fro and the cowboy monkey

Okay, so I need to write more often, so I've stolen this premise from the article "20 Questions With James May", which was done by Two Wheels Only Magazine. Except 20 was a bit much, so I've culled it back a bit.

I'm hoping that this meme will spread, and some of my automotive-leaning friends will follow suit (Ben, I'm looking at you). If nothing else, it'll provide a better profile to introduce myself to random web surfers.

Fro Horobin: Rally Enthusiast and Datsun Lover
What's the most embarrassing automobile you lusted after in your youth?
There's a few. I was enamoured with one of the first vehicles I drove, my mothers Mazda 121 Shades. It was the earlier model (1991?), before the pregnant goldfish, the one that Kia produced as a Ford Festiva. Great little car. I did it a great injustice, and handed it an inordinate amount of abuse.

What's the worst automobile you've ever owned?
That's a tough question. I've owned a comprehensive list of POS's.
Near the top of the list would be a 1978 RA40 Celica that was a complete steaming pile of poo before we started. I think the brake master cylinder and booster failed in the first week of me owning it, and things went downhill from there. Midway through my ownership, I collected a retaining wall with the front of it, and so it lived out my ownership with primer-matte black front guards, and no bumper. 12 months after I swapped it for a HZ Holden ute, apparently someone hit a pedestrian in it. I would have thought it would have died long before then.

What automobile would you drive if money (or job!) were no object?
If money were no object, I'd obviously have a fleet of vehicles. That being the case, I think the vehicle I'd spend the most time in would be something comfortable. The practicality of a Subaru Outback is hard to go past, especially for those rally course checking jobs. Yeah, probably a Subaru Outback, one of the premium, plusho ones.

What's your favourite stretch of road?
There's a section of forest out the back of Canberra called East West. That place is just magic for rallying, although it's also notorious for decimating fields.

For blacktop, there's large swathes of Tasmania and the Adelaide Hills that are just fantastic.
What is the best thing you ever did in an automobile?
Competing at the Captains Flat Rally in 2003. Despite a few setbacks (wrong-roading, failing alternator, no lights) we did really well. Won ACT Novice by a few minutes. Some of the best driving that I've ever done.

What is the maddest thing you've ever done in a car?
Rallying.
Aside from that, probably my time driving the aforementioned 121.
What is the most miserable time you've had riding in a car?
Probably that same Captains Flat Rally in 2003. Finishing the stage and knowing that we'd wrong-roaded and dropped at least 4 minutes, dropping us out of contention for an impressive outright result. Just gutting. I remember being so angry, and screaming at my navigator, and pounding my fist against the roll cage. I had a bruised hand the next day.

Who's your all-time automotive hero, and why?
So many of those club-level dudes. The guys that you see competing at a motorkhana or hillclimb that walk around with a smile you could cut cheese with. They've not lost sight of driving for enjoyment, competing for enjoyment. They're the real heroes.

What would you do with your last litre of fuel?
Self-immolation.
What's the fastest you’ve ever driven?
I've done 200+ km/h in a mates rally car. My rally car is only good for 170-ish, when it runs out of revs and gears. I've hit the limiter in my wife's XH Falcon ute on the Nullabor once, which is somewhere around 190km/h.

What's the most you’d spend privately on a car?
We've been looking at a replacement car for the ute, and been looking pretty hard at a Navara, which is somewhere around $50K. I can't see us spending any more than that anytime soon. The most I've paid for a car so far is $4K.

What's the one piece of essential equipment you need in your car?
In a road car? Cruise control. So many trips up the highway Canberra-Sydney, you need the cruise control to make it bearable.

Four, six or eight? Turbo, supercharged or naturally aspirated?
I love my Datsun L-Series 4s. For something that should be a boat anchor on paper, they are an amazing engine. And I love the Mazda rotary motor as a concept. And my VR-4 road car has a turbocharged 4G63 which is a lovely motor too…

But deep down, I think I love naturally aspirated V8s. 350 Chev derivatives. Glorious noise, glorious motors that are ancient and new all at once. Despite trying to hide those dark, bogan, grunting parts of my soul, I think there's an ingrained admiration of those naturally aspirated hulks. Something left over in the brainstem from some time primordial.

What achievement by a rival are you most envious of?
A couple of my mates (Bede, Spac) have won ACT Clubman, and I've not quite got there yet. I don't know if envy is the right emotion. I am keen to reach that mantle though. But funding (as always) is the limiting factor.

What are the trends in your field that are just below the horizon right now?
In rallying? Man-alive, rallying in Australia is at this weird tipping point at the moment. It's got the potential to really take off and experience another boom like that of the early 80's, and yet, it also has the potential to sign it's own death warrant. I'm hoping that the recent changing of the guard of the sports administration will provide the renewed energy to get the sport to where it needs to be.

The drift craze is going to continue to gain momentum, I think. It's calming down a little bit now, but I think that's because it's moving toward a more organised, cohesive group, and less of the back-street action that it was in the past.

And I'm hoping that club-level motorsport will get the recognition that it deserves as the testing ground for youth to learn car control, and just how easy it is to lose control. But that hope has been there for quite a while, so I don't know if that's a trend, or just a longing.