look after in life is your credit rating and your teeth...

The last bank holiday weekend was spent visiting the kitty, with the ulterior motive of spending the Sunday watching the British Touring Car Championship at the nearby Thruxton circuit. The BTCC unlike F1 is of course proper racing, where people overtake at regular intervals, become involved in more crashes, shunts, and general argy-bargy, and they don't just drive around in circles trying to "out-pit" each other. It also has a couple of IS200s "racing" in the championship, and by racing I mean either finish last, not at all, or fail to even make the starting grid. They are however the token privateer entrants which explains why.

It was also a chance for me to try out the camera that a work colleague had kindly lent me, a Canon EOS 30D with two lenses to chose from, a Canon EFS 17-85mm and a Canon EF 75-300mm 1:4-5.6 III USM. Of course that may not mean as much to me as it does to you, however it does mean enough for me to know I shouldn't be dropping them any time soon. O_o As I mentioned in a previous LJ entry I was looking for a new camera with a choice of lenses, so this was an excellent opportunity to get a bit of practical experience with similar hardware to what I'm looking at purchasing.

Needless to say the results were a tad more impressive than my old Cybershot!

Being able to change lenses is certainly a useful trick. There were times when the zoom lens just wasn't wide enough when I wanted to photo several cars together, and other times when the smaller lens just didn't really capture the detail that I wanted. The 300mm lens certainly worked well enough in terms of zoom, and while there times I wanted a little bit more zoom the 10 mega-pixels of the camera compensated. While the results were not always the best quality at this range they were certainly detailed enough for blog entries and the like. As for the camera itself, while the Canon had hundreds of options available to it any attempt to play with them simply caused confusing results. Completely out of my depth eventually I just left it in "sport" mode which gave excellent results regardless of my ineptitude. It also gave me a "rapid fire mode" which gave me a series of photos, an acceptable replacement for no longer being able to take moving footage. I'd simply track cars coming down the track, and if they started to lock up the wheels on braking I'd let rip with a series of shots. It paid off, and I got some fantastic shots of the BMW driven by Bell meeting up with the Alfa driven by Marsh. It did however eat through the two 1GB SD cards I had, so looking at some high capacity cards will be a must.

I've put some photos below, but they're reduced from the originals so they don't quite reflect the detail that the camera was able to capture.

BTCC Lexus IS200: Bless, they try...

( More Photo Goodness )

I still however, managed to miss taking photographs of the Porsche that managed to barrel roll and then flip itself over the safety fence into the service road behind. I could only watch on in horror and stunned silence from a distance, only to cheer with the rest of the crowd a couple of minutes later when the tannoy announced that the driver and anyone else nearby was completely unhurt. It was quite surreal. The nearby ITV cameraman however didn't fail to catch the crash on film...

All in all a great day's motorsport, and a new camera is definitely on the horizon.

Well it's coming up to four weeks since my game of "chicken" on the M69, so I think it's time for a quick review of events since then.

Jinx went into the workshop a couple of days after the accident. While she still seemed to run OK, she'd taken quite the whack to the wheels so I was reluctant to keep driving her around. Rather than trying to mess around getting repair quotes I once again settled on the "Authorised Repairer" option of just letting Direct Line take the car away to a body shop, in this case one run out of a local VW dealership.

While Jinx was in the shop I was offered a free courtesy car by the insurers through Enterprise. However this only covered class "A" cars, which in this case was a Chevrolet Matiz... or smaller. O_o The Matiz is something I wouldn't even use as a roller-skate, and the look of horror on my face when offered it ensured that the desk clerk was quick to offer an upgrade at an additional cost. However this in turn could be charged back to other party's insurance once it started to pay out, and so for a poultry £10 per day extra I ended up with a 2litre diesel Toyota Avensis.

