- 4,274
- New Zealand
- SkylineObsession
- Mangosaurus
It is a long post, so i've copied and pasted it from another forum, which means you probbaly won't know what/who/where i'm talking about most of the time but hey, there's pictures!
For sakes sake here's a rundown (with pics) of how the day went the other day.
- Woke up to find the surrounding hills with a layer of snow on them and some frozen, nearly melted snow on top of the cars. Cleaned the Mazda (MS-6, front wheel drive, hatchback, manual and a V6 which doesn't put out enough power) which turned out to be a waste of time.
- Left the house (me and GTS-25 owning brother Paul) at about 9:30am and went to the local Shell station where it cost $68.xx to fill the tank (from nearly empty). 91 octane every time. Pumped the tyres all up to 30psi which seems to work better than the normal 27 or so.
- Got to Dean's (RX-7 owning brother) house, picked him up, and got into central Dunedin - 25 km's done already! I think we left at about 9:45am ish or thereabouts.
- After we left the city we saw snow everywhere (there was some all around Dunedin though, especially on the hills) but most had been melted unfortunately.
Paul took the below pics as i was driving.
Did the handbrakeys, as mentioned below, on the other side of this hill.
It was the first time i've ever driven in snow. As we were following cars going way too slow down the four lane hill thing (where the road goes straight across the valley after it used to curve all around it, and where the 'wind gust' warning signs are - on the other side of the hill from the last pic above) i decided to have a bit of fun in the snow, so drove into the stuff on the side of the road that no-one else had driven on and proceeded to pull the handbrake.
Disclaimer: Bear in mind i probably wasn't going anywhere above 20 km/h during this time and had dropped back behind all the other cars. Was also no cars behind me.
:twisted:
Didn't think it worked (no sound or anything) until i felt the back end getting out a bit. So drove up a bit further and did it again, this time getting way more sideways (fun!
). It is so weird though, you pull the handbrake on and don't notice a thing, there's no jolt and no feeling that the back tyres are locked until you feel the back of the car sliding out. Quite cool. 
And before you say anything, this was the first time i've ever done 'handbrakeys' of any sort. 
I didn't do it again after that because as we were approaching the part of the road that goes right over the valley we saw a tow truck on the other side of the road with a police car pulling up behind it. As we got closer we could see a Nissan Primera right behind the truck and it had a fair bit of damage on the front (like it had gone down the hill too fast, understeered and slid on the snow, hit the bank and gone down the ditch).
It was also almost completely burnt out. :shock: So it was possibly an American import Primera... (seen as American cars always seem to blow up).
Snow = fun.
- Then we kept on moving at a steady 100 km/h or less and managed to pretty much have the roads to ourselves every now and then. Apart from when we didn't.
- Got to Oamaru at about 12:07pm or maybe 11 something. With Pauls help we found the car museum and after paying $6 (sort of overpriced but oh well) to get in saw the following (plus more i didnt bother to take pictures of).
Current gearing: 202 km/h top speed
May be the first one of these i've seen.
BEAST!!!
40 inches high.
'Life begins at 300km/h'
I want one!
Were also a couple of 80's Mercs and three or four Ford Escorts as well as more older machines including an old M*A*S*H* type army jeep and a huge cannon in another room. Cruised back through the town and bought some pies for lunch. Jimmy's pies FTW!!
- Stopped at the Shell/BK station in Timaru to get petrol, was probably 1pm something by now. Then went into Temuka to see how Dad's old house was doing (sold it for $80k before he moved to California last year) and either they haven't taken the signs down or it is for sale again. :?
- After spotting a nice Porsche (saw three or more of this type of Porsche throughout the trip) in Timaru i think we caught up with it before Ashburton and snapped a photo of it;
- In Ashburton i saw a Nissan dealership in the distance so i went down for a looksie incase anything nice was there, shouldn't have because there wasn't.
- Got to Christchurch and kept following SH1 to the airport roundabout. Went down into the airport, took a wrong road but saw a nice 90's Corvette. Eventually found the carpark and then went into the Christchuch mall... er, i mean airport (hey, it is a mall compared to Dunedin's airport - its huge!). Found the viewing platform and had a look there until we found the upstairs and outside viewing deck (awesome idea to be honest, especially if you want to damage your hearing).
To our left were two (regular sized, as were all but one Air NZ 'Link' plane) Quantas planes, in front of us was an Air NZ, to our left was an Air NZ Link, Air NZ, Air NZ, Air NZ and way around the corner out of view (near the carpark) was i think the biggest plane there, an Emirates (however you spell it) plane. When visiting Dunedin airport you're extremely lucky to see even two planes there at the same time! And Chch airport has far too many runways, we only have one down here.
