Motors and Me

Was back at Teamsport in Newcastle again last night, this time with a couple of colleagues and... wooo! Got my first win. 🏆 If I'm honest, that was largely down to the fact there were no ringers there. In fact, I did a good job of looking like the only ringer, being the only person with an avatar next to their name on the timing charts (meaning I was keen enough to have the Teamsport app and set up my profile). Even so, I didn't have it all my own way. I may have got the fastest lap in session #1, but I was pipped in session #2. Add to that the fact that I was over a second slower than my previous visit and it doesn't sound that awesome. But a win's a win; I'll take it. 🙂 Looking at the above results for the second session, it's not clear why I say I was "pipped" in that session. Thing is, some of the other people were taking so long to come back to the karts for this session that I was switched into a kart nearer the pitlane ...

As mentioned at the end of the previous post, I took Teamsport up on their £18 Race Again offer after my last time there. For 30 minutes on track, I'm still impressed at that value. Anyway, this time I could muster only  one of my nephews as a companion/rival, despite the fact that two of them plus a brother-in-law had bought the same vouchers. Still, he's a good nephew with a keen interest in — and desire to work in — Formula 1, so all's good. This time out, there seemed to be more of a mix of abilities on track. That was pretty clear as soon as we got out of the pits and some people instantly ignored the yellow lights (used to test whether you'd been paying attention to the briefing), just shooting past everyone. 🙄 Cue those yellow lights turning to red and them getting a quiet word in their ears. Later on, those same people turned out to be mobile chicanes, lapping nearly 10 seconds off the pace. Once we actually got up and running, it was clear that the track ha...

Crazy, isn't it? One minute, you're a not-long-married 30-something musing about the inevitability of having to sell your fancy sports car (the 350Z). Then, in the very next blog post, you're a late 40-something dad driving a 1.0-litre Focus, composing a blog post about a rare karting session while your 9yo daughter does gymnastics. Let's hit rewind for some very motoring-skewed notable events of the past 10 years: Sold the 350Z not long after the last big post for... £5000, IIRC.  Focus nearly died (timing belt) on a drive to Edinburgh airport (we still caught the plane after leaving the car behind) First daughter born in 2013 Focus eventually died on a local dual carriageway (no personal trauma involved) Replaced Focus with a diesel Renault Laguna mk3... and grew to hate it Second daughter born in 2016 Eventually replaced the Laguna after 6 or 7 years of joyless motoring with another Focus; mk3 this time Not a single trackday in the last 10 years Occasional track ...

Last time I wrote something here, I was about to go karting and was getting all het up about wanting to win, despite it not being particularly good etiquette. At least, not in my head. Embarrassingly, it turns out that Dave, the lad who'd invited me along, saw the post, so was well aware of my... somewhat emotional diatribe. Oh dear. Thankfully, he didn't call me an idiot, even though he probably should've done. In the end, I actually did win, although my embarrassment at having been caught being rather arrogant did take the shine off it a little. Still, my wife and mum got to see me in my element, which was nice. (My mum was only there as it was the anniversary of my dad's death and I didn't want her sat at home alone. I'm pretty sure my dad would've hated the idea of anyone spending the day moping too, so it felt good to be getting on, enjoying life. It is, as they say, what he would've wanted.) And that's us caught up to February last year. Sinc...

So, yes, I was karting last Thursday... and I won. Mid-life crisis resolved. Kinda. I got pole, the win, and the fastest lap by a second or more. But by god, it was hard work. And my fastest lap was about 3 seconds slower than my previous fastest on that circuit. Three seconds! I don't know how much of that was down to the karts being different (completely different models since I got my fastest laps) or how much the cold circuit affected it, but I hardly feel like I performed anything like as well as I used to. Rather reminiscent of my last trackday , in fact. It just goes to show, this stuff takes practice. I've not been practising and, naturally, the speed and the skill have gone. On the up-side, I went to this event with both my wife and my mother in tow: probably not so cool, but was really nice to have them along. My mum especially, as it was the anniversary of my dad's death and it's just nice to think my parents were represented. One time, many years ago, I ev...

A lot has happened since my last post, back in August 2009. God! August 2009! That's 2½ years ago. Anyway, in that time, I've gone from having a girlfriend to having a fianceé and now a wife . :) Said wife has also started learning to drive, which has required the purchase of a slightly more sensible car: a 5-door, 10-year-old Ford Focus. That said, the 350Z remains in the garage. So, in short, I've grown up, but am still clinging the last vestiges of boyracerdom. ;) Another thing, pertinent to this blog, that's happened in the past few years is that I've almost completely stopped doing trackdays. The last trackday I did in my own car was February 28th 2009; just under 3 years ago. And I was dreadful. The last track experience I did was a second Palmersport day, in August 2010. Since then, nothing. Well, except for a charity karting event, which hardly counts. All of this has left me feeling pretty flat about my own motoring/motorsport. The presence of the Foc...