The Avensis is a big, heavy, barge like car, an effect made only the more real by the chugging of its diesel engine. Now diesels supposedly have lots of nice juicy torque, and it did have a bit of poke... hidden some place between 2,500 and 3,000 rpm. Of course being front wheel drive when you did come across the poke the bugger would torque-steer quite alarmingly, causing the car to swerve to the right in an attempt to kill me. The cruise-control seemed to be a bit of a mixed blessing as well, and only served to highlight just how badly other drivers are able to keep a steady speed on the roads. However for all my complaints it did get nearly 60mpg on the motorway and for the level of car it was reasonably well made, numerous toys, and comfortable enough.

Two weeks after the accident and I'd still not heard anything from the police, and so I chased them up to see what was going on. It seems there's two departments within the police involved in automotive incidents, one department attends the scene while the other deals with the investigation and paperwork afterwards, the latter being the "Collision Support Unit". Phoning them up revealed some interesting information, the first was that the CSU had only just received the paperwork through and hadn't started to look at the incident in detail yet. There was some mention of the delay caused by "tests", which I can only assume to be medical in nature and involving the driver of the oncoming vehicle. The other was that the driver of the oncoming vehicle was insured, and not only did they give me his insurance details but also his home address as well. I'm not entirely sure this is something they're supposed to do, however this revealed that the oncoming driver had a very English sounding name and lived in Leicester, a local boy. So the idea that they travelling down the wrong side of the motorway "accidentally" seems very unlikely and it was a more likely a deliberate action. My relief to find that the driver was insured was short lived however, attempts to start billing my rental car to them revealed that there were questions over indemnity, and whether the insurer was prepared to cover the driver in question for whatever reasons they would not reveal. Nearly four weeks later and this has still progressed no further, neither any information from the insurers regarding the claim nor even any requests for statements from the police.

Shortly after getting the updates from the police the "free" courtesy car ran out while the body shop was still lazing around trying to find parts for Jinx, leaving me to foot the bill for the rental car. After over three weeks the body shop had finally finished repairs then took two days to wash and check the car, only to find the reversing sensors didn't work properly and they'd have to get a "specialist" in. After two days of sitting around waiting for the specialist I'd had enough and requested the car back. They could sort the sensors out later, Jinx was now roadworthy and I was unprepared to continue paying for the rental.

I went to pick up Jinx this morning and immediately noticed that the trim that runs along the bottom edge of the bumper wasn't on straight and got them to correct it. They did... just not enough on either side. Then I noticed that the bumper itself didn't look particularly straight either. Worse off, looking at it in the sun I noticed that the colour was slightly off, so they'd not even colour matched it correctly. Even the door sill that they said they'd repaint hadn't been, and it had just been polished. Having returned the rental car I was forced to accept the car in its current state, though I made it clear I was very unhappy with the work. Tomorrow morning I'll be heading to the Lexus dealership to have their body shop examine the work and give their professional opinion about it. Then I suspect there'll be some long and hostile phone calls to various people.

*sigh* All I want to do is have this sorted quickly so I can get on with my life and forget that terrible night. But instead it seems all involved want to drag this out in such a way as to make it as painful and problematic as they can...

I cannot recall the original reasons behind it all. Perhaps as I child I watched too much "Airwolf" or played too much of Microprose's "Gunship", but come my teenage years I wanted to be a pilot. Not just any old pilot though since flying a plane would be like driving a bus, simply following a set route and stopping only at the appropriate stops. Instead I wanted to be a helicopter pilot. You had a much greater level of freedom while flying helicopters, and normally got to stay closer to that interesting stuff pilots like to call "ground". In fact helicopters are so alien and unstable as an aircraft that even the manufacturers fit them with a mix of wheels, floats, and skis to give them a fighting chance on landing. So after leaving school I spent a year of my life trying to make that dream come true... and failed. In the end it was my eyesight that let me down, good enough for a private pilot's licence but not good enough for commercial or military. Even resorting to laser surgery, my eyesight was sufficiently FUBAR in such a way as to dismiss any attempts at laser correction. I was denied that opportunity in life, and so I fell into university and a career in electronics instead.

