Month: April 2012 (Page 1 of 2)

Japanse Autosport Festival: Traffic jams and parking lot

April 30, 2012 / banpei / 0 Comments

As promised: lots of pictures are coming up!

The day started early somewhere in Hilversum where we met up at Jack’s place at 7:30. I was perfectly on time for a change, but stupidly enough I forgot to bring along my tickets and had to go home and print them out another time. Then after 45 minutes of driving we arrived in Zandvoort and encountered this near the gate of the circuit:

It took us another 45 minutes to actually reach the gates. :o

This also meant one of the cars in our group ran into a little bit of trouble when its radiator hose snapped: Continue reading

Japanse Autosport Festival 2012: the first impression

April 29, 2012 / banpei / 3 Comments

Just came home from the Japanse Autosport Festival 2012 in Zandvoort and it has been a looooong day so I will try to keep it short now and do photo uploads and such tomorrow. So what was my impression of the day? I think this picture describes it best:

The most great/fresh/exciting/energetic day I had in ages!
Oh and I almost forgot: I’m in love with my “new” camera! (secondhand 5d mk1 with split focus screen)

So stay tuned for a week of photobombs!

Down on the Street: Palo Alto Honda Accord CB

April 29, 2012 / banpei / 0 Comments

Also this photo of a Honda Accord CB was taken in the United States when I was visiting for the MySQL conference. We visited the Wallmart Superstore in Palo Alto as we were a bit disappointed last year by size of the normal Wallmart in Milpitas. We didn’t know there was such a thing as the Wallmart Superstore… They best way to describe it to my fellow Europeans: it is about as big as an Ikea! Yes, that huge!

Anyway, this Accord was parked in the parkinglot and I took three photos in total:

This photo is the only one that actually made it, the other two as pitch black (yes, so also around that black Accord! ;) )as the camera was being defunct again. Anyway, that problem should be solved now! :)

Carina Sightings: burning out in Norway

April 25, 2012 / banpei / 4 Comments

RWD car? Check!
Brake pedal pressed? Check!
Revving to 5600 rpm? Check!
Release clutch in first gear? Check!

That’s about the checklist of these Norwegian guys with their Carina TA60. Continue reading

Family Album Treasures: bling-bling Laurel

April 24, 2012 / banpei / 0 Comments

Bling on your car wasn’t invented by the hip-hop culture, no the Aoyama Jokers were the one who embraced it first in the late 80s!

This Laurel SGL C230 has been modified with homemade stainless steel headlight covers, hoodfins and a front air dam and its owner poses proudly next to it. Definitely something I’d keep in my family album. ;)

Found at Aoyama Jokers

Down on the Street: Great Mall Nissan 370Z

April 22, 2012 / banpei / 0 Comments

Last week I attended the MySQL conference in Santa Clara (CA) as a speaker. I didn’t have much time to do fun stuff but I spotted some occasional cars parked around. This Nissan 370Z was one of them:

The car had a for sale sign at the rear window, so if you are interested you can probably find it somewhere parked at the Great Mall in Milpitas.