Funny how songs can bring back specific memories so vividly. Here I am, sat at my computer, and I put on OK Computer by Radiohead. Airbag kicks into life and I'm instantly transported back to 1998, designing my first track using the Grand Prix 2 Track Editor . Based on the Estoril circuit — as nearly all early tracks were, thanks to its simple pitlane layout — it swept down and to the right from the start/finish straight. The opening bars of Airbag often accompanied this stretch as I popped in a CD before starting play-testing. That first corner will forever be strongly connected with Radiohead for me, which is no bad thing. I loved creating tracks and I still love OK Computer. The track, I believe, was called Cheviot, named after the hill in Northumberland . This was a highly apt name, as I completely misunderstood the editor's height settings. What I thought was a change in absolute height was actually a gradient change. Consequently, when I tried to make a slight h...

A little over 18 months ago, I paid £15,650 for my (then) 4-year old 350Z. Judging by the classifieds on Pistonheads, I'd now be lucky to get £10k for it. Eeek! Mind, when I first drafted this post back in early April, it was even worse. Some cars of the same age were going for just £8k. Had I sold at that point, I'd have lost almost 50% of the car's value in a little over 15 months. I've never known anything like that sort of depreciation. Maybe for a brand-new car, but not one that's meant to be past its initial rapid depreciation period. It's not even as if I paid over the odds at the time. Still, it's not worth getting upset about and the market appears to be coming back, albeit slowly. And the launch of the 370Z will doubtless be accounting for part of the value lost in the 350Z. All in all, I'm taking the decision to ride out the worst of the recession before I start looking properly for car #5. Now to get the various mechanical niggles fixed.....

Am I prescient or what? Manager says Kubica now on the market Kubica, who has been with the team since the 2006 season, had a contract with BMW until the end of 2010, but the team's exit has left the Pole's future in an uncertain position. However, his manager Daniele Morelli made it clear that Kubica is now open to offers. Good luck to the lanky Pole. If it weren't for Massa's quick recovery from the spring incident , I'd have said Kubica was an obvious choice for the Ferrari seat, but I'm no longer sure he's going to be needed. Pity.

My heart goes out to Robert Kubica. This time last year, he was fighting for the F1 world title. At one stage, he even led the championship . Things were going brilliantly for him, he was driving well and people were saying some very good things about him. Fast forward to 2009 and where is he? Nowhere. Where's the press coverage and hype about his talents? Nowhere. It's as if he's fallen off the face of the planet. What went wrong? From what I've read, halfway through the 2008 season, BMW decided to shift their development efforts to the 2009 car, despite the success they were enjoying in 2008. The effect of this was that their 2008 season quietly tailed off, taking their #1 driver from championship leader to frustrated also-ran. If I were Kubica, I would've been mad as all hell. What makes it even worse is that, while Honda adopted the same approach and built a pretty awesome car for 2009, BMW completely failed to capitalise on their long development time for...

Slightly random post, but I struggle to think of more than a handful of cars that look good from behind. This thought struck me today as I walked behind one of the few that does look pretty good, in my opinion: the new Ford Kuga . But what other cars have a nice arse? And are pretty much universally thought to look as good from behind as they do up front? Here are my own personal preferences, with links to supporting evidence: BMW Z4 (1st-generation soft-top) Perfectly sculpted, just like the rest of the car and works better as a soft-top than as the coupé Lotus Elise (2nd-generation) Small, but perfectly formed and just as unconventional as the rest of the car. Ford Fiesta ST (MK5) Another car that is all-round perfectly formed. Nothing too showy, but perfectly proportioned, with the rear tying in nicely with the overall design Ford Racing Puma (with F2 spoiler) Bit of a cheeky inclusion, this, as the spoiler's non-standard, but with it in place, the car's a pe...

In the PalmerSport brochure, this event is described as "A driving day like no other". Having just experienced it, I cannot agree more. Un-chuffing-believable. Our day, organised through the excellent Pistonheads website, started at an ungodly 8am. Registration was quickly over and we were all assigned randomly to a 'team' for the day: Senna; Schumacher; and my team, Piquet. This was basically just to split us up into groups that could use different areas of the facility concurrently. The upshot of it is that the order in which you drove the various cars was equally random. I got lucky; my day finished with the most awesome drives available. More of that in a bit. :) First for Team Piquet, it was the Caterhams on the tight and twisty East Circuit. Sadly, I didn't realise just how cramped the pedals would be and I struggled to change gear while braking. The sun strip on my visor was also so low I couldn't see more than a few yards in front of the car. Add t...

Long time, no trackday. Two years, in fact. Mortgages suck. This was my first time on track in the 350Z and, while it was enjoyable, it might end up being the last time too. The car's just too heavy. While it made an admirable fist of changing direction when asked, it didn't take long to overheat its brakes, resulting in most runs being curtailed long before I felt I'd pushed it enough. Same old story, eh? Even with upgraded pads with which other users had reported a complete absence of fade. Am I just too aggressive? I don't think so; braking's where you make up most time and where you feel you're really racing. Why lose the fun? That aside, my lack of recent track experience, coupled with my sedate, petrol-saving everyday driving, saw me making loads of mistakes. I suspect it was largely down to me not sighting the track far enough ahead. The lack of discipline in my lines was appalling. Frankly, I was all over the place. My positioning approaching corners...

