2000 RM

Andrew Appleton Photoshoot

RM — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 11:12:41 +0000

Here’s the third shot from the “Dodgy Deal” theme element of the photoshoot Janey and I did with Andrew Appleton: dark and mysterious!

Mazda Johnny Herbert Video

RM — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 09:09:22 +0000

As these sorts of things vanish from manufacturers’ websites and YouTube from time to time, I thought I’d convert and upload the official Johnny Herbert road/track test video:

How a Rotary Engine Works

RM — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 12:08:44 +0000

Andrew Appleton Photoshoot

RM — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 21:18:37 +0000

Here’s the second shot from the “Top Gear” themed element, me with my R3 and Janey with her 40th Anniversary:

Andrew Appleton Photoshoot

RM — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 13:58:55 +0000

Yesterday, Janey and I went out to do a photoshoot featuring the two RX-8s with a great local photographer, Andrew Appleton.

Most of the shots – from three different themes – are being processed now, but in the meantime, here’s me in a casual pose with my R3:

"Top Gear" Theme

Japfest Videos

RM — Sun, 16 May 2010 16:41:31 +0000

Here are the videos I took (with apologies: I couldn’t actually see the screen as the sunlight was too bright).

Japfest 2010

RM — Sat, 15 May 2010 17:57:57 +0000

After an early start – despite staying over at an ever-decreasing-quality Travelodge on Friday night, Jack, his mate and I made our way over to Japfest 2010 at Castle Combe Circuit. Loads of gorgeous Japanese cars, some trackday shenanigans and some demonstration drifting from some pros, coupled with brilliant sunshine meant a fabulous day. Here are some photos:

iPod Integration

RM — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 18:16:17 +0000

Well Nunns have sorted things out: they arranged for me to bring the batmobile in today to fit a new relay for the rear foglight – it switches to the trailer when the towbar electrics are connected and back to the car’s when it’s disconnected – and a different iPod integration module following Nunns’ discussions wit Mazda Europe.

And lo and behold, it works with my old iPod as well as my new “RexPod”, displaying track number (from the playlist) or artist or track names.

Result!

Blue RX-8 R3 and Blue ZRX1200R

RM — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 19:50:03 +0000

Today I spent the day tearing around Castle Combe race circuit in Wiltshire on my motorbike, a Kawasaki ZRX1200R.

To get it there, I’d hitched up the trailer to the R3 and “extreme towed” it to Castle Combe yesterday. This took longer than it should have done due to all those mindless morons sitting blocking the middle lane on the M4 – they clearly don’t know (or don’t care) that cars towing trailers aren’t allowed into the outside overtaking lane. Twats!

Anyway, here are some shots of the bike and car after I’d loaded the bike onto the trailer at the end of the day:

Thule Xpress 970 Cycle Carrier

RM — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 22:06:35 +0000

I was in the market for a new pushbike as mine was being skipped – 1988 vintage and starting to show its age – and as my partner and her daughters like to get out and about on bikes.

We ended up at Halfords and after looking at a few bikes, I settled on the Carrera Kraken 09 20″. Carrera pushbikes are – as far as I know – only sold through Halfords who use their purchasing clout to bring a relatively high specification bike to market at a lower price point than you would otherwise expect.

Having already decided to get a pushbike for London – my base during the week – I started looking at Decathlon’s stock of similar spec’d bikes and found them to be more expensive: price matching produced a heavier bike with cable-operated brakes, for instance.

So I looked at Halfords’ website and was horrified to see that the Carrera Kraken was being advertised at 20% off for web sales even though you could collect in store! Another order placed and I went to collect it at £320 (boxed) from Halfords’ Old Kent Road store. The assistant failed to locate a boxed one as it seems that their stock was assembled and on show. The bikes hadn’t been fully built or safety checked so I have arranged to pick it up this evening.

Thule 970 Xpress

Thule 970 Xpress Folded

As the bike will be fully assembled, shoving it inside my Mazda RX-8 R3 isn’t now going to be an option. I had ordered a Thule 970 Express from Wiggle (at £54 delivered) but they hadn’t processed the order after a day, so thinking this might happen, I had cancelled the order before going to Halfords. They had some in stock (at £60) so I bought one. It fits to the demountable towbar in just a minute or so and folds flat when not needed but I do find the fact that the whole shebang is effectively hanging off one support only a little disconcerting.

So I picked up the Carrera this evening and used the Thule in anger: loading the bike was relatively straightforward and I made good progress, shall we say, back to the flat over the speed humps and sleeping policemen so it had a good chance to break free and didn’t.

Back in the garage, I paused to take some crappy phone shots:

Carrera, Thule and RX-8 R3