27th Feb was the date for this years Sydney Mardi Gras parade, one of the worlds most famous street parties. Our new place in the city has 2 bedrooms that back right onto Oxford St and being 3 levels up was a perfect place to watch the parade from. 18 friends came over to join us for some food and drinks and to watch the parade from the bedroom windows and we all had a good time.
Here is a 10 minute collection of some of the best bits I filmed of the parade. Enjoy the madcap craziness of the Sydney Mardi Gras as the infamous 'Team leader' controls the crowds with her takedown shouting Megaphone skills, you’ll see what I mean:
One person that loved watching the whole parade was little Basima before she fell asleep on the ‘Lovesac’, I couldn't think of a more comfortable place to sleep:
This footage was recorded back in October 2009, when we spent a couple of days with brilliant BMW M3. The weather was kind to us through our trip and many of the roads were ultra smooth to allow us to experiment with the handling characteristics of this great car.
This particular video was filmed during the Macquarie pass, a hill climb road just 30km’s South West of Wollongong in New South Wales. Its surface is silky smooth, benefiting from a fairly recent re-surface and the 7.7km pass features smooth sweeping turns with only 1 overtaking section near to the top.
The BMW M3 is a very neutral balanced car, which makes it a pleasure to be driven on roads like these. Just listen to the way the V8 engine loves to rev, as we make our way up the pass.
On a technical note, this was the first video I've completed featuring a accurate map overlay tracking the cars location as we progress up the hill. This proved pretty time intensive to complete in a accurate way but I am very happy with the tracking results and many thanks to friend Jay Ng for his assistance in this area.
Brendon and I take the keys to Porsches flagship 911 model, the Porsche 911 Turbo. We took a look at some of the details that make up the 911 range-topper, and take it for a hill-climb drive up our usual Macquarie Pass testing road. Along the way we test out the back seats, all the cubby and storage holes and see if we can as usual ‘get a person in the boot of a supercar’.
When this car’s turbo kicks in, its acceleration is as quick as the Lamborghini Gallardo I am not joking, but doesn't sound half as good.
I have to say that for me personally I enjoy driving the 997 GT3 over this car as it feels a little more nimble and the steering a little more like my own Lotus in its direct connected feeling. But I also have to say the Turbo impressed me MORE than I thought it would. The Turbo’s feeling of being able to accelerate out of a corner earlier than you can with the GT3 (due to the Turbos 4wd) is a great feeling on the road.
Click the video below to play, or you can watch it in spiffy High Definition by going here and clicking the HD button: http://www.youtube.com/mabedfo#p/u/0/7PhCyiW8ciI
Always the unplanned evenings are the best. We were invited to a friend’s concrete patch by the water where he stores his racing yacht out of water (was made of 100% carbon fibre, was very impressed), a barbie would be there but no view of the bridge was promised.
We turned up and there really was a great view of the bridge in fact. After a few hours of drinking, eating, laughing and dealing with around 20 Irish guys trying to jump the security fence to get in our secure compound area we were in, our evening got even better.
With a big electric crane our hosts lifted 2 yachts into the water at 11:15pm and by 11:55pm we were on the front line drifting right in front of the bridge. We were jumping up and down on the deck like little kids. We were in the best city in the world for NYE and we were so lucky to have the BEST seat in the whole of Sydney.
Considering it was a very unplanned NYE, it was the best NYE we've ever had! Now have to deal with the ritual hangover the day after.
Happy New Year to all my friends
and family all over the world!
Me with Shawn and James who invited us to the waterfront get-together
Drinking eating and chatting looking over to the bridge in
the distance, Chris and Christina on the right
Out on the water just 300 metres from the bridge as close as you are allowed
midnight strikes out on the water as we hold onto the boats
boom to watch the spectacular fireworks
Sanna and me very drunk after midnight on our way back to shore
Shawn really drunk too and singing, which is good
as he's so funny when drunk
At the recent Lotus Australia xmas Party/concours I whipped out my video camera and did the rounds of filming, well after a few evenings on the computer here's the video.
"A short movie of the Club Lotus Australia 2009 xmas Party/Concours at the Lovely Shakey Tables Restaurant in the Hunter Valley. It was such a windy day we picked up so much wind noise on the microphone, hence the lovely christmasy music. Enjoy! "
Cheers and HAPPY CHRISTMAS Beddy.
I have been a busy body with running filming and editing for 2 new dream car videos with my reviewing/filming partner in crime Brendon. Both these videos were shot over 2 weekends with spending 3 days with each car and we were lucky with the weather on location for both shoots. By today both videos have had over 400 views on YouTube combined already which is good going. So onto the videos:
BMW M3 E92 - Details and Australian countryside drive
Brendon and I take an example of the latest iconic BMW M3 out for a test on the great driving roads South of Wollongong Australia. We discover what a sweetly setup car it is and how it craves for even a little bit more power.
AMG 63 Black Series - product tour and drive, AU
What happens when you combine a German saloon with a muscle car, strip out the heavy bits and replace them with Carbon fibre, you get the AMG 63 'Black Series' of course. Brendon and I take the 'Black Series' out on the twisty roads of the south Hunter valley Australia and take in that gut-churning V8.
