GT3 party at Brands Hatch

Soon I will see. Porsche are asking me to spec the car – so far I’m thinking white, zenons, PCM, carbon buckets, club sport and sport chrono.

Geneva 2006

Geneva, Switzerland

Blowdog returns to a semblance of normality

550 was sold today – but not without blood and sweat. It was a beautiful car and it really was a fine specimen. It deserved infinitely more attention than it received, but the market is well and truly dead. For those looking at buying an exotic car, beware.
The car’s gone, but not without some parting words.

550 at Silverstone

Enjoyed a great day at Silverstone with the 550 today.

Performance on circuit…hmm.

How the other half live….

Was very happy to be invited to a gala black tie event at Graypaul Ferrari in Nottingham. Celebrity D-lists aside, there were some cracking cars.

Newport Pagnals finest hour cometh

That’s right, Blow Dog has his name down for an AMV8 – should do wonders for their sales once people find out the invincible is down for one. Late 2005 they say? Thanks Adam.

Flipping Falken

I’ve tried to be nice to them but they continue to mess me about. I’m never going to see the tyres they’ve promised to return to me from Germany.

550 goes on the catwalk

Lots of pictures were taken of this car but I just haven’t had the time to upload any. Well I still don’t have time but what the hell…

Sup Maranello Buddy

Whilst a child, I longingly gazed at posters aplenty, walls lovingly adorned and Athena shops worshipped. Italian has always been the motoring Mecca of the world.

So long, and thanks for all the fish

Well, that’s what my Porsche GT3RS said as I left it in the hands of a Porsche Centre – it’s been sold. Question is, what’s next? Who knows!?

Dagenhams Finest

By the way, I picked up my new Porsche 911 GT3RS about a month ago. So far, I’ve done Spa and the Nurburgring 24h race.

Tortoise and the Hare…..a story of high speed driving

Thoughts of driving in Germany always conjure up images of barren, limitless Autobahns with never ending targets on many horizons. Combine this with a party of cars including 2 GT3s, a GTR and an Evo8 and you’re guaranteed an interesting trip. This was certainly one of the best I can ever remember…

Spa 2004

GT3 mk1 v GT3RS

Ian Suttons splendid GT3 meets up for some crocodile steak

Escort RS Turbo

Cancelled the order for the GT3 for two reasons. 1st, I got fed up waiting. Supposed to be a March delivery and, well, we’re just into May. 2nd, I bought something else. I’m very excited about it but reluctant to mention anything until the keys are in my hand.

550 Competes at Vmax

A PistonHeads organised event, Vmax is basically a top speed event which measures your speed at the end of a 1.75 straight. Pictures by Trackdemon. Trap speed was 175MPH

Schnell

Ordered a new 911 GT3 back in December, as hinted below. Speed Yellow and in Club Sport trim, I’m positively bursting from excitement. I’ve been promised a March build date with a collection scheduled for sometime March/April. I say collection because I’m going to Stuttgart to do a factory collection – look out for a [...]

Light a candle folks

Well, I can pretty confidently say that this sale has been the hardest yet. I honestly thought I felt some last minute doubts just as bankers drafts were being exchanged. To then see it driven away from me was quite a sad experience, this GTR has been the best car I’ve ever owned. It’s also [...]

It’s that time of year again

Car’s up for sale folks – it would make a fantastic Xmas present to yourself!

Video: Motorvision Skyline GTR V-Spec 2 Nur

This was a video German TV motoring programme, Motorvision, did when I was out at the Ring.
Falken Tyres sponsored my car for German Channel Motorvision. Driven by the very handy Tim Schrick outside of the Nurburgring circuit, November 2003 (R34 Skyline GTR V-Spec 2 Nur)

Blow Dog falls victim to corporate betrayal

As you may know, I spent a few days entertaining Falken press hounds at the Nurburgring, Germany, in order to promote their new performance tyre. For more background, you can read one or two threads which explain the trip in more detail. Now that I am no longer bound by gentlemanly agreements, a mutual declaration [...]

