What 2010 will hold amongst other things of little interest.

Hello, whoever you are, wherever you are,

I thought it best to post on new years day... but i didn't, so 2 days late will just have to do. I guess on the topic of new year I may as well refer to Christmas, what a lovely time it is. I didn't get many things of interest minus a miny 3ch RC helicopter and a new simracing wheel - logitech G25 (look in Sim racing report in late January) Both are very good fun and I can only suggest that everyone buys them both and take up equally as geeky hobbies. However, I must quickly revert back to cars, as that's what I said I would talk about when i started this blog. I forgot to mention my dads greatest car and the two best renovated cars that have circulated within my family over the last 25 years. Firstly is my dads ford 'Mexico' Mk.I escort rs1600, like this one...



What a stunning piece of kit that was... was referring to up until it was stolen and torched... If I could I would kill the b******s that did it, a car like that doesn't deserve to die. In the late 80's my Dad and Grandad bought a 1983 Chevy camaro in 2 tone black and red, Fixed the engine and the brakes and were left with an astonishing car. I ha vent a clue why they got rid of it. I mean, no one in their right mind would do that.

Finally for this dreary bit of family history is a car that my Dad built for my mum. It was a British Racing green Triumph Spitfire, a beautiful car to say the very least. My mum drove it and loved it for a short number of years up until she fell pregnant with me. Always did like to ruin the moment. She had to sell it up and buy a micra (nuf said).

Now... some news that is actually 100% relevant to this blog. My car... The Merlin 2+2. Just before new years eve I went to Norfolk to see my grandparents, and also to see and work on my car. Now... When I got there I was saddened by the appsense of my car. Apparently It was still on a friends farm waiting for me, my dad, grandad and his friend to go and pick up. Upon arrival I didn't find myself running up to my car but being offered a drive in a 1981 land rover. By a drive that meant I got given the keys and got to go trekking over the mud and ice for 15 minutes... great fun and a great machine (Note to self : must get me one of those). Anyway, I returned to the main farm area with the land rover... smile from ear to ear already understanding once again why I have a passion for cars. I waddled (it was cold... shhh) into the garage, which was more of an air hanger full of tractors and forklifts to see my car in the middle of everything, Its bonnet on and seats covered. I distinctly remember just looking at it for some time while other people went about other things. As soon as I came round from my daze we set to work. Since I'm the most useless, in practical person in the world I got the job of putting air into the flat tires, which i did with no problems what so ever while the other 3 where trying to figure out exactly what the engine was and what shape it was in.

This came with both good and potentially bad news. The good news being that they had identified the engine to be a 2.0L ford pinto engine with over head cam, meaning that it was a race ready ford engine. The bad news was that the car had its fair share of light rust and battle scars, and this meant that the only way to see how the engine was, would be by starting it. Like you do we try ed the ignition which failed to work as the cellanoid was bust ( look it up ) It is now replaced but wasn't at the time meaning that we had to use a screw driver to split the battery current. On top of that, there wasn't a battery current, and the battery is due to be replaced as well. So we got the land rover in and connected jump leads between the two. Nothing happened time and time again leaving us thinking that a car battery was simply not juicy enough to restart a considerably dead car. Fortunately our next plan was better (ish) We were in a shed full of tractors, so we attached one to the side of the car, along with a man holding a screwdriver over the cellanoid and tryed it again. For the first time in 12 years the engine turned over, albeit only once, and then it ceased to work again. We were getting desperate, So we roped it onto the land rover and tryed to jump start it... with no brakes. On this farm was a 3/8th of a mile strip of tarmac that we used. It was hugely tense on the way down, the car kept turning over then stopping, over and over again until we ran out of road and came to a controlled and brake free stop. The engine was still dormant. We turned it around to give it one last run, one last shot at starting up. I sat on the back of the land rover watching the engine. The screw driver sparked and the engine turned over and stopped. The screw driver got put back on, It turned over again, and then again, again, the carburettor choked once or twice before spouting out all of the old oil in a 5 ft plume of flame. At which point the engine roared into life and was under it's own power. The engine ran perfectly with no exhaust smoke and no cut outs. It was spot on. So I kicked my dad out of the car, and got a feel for it.



With a new cellanoid now installed it runs with no problems just so long as it has any battery but it's own supplying the power. Anyway, that's all for this time folks, please stay tuned for more videos including the first installment of the Merlin video diaries ( or VLOG for you technical people). Also keep watching for the Sim racing report which will come about in late January after the third round of the Grand Touring Amateur League, It should be a read for everyone, not just the Sim racers out there.

So...

Good morning, good evening and good night.

Oscar.

Genetically Modified me... Pt.2 (and some other things)

Hello again,

all... one of you, aaahhh, nice feeling that,one person appreciates my gibberish!