A few weeks back, I went out for my first (and so far only) drive for pleasure in the Zed. Unfortunately, I had a passenger, so it was mostly pretty sedate. On the way home, however, I turned onto a stretch of road I don't think I've used before and it was... spectacular. Not for the views, but for the sheer rollercoastery nature of it. The road in question is the B6320 between Bellingham and Otterburn is frickin' awesome. Actually, I can only vouch for a small part of that, as I joined it coming off the Greenhaugh road and most of the fun was over by the time we reached the A68. Still, what a fabulous couple of miles of tarmac.

How hard can it be? Get twenty-odd people to drive cars round a single-lane track together, maintaining a constant speed. And yet, even in this simple environment, they still manage to create traffic jams. I'm sure it's no complete solution, but really... come on... just keep your bloody foot off the brake pedal! Stop panicking people behind into making their own over-reactions. This, perhaps, is the one issue on which I actually agree with Clarkson — people who the brake on the motorway when no-one ahead of them is braking should be shot. Still, it's a brilliant little experiment. I look forward to seeing what solutions the researchers propose.

Sometime last year, a new channel called Dave launched on Freeview. It's aimed squarely at blokes like me and, from the off, it's been showing re-runs of the entirety of new-generation Top Gear. Not just TG, obviously, but quite a lot of it. Recently, however, it's kicked into motorsport overdrive with the addition of WRC and a quality little show called GT Racer. When I first caught GT Racer, I was really unimpressed. In hindsight, I think I just misunderstood it. Although it follows various historic race series across Europe and the States, it's more in the mold of a fly-on-the-wall documentary than a WRC-style sports highlights programme. There's absolutely no narration, the interviews with competitors and mechanics are entirely one-sided (you never hear or see the interviewer or his/her questions), and the racing highlights have a distinctly cheap-sounding, techno soundtrack. Actually, I've read somewhere that it's Kraftwerk, but it makes the whole t...

Wow, it's been nearly a month since the previous post. Didn't realise I'd let it slide that long. So... what gives in the world of the Zed? Well, I'm still driving it really gently. At least, I am on the commute. And I'm still getting 25mpg out of it — when I don't spend a week on the bus, that is. Sounds depressing, doesn't it? Well, it is a bit. But, on the up-side, I reckon I'm almost going to halve my monthly fuel costs by the end of the second month of ownership. The first month cost about £260 in fuel. This month, I'm looking at a projected £150. That includes a week and a half of commuting by bus, which has the positive side effect of getting me some exercise (3-4 miles walking each day). I'm also cutting costs elsewhere quite successfully too (no more lattes for me!). With any luck, once I've spent enough time evaluating my cash flow, I should be able to get back to hooning with a relatively clear (financial) conscience. More than t...

Ever since I picked up the Zed, I’ve been closely monitoring my fuel consumption. This is the first time I’ve had a car with a trip computer and it’s an evil mistress. I can’t tear myself away from the damned fuel consumption read-out and it’s making me drive like someone’s grandma. Or rather, the figures coming out of it are doing so: Motorway cruising: 34mpg Weekday commute: 25mpg Weekend socialising: 19mpg And, other than the weekend stats, those figures are all weighted by me driving as gently as possible. It’s eye-watering stuff. And driving like a granny isn’t what I bought the car for. Combining this with my blatant disregard for the cost of tyres and brakes, and with the mortgage I acquired last year, I’m finally having to keep a careful eye on my bank balance. For the first time in my life, I’m no longer in the comfortable position of being able to save money without even trying. This year may well see the f...

For the past couple of weeks, a pile of receipts has been sat next to my computer, representing pretty much all I have left after 5 years of Mini ownership. I’ve even still got the original specification sheet and receipt. Hard to comprehend just how much of my life these things cover. Five years. Christ, I was a different person five years ago. I was still in my twenties for a start... But that’s enough of the melancholic introspection. This post is meant to celebrate my not-so-Mini adventure, replete with blog-based flashbacks. While I’ll probably never look back on it as fondly as I do the Puma — first loves and all that — the Mini was a very capable, very special car. For starters, it was the first (and so far only) car I’ve taken out on track. Flashback: before my first trip to Croft Flashback: report written after the event Actually, it turns out that many of my fondest memories of the Mini are associated with trackdays. Perhaps not that su...

3 weeks in, and I’m still trying to get my head round what’s taking me so long to get used to the Zed. One thing I didn’t mention in my last post was the gearbox. This, really, has been the biggest cause of stress so far, as hinted at earlier . The change into 2nd, especially changing down from 3rd, is awkward to say the least. There are times I end up coasting for seconds at a time, just trying to get the damned lever home. It’s worse with a cold engine and with cold weather, but even when warmed up, it’s still not the slickest shift. It’s been such a concern, in fact, that I’ve twice had a local 350Z specialist check it out (more on them in a later post). The first time, the guy just checked the car out while stationary and pronounced it to be typical of Zeds. Thing is, the gate feels completely different when on the move compared to standing still. Standing still, it’s as slick as you like, but if you’re even trickling, it get t...