GTR at Gaydon

Annual GTROC meet at Gaydon Museum. Wierdest collection of cars in this museum ever. 1st ever Austin Metro? It’s here!!!

Evo 8 v The Nur

Late night meeting with Quentin and his Evo 8
Anybody needs lessons in photography, let me know – my awesomeness can be found in the yellow pages under ’saturate’.

4 months, 3 days and 12 hours later

Some pics of the new R34 GTR V-Spec 2 Nür.

One careful owner

Well, she’s up for grabs folks, the R34 that you all know is for sale.

GTR at Brent Cross car park

Put my new wheels on, together with the Nismo carbon bonnet and then went cruising aight.

Encore, Encore!

You wanted more?

Trax 2002

After much preparation, a visit to Trax 2002

What makes a grown man weak at the knees?

Preparations for Trax2002 have driven me insane.

Goodbye Carbon

Shins bonnet and spoiler go back.

Perverted Prowler

Armed with nothing but a Japanese Supercar and an expensive camera, I prowled the streets.

A day in the life of McRae

GTR goes to Don Palmer for some educating

Pinnacle of German Engineering

I’m a big fan of Germans at the moment. Porsche GT2.

Alternate Reality

Picking up my car from Abbey Motorsport was a pretty special occassion.

All show and no go at N. Weald dragstrip

North Weald drag strip bowed to the might of the Skyline.

Buggering thievery

Ah, the society I love so much deemed it suitable to give me a gift today. Yes, you will keep trying. And you will keep failing. To the hopeless failures in life that insist on continuously attempting to thwart what little pleasures I get from my car, you have been foiled again. Thanks for the [...]

As good as it gets

200MPH, Bavarian beauty and the legend that is the Nurburgring.

Fashion repeats itself

With the wheels providing both pain and pleasure in equal amounts, a decision had to be made; am I a poser or a driver?

Grasshopper again in the 34

Another visit to the longest-journey-ever-to-get-to-a-pub Grasshopper.

GTR at Boxhill

GTR at Cherry Tree pub

The Cherry Tree pub in Southgate not only does incredible pub food, but it also has a very large car park.

PI:Magnum would be proud

Went out in a fabulous Ferrari 355 GTS today.

B660 with the R34 – Six shy from the devil

Paid a haunted visit to the B660.

All coming together

For some reason, one of the first things I look at in a person is his/her footwear. So I changed mine.

Shin’s Prospec R34 GTR

So many emails asking for more pictures of ‘Satans Black’, I’ve relegated myself to promoting Prospec Motorsport till the end of my days. Meanwhile, try not to choke on these.

Avoid the rice, for it brings tales of death with it – R34 at Bedford

BRAKE NOW! Bedford Autodrome and pictures etc

Mines Power

Mines ECU goes into the 34.

NISMO 400R in thine house

Come say hello to this £100,000 Skyline legend.

Bednight Club 2

Quite a few of you have expressed an interest in getting together for these Bednight Club meets. Well, plans are afoot and now that Summer is on its way, I think this is an opportunity we shouldn’t miss. If anyone has any suggestions to either locations or times of day, please let me know. Meanwhile, another quick blast with the 400R resulted in a few pics.

If Bolney I were a rich man.

Bolney meet, March 2002 brought together the largest collection of Japanese cars in the UK ever.

Bednight Club

Just watched Fast and the Furious on DVD, great movie on the big screen, but wasn’t until I watched it at home that I got thinking. America and Japan have a massive night time club scene.

Pants a Sod

Santa Pod proves yet again that the man that plans for a British Sunday is a fool indeed. Weather called off an otherwise amusing day out.

Thumball Rally

I meet a Ferrari 550 in my travels. Nature takes its course.

Sensory Overload

Spent an hour driving down the M1 in torrential, horizontal rain tonight and what an experience.

Evo March

Got the March edition of Evo mag, featuring my R34.