Anyhoo... Last month i spoke about my grandad... well, he is one colourful character I think you will agree. But onto more recent generations, possibly less colourful ones (don't worry, my dad is just as good at writing stuff off).

My Dad, very Correctly started off his driving life in a mini... or two, or three, or quite alot more than four... but anyway. From what I am told he would always have about 3 minis at anyone time, swapped bits between them, put panels from one onto another which had been involved in a crash, or a roll at some point. Anyway, My dad was much like that with his minis up until he was about 20, when he had a good few fords, namely Capri's and escorts. After this he had a couple of lancia Deltas. But at the age of about 30, he decided he didn't need a middle age crisis and just went into giving up now having driven mondeo's and people carriers.

But, Lets not dampen the tone here.

Its fair to say that my dad has always wanted to be a motorbike racer. He was doing BMX racing at 12, motoX at 14 and then more recently did a few seasons of UK supermoto, and, when he wasn't on a crap, useless, unreliable heapojunk KTM, he wasn't all that bad taking his fair share of podiums. He has always had that motorsport gene, wanting to be quick, in between his motoX themed activities he has done both drag biking and mini drag racing in the past along with some sidecar motoX thing with Mark Elliot (but he is another story altogether). Anyway, recently, well... (counts fingers) some years ago, while doing some supermoto my dad was involved in an accident and broke his knee badly, and his collar bone. In his teen years he broke all of his bones even his spine once and jumped back, but this time he was in his late 30's, which means if you break stuff... you are pretty much f***ed. Anyhoo, after he was made to sell up his racing stuff by my nan, he got bored. So now he is my mechanic in karting, he enjoys himself, as do I. Which does mean, for the records, I'm not rich, my dad just broke his knee, I'm less broken so I get to race... simples! Anyway, nothing can stop him it seems, these days he is infrequently doing trials biking and mountain biking... just the norm I guess :S possibly, a bit... no.


Anyway, that explains, sort of, why I love cars, or why my family might have something to do with it. Anyway, my family bores me, so after having read about it, you must be pretty bored too... so I will move onto, (as I said in the title)

Other things.

It xmas... ! yay! That's very good news lets be honest, no school, presents and so on, and so forth... Anyway... I don't want to ponder on festivities, talk to someone else about it, I'm just not all that interested. Buuuuuut, I must say, thank you to all the sain people out there who made it impossible for the xfactor to steal away the UK xmas #1 again, come on RATM!!!

My beast is something else to touch on in this post... I received the original instruction manual for the Merlin. Wow... its a crap manual, looks like its from the 1800's and tells me absolutely nothing about the car... apart from some Northerner put it together once. How comforting I am in the knowledge of that one. On the... 28th I am off to Norfolk to finish building its new garage and to move it, Now, with some luck this will lead to a plethora of new photos and the completely unanticipated arrival of the Car's very own Vlog, which should involve me trying to fix some things while swearing, so some good viewing for sure. Stay tuned for that one.


Anyway, I will finish with a few announcements... It seems that the only people reading are school friends and the simracing community, and, quite alot of this makes more sense to the school peeps than the simracers. So, as off when i can be arsed, I will start doing some special features with simracing devoted posts, including my team status, other team goings on, race reports, my thoughts on sims such as LFS, GTL and rfactor etc... might be good, I will find out when i write it up.

Anyhoo... I'm sleepy because its the morning and I CBA!!!

good morning, day and night to you all.

Oscar.

Genetically Modified Me Pt.1

Right,

Firstly, note to self: find a more sufficient time to do blog than in sleep time.

Anyway, I touched on genetics in my last post. Now, I think that someone else should be blamed for my love of cars. It's not my fault at all, My grandad and dad are 98% to blame. Now, some kids get born into a family where all they are taught from birth is football and building (otherwise known as people in liverpool) Me on the other hand... got cars, and bikes, although some part of me must be american, so more is best, screw 2 wheels... i want 4.

Now, one thing that doesnt add up for me, is that, (from basic knowledge), you learn and form with things around you, which, with me is the most part true, living with my mum for the best part of my life my attitude has become more like hers than my dads, even though i may as well be his clone genetically. So, explain to me why I didnt, I dont know, get into something completely different, like Jesus. I lived with my mum and gran (devote catholic, hense Jesus) for 6 odd years between the age of 2 and 8. Apparently, according to a scientist with a beard, those are the years of your life when you become the person who you will grow up to be.

Did any of what i just explain really happen... no. I am a genetically created car nut, as is my father, and my fathers father and (further family referance goes here)
I, unfortunatly, cannot now go into detail about the content of my dad's or grandad's brains, therefore i cannot show you how they are car nuts, or why they make me who I am. What I can do, is show you their car historys to an extent that I can remember. I will start with... (youngest first) nah... my grandad.

