For the benefit of those who are still not subscribed to the Edmunds.com video podcast feed, here are some links to videos of interest. Note that these are NOT permalinks, which means that they may be moved to locations unknown in future:

• 2004 Ferrari Rally Challenge
• Mazda MX5 Endurance Race Tsukuba Circuit
• 2005 Ford Mustang GT Vortech. 0-60 in 3.6 seconds, mid-11s to the quarter, cylinder head from a Ford GT. Watch out for this giant-killer.
• 2006 Chevrolet Corvette ZO6
• Mercedes Benz CLK 63 AMG. 6.2 liter NA V8, 503bhp @ 6800, 456lb-ft @ 5200, and it can fit in a C-class chassis.
• 2005 Ford GT
• 2006 BMW Z4
• 2006 BMW 330i vs 2005 Audi A4
• 2006 Lexus IS 350
• 2005 Porsche Boxster S
• Drifting with Alex Pfeiffer
• Drifting with a 1969 Camaro by Blacktop Rodeo driver Ryan Hampton

Videos are encoded in H.264, resolution @ 320x213, AAC audio @ 44.1 kHz. Open with QuickTime. Enjoy!

Permas Jaya Go Kart 7 Jan 06

Wet 3/4 pants and underwear. Ugh!

So the weekend came round and we decided to have some karting fun. A little apprehensive cos it's the long weekend and we weren't sure if the Causeway would be jammed up. Anyway we took our chances and the traffic turned out to be smooth, fortunately. After lunch we made our way to the Permas Jaya go-kart circuit. It was beginning to drizzle but we decided to have some fun in the wet.

The karts were on slicks but we didn't want to pay the extra RM10 to change the tires. Where's the fun in that? :D First turn... understeer. Second turn, understeer. And so it goes. Hitting apexes seemed to be more a matter of luck than skill. Braking earlier didn't help either. Even trail-braking to assist with the turn-in was proved to be of limited success. Same thing with getting out of the corners. Understeer was the operative word. So I gave up driving proper lines and went for the Scandinavian flick: tap the brakes in the middle of the turn to upset the balance of the car and catch the oversteer at the exit. Daniel seemed to be extremely successful at this and was all but uncatchable.

At the end of the first run it was starting to pour so we waited for a while before going back out again. This time the circuit was very wet. On top of this my kart kept stalling out since I would hit the corner really sideways and water would get into the intake. After helping me restart the kart the marshall headed back out on his 125cc and spun backwards into the tire barriers, crashing heavily. Daniel said the guy was literally ejected out of his seat.

The rest of the day we spent hunting for car accessories for Shireen's Suzuki Grand VItara and ended with dinner at Han's at Seletar. Good fun, should do this more often. :)


Photostream

MarsEdit

Finally got round to downloading MarsEdit and trying it out as my primary blog editor. We'll see how it goes. OK first thing I noticed, it doesn't include an option to fill in the Title field. But editing is fast and easy without having to go through the horrid web interface.

Suicidal gecko

Gross

Decided to end its life on New Year's Day. And take out the electricity at the same time.

Beautiful outdoor photos

The next best thing to be being able to take good-looking photos is to share them. And since I don't know the first thing about photography, here is John Hyde's site. Enjoy.