GT5 1989 Nissan Z 300 ZX TT 2 Seater (Z32)

First Nightingales May 2016 + Dawn Chorus

Thursday sucks, so why not listen to some birds singing in the now past May 2016.

1970 Chaparral 2J Race Car in GT4 Pictures

Driving to Checker Flag by Etnica from GT4

A 2004 FPV F6 Typhoon... in GT4 pictures

A rarity today in my GT4 car picture series which is a 2004 FPV F6 Typhoon.

Sporting a coat of Mercury Silver, it is parked below in Beacon Hill.

FPV stands for Ford Performance Vehicles, and the manufacturer is based in Australia.

This is a rare car in the world of Gran Turismo as it only appears in GT4 and GT PSP, and the description reads as follows.

The FPV F6 Typhoon was the top-spec model of the XR6 series, based on the MkII facelift of the Ford Falcon, was launched in late 2004 as an entry-level FPV model. The utility version, known as the Tornado, entered production in 2005, based on the brand new BF-series Falcon. In 2005, the BAII F6 Typhoon was disqualified from Motor magazine's annual Performance Car of the Year competition due to clutch failures in 2 separate cars. After initially blaming the magazine's testers, FPV labelled the car as "simply too powerful" and withdrew the car from sale for several months while they engineered a fix. All of the cars released with the clutch issues were recalled. The F6 Typhoon returned, albeit in 6-Speed Automatic BF guise, to win Motor magazine's Australian Performance Car Of The Year award in 2006.

A powerful car and a high-performance vehicle, it goes however for low-key, nondescript, deliberately deceptive "sleeper car" looks.

And now it can be seen at Togakushi Kogen, Nagano, which is a "picturesque part of the prefecture known for traditions and pristine waters. This stage (?) is located on an icy road with a backdrop of beautiful snow-capped peaks".

The front end looks rather like my 2008 ford focus (Europe).

my Personal Jesus

So, it's Sunday again.

Without Bound - Perspectives on Mobile Living (Documentary)

Something to watch later.

Chaparral! ...in GT4 Pictures

Now, what is this? A vacuum cleaner? An air con unit?

Noooo, it a car.

It's a Chaparral - the GT4 1970 Chaparral 2J Race Car.

And it's pictured here parked at Nanzenji.

A very powerful car, and with two available turbo upgrades in GT4, its power can be increased to over 1000 bhp.

However, it's rather hard to control, fragile, also likes to fly in GT4 for some reason... I look confused, shouldn't it like stick to the surface?

From the Gran Turismo file.

"Nicknamed "The Vacuum Cleaner", this car took the motoring world by surprise and became an icon in racing history."


The 2J may well be the most innovative, wildest racing machine ever created. The car, characterized by its big boxy rear end, entered the 1970 SCCA Can-Am racing series in North America, as the first machine in the series to feature active ground effects...in the form of a giant vacuum.
The Can-Am series was quite unusual as, at the time, there was no rule to limit the amount of horsepower for its race cars. Chaparral boss, Texas oil magnate Jim Hall, pulled a wild car from his sleeve when he created a race car that utilized two engines: one was a 690 HP powerplant to power the car and the other, an air-cooled snowmobile engine that powered a pair of large fans to suck the air flowing underneath the car, thus making it "stick" to the road surface. The area between the sides of the bodywork and the ground were sealed by floating pieces of high-strength Lexan. Nicknamed "The Vacuum Cleaner", the Chaparral 2J astounded race fans and the other Can-Am drivers alike.
Aside from its odd looks, the 2J often took pole position by several seconds over heady competition that included the previously-dominant McLaren M8D...that is, when it was running. The 2J experienced many mechanical problems in its maiden season, making every race it entered a thrilling event.
Before the start of the 1971 season, the SCCA banned the use of engines used for other than powering the car itself, and the Chaparral 2J was banished from motorsports forever.

Nextbase Click & Go Lite Portable DVD Players Review

Road Rage Los Angeles (Vernon): Motorcyclist vs Driver

SpaceX - Static Fire Anomaly - AMOS-6 - 09-01-2016

That was a week ago.

By the way, the camera is about 4 kilometers from the explosion.

Driving Slowly to Fast GT5 Soundtrack

Here is me driving to GT5's racing playlist.

A lot slower in the real world than in the world of Gran Turismo.

Part 1

Country to Town Driving

Driving country to town. Slowly. Taking in the scenery.

Driving to Wave 103 FM from GTA Vice City Stories, two clowns there keep me amused.

SpaceX rocket explodes during launch preparation

"Re-usable" (?) SpaceX rocket explodes per BBC.

Not to gloat but I foresaw and prophesied all of that in this now seminal article on this very blog.

The concept of "re-usability" doesn't hold water when applied to space travel.

The sooner Musk accepts it and acknowledges that he's wrong (and that he is just a limited if so far lucky idiot of course) the better it will be for all.

And this is not even a pre-flown booster. Imagine what will happen when (and if) they attempt to use their pre-flown garbage.

UPDATE: Turns out Falcon 9 boosters were produced by Yuzhmash of Ukraine, but the company however is not now in position to make any more as of post-2014.

So Musk's favoring re-usability may be down to a very earthly reason that Space X's supply of rockets is very limited and he doesn't have access to more.

Still, re-usability is a very faulty concept when it comes to space travel, and he should renounce it once and for all.