fro and the cowboy monkey

Hmm, you could hear a pin drop round here... rally.com.au, the "official voice" of Australian rallying and the Globalstar Australian Rally Championship, has been distinctly devoid of any announcements or pronouncements regarding the tender process for the new host of the Australian round of the World Rally Championship.

There is an ARCom meeting coming up soon though (mid-August, I'm told), so hopefully some information comes out of that. Even the rumour mill has gone quiet, which is just unheard of in rally circles.

I certainly hope to hear something soon, before the screams for the WRC round to leave our shores become deafening.

As promised, spotted at the Peter Hopwood 100, the Audi RS4 Tow car. To say it spun me out would be a mild understatement.

As you can probably imagine, there are more photos of the beast over at my Flickr account...

This kind of thing makes me cry. More photo's found here. I'm looking to find full reports on the web now...

After a quick Friday Night trip to Sydney for the CAMS NSW Rally Advisory Panel meeting, I spent Saturday and Sunday at Wakefield Park, doing a stewards assessment at the 6th Peter Hopwood 100.

It was interesting to see how a circuit race was organised, in contrast to the rally/motorkhana/khanacross stuff I had done before. Each discipline has its peculiarities.

There were some interesting things to see to do with the competitors, too. Group N and Group S historic cars, as well as HQ racing. I thoroughly enjoyed the weekend, and learned quite a few things along the way.

One of the highlights of the weekend happened by accident, though. I got photos of one of the Historic Mini's being loaded on the trailer. But the interesting bit was the tow car: an Audi RS4.

Photos to come... Just got to put them up on Flickr...

As Ben points out in his rant, there seems to be a lot of people blindly following what car culture tells them is cool. This is evidenced everywhere I go, and by a lot of people I talk to. But with the advent of the internerd, these people can congregate online.

There's good people mixed in with them too, but there are a lot of examples at places like OzDat, AusRotary and Pulsar Group Australia. I'll quickly point out that I'm a member of all three forums, so I'm not without sin myself.

I have a strong motorsports bent. I see cars as art, sure, but I also see them as tools. Devices that assist you in meeting your needs. Be that commuting, or competition. And as with all tools, someone has designed them to meet a need. Some meet those needs better than others!

So it pains me to see intercoolers so large that they increase lag and violate a whole bunch of thermodynamic principles, or the common "Dumped Full Sikk Low" attitude that puts all suspension angles way out of their optimum range...

I'm all for trying new things. I'm all for using developed modifications to improve your vehicle. But when the modification is actually to the detriment of the performance of the vehicle, it frustrates me.

Maybe it's a sign that I'm getting old. Or maybe I'm learning to think for myself. At least, sometimes... Naah. I must be getting old.

I have fetishes for gimmicks and gadgetry. Aside from my somewhat weird fascination with mechanical pencils, I also have a thing for watches. Analog moreso than digital, but nonetheless... I came across an advert today for Nite watches. While the mother company website provides minimal info for maximum flash, the UK site is slightly less annoying. Or the even more functional, if less designed site of their competitor.

In a tale of woe that I would not have though imaginable in this day and age, Jeremy Clarkson of "Top Gear" fame tells the tale of woe of vehicle electronics and gadgetry gone wrong.

This is the sort of thing that could have been expected fifteen to twenty years ago, when vehicle security systems started to be implemented. But for a "Factory Approved" security system to do this sort of thing, in 2005, is completely unacceptable.

The worst part is, Jeremy puts across that it's otherwise a fantastic car... sure, it's too big for driving around english suburbia, but the same could be said (I'm sure) if you tried to drive it around Sydney's CBD.

The entire tale, in Clarkson's words

My "Rumble Bee" stickers arrived for the rally car today.

Expect to see photo's in the near future!

This post over at Hoopty Rides reminded me of the motorsport food experiences I've had. Whilst I've had many, many bad motorsport food experiences, I've had a few good ones.

Memorable "Good" Motorsport food experiences include:

• Donuts from the donut van that used to be behind Tralee/Pepsi Powerdome/Fraser Park Speedway. Fresh donuts, made right there and eaten straight away. And they were always fresh, because you always had to wait for the donuts to be made!
• Corn on the Cob at the MotoGP at Phillip Island. Corn, salt, pepper, butter. Or, if you've got a sweet tooth, corn, butter and cinnamon sugar. Messy, but tasty.

There's plenty of motorsport-related culinary experiences that are great as well, mostly revolving around people that like what they eat, but they rarely happen at the motorsport venue.