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.

Happy Holidays!

BMW E36 M3

My new little project car/daily driver/track car. A 1997 BMW M3. I love the look of this era of BMW. The lines are classic and subtly aggressive. A real motorsports feel to me, probably due to the success of the cars in a golden era of racing.

It's a great driving car, a wonderful mix of rawness and refinement. I love it! Every day a new rattle it seems, and some part is likely need some work at any time, but that's all part of the experience. As I think I heard someone describe them, they're durable but not reliable. I don't mind working on a car, it makes it feel like it's mine then.

And this thing has been super fun in the short time I've had it. My favourite part is the front end, it just looks so right. They nailed the design, blunt, faceted, low, simple and aggressive, with class. Not trying so hard like so many cars today.

I've fixed and replaced a few key parts, like the steering wheel, shifter, and a whole lot of worn out stuff, and there's lots more coming. But the car is overall in great condition, it's really tidy. Feels tight, and I've got rid of all but one little rattle. The steering is fantastic, absolutely no dead play, and although a bit slow for my taste, it's communicative and rewarding.

So lucky to have some epic roads to drive and locations to shoot in just minutes from my place. And you just can't beat that LA weather!

Got a few track days and autocross and stuff coming up. Can't wait! Also looking forward to doing little (and sometimes big) stuff to the car to get it tidier and give it more performance. Good fun!

F1 in Austin

Just got back from an awesome weekend in Austin, Texas, checking out the F1 and a little bit of the city. The event was fantastic, incredibly well run, and a real treat to experience.

Great to finally see the current pinnacle of motorsports machines in action. The air whooshing over the body at the end of the straights was awesome. Hard not to wish they still had screaming deafening naturally aspirated engines...    That must have been something to behold! The turbo motors make some cool noises too though.

I had the pleasure to meet and have a chat with Lewis Hamilton recently. Great dude with a fierce handshake, and he dug my F132 concept. Hit me up if you want to make it a reality bro! ha ha

F1 cars are amazing. Endless details to take in.

Same goes for the crowd.

There were a couple other races on over the weekend too, including a Porsche cup race.

And the awesome 70s historic cars I had seen at Laguna Seca. Love em!

Such a great event. Easily the best run and most impressive car event I've attended. And it needs to be, apparently there were about 270,000 people there!

'Murica!

I was a little disappointed that there wasn't a big display of F1 cars and supercars at the track, but having three of these beasts and a couple of Chinooks fly right overhead made up for it!

Great weekend!

F132 V-Max update

A new look and a new logo for the V-MAX variant of my F132 concept. Fighter jet inspired colour scheme with the white underbelly gives a nice land-shark feeling.

FD Irwindale

A few pics from a great day at Formula Drift Irwindale. My first time seeing a major drift event in the US, loved it!

Seeing the cars close up, flying past, roaring, smoke billowing out and showering you with tire pieces, skimming the wall, it's intense.

Here's Ken Gushi hitting the wall pretty hard.

Mad Mike's MX-5 is such a wicked looking little beast.

My two favourite cars at the event.

There were some rad cars in the display area too.