Category Archives: Cars

Oh dem Porsches.

Ultimate Whale Tail!

A bygone era.

This BMW took the cake.

SUGA – eating grass.

Stanced MKI.

Clean MKI.

Loved this K1.

Fat C 63.

Simmons Wheels, still love them.

Trophies.

It’s impossible to get to sleep at 8PM. I tried, and failed. Still managed to somehow get up at 3.30AM though and make the drive to Canberra for German Autofest. Had a great day despite feeling like I was overdosing on caffeine. Got home in a hurry, luckily I didn’t get done speeding, but driving at 110km/hr would have just sent me to bed.

Heaps more pics here and I’ve also written up a feature for Zen Garage. Visit: http://zengarage.com.au/2011/09/19/german-autofest-2011

911 – she’ll be mine, one day.

With the help of the JDMST, VWG and Cars Move Us community I’ve put together a bucket list of 10 semi-affordable must have cars to own before you die. I’m pretty happy with how the list turned out. I’d definitely have included a Lotus Elise, or Exige though. Maybe even an open wheeler like a Caterham too.

In putting together the list I was reminded of all the cars I’ve owned and modified:
– Toyota Celica
– ALFA 147
– AE86 Levin GTV
– MX5 NA Clubman
– MR2 ZW30
– BMW 318 E46
– EF Civic B16A
– EG Civic x 2
– DC5 Integra Type-R
– DC2 Integra Type-R
– Kia Sentra (bahahaha).
– Evo 6.5 TME
– Honda Jazz x 3 (one with K20A swap)
– S2000
– Nissan Skyline V35
– Golf MKV GTI
– R32 GT-R

That’s 20 cars. Pretty crazy huh? Looks like I’ve settled on the Golf GTI though. Stuck on it actually, it’s such a great little all-rounder.

Visit: http://zengarage.com.au/2011/09/12/10-cars-to-own-before-you-die

143.4KW at all 4’s.

Awesome day out today at the Sydney VW/Audi (VAG!) Dyno Day in Revesby. My full write-up on the day can be found at Zen Garage.

The car that got away.

A few days ago I put a bid down on a BMW E36 318is (that lowercase “s” makes all the difference) on eBay. Not that I need a 3rd car but it was one of those spare of the moment, late at night, red wine and internet moments!

I’ve never bought a car off eBay before but in this case I doubt the seller had ever sold a car on eBay before! Her listing was awesome (view it here), you could read her frustration. Poor lady must have been hammered with stupid questions, low ball offers and hate mail!

I was winning the auction until someone sniped me last minute and beat me by a measly $50. I was pretty devastated for some reason! At $4k I would happily have paid $5k for the car.

This morning I’m still feeling shitty about it. An E36 might still be on the cards, would make a nice project car for Zen Garage I think. Lovely lines, always have loved the shape more than the ‘little too boxy’ E30’s or the ‘tubby’ E46’s.

As much as I love collecting stickers I hate sticking them on anything. When I do stick a sticker on a car I end up hating it, then ripping it off soon after. I figure under the bonnet is a good out of sight, out of mind way to represent!

So many awesome things in the mail this week!

Before we settled on the name “Zen Garage” we had registered “Us vs Them” only to find out that the name was already being used in the US as an automotive/lifestyle fashion brand. It’s almost impossible to get .com domain names these days, everything is taken, most of it’s parked too which adds insult to injury.

After a quick google search it turns out Zen Garage was also taken. Len Higa from Oni motorworks, along with Giant Robot magazine had a show at the Japanese American National Museum in December last year. The show featured the SUPER FAMICOM CAR, a retro video game-inspired converted Scion xB utilizes projectors from both the front and rear to play video games. DAVID CHOE’S CUSTOM MONSTER SCION xB and SHINYA KIMURA’S SPIKE motorcycle.

Not wanting to start Zen Garage on a negative I thought I’d send Len an email, stating that we were about to launch a new business called “Zen Garage”. I suppose I was looking for his blessings? The next day I got an email from Len, who was excited, positive and more than happy to give us his blessings! The guy is a champ, he’s even sent me a Zen Garage T-Shirt (Len did the insanely awesome tyre/enso illustration), one of the remaining few left over from the show which ended last January.

Showdown in Homebush.

As a moderator of a forum I try my best to sit in the middle (when I voice an opinion I usually get hammered). My job is to try and keep the peace.

Today Christina and I had a meeting with a kid (he’s 17) who’s turned one of our forums upside down. We banned him for 3 months but his ban has expired and now he’s back on the forums. Everything was AOK for a little while, but a recent outbreak has us back at square one.

It’s hard to stop this kid from posting silly things (we were all kids once right?) but it’s just as hard to stop long standing members from bullying him for posting silly things.

It was crazy hard for us to meet him, and his mother (he’s on his L’s so had to have here there to supervise his driving) and lay it all on the line for him. We told his mum about the bullying (damn was he embarrassed). As awkward as it was, we got it all out, offered some constructive suggestions and now we’ve just got to hope things change for the better.

Photo by J_Hui.

JDMST sponsored a dyno day out at Dee Why yesterday. Sun was out, vibe was great and there were some pretty hardcore cars there too. More words, and pictures on Zen Garage (I’m loving the extra effort I’ve been putting into writing for Zen Garage!). Visit: http://zengarage.com.au/2011/08/29/all-about-stance-dyno-day-2011