Air To There Sprint - Paraparaumu Airport

[Richard Deakin]

In case you haven't heard, there's a show and shine and timed quarter mile sprint down Paraparaumu Airport runway on Sunday 14th March. Free, just need to sign up at Repco on Kapiti Road, Paraparaumu before Wednesday.

I'll be down there in the TVR, so would be great to see some other class cars down there along with the turbo nutters!

Richard

[Richard Deakin]

Hi Kylie

Yes, I went. Made loads of noise for the crowd. I won a prize for "Best European Car" in the Show and Shine...unfortunately the judge said "and the prize goes to the TRV..."

I made three runs, with a friend timing me from the side, got down to unofficial 9.45s. I asked for the timings from the officials but was told there was a problem with the timing beacon and my time wasn't registered!

So I kinda gave up then and went home rather than stuff my clutch and not get timed properly (after a word from the boys in blue over some sideways stuff in the grass carpark)!

Also decided that going in a straight line is also really very boring. What I need are CORNERS!

Cheers
Rich

[Richard Deakin]

kylie said:

9.45's don't ask me to take you on!!

Forgot to add that it was a 1/8 mile not 1/4 as originally posted. 9.45s for a 1/4 of a mile - could only do that if I was being towed by a jet fighter...

[Richard Deakin]

whitey said:

A TRV Here's me thinking most kiwis would know what a TVR was.....mind you a lot of poms don't !! Did the police try and do you for "unnecessary acceleration or wheelspins?"....thats a new law introduced while I have been away and I only get to find out about it over the internet....

Well he was the compare bought in from a local radio station. Most people seemed to know what it was, but the best fun was from listening to people talking about the engine. One young guy took one look at the exhaust manifolds and Y piece and said "man, look at the turbos on that!!!".

Also got several people believing the doors are voice activated, an old TVR trick where you click the door release behind you as you shout "door OPEN". Gets em every time.

We were on private property, so they couldn't do me, but the copper who came over to me wasn't very polite...on the road it would have been "unneccesary show of speed", "intentional loss of traction" and probably "reckless driving". As the show was organised by Kapiti Road Safety and the Police it wasn't quite what they had in mind!

Edited to add - hey whitey, if you need someone to give that Twinspinner a run to keep it fresh, jus let me know!!

>> Edited by Richard Deakin on Monday 15th March 21:20

[Richard Deakin]

whitey said:

jeez, what a load of crap. Should I ever return ? PS. I find it so difficult to stick to a 60mph speed limit when I visit after being used to a constant 70-100mph cruising limit in the UK...

Yes, whitey, the benefits of living in NZ outstrip the UK anyday. But I take your point. In the UK I was a sales rep and spent most of my time cruising the M25, M23 and M20 where munching miles at those speeds is perfectly normal. It took me along time (and several speeding tickets) to get used to sticking close to 60mph.

The problem is that the whole driving experience here is poor compared to the UK. The impressively named State Highway 1 is little more than a single each way A road with the odd over taking place, there are alot of sharp corners, alot of gravel and debris, and the roads are made using materials that do not disperse water, thus leaving alot of standing puddles.

I also think that driving standards are poor. Drivers follow far too close for safety, tailgate lorries so they have no visibility of the road variations. I have seen so many near misses that would have been very serious accidents since I got here. Also, since you can buy second hand tyres for $10 a corner, you have to question the road worthyness of alot of vehicles.

And don't get me onto that "give way to vehicles turning right" rule...

When I'm prime minister, etc, etc.

[Richard Deakin]

40 points for me so far in 6 months, but as I was on my UK licence and have just changed to an NZ one, the lady at the AA seemed to think that they would "get lost in the system". Hope so...

[Richard Deakin]

jamieheasman said:

Why change to an NZ one? If you get stopped for speeding by a traffic cop, present your UK licence and tell him you've only been here for a few months - works for me! ;-)

yes, but I keep on being asked my potential employees and it seemed easier to get it sorted than to bluff. I passed on my second attempt, having failed on the following question:

When reversing your car, the best way to do so safely is:

A - use your rearview mirroe
B - use your wing mirrors
C - look over your shoulder
D - get out of the vehicle and check there is nothing behind you.

The fecking correct answer is D...try doing that everytime you want to reverse into a car parking space on a busy road in Auckland...

[Richard Deakin]

kevin-84turbo said:

Hi Richard I was at Paraparaumu and saw your car there, a very nice colour it is to! After your first run you had the bonnet up on the return road, did it overheat? Kevin

Hi Kevin - what were you driving?
It wasn't overheating, but I was taking precautions as Rover V8s don't enjoy sittng around for that length of time idling. I was also investigating the odd smell which turned out to be the clutch as I realised I was riding it too much trying to get a clean getaway.

I did some sliding stuff in the carpark and got a bollocking from the Police. As there were so many there, we should have all headed to Sh2 for a race over the Rimatukas (sp?)!!

I had to watch the LTSA guys like a hawk after they stuck the jack under the fibreglass body to jack it up. Luckily I spotted it in time.

If you see me around, give me a yell! Would be good to catch up with other NZPHers.

Cheers
Richard