Kumeu Classic car festival

Just a quick post, The photos are from the recent Kumeu classic car festival just out of Auckland , New Zealand. Ive been attending this event for many years, It just gets bigger and bigger all the time.

Enjoy the photos.

Adrenaline junkies, This is for you.

The adventure capital of New Zealand (Queenstown) has launched a new hair-raising activity with Ziptrek Ecotours which combines adrenaline and nature. The company has been planning its Queenstown launch on iconic reserve land on Bob’s Peak for over four years and is now set to open later this week.

Like many of the adventures in Queenstown, it involves wearing a hard hat as well as a harness but in this case it is to go on a series of flying foxes which is more than four hundred meters long, The ride goes shooting down a mountain side and the ride can even go upside down. Ziptrek have planted roughly 600 trees to make the project work.

A spokesman from Ziptrek Ecotours' says "It's just about having fun in the outdoors and this is just an extension of a lot of childish ideas about flying foxes and treehouses,"
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Ziptrek brought the idea over from Whistler, Canada, where it has been running successfully for seven years.

"We are now the number one activity operator in the Whistler market taking out tens of thousands of people every year and the response we received there was one of the reasons why we looked at Queenstown as a great place to come," says David Udow from Ziptrek, Whistler.

Boys day out.

Last weekend was the annual speedshow exhibition, A great day out for the boys in Auckland. This year had a line-up of cars and motorcycles - new, performance, classic and customs.

This year's event saw Speedshow fill to capacity with three main halls of the showgrounds, and an extensive outdoor display and activities to add to the attractions for the speed lovers. And the new children's area called Speedshow 4 Kids proved very popular with Roary the Racing Car shows at 10am and 12pm each day.

Some of New Zealand’s best drift cars were alongside historic racing cars and bikes and New Zealand’s best race car simulators.There were new cars and motorcycles from some of the world’s leading manufacturers and exhibitors with a wide range of motoring and motorsport-related products and services, but honestly there’s too much to mention so if you like cars and motorbikes, Speedshow was the place to be.

This year's key draw-cards included the world's fastest NASCAR and the original movie Batmobile from the original Batman movies courtesy of Warner Brothers Movie World on the Gold Coast, The motorbike from the movie "The worlds fastest Indian" as well as the world famous Britten motorbike.

The oldest exhibit was a 1903 Ford that cost 180 pounds when brand-new while nearby was a DTM-spec Mercedes Benz AMG supercar, one of only 100 in the world that cost well over $500,000 new.

This event has only been running 3 years in New Zealand and has already moved venue because of space, It doubles in size every year so next years event should be better again.

Top photo is my 5 year old son with former superbike rider, Aaron Slight.
2nd Photo is the bike from the movie "Worlds fastest Indian"

Extreme engineered VW

I came across this VW recently and was completely amazed, Ive seen Trucks and Dragsters with Jet engines but this is just a little different, It has a production gasoline engine in the front driving the front wheels and a jet engine in the back. So having a gasoline engine in the front would make it street legal.

The engine is a General Electric Model T58-8F which is a helicopter turboshaft engine that was converted to a jet by some internal modifications and a custom tailpipe. The engine spins up to 26,000 RPM (idle is 13,000 RPM), It draws air at 11,000 CFM, and is rated at 1350 hp. It weighs only 300 lbm. The mounts in the front are rubber and the back are sliding mounts on rubber.

There are three gauges for the jet. RPM, Oil Pressure, and Turbine Inlet Temperature. The most important is turbine inlet temperature. If you exceed about 650 degrees C (1200 degrees Fahrenheit) for a long, you will damage the engine. The throttle for the jet engine is located next to the gear selector. It is a lever and has three buttons: Cool, Big-Fire, and Afterburner. "Cool" leans out the engine and is used to lower the turbine inlet temperature if you get a hot-start. To light big-fire or the afterburner, you hold a button down and 1/2 second later, press the hot-streak button on the floor.

Air for the jet enters the car through the two side windows and the sunroof. It must be a little windy inside but imagine the air getting sucked in the intake, (Thats one way of getting rid of a bad smells in the car) but due to the heat produced, Starts are limited to three per hour.

Jet powered man

Yves Rossy is a 47 year old ex-military pilot who calls himself the 'Fusionman' He is a Swiss adventurer with a taste for the airborne bizarre, He recently tested his new jet-powered carbon fiber wing and flew at a height of 2500 meters above the town of Bex in western Switzerland. This is the second version of Fusionman's wing, after losing control of the first during a jump in 2005.

He performed various aerobatic manoeuvres steering with his body, Rossy dived, turned and soared again, performing what appeared to be effortless loops from one side of the Rhone valley to the other. At times he rose 2,600 feet before descending again. And then deploying a parachute and landing safely.

