Beer Baron

the driver with the big ears at red bull has a new name.... I have christened him: Sookbastian Ze-tool

so, any more news on what's in the ultimate edition?

well I went out and bought the dick smith deal but got it at JB. just picked the 4 games off the shelf and the xbox and bought a second controller with play through charge kit too. haven't opened it yet but will get in some quality time tonight.

word. anything you need to look at or touch a lot needs the $$, gauges, wheel, seat, knob, belts etc all make you happy when they are nice. and the fact is the cheap shit just wears out. the cheap fake leather $100 wheels last bugger all. as above my first personal grinta has been going for at least 8 years in my possession and a few more before that I'd say and still in good enough shape. $100 wheel lucky to last 1 or 2 years tops, so I'd have gone through maybe 5 or 6 of them in that time.

looks awesome mate. can you tell me (pm if you like) what the full F+R brake kit set you back and what size rotors etc, and what you think of it? they look very nice. should stop beautifully.

lol, sorry neesan... well if you were in sydney I'd say come and try the personal grinta and the KEY!S. both feel great. marlin is pretty jealous of the appearance of my keys wheel I can tell.. mine is the semi-cone or flat type I forget which (I think flat type which does still have a small amount of dish), plain black leather, in your face white stitching! yeah baby. the one thing to bear in mind is the white stitching does get a bit dirty/dull with use. not bad but I can notice it a bit. they are all expensive but the nardis, personals, and KEY!S all feel very nice. it's a pretty tactile part of the car and a shit wheel definitely dampens the enjoyment. spending $400 or so for a good one is worth it imo.

that anandtech review was quite useful. seems like the S model is the way to go.

ok, some interesting points. I've never been persuaded to get one till now but having bought a new house that has 2 living rooms I'd kind of like PS3 in one and the xbox in the other. yeah if the package was about 10% cheaper at $399 or so I don't think I'd hesitate to get it but with the old model now half the price it's a bit tougher to choose.

Ok, I've been a sony/nintendo boy since the 80s and currently have my trust PS3 and Wii. but the other day I was out and about and spied the new X360 S model which has a few little upgraded including built in N wifi (can't believe it didn't ahve wifi to begin with), wireless controller of course, 250gb hard drive and a new case design. Dicks smith at the moment have it for $449 with 4 games (all of which I would like, Halo3, Forza, rainbo 6 and pure football). I think that seems like quite good value. on the other side they have now reduced the price of the old xbox 360 elite to $229! so what if anything should I buy? is it worth $449 for the new model and some good games? or should I buy just the console for $390 at JB hifi? or should I got cheap and buy the old model? any thoughts welcome.

hmm ultimate edition eh? now i'm intrigued. looks like I have to buy a regular CE and an ultimate now.

for the ultimate jap racing bling check out the KEY!S wheels. http://www.cardome.com/keys/op03.shtml I'm rocking one in the 33 GTR atm. it sure is 'out there' but feels great and I am a massive wanker anyway so the little stars stitched into the rim don't bother me... yeah baby. they do have the pedigree. mines one like this. not suede though.

great photos mate. very nice.

yeah the nardi/personal grinta is a lovely wheel. nice thick rim which makes it nice to hold, two nice little bumps at 10 and 2 where you want them and otherwise a simple round wheel with not much dish. I've had about 3 of them now and generally take them from car to car if/when I change cars. oh, and quality wise they are outstanding. the first one I got second hand in 2002 (on a car I bought). it's since been in 2 more GTRs and my silvia drifter and still going strong with just a tiny piece of sticking loose which surprisingly was already loose when I got it in 02 and hasn't gotten any worse! considering how well they last paying a bit extra up front is good value in the long run.

no wonder webber was pissed off. the least horner could have done was tell him to his face and give his bullshit reasons in person. he was probably afraid webber would kick his ass.... still lets hope webber pulls his shit together and keeps on trucking. he's still looking good. I haven't torn up my webber 2010 WDC betting slip just yet! shame they are drastically changing silverstone. it's already lost a bit of character and moving the straight will be even more damaging. the irony is as well the drivers complained that the NEW section is where all the bumps are.

still got a couple sets actually. thought box was one layer deep but it's not... if anyone else is in need by all means pm.

great vid, great driving. sadly in here you'd probably get more views with thread titled, "S14 on circuit" than 'spicey sex' though. too many track boys in here... love the car. so nice to that yet again you don't need AWD and stupid power to go fast. a well balanced RWD car is still the gun package to have on track.

nothing wrong with baggin shielas and smashing tinnies instead of chatting up birds and downing pints.

for anyone after the project Mu wheel nuts I just went through my old bedroom in my parents house the other day cleaning out all my gear and whilst taking inventory discovered I have 2 sets of these brand new in there. these ones: they retail for $400 a set but from memory mine were about $300 (just under $300). will check what I paid, can do them at cost for anyone who needs a set. they are M12X1.25mm so will fit pretty much any nissan on earth including R35s etc. they are without question the best nuts out there. like marlin said on berry's R34 they have been on and off literally hundreds of times (maybe thousands now!) and still going strong. alloy ones are toast after 4 or 5 times on and off. I'll put them up in the for sale section soon but if anyone needs them just pm me. http://www.project-mu.com.au/en/products/o..._nut_racing.php

buying some tickets for the monza gp tomorrow. want to come roy? drive nurburgring in an M3 the week before then drive or train up to Milan for the Monza GP on the sunday. Monday off to Amalfi coast. it would be so cool to see Mark win at Monza. I've never seen the bloke actually win a race in the flesh. Although watching him take 5th place in the minardi in 02 in melbourne will stay with me a long time. schuey won that race but you'd hardly have known it around melbourne (well except for down carlton way - lygon st)...