Return to Evo Towers

Have been invited for another cold, drizzly, wet winters day out with the boys from Evo magazine. Richard Meaden, John Barker and David Yu are doing an article on the history of the Skyline and, well you know how much I like to help.
[EDIT] – Few words and lots of pics are up for your viewing pleasure mon petit fleurs

Poor trees

Japanese supercars ruin the equilibrium of the forest with their disgusting exhaust fumes.

Fireworks in the City

We happened across London eye. Camera came out again….sigh.

Midnite Club (UK)

Went for dinner with Shin from Prospec Motorsport and Alex Creasey last night and the inevitable happened.

Biggest collection of Skylines in UK?

Was invited to a pre-Christmas meet at the Grasshopper Pub in Surrey. Good food, great people and some stunning GT-R’s.

Rude boys

Whilst on a trip to Halfords, we were accosted by the local cruise scene. A great pleasure owning and talking about something that every enthusiast loves. Their website, although currently defunct, aims to organise local cruises etc. I have some pictures of the night too where I was present with a 22B, STi 2 and an Evo 6. Quite a sight for any enthusiast.

Torvil & Dean at Bedford Autrodrome

Trackday at the massive Bedford today proved to be hilarious.

York

A quick 500 mile round trip to York with the misses left good memories. An amazing architectural masterpiece in an otherwise normal place. Jorvic Viking Centre. Good old British traffic consistency and the strangest sight on the way home. EASY RIGHT, MAYBE!

R34 to the power of 3

Met up with a couple of R34 friends last night. Had a great blast, temperature and roads were great. Although the pictures were not. Funny that, photo’s are crap in pitch black.

More dyno fun

‘No-Excuses’ dyno day was held today at Power Engineering today.

Buggering damagery

To the son of a bitch that decided to steal my GT-R badge first, then wasn’t content with leaving me with a nice, deep, 10 inch gorge but then decided to try to break into the car through the window, if I catch you, I’ll probably go down. Go figure. I’m watching you with renewed [...]

Better than ever

After waking up at an insane hour and avoiding an almost fatal accident on the way, Donington gets better and better every time. I also had a great time kicking GT-R around the circuit.

R35 GTR pics

A concept car based on a forthcoming replacement for the R34 GT-R has been made public by Nissan.

Makinen spills Skyline’s pint

So Makinen is asked to step outside in a pub where cat swinging is certainly not allowed.

Santa Pod

Santa Pod, the place of spilt Sunny GTi-R guts, burnt Subaru clutches and the decidedly dodgy grip of a well known 1/4 mile strip in sunny England.

Skyline goes freeflow

Skyline gets a powerboost with a freeflow exhaust. Words and pictures.

R34 insides

Some more pics of R34, specifically the MFD.

London Skyline

Some pics and words of my new R34 GT-R.

Waving the Makinen goodbye

Ack. The Makinen was taken from me today. Sold to the Good Man Quentin of FullOnLoon fame. I trust the car will be looked after, I am also very happy to see the car go to someone I know. This way I get to see the car whenever I want!
Is it just me, or does [...]

Trax2001

Silverstone and Trax 2001. Shame I couldn’t honour my track time, I have a deposit on the car so I wouldn’t be fair on new owner. However, lots of fun to be had, not for the two cars that died. A totalled P1 and a very dead 993 Turbo4. Ack. I would love to push for track day organisers to put pressure on members to organise personal and third party insurance cover. Imagine the scenario. Bob in his piece of crap comes far too fast round the corner, loses total control and rear ends you on the straight. 100% totally his fault, but you have to pay for it. He has no legal obligation whatsoever to cough up. There is something definitely Pete Tong here.

Like I needed identity

I purchased a fantastic number plate (thanks to Adam) for the Makinen. The amount of hassle I had trying to get a number plate made defied belief though.

2 giants. Or 2 dinosaurs?

Met up with a guy who is selling this mad Evo Extreme.