His 2.5 meter 'wing' - perhaps the ultimate big boys toy - is fitted with four jet engines, So he must wear heat-resistant suits similar to ones worn by racing drivers and firefighters. The jet engines are ignited before he jumps from a plane. Once in full flight, Rossy can hit speeds of up to 300km/h, but can only stay in the air for 10 minutes before the fuel capacity of the small jets runs out.

The ultimate Big Boys water toy.

Kawasaki has extended its high-performance on personal watercraft with the 250 horsepower 2008 Jet Ski Ultra 250X. The quickest and most powerful production PWC in history, Kawasaki’s supercharged Ultra 250X tears across the water at a pace that will invigorate even the most jaded of speed enthusiasts.

With a 1,498cc engine derived from Kawasaki’s capable Jet Ski STX-15F watercraft as the foundation, the Ultra 250X produces power comparable to a normally aspirated high-performance three-liter engine. It accomplishes this amazing feat via the addition of a Roots-type supercharger. Unlike centrifugal superchargers or turbochargers, the Ultra 250X’s high-volume direct-drive supercharger delivers boost virtually instantly at any engine speed from idle to redline. This produces a linear, smooth torque curve that is ideal for a personal watercraft that needs to accelerate hard all the way from a standstill to its breath-taking top-end speed.

In addition to more power and acceleration than any other production watercraft on the planet, the Ultra 250X also boasts all new technology, a race-developed hull. Its hull design is just as comfortable in rough conditions as in calm. Even at high speeds, rough water can do little to deter the Ultra 250X.
Heat build-up from compressing the intake air is a common drawback of forced-induction. The Ultra 250X uses of a large-capacity intercooler to overcome this handicap. With the 250X’s supercharger compressing the air to a maximum boost pressure of 11.4psi, the intake charge can reach extremely-high temperatures potentially limiting the engine’s power output. However, the 250X’s large-capacity intercooler brings the pressurized air down to ambient temperature or even less –ideal for producing maximum power.

The Ultra 250X features a five-step adjustable handlebar position that allows either stand-up or sit-down riding for a wide range of riders to enjoy superior comfort and versatility. As Kawasaki’s flagship watercraft, the 250X includes thoughtful standard features like an enormous 53 gallon of storage space including a detachable front storage compartment and a 20.6 gallon fuel tank for substantial cruising range. From horsepower to handling and everything in between, once the spray settles after the first ride, one thing will be certain. This powerful “ultra” 2008 Kawasaki Jet Ski Ultra 250X model delivers a level of performance and excitement that is unmatched by any other watercraft to date.

Quad bike, Banshee.

Quad Bikes, All Terrain Vehicles or ATV's, are of course used in the farming and building industry as practical utility vehicles. However, there is other, more fun and cool purposes for these four-wheeled off-road vehicles! Why not seek out those rough tracks and go for a bumpy ride!

The Yamaha Banshee quad bike has been my favorite for many years. This quad has been in production for so long but it has always been a top seller due to its unique features.The powerplant is a liquid cooled 350cc twin cylinder engine derived from the Yamaha RD350LC road bike. It is not the greatest liquid cooled design as is basically an air cooled bottom end with liquid cooled cylinders and head stuck on top. This was to save on design costs when Yamaha first borught out a water cooled version of the original air cooled road bike engine. There are many aftermarket products to improve the cooling of your machine but unless you are modifying it for racing then i do not recommend the need for such parts. The engine characteristics are very appealing due to the revvy nature and screaming sound, even at factory condition they can rev up to about nine and a half thousand rpm so i am told! If you were deciding to upgrade your banshee then a good step would be to consider some aftermarket exhaust pipes and a fuel mixture change to suit. The frame is of mild steel contrustion and of a good solid design. The bike comes with disc brakes all round and these provided sufficient stopping power for almost all off-road applications. If you are considering a Banshee for the road you may want to upgrade the fron brakes slightly.

As an overview i recommended this quad to any 2-stroke lover or someone who wants to be unique in the modern field of 4-stroke machines while still being competitivly matched. Also the looks of this bike are a very love/hate affair, to me there gorgeous but some feel they are outdated, i will leave this to you!

Blokarting

Blokart sailing is a fun filled adventure designed in New Zealand in 1999. It is rapidly becoming the world's no.1 land-based sailing sport.

Because of its small size and extreme manoeuvrability the blokart can be used almost anywhere - from beaches to car parks, sports and recreation areas, tennis courts and even on ice!

One of the great advantages of blokart sailing is that it is just one design so anyone of virtually any age, size or gender can have a go.

Weighing in at only 29kg the blokart is portable enough to fit in the boot/trunk of most cars. It can be assembled from its unique carry bag in a few minutes with no tools required.

Despite the ability to reach high speeds, Safety is a top priority in design and injury is very rare because of modern technology and materials. Most people can master blokart sailing in a matter of minutes.

When thrill seekers have finished reaching speeds of up to 90 kilometres an hour, the Blokart can be easily folded up into a suitcase sized bag.