yep if daily driven 100% avoid suede. it's only suitable for a track car in which you use gloves all the time. you'll get sick of having black hands all the time otherwise and the thing will just wear out super fast. One thing that's important to me is the thickness of the rim itself. too thin feels awful to someone like me with fairly big hands. somewhere around 330 or 340mm feels about right to me in a skyline and if you are tall some dish is a good idea to space it back off your knees and get the wheel nice and close to your body. with big hands the gap to the indicator stalks is not a big deal and the extra knee room is a good thing. brand wise I quite like the nardi's and really like the personal wheels (actually made by nardi too), they have some models which have a nice thick rim. I like the grinta I think it's called in 330mm. I also quite like the kinoshita wheels (KEY!S Racing), great feel but a bit 'out there' style wise with the giant KEY!S RACING logo stitched around the rim.

all spot on mate and like you say scary stuff if webber can't sort things out to some kind of happy resolution and just get on with racing and keep the barbed comments to himself. yeah DC I think has a lot of time for webber in fact most drivers in the paddock seem to respect webber as a great driver and a great sportsman. he was head of the GP drivers assoc. for a long time and has spearheaded a lot of driver reforms and negotiations etc in F1. James Allen was right to draw parallels between this situation and Rubens at Ferrari and DC at Maclaren (both behind hakinen and kimi). as he pointed out though both DC and rubens were clearly shaded by their 'number 1' team mates where as webber vs vettel is pretty much an even fight. if not slightly in webs favour. and he also rightly pointed out that for the most part DC and rubens both just sat back and copped it accepting that that's the way it was and they should be happy enough to be number 2 in the best team. still better than 18 other guys out there. webber clearly is not like that though and having signed on for equal treatment expects to receive equal treatment. it doesn't seem like too much to ask for does it?

agree with that button is great when things are going his way but not good at jumping any hurdles. just like massa he can lead from the front ok, just don't expect him to be able to work to get there... yes just when you think he's reached the absolute pinnacle of gayness he reaches new heights... yes sadly it's quite obvious RBR management have webber earmarked as their number 2 driver behind ze-tool. I'm very pleased he is not taking it lying down. clearly he has always thought and been told that there really is no team order and clearly he believed it as this is the first real display of strong favouritism and straight away he's come out and said if he knew the team would behave like this he would not have renewed his contract. he does need to tread a bit carefully with what he says though as he wouldn't want to suddenly find himself out on his arse or even worse stuck in a team that cut him off from the good development. he did a fantastic job and it could not have come at a better time for him. if ever there was a weekend he needed to smash ze-tool this was it. even better was the fact that it was hamilton who took ze-tool out and not webber. and in fact if anything it was ze-tool squeezing webber up against the wall, not webber pushing zetool. by the time they got to T1 webber was clearly ahead and had every right to stick to the racing line and run it out to the edge of the track. zetool was on drugs if he thought he'd be able to stick there on the outside against another RBR, especially one piloted by a bloke who's grass he's cut many a weekend in the past. webber's call about 'not bad for a number 2' was pretty pointed. he really was on a mission this weekend and looked furious at having his wing physically taken off his car and given to zetool after zetool had damaged his. it's very simple, they had 2 wings which should have been 1 per car. after zetool damaged his that should have been bad luck end of story. or like James Allen suggested he should have just left both cars to run the old wing. They are 1 second a lap up on the next closest team after all and the new wing is at best 1/10th better than the old one. all it did was divide the team and make them look bad to the public. there was no need to create all this drama just to gain a poofteenth of a second for one half of the team. the reasoning was piss-weak and very transparent too. one of the best bits of the whole thing was the audible cheer from the crowd as webber led the race one lap 1 with zetool getting taken out. clearly webber is popular amongst the fans and I doubt many of them have any sympathy for zetool (outside of germany that is). anyway, GO WEBBER!! I again put some cash on webs pre-qualy hoping he could qualify and race well and he paid me back in spades. thanks mate. I very nearly put some dough on button for a podium as he was 16:1 for a podium after qualifying. very glad I didn't as I would have spewed at him getting 4th!

that is a good way to go for what you want. but personally I'd try and sort your problem before changing stuff. as you'd hate to carry it over to a new set-up. there is something fundamentally wrong for it to be handling as evil as you say it is.

good stuff. they make a good track car. I've driven and worked on/built a few 80s alfa's over the years. including some GTV 2l and GTV6 models. they have good balance with the rear mounted transaxle and have some other cool features too like inboard brakes. I would suggest building it to a class as there is lots of cheap door to door racing to be had in various historic classes. but if you just want a track monster for fun then go ahead. I have raced a Group NC alfa in nsw historic touring cars and it's great. makes over 200hp from it's 2l engine running 50mm carbs, big cams, carrillo rods, etc. they are great cars but full of rust. I read your first posts about "not much rust" and thought to myself.... just wait till you start taking it apart. sure enough, rust everywhere. comes with the territory but not too bad if you get on top of it quickly.

not a bad little shed that one. big mac PR working overtime!