Several years later of working in IT and I'd racked up a fair number of reward points on my credit card thanks to business expenses. Enough as it turned out, for a free helicopter flying lesson. So on the warm and clear Saturday afternoon I found myself standing on the runway apron across from a Robinson R22 helicopter...

Robinson R22

The first thing that struck me was just how small this craft was. After spending most of my childhood watching Bell JetRangers on TV, nothing quite prepares you for the thought of flying through the air within something smaller than a car. It's through some perverse logic that the larger and heavier an aircraft is, the more secure one should feel flying in it. In fact the R22 is so small that you don't get a yoke between your legs for each pilot, you get a single yoke located between the two seats and a hinged T-piece mounted across the top. You then grab one end of the T-piece and fly with that. Even the door (that curves underneath your seat to make it smaller still) holds you in the craft with the most basic of latches, I've seen more sturdier latches on toilet cubicles. So needless to say with a little bit of apprehension over the whole concept of what I find "fun" and wondering if I had enjoyed my life, I donned the headset as the instructor fires up the four-pot hair dryer behind our seats.

With the blades up to speed there's a sudden *wooooph!* and we're twenty odd feet in the air and following the taxiway to the runway. I can't help but let out a little "woohoo" into the headset mike, partly from enjoyment and partly relief from not being freaked out by the concept of flying so close and yet so far from the ground below. The bubble canopy provided an exceptional view of the world around me as we rapidly climbed up and away from the airport to around 1,500 feet. Then once clear of the airport it was time for me to take the controls, the first challenge was to keep the craft flying straight and level at around 70mph. Having flown a Cessna a couple of years back this proved simple enough, and using the compass on the canopy as a horizon marker I was able to keep her fairly straight and true. Then followed several turn manoeuvres, once again simple enough to execute especially as the instructor was dealing with the foot pedals at this point. Playing with the collective was straight forward as well, with a governor on the engine handling throttle position it was simply a matter of pulling up to go up, and pushing down to go down.

All too soon however we find ourselves back at the airport, and the instructor brings the craft down low so that we're about thirty feet from the ground alongside the runway. It's then time for me to try my skills at hovering. First off the instructor holds the craft steady while I use just the foot pedals first to get used to them. They're exceptionally sensitive and counter intuitive since you push the left pedal to turn the nose to the left, and vice versa. (Trust me, left to turn left is confusing, think about handlebars.) Initially I tried using either one foot or the other to push the pedals and failing, since car drivers find the right foot is more sensitive than the left. However the pedals are hinged together and so by pressing down with both feet and using my right foot as a gauge for both left and right turns I was soon able to get a feel for the pedals. I was then handed the yoke and tried to hold the craft steady in a hover.

The act of hovering has the reputation of being a difficult manoeuvre, despite the fact that the helicopter isn't supposed to be moving anywhere. This is because helicopters are intrinsically unstable which makes them agile but prone to going off in whatever direction it feels like given the chance. I can now personally confirm that this reputation is well founded. The yoke is not spring loaded in any way, there is no easily found "true centre". You have to find the centre by circling the yoke until you find the neutral position, and then once you've found it you then chase it around as the wind pushes your craft. You find that in a helicopter you never get to hold the yoke steady while in flight, and during a hover you realise just how sensitive it is. On a couple of occasions the craft would pitch wildly upwards as I'd try to correct a minor downward pitch, and the instructor would gently force the stick over my inputs into the correct position and we'd suddenly be level again. Hovering was very frustrating, as I found it difficult to gauge how any of my movements of the stick were effecting the movement of the helicopter.

All too soon it was over and the instructor landed us back on the apron just as G-GBLR taxied back to it's hanger behind us, the same Cessna I flew a couple of years back. It was very enjoyable to fly again but this time at the controls of a helicopter, and fulfil a childhood dream. While it's still doubtful that I'll consider going for my private pilot's licence due to the time and cost involved, it's still great to challenge myself with different forms of transportation. The question is what next, tanks or hovercraft!?!? :D