Ok, from what I know, his very first car was a 1949 Rover 75 'cyclops'
(picture thing ceasing to work, links will do) http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2288/2317296764_6cb50be174.jpg?v=0
This, was when Rover were acceptable, they started to make the very famous and brilliant Rover V8 engine a few years later, This car back then, is what we would conceive to be an Alfa today.
Things went uphill from here on in, A spout of minis and cortinas of course made it into his garage at some point or another. However, in his late twenties, he had, what I think is the best car anyone I know has ever owned, a chevrolet corvette '68.
http://www.smokinvette.com/corvettephotos/data/516/1968_Chevrolet_Corvette_L-89_Rally_Red.jpg I mean... WOW! I want one of those. I mean, firstly, you must be nuts to own one, as its a corvette it will fall to bits, and it will, inevitable, refuse to go round a corner at anything more than 5 mph and try to kill you. So what, this is an enthusiasts car on all levels, a car that you must be clinically insane to own, he crashed it going over a crest... blithering idiot! Now, he had many a Mk.II escort and MG midget and Capri (2.8L injection of course)But, one last story stands out, when my dad was around 23 my grandad was still old, and still is. They did something very funny (in my mind) and stupid. My nan had asked my dad and grandad to go into town and buy some fish 'n' chips for dinner. My nan at home, rightly became ancious as 45 minuites passed, after about an hour my dad returned in his mini that they had taken, but more importantly my grandad returned with a newly bought 1980's Cadillac V8. This, (from pictures I have seen and will scan on) is the ugliest most boring car ever on the planet (miuns the toyota camry, and the toyota corrola, and the toyota yaris...) My nan was furious, not only at the cold chips, but at the heap of s*** in her driveway, do you know what my grandads excuse was... " It was'nt much, and i fancied having a V8 "


Anyway, im tired and have written alot, so will continue with this post tomorrow (today).

thanks,

Oscar.


P.S - I am looking to document on someone else's beast (see post 'an introduction') to, hopefully, further explain this love between man and machine. Please contact me at oscarhardwick-at-hotmail.co.uk Thanks.

An introduction

Hi,

Im Oscar, a 15 year old boy from the sunny side of the United Kingdom (although it must be said, not at the moment). I always thought about blogging, I just, never had anything to blog about. Now however I do, I recently was given a car by my uncle. Now, even I consider 15 a young age to be having a car, but, this doesnt stop me. I have had a passion for cars from... since my brain can be bothered to remember, From the age of 4 and onwards I have thought 24 hours a day, 7 days a week about cars, sometimes i can think myself to sleep on the subject of motorsport or a review I read on the Aston Martin DBS that i just refuse to agree with even though i havent driven nor seen the car myself. I think that to love cars to an obbsesive extent, is something that many people do, and, I dont personally think that its out of choice, I know for me it wasnt, I have to blame genetics, but thats for a later post or paragraph. For me, the love of cars has come with a mandatory case of loving motorsport (again... genetics get the blame) and with that comes an even greater extent of obsession, I am a huge fan of Formula 1 but and even greater fan of GT and Endurance Racing, my racing idols are Micheal shcumacher and Stefan Bellof, thats down to my generation and age ( not very much with stefan ). I myself do Go-Karting, and I would love for my "talent" to be discovered and for me to go into motor racing, and I beleive that it can and will happen, My mind is already wanting... or, contributing if you will to this desire/passion to drive... to race. I do not think like the average teenage boy which is in curves and girls, I think in bhp and apex's, and, I dont care if thats not normal, its a great thing, its great to be in tune with yourself and to know where you want to be... and where you want to be going.

Anyway... what i really should be introducing, is 'my beast' as it was so adequatly put by Eric Bana. Keeping with Bana breifly, he said that his XB falcon coupe was like a campfire, that had been burning his whole life keeping him and his friends together. Now, Its early days for me, I havent known this car for all that long, but theres something about getting a stunning car that has... considerable amounts of work doing to it, at the ripe old age of 15 that makes a car all that special, now, I know, that this car will produce a great deal of blood sweat and tears for me, but, i plan to keep it, drive it and most importantly... love it.

From what i gather its a kit car from the mid to late 80's, (or so I am now told), It is currently equiped with a seized up Mk.III cortina engine producing a mighty... 80 ish horsepower, which is quite a bit on 750 odd Kg... so dont mock... (much)

Anyway... for now i will leave you with some pictures of my beast, a 19(put year here)

Merlin 2 +2 (conversion) - 2.0L

I'll leave you today with a thought... having an obsession is like needing a constant flow of drugs, my obsission is cars, so i need alot of cars and speed and power in my life, do you have an obsession on that level?

thats all for today.

Oscar.