Category Archives: Cars

Spotted: Easton Chang!

Sounded so tough.

The Crew.

Black Series.

Never been a fan of cruises (because something usually goes wrong!) but went to an Exotics Cruise last week. Some amazing metal showed up. Heaps of C63’s, heaps of money!!!

My 911 dream is officially on hold, for now. The deal breaker? I was chatting to Carby (from Deus) and at some point in the conversation he suggested that having a garage for a 911 is pretty much a prerequisite.

I wholeheartedly agree.

I love love love the house I’m living in. And in the past I’ve thought about moving out to a place with at least a double car garage (a 7 car garage would be ideal!). I’ve even looked into pinning up the house and carving away at the sandstone to get a larger garage under my house, it’s a no go.

So for now, the dream is on pause. I’ve already bought a car (impulsive much?) and I take ownership of it next Saturday. It’s German, and a compromise… but in a good way! More news soon.

Miles isn’t so sure about the new Mazda 6.

The showroom (what’s that MX-5 smiling about huh?!).

Really liking the new taillights.

The workshop, very clean and tidy.

My sister bought a new car yesterday. They were set on a Mazda CX-5 2.5 (not quite released just yet) and they’d done a bit of bargaining down but thought they’d bring out the big guns (Mum and I!) to try and lowball the stealers down even further.

Was hard to do as the car has had great reviews, the 2.5 isn’t even available at dealerships yet and a dealer seeing a whole family hop out of a car knows we were there to purchase.

Mum’s awesome an low balling. I came in from a different automotive angle, catching the dealer out in regards to servicing fees, tinting, matts etc. In the end we did AOK not exactly what we wanted it for, but only $500 off the mark!

Had the day off yesterday so instead of cleaning up the house, doing the washing and doing the groceries I dropped in to see Indy at IS Motor Racing. I drove the GT-R to see if we could get the pesky power steering fluid leak fixed up once and for all, he was happy for me to leave it with him. Fingers crossed it’ll be ready for the private track day coming up next month!

Not smiling, at all.

Today I got to drive a manual 997. I’d semi-recently driven Sam’s old school 911 SC and it’s been years since I drove Howie’s 997 (with PDK gearbox) so despite the rainy conditions I was pretty excited to get in for more 911 time.

Love how you have to pull the door handle up to open the doors. Very cool. I instantly noticed the left of centre pedals again, not as pronounced as Sam’s 911 SC but still noticeable. Clutch in to turn the car on, clutch is very light. Reverse is left of 1st gear. Very strange.

We were away and I instantly liked the steering wheel. Nice size, perfect thickness. Steering is as light as a Honda Jazz and offered no feel at all in comparison to Sam’s car, but like Sam’s car it had a lot of grunt in first and nothing much in 2nd. Maybe it was traction control, or the soft clutch, or the mode the car was in (?) but grabbing 2nd from high revs felt really disappointing. Like there was no urgency and a big loss of revs, almost as if the ECU was kicking in to make everything smoother.

I did notice the traction control lights kick in one time and had I been in Sam’s car I wouldn’t ever have driven anywhere near as spiritedly in wet conditions, but that’s what I found really annoying about this car. It’s so quiet and the suspension is so soft. I felt totally detached from it, like driving a Honda Jazz. It’s just too easy to drive. I failed to see what was so 911 about it.

The shifter was awesome though, however I remember Howie’s PDK 997 being way more aggressive in that the loud pedal felt directly connected to the engine and the PDK car had a feeling of endless torque and tones of response.

All in all it was an essential drive which made me realise that a 996 (which I can afford, the 997 being at least $80k 2nd hand) is just not for me. And whilst Sam’s car might be too demanding for daily duties (I still think the non-power steering is going to get to me) the 964 with assisted steering and ABS brakes sounds like it could potentially be the perfect match for me.

50 years apart.

I’ve had 911 on the brain a lot lately. A 911 featured in my article on 10 cars to own before you die, and driving Sam’s 911 last month pushed me over the limit (I put my EVO IX up for sale that night and sold it a few days later!).