Evo Extreme

Makinen meets up with Evo Extreme

M People – 400 miles in an M3

Drove an M3 for 400 miles this weekend. Smooth.

Enough alread – insurance woes

I’m sure everyone gets this feeling time to time, but I have just about had enough. Things going on at the moment. My insurers have shut shop (Independant) which means I have to look elsewhere. Over the course of 10 calls to varying brokers and underwriters, I have collated quotes between £5,500 and £16,000 (!!!!) [...]

Makinen at Bedford Autodrome

Pictures courtesy of Josh Levy ©
Bedford Autodrome is one of the largest motoring entertainment sites in the UK. It has a very large track that is split into 4 mini circuits. Our track for the day was one of the nicest, easiest tracks I have been on. A 2 km straight provided high speed thrills [...]

Wedding cars courtesty of friends

Mon sister was given away on this fine day to the wonderful Steven Young. Although the bastards tricked me into accepting a crippled camel, the 40 sacks of rice should help us peasants for a while.
I hate weddings, but this kept me thrilled right to the end, I was soarly dissapointed to see it finish [...]

Evil eye succeeds again

Whilst enjoying a leisurely drive down one of my favourite B roads today, I was pleasantly surprised to see a Metro with 6 occupants come tearing round a bend to face me (death) in the eyes…

Bedford Autodrome pics with the R34

Check out these pictures from the Bedford Speed and Feed SIDC day.

Blakes 7 – Oli Clarke lets me drive a new Evo

OK, so its not Blakes’ but Oli Clarkes. What’s a name between friends? These are the Evo 7’s I drove.

I think I’ve gone deaf (FIA GT Championship)

Blagged tickets for the Eurosport super racing weekend amazing. Come see what I did.

Castle Combe rally day

here it is, a pretty big review of the day. There are lots of different sections (the day was huge, very impressive) and many, many, MANY pictures.

He just magicked it away

Commissioned (politely asked) wax wizard to help me prep the car for Castle Combe and get rid of some nasty swirl marks that were happening on my car.

Penthouse meets Top Gear

Was honoured to grace the pages of Fast Car Magazine this month. Despite the embarrassment of reading said magazine on the London underground, there were one or two good pics in there.

Better than a Mak?

I currently have some very good offers for an Evo 7 from two very reliable sources. One is from Roger Clarke motorsport, whom I have purchased 3 cars from in the past. They have never failed to provide me with bona fide cars and have never ever let me down before. Having said that, Iain [...]

God is watching

We avoid a fatality – just

Face off in Bushey

22b v makinen (we all know who wins)

360M at Aerodrome

pictures from the 360m outing are up

Treadmills for cars

Visited for the first time in my life a rolling road day today. To say I was chuffed with the results is an understatement. Check out the results. Thanks to power engineering for a well organised day and some great results. Rollers seemed very accurate.

Treadmils for cars

Visited for the first time in my life a rolling road day today.

911-911-911

Ok, it’s that time of year again when my feet start to itch and i look at spending a crap load of money that i don’t have.
It’s the porsche phase. I have seen the 993 turbo4 in the flesh recently and, well..i want one. 400bhp with 400Ib/ft torque. I am also interested in a 996 [...]

Belgium in the Makinen

Another big mistake in our choice of travelling times. A 2 hour sleep gave way to a 3 am start at south mims services. Met up with a number of folks along the way and made our way to belgium. The company was superb. Highlights of the day in no particular order :
A group of [...]

American Muscle

Test drove a corvette (new shape) on Sunday.

Donington Feb 2001 in the Makinen

Donington, my local haunt. Or rather the only track, bar Silverstone, where i trust myself! Its an extremely forgiving track with lots of off areas, superbly run and totally diverse. I think the best private club track in the uk.
Another successful day, with minimum mishap. An eclectic range of offs ( =) ) totalling about [...]

Blowdog goes to Evo Towers

evo magazine invite me over for a mag shoot.