GT5 completed!!!

On Saturday Emi headed off to her mothers appartment again. I ended up spending more hours than someone should playing video games continuously and managed to complete GT5. To be honest I was quite disapointed - I bought the Ferrari F1 car, started a race and went straight off the track! The handling is rubbish with slow steering (which cannot be adjusted) and large delays to steering. F1 cars are meant to have quick steering and quick responses but this was the total opersite.

Sunday Emi went to meet up with one of her college friends and I was on my tod again. Just as well to be honest because I felt rough most of they day and didn't get up to much. In the afternoon when Emi had returned we went to Ina Cafe for a snack that ended up being dinner and a nice desert. In the evening I met up with Mark Anderson from work who had arrived in Japan for a 2 week business trip.

One even in the week I saw the moon behind the clouds and thought it would make a good picture. Once again my 5 quid mini-tripod work wonders.

The sound of music? I don't think so...

Nothing much happened this weekend.
On the Saturday (21nd) Emi went to meet her mother and I was left to my own devices. I sent a lot of time playing GT5 as I wanted to complete the game so I could go onto playing the new Grand Theft Auto game.
In the afternoon a paid a visit to Autobacs and made a couple of purchases:
*Wheel spacers - have decided that I couldn't justify spending 1000 quid on a new set of wheels and tyres I wanted to still do something with the standard wheels. Nissan's tend to have very large tyre to body clearances and have the wheel set too far into the body - great for a country where people fit snow chains everytime is snows (Japan) but doesn't do much for the look of the car. I bought a set of 4 5mm wheels spacers to push the wheels further out to improve tings a little. The fronts now look about right but the rears are still set too far in but 5mm is the furthest you can go.
*The car makes many funny noises because Nissan spent all its budget on the drivetrain and suspension, leaving little for PQ (Perceived Quality - nice sounding doors when they close, sunvisros that don't make a loud banging noise etc) and NVH (Noise, Vibration and Harshness). As such the gearbox whines all the time - not that the gearbox has a problem, journalists mentioned this on vehicles when it was launched - and above 60km/h there is lots of road noise from the rear. Therefore I've bought some sound deadening material to reduce the noise although as I write this I still haven't fitted it!

Sunday there was not much to report either. Emi went to her mothers appartment and the only note I've made for the day was the French GP which was a disaster for Lewis Hamilton and again makes you wonder if Ferrari are running the FIA with a damaged car not being called into the pits to be repaired.

More driving - this time the weather was dry - Pt2

As you can see from the pictures and desciptions I headed back to Izu/Hakone area on Saturday 14th June. This Barry Connolly was along for the ride and the weather was much nicer than the last time! Highlights:

*Caught up a Ruff CTR - highly modified Porsche 911 - on the Izu Skyline. The main problem was that I couldn't overtake him because eveythime the otherside of the road was clear he would drive down the middle of the road so I couldn't get past! What a plonker...

*Sorted out the ticket system on the Izu Skline. Rather than paying 900Yen, travelling to the end and then returning only to get a right telling off for not having left the road (because I would have to pay another 900Yen) I only paid to get to the first stop but traveled the full length of the road. I then came off at the first stop, re-entered the Skyline again and exited at the start point. I didn't get told off because I had the right ticket and ended up only paying 300Yen so saved myself 3 quid!

*Got to the 5th station t Fuji and it was very cloudy. Barry and I walked over the the shops and as we returned to the car saw there was a clear view of the top of Fuji. We ran back and tried to take loads of pictures before the cloud covered it up again. I thing the picture look rather good, don't you?

Having left the Ashinoko Skyline there is a narrow winding road that leads back to Route 138. We were behind a Series 1 Lotus Espirt with overfuelled Dellorto carbs who was himself behind some slow moving people carrier. After a couple of corners the MPV pulled over and the Espirt started going a little faster. As the corners were slow and tight I though it was a safe place to practice some power oversteer - basically getting into the corner, giving it full throttle, wait for the turbo boost to rise, the rear wheels start to loose grip and come around. This was great fun but it seemed to scare the Espirt who was in front who within a few corners put on his wanring lights and pulled over to let me past. Now I could drive quicker and powerslide and left him behind until you caught up some people cruising on motorbikes and had to slow down.

Saturday afternoon to Sunday was the LeMans 24hr race in France. Luckily SPEED on the US had full coverage for the full 24 hrs and I managed to get in about 8 hours. It was really interesting to watch, particularly the last 2 hrs as the Audi, then Peugeot, then Audi again were going fastest. Audi won the race in the end making every LeMans victory this century an Audi victory (Bentley have won once but they are owned by Audi).