Turns out the hunt for a classic isn’t as easy as I thought it would be and it’s looking like I’ve sold the EVO way too soon. Kevin San (aka Babalouie) has been a true champ in helping me find the right car. That’s a car which has had a lot of mechanical work done so that I don’t have to fork out $25k+ on getting it working nice straight off the bat. Whilst the mission was a 964 for years I’ve fallen in love with the shape of the previous model 911 but I have my doubts about whether or not I could live with no power steering on a daily basis, that and the expensive upkeep on these older cars.

At some point a week or so ago I gave up (it’s all just too hard!) and made a serious offer on an NSX (manual, 70,000kms!). The buyer accepted my offer and I had booked in an inspection. A few days later he called to say someone outbid me by $2k. I wasn’t about to play that game so I let it go (turns out it sold to a guy I know through Zi at JDMyard!).

I’ve since been on car sales every single day. Morning, noon and night. I’ve looked at everything from Lotus Elises to BMW Z4’s to M3’s to Honda Jazzes (would be my 4th!) but it’s images like the one above that make me realise just how much I want a 911 and also how much more I love the old stuff better than the new stuff. The hunt continues!

Off she goes. So the boys were off on a 10hr road trip back home. New owner stalled it twice up the hill, not surprising as the clutch in the EVO was pretty hard. He’ll get used to it in no time.

On Sunday I put the EVO up on carsales. I got a call later that night from a guy who was interested in the car. He asked a lot of questions, all of which I’d already answered in the advertisement. He didn’t sound too smart and was super keen to see it on the next day (was a public holiday). I had a bad vibe about the guy. Not only that he was most probably a time waster, but also that he, and the mate he was bringing, were going to roll me for the car (because EVO). But what can you say? I said OK and met him the next day.

I met him at the beach to be safe and it turns out he was a young kid and his mate he brought along was his Dad who spoke little English. It was pouring (not the best weather to be checking out a car!), we drove to the local mall to find some cover so they could check out the car. His Dad offered $30k (I was asking $32) and I outright refused. He asked for a few hours to think about it. I let him have the night to sleep on it.

I called him the morning after and nope, he wasn’t keen on the car, all good as I had another guy lined up; late Sunday night I also got an SMS from a guy in Victoria who also offered $30k. I refused, but he then messaged back accepting $32k, sight unseen as his mates are apparently on JDMST and trust me/the car.

He flew in yesterday morning. Brought a couple of mates with him, one of which was a Cop! We drove straight to the bank. He’s with Westpac, so am I so the cash just went right in (so easy and fast it was kinda freaky). On the way back to mine to fill out the paperwork I got to gun the EVO for the last time, pretty strange when you’ve got a Cop in your back seat haha.

Sergio came around to pick me up, and at that moment I got an SMS from Howie (who owns a 997 911) who told me to get to his local dealership as the guy who sold him his 911 has a 993 for sale. I replied that there was no way I could afford a 993, he replied that the 993 this guy was selling was well within my budget so Serg and I drove direct to the dealership.

After perving on a few GT3 RS’s (still a dream) we met the guy who was selling the car (lucky as he was on holidays but just happened to be in that day). Turns out it’s a late 70’s 911, not a 993 (duh Howie!), but hey that’s what I was after anyways! He was selling it cheap too, reducing $10k off the asking price. I started to think this was more like it, in that it’s more about fate, but alas I don’t think it’s the right car for me.

I’ve got the best guy looking after my purchase. Babs who’s been super helpful. You can read up on his advice (on my 911 carsales selections) here.

Like… fwoar!

Perfection: 9.5 wide CE28′s in an aggressive +22 offset.

Lexan windows, carbon doors!

Engine bay is all business.

All business inside the cockpit too.

The boys also had this amazing EVO 1 race car.

Amazing.

Then we spotted this thing! A genuine Tommy Kaira R32 GT-R. Such a shame it’s missing the Tommy Kaira wheels it came with in Japan.

That front bar.

Original strut brace.

And compliance plate.

Joe from Xtreme Motorsports called to say he had something very special just land from Japan. Sergio and I thought we’d drop in to take a look. Turns out it was a time attack EVO 5 and it blew our socks off. The EVO 1 race car did too, and the Tommy Kaira R32 GT-R was such a treat to see in real life, having only seen in in Japanese GT-R Magazines over the years.