Monterey Machines

Car week in Monterey has to be the automotive highlight of California every year. The most incredible machines spread around a stunning coastal area, from vintage race cars screaming around Laguna Seca, to ungodly amounts of supercars overrunning Monterey and Carmel, to the worlds finest vintage dream machines on the 18th hole of the magnificent Pebble Beach. If you're into cars, it doesn't get any better!

This year at Pebble Beach Concours Ferrari celebrated 70 years. Needless to say, there were a lot of epic machines from Maranello.

As always the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion at Laguna Seca was a spectacle to behold! Legendary race cars from the most iconic race series throughout history speeding around this amazing track is such a treat.

This drivetrain from the upcoming Mercedes AMG Project One hypercar stopped me in my tracks for an hour. Mindblowing.

Car week is an epic time! If you're ever able to make it I highly recommend checking it out. The location is stunning, walking around the gorgeous town of Carmel with all sorts of wild cars around is surreal. There's auctions in Monterey where you watch Ferrari's going for millions of dollars, and streets are filled with low riders, hot rods, and hypercars. And there's plenty more events there that I haven't even checked out yet! Looking forward to next year...

M3 memories

 
It's been a while since I've updated this website, so here's a few recent images of the E36 M3. Car life here in LA has been amazing as always, but work has meant my barracuda has been sitting waiting for free time to get it tip top for the street. I'm having a bunch of issues with it that I never had back in NZ, which has been rather frustrating, and I just don't have the time right now to address them. The M3 hasn't exactly been reliable either, with a series of issues popping up one after the other. But when it's good it's great, such a wonderful car to enjoy on the amazing canyon roads nearby.

 

E36 M3 LTW WIP

Love how this shot turned out! So moody. I just installed a reproduction LTW spoiler on a spare trunk lid. I added a plug to the wiring loom so I can easily swap trunks, to go from subtle to full boy racer. Looking forward to seeing how it looks once I've painted the new bits body colour.

E36 M3 Joy

Recently had perhaps the best drive of my life thanks to this machine. I put Vorshlag camber plates in the front, got a performance alignment, put on the lightweight Kosei wheels with Toyo R888 rubber, and headed up and down the Santa Monica mountains on my favourite roads. The car felt amazing. It's got loads more grip now, steers beautifully, and the 50:50 weight balance is shining through.

I can see why it was voted the best handling car in 1997, the same year mine was made. It won over the likes of 911's, Viper's, Corvette's, Ferrari's, NSX, etc. Quite impressive, and a testament to what the BMW engineers achieved with this car. I love it. I never really paid them much attention when I was younger, preferring to lust after more exotic machinery, but I'm a fan of them now!

Naturally when I got back to my apartment after the long drive the diff bushings gave way and now the car is thumping like crazy. So it's time to refresh the whole rear end and look forward to the next time I can get it back into the hills.

California dreaming...

In California dreaming of the South Coast of Wellington that is. Soon I'll be able to make some coastal memories here in LA. For now, here's a memory from one of many beautiful drives along Wellington's epic coastline.

F132 John Player Special

Who doesn't love the classic John Player Special livery? So classy. Always wanted to see my F132 concept in the classic scheme, so here it is in all it's 70's glory.