New Subaru - and it's a coupe!

This is the first Subaru for a while to get me quite excited. It is expected to arrive in as little as 18 months to compete in the GTi market. Engines range from a 170bhp n/a petrol 2.0l flat four, through to a 300bhp turbocharged lump. Toyota are assisting them in the development of a diesel powerplant with impressive figures in the efficiency department. It will be equiped with the usual four-wheel-drive train - hopefully with an evolution of the centre-diff in the current STi. The styling may not be quite as extravigant as the 22B - but I think this will be a huge hit.

^ 2 door scooby! ^

London - how it should be done!

Last Thursday I had the pleasure of going out with a few colleagues to London. First we went to the Below Zero Ice Bar in Covent Garden to have something to drink before our meal later in the evening. The Ice Bar was awesome, we walked into the typically swanky bar to have a few cocktails that I made the mistake of letting my 'friends' order me (kinda strong) - then we proceeded through the fur covered entrance to the real Ice Bar....

^ Fur covered entrance ^

^ Doug testing it was real ice ^

^ Doug enjoying ice cold vodka ^

^ A wall of ice ^

^ Me biting the ice wall... hmmm ^

^ How COOL is that?? ^

^ 25 of the Enterprise Elite at Belgo's ^

^ These kept arriving at our table full of shots ^

^ Covent Garden - many free drinks were enjoyed here ^

^ Surf and Turf - Steak and Lobster ^

We then went to a rather more exclusive premium establishment called Fifty. It was a members only night and luckily for us Tim (our city manager) was indeed a member and we were his guests. We tried loads of different shots. We finished the night in the basement talking to random businessmen and gangsters alike drinking a bottle of their finest whiskey and my colleagues puffing on 40 quid cigars - which for some reason I came home with two in my pocket??

^ Tim showing us all how to dance ^

^ Dance Floor of Fifty - tables had Sony Plasmas underneath them - nice touch ^

Binks in the garden

The weather was so nice today that we let Binks do a spot of sunbathing in the back garden:

^ How cool does he look?! ^

^ Sphynx ^

^ Tired after helping me cut the grass ^

^ He sat in the shade after going mad in the garden for hours ^

Bike Track near Hay Street

Stu discovered a bike track near where we live that we decided to check out. Col, Beard, Stu, Butch and I went over there with our mountain bikes and attempted most of the jumps. It looked as if it used to be an MX track and so the jumps were kinda steep - challenging on a mountain bike. We worked out several routes round, but none of them really flowed that well and it was more of a challenge just to go round without putting your feet down than to go quickly and get big air.

^ Pretty cool considering it's free ^

We had a quick play with Beards Nitro R/C car - which the track looked better suited towards. So as soon as my beasty is run in we'll try it out and hopefully get some cool vids.

Laura took me out in the Elise

Laura showed me how to drive the Elise. She'd done 9 doughnuts, a powerslide and a wheelie before we'd even left our road!

^ Sun out and hood still up?? ^

Easter bash in Cambridge

We met at young Mr Risk's house and the evening began.....

^ 1st stop the Regal - bought Col a pint of strong cider ^

^ All the girlies that went ^

^ You're only Gay if you push back! ^

^ John's best impression of a ladie's, er, flower? ^

^ Col tastes John ^

^ Spel and Menney ^

^ Matt's pushing back ^

^ Laura and my good self ^

^ Col continues his winning streak with the Girls ^

^ Kippers shows his bum ^

^ ....then chases Matt ^

^ Colin got very drunk - and turned pink ^

^ Spen ordered 4 sambucas - necked them - and left without paying! ^

^ John doing a drunken hand crouch ^

^ not bad considering I was inebriated ^

^ Laura setting a fine example by drinking water ^

^ Butcher pointing out that some tramp stole his beard ^

^ legs?? ^

^HaHa - finally cought alex kissing a bloke! ^

^ Spen telling this really drunk guy he was going to wet himself! - oh the power of suggestion ^

^ Spen balanced a cone on his head - absolute quality! ^

^ ....and finally, yes - Spen turned him into a cone head - poor guy was so drunk he couldn't speak - Spen quite rightly highlighting him as a hazard! ^

^ Quick meditation stop ^

^ This was the highlight of my evening - Mel and Spen got out of the taxi and Spen tried to get into the house. Unfortunately it wasn't his house as we heard Mel scream at him "You're trying to get into the wrong fucking house you Moron!!!!" - as he was jamming his key into a random house on their road.

^ Then we all kipped back at Matt's - thanks to Gill and Mick for letting us stay ^

New car for the RST-V8 engine

Having a flick through my blog the other day, I noticed it was quite 'car' orientated. So I thought I'd write about something different..... then I found out about this.....

A while ago Russell Savory took me out in a Caterham that was completely bonkers. It was fitted with a 2.4L V8 producing 400bhp. The engine was constructed by fusing two motorbike engines together and could propel the Seven to 60 in under 3 seconds and would do 100mph and back to 0 in under 10!

Russell is working with a company who's engineers, managers and technicians used to work at McLaren Cars Ltd. They've designed a car that will out perform both the F1 and the Veyron. It is to be fitted with a supercharged version of the RST-V8 producing 500bhp. The FreeStream as it is dubbed, will have a power to weight ratio comparable with that of a Formula 1 car – nearly 1000bhp/tonne. It's chassis and aerodynamics are configured in such a way as to allow the car to be "predictably safe and responsive to driver inputs" - handy as the car is to be sold for use on the public roads.

^ The FreeStream - an F1 Car with a sheet over it?? ^

Russell has mentioned that I should go along to one of their testing days up at NorthWeald airfield and - get ready for this - "come and have a drive". Er, I quite like that. To read more on it, check out the following links:

www.freestreamcars.com

www.rst-v8.com

My week

I'll just give you quick Craig David style break down of my week.

^ On monday I gave my new nitro r/c car a blast - 4.6cc engine, running in :-( ^

^ Tuesday had afternoon off to play with cars - hence the brake dust on elise! ^

^ On Wednesday I Saw a Googley Eyed Morgan Aero8 at TVR garage ^

^ On Thursday I saw an 850bhp Cosworth built Lambo engine from a powerboat in the reception of company I was delivering too ^

^ On Friday I drove home, took a picture of the sky - oh yeah and drunk until 3am with Stu! ^

The high light of the forthcoming week should be going out for a drink with Alex once he's back from Oman - Top Blogging by the way Al!