Video filming and editing quality is slowly improving I feel with each video. We are starting to eliminate things like camera shake and poor audio quality in the filming now. The next video is on the 997 Porsche 911 Turbo which was an amazing car, that video will be ready in weeks.
I had to disguise myself as a qualified dentist along the same lines as my dentist and friend Angelo to sneak my way past the dealer and into the driver's seat of the new Evora.
Why do you say? well he got a very lucky drive of the car just last week as just one of the select chosen few as the car isn't even shipping to customers in Australia yet.
Would you believe it, the $2 disguise worked, it was that good and I managed to get a good 45mins drive of the Evora around the eastern suburbs twisty roads.
'intelligent' glasses and 'Qualified Dentist' stick on post-it note disguise
Ok so what did I think? Well you can really feel the Lotus DNA from the Elise/Exige/Europa shining through in spades. I can best describe the ride and chassis feel like an Elise/Exige with a bit more weight which allows the imperfections in the roads to be soaked up better, akin to a more German chassis setup.
What does that mean? Well there is all of the mechanical grip and feeling like you get from an Elise/Exige, but with none of the crashing when you drive over potholes or large joins in the road.
Outward visibility, I noticed the rear view is obstructed quite heavily by the plastic engine cover shroud. Although the side mirrors are much larger than on the Elise/Exige, and more than make up for the lack of view from the center mirror.
Steering is precise and communicative like in the Elise/Exige, if a little more weighted in feel, great.
The gear action is similar to the Elise R/SC/Exige's 6-speed but with a slightly less 'notchy' feel which suits the cars character better. The pedals are perfectly spaced like on the Elise/Exige for heel and toeing although I found the engine doesn't respond as quickly as the 4-cyliinders when carrying out a heel & toe change.
The 6 cylinder engine idles and plays out its song much more beautifully than the 4 cylinders we are used to in our cars. Its vocals over around 3000 rpm sound lovely, not throaty or raw, but rich and warm, defiantly nicer to listen to over the Elise/Exiges standard exhausts sound.
The performance, well I think I'm spoilt a little coming from a 4 seconds flat supercharged car but it was a little lacking for me in a straight line. There is more show of torque when flattening your foot in a high gear on a hill, but for me where the perfections of all other areas of the car excelled, it desperately needed more power.
Don't get me wrong though, as I said I'm a bit spoilt so if you came from a naturally aspirated Elise/Exige you would be happy with the performance until inevitably an official or 3rd party supercharger kit will come out for the car and you'll be laughing all the way to the track. =)
Sanna and I successfully completed the 90km Sydney to Wollongong bike ride on Sunday morning! To prove to all you lovely people who sponsored me here are some photos and to tell you how we went.
On the train to the start line and still waking up
It was a early start at 6:00am to be up for a Sunday but we had our power breakfast ready that we always have before doing a big sporting event. It consists of 2 slices of wholemeal bread with a banana sliced up and lots of honey.
We got on the train to the start line at St Peters park from central station and we officially crossed the Start line at 7:25am.
The first hour was very congested with other riders, nestling on the road for a space in amongst the 9,998 other riders. While we were in the city also we were all stopped by a lot Red traffic lights.
In the first hour of riding and there was a lot of congestion
Once we were out of the city though the riders all broke up and distanced themselves a bit and we were free to ride at a good pace we were comfortable at. Sanna was doing really well and struggled on a few of the steep long hills a little of the royal national park but overall she rode much faster than I thought she would.
during the morning tea break quick break
We didn't stop eating through the ride, in the morning there was morning tea with a muffin with tea or coffee. Then we stopped halfway in the royal national park for a quick sausage sizzle in a roll with barbeque sauce. Then 3/4 of the way we stopped for Gatorade drink and fresh apples, oranges and bananas.
Lunchtime, quick sausage sizzle in a roll with barbeque sauce
There was a guy dressed up as Borat riding along the way which was grossing everyone out. I told him with that green man-kini up his bum if he farted he would whistle, he told me he know and he’s been holding them in all the way. :)
Borat on a bike! thank god he had the pink pants on!
We crossed the line at 1:00pm so we we did it in 5 and a half hours including all the breaks.
We made it together
Thank you gratefully for the 11 people who sponsored me for the days ride who were:
(in no particular order)
Antonio Santucci,
Greggy,
Barry Mather,
Cameron Long,
Paul Whitman,
Simon Caruso,
Rols,
Terry Bedford,
Damien Huet,
Mad & Loic
and whoever you are that just listed your name as ‘So close… - Who would do that?’
Next year I may attempt the ride again for a 3rd year but next time I may try to aim for a competitive time and ride as quick a time as my legs will take me.
Phew I made it, I hit my $200 target for MS charity just 5 days before the big event!
Here is the accompanying video to the days drive of the 2009 Ferrari California, I think you’ll agree the car sounds truly amazing. A rich Ferrari V8 sound coupled with a near instantaneous gear shift, a combination that literally had us giggling like school boys on every up and down shift.
Brendan and I were in car heaven for the day.
If you click through to YouTube, you can load it up to enjoy in HD quality also > YouTube video
