Zen Stand. Photo by Faraz.
My GT-R. Photo by 300-CPO.
The Toyo Stand. Photo by 300-CPO.
The rain amazingly held out once more at last night’s End Of Month Meet! I must be blessed, right?! Was a great turnout, great vibes too. More trader stands than ever, now we just need better food!!!
Hey look Mum! I’m on a sticker!!!
A little while back Anthony Crivelli of Build-Threads.com sent me some stickers along with a cool illustration of my GT-R, which also features myself peering out of a stack of Toyo R888 tyres. When I posted it online a few people expressed interest in buying it if it was on a T-Shirt, but I’ve decided to make a few stickers instead. You can find them in the Zen Shop: http://shop.zengarage.com.au
Hey! I’m in this!
Check out this video of the recent Bridgestone Potenza RE003 tyre test day I was invited to in Calder Park Melbourne. I had a blast, loved the tyre so much I bought a set for the Golf and yes, they’ve been amazing in the wet and the dry.
Haha so mad!
Anthony Crivelli of Build-Threads.com has traced his sketch of me and my GT-R in Illustrator and just for kicks, we’ll be making this a sticker soon!
Wheels on, straight to the car wash!!!
Spent a little time today with Krysti, who’s FINALLY gotten her Turugi Racing Bilbo’s on! They’re awesome, fat tyres and with a little drop (which is coming) this KE55 will be just about done (for now!).
Embargo has been lifted! I’m now allowed to reveal that earlier this year I was flown over to Sweden to play and consult on the new NEED FOR SPEED.
I’ve played the game (in development) and it’s going to be AMAZING. I just kept say “about time!”, especially in regards to car customisation. These in-game grabs should get you pretty excited, and give you an indication of what’s to come.
More about NEED FOR SPEED on Zen Blog!
Visit: http://www.zengarage.com.au/2015/05/all-new-need-for-speed/
At the Toyo Tires visitors carpark which is allllll the way out the back.
This was framed up on the wall in the boardroom. An aerial shot of the Toyo building in Minto. SO HUGE!!!!!
I’ve been a Toyo fan ever since my first set of R888 semi-slicks which I purchased many years ago. I’ve had plenty of sets actually, on various cars (Jazz, MX-5, EG Civic, DC2R, Golf GTI, all of which were daily drivers too). Sure, semi’s aren’t perfect for daily driving duties, they’re noisy and not great in the wet, but this is where the R888 is different to the rest. I find that they warm up DAMN fast on the street. A couple of blocks from home and they’re good to go. I also find them pretty good in the wet (but wet grip gets quite drastically worse as tyres wear out). I also generally just love how fat they look. Fat rubber is where it’s at IMHO. Always has been, always will be. It’s just so tough looking (I hate how weak stretched tyres look).
Anyways, to cut a long story short. I’ve been in discussions with Toyo since putting on a fresh set of R888’s on my GT-R at the end of March. I had my car under their tent at EOMM and got to meet the team. We had a bit of a chat on the night at EOMM. It seems like Toyo has been MIA since they stopped sponsoring the drifting. I’m just really happy that the brand is participating in community related events again.
Today I drove out to their HUGE HQ in Minto for a meeting. I was humbled by some of the discussion we had inside. These guys are pretty hungry to make a comeback, they seem to like what I do, and since I’m already a fan of the brand, sponsorship feels like a really good fit.
So yes! I’m officially sponsored by Toyo. Hopefully I’ll be testing out the new R888R on the GT-R soon and getting more involved with Toyo moving forward. Should be an awesome collaboration. More news and details to come!
Just a bit of an update. It’s all bad news, pretty much!!!! I’m pretty careful with my wheels, but yeahhhhh. This happened. Drivers side. Worst feeling in the world (and yes… I lost sleep!).
Turns out it happened on the wheel which already had some slight rash on it (which was already there when I bought the car).
Jack from Beyond Limit Autos (who built my car at Ramspeed and is now at Advan Performance in Auburn) has my supercharger parts, but before booking Jack in to service my supercharger I had to do a major service with Dedy at Top One Auto. Long story short, but that was meant to be MY NSX! I had already agreed to a price, and was about to book a plane to go get it, but a mate ended up offering the buyer more, so I bought Jose’s Golf instead!
The NSX’s spare, so cool!
First issue. Hood strut is leaking and can’t hold the hood up anymore.
Now onto some serious problems. The vented bonnet lets water in. Water has been building up around the coil packs and they’ve rusted in place so badly that it’s taken the guy over 4 hours to get them out. Worst thing is one is still stuck!!!!!!!!!!!
It gets worse… it’s so rusted up in there that the guys can’t even get a socket in to remove the spark plugs!!!!!!!!!
So, one coil pack is still stuck. Fingers crossed that last one will come out. THEN the guys have to remove the spark plugs. If one of them happens to break on removal I could be in for some serious shit. IE: Engine might have to come out (cylinder head removal).
EDIT: Got a late night call from Dedy at Top One. Great news! All plugs are out! Major service has been done! All good to go! PHEW!
Mockups.
Ved’s taken delivery of his new Caddy (it’s awesome and completely tricked out inside too). He’s asked me to design some S9 graphics for it. I know Ved. The mission was to design something quite large in size, but subtle and easy to live with (as the Caddy is his daily).
I’ve had designs floating around my head for a month now, and the other day (in Ved’s man cave) I decided to finally get my thumb out of my bum and push out some initial concepts. Ved and I are quite happy with a couple of these! I’m off to a good start! Final refined design soon!