While there one of the Quantas planes took off, another 'Link' Air NZ landed and another Air NZ plane landed shortly after. The rate that planes were coming and going was unlike anything i've ever seen before, so i can't imagine what an airport like Heathrow or JFK would be like.
- Anywho, followed Riccarton Road (i think) from the airport and after spotting what looked like a Mercedes SL55 AMG in a car sales yard i quickly stopped and got out to investigate. It wasn't unfortunately (was an SL 350) but right beside it was a car i'd never seen before in real life;
Porsche 911 GT3 (with what looked like a custom rollcage).
Man, such an awesome car. Had a front pic but accidentally deleted it. Was also an older convertible Porsche up the back and in the small showroom was a late model (not latest) Porsche Boxster or 911 Cabriolet and behind that was a beasty looking Merc SL55 AMG, SL65 AMG or some other high powered Mercedes with flashy wheels and brakes that were way too big.
- Next up we tried to find Fazazz, eventually did and parked in the carpark opposite. To get out of that we had to walk through a bus station... i honestly couldn't believe the size etc of that station, down in Dunedin we only have bus depots but nothing anywhere NEAR this fancy.
Fazazz was shut, but managed to spot a nice red Ferrari Testorossa through the window and a couple of Bentleys.
- Then we decided to check out the Lyttleton tunnel (hadn't been through it since we were kids i don't think) so got $35 worth of petrol just in case (got up to Chch and after all that driving around had between 1/4 and half a tank left). Went through the very shiney and clean tunnel and turned around by the port in the town. Outside some shops there was this beast;
R33 GT-R V-Spec II, although i've still yet to see proof of V-Spec II R33's apart from in the flesh, as i've never seen any mention of them on ANY website nor in games such as Gran Turismo which sometime include even the most obscure GT-R models.
On the way back through the tunnel we kept trying to make echoey noises which got boring after a while.
- I saw a sign saying 'Port Hills Road' or something, so followed that road for a while but never saw any hills or ports. After nearly getting lost we somehow got onto Colombo street and proceeded up it to Moorhouse, spotting the South City Library on the way by chance.
- After doing a lap of Moorhouse east of Colombo and spotting the beasty blue R32 GT-R at Bling Bling Motor Company i stopped outside to get a better look. Spent a while looking through the fence at all the cars there and at all the EVO's, Silvia's etc in the caryard next to BB. As i was walking in front of the aformentioned yard i spotted this (maroon?) Subaru Legacy cruising east down the road towards the traffic lights. Don't know what he/she was doing but they seemed to brake or slow down, then boot it a bit and when just about at the lights (which i'm sure were red) they did it again and then i heard this loud but muffled bang.
I looked over and saw tyres and bits and peices fly up into the air, the Legacy slow down and pull over and other cars pulling over/stopping in the middle of the road. By the looks of it the Legacy may have run a red light and hit a cyclist or motorcyclist who was crossing the intersection (heading south?). About three or four minutes later an ambulance came screaming down the road and stopped at the crash site (never saw any Police or Fire trucks there). I had another look through the car yard and when i got back to the road the crash site was clear and cars were travelling like normal.
Kinda freaky though.
- After that incident i drove up the road a bit further and stopped at another car sales, went in and saw a nice stock looking white Toyota Supra for $19,000. Dean took over driving then so i could look at cars instead of the road. Stopped outside Rick Armstrong Motors or somewhere after seeing a (stock) red Supra. After looking at that for a while i finally noticed the car i was standing beside was one i'd never seen before in real life, a Renault Sport Clio V6 - commonly seen in games like Gran Turismo;
Then we headed to BK Moorhouse (first BK i've seen that isn't inside a mall or attached to a Shell Station) at about 6:08pm and waited for Gary and co to arrive. After they did we were in the carpark when i noticed this Nissan Laurel cruising down the road towards the lights. When it had stopped at the red light (first car in line) i thought i heard it spinning the wheels while it was taking off. Only the lights were still red. Strangely enough it still sounded like the car was taking off as well as spinning the wheels.
I eventually realised (duh!) that the car was doing a standing burnout (or whatever you call it) while waiting for the lights to change. By the time they went green there was a huge smoke cloud which was higher than all the surrounding light poles/traffic lights etc. He/she then took off down the road while the cars that were sitting behind it were sloooowly driving trhough the big cloud of smoke, which took a while to disappear.
After we had tea, he led us (me and my brothers and UPnSMOKE) to the Library where we discussed stuff and so on. Gary gave Paul a ride in the GTS-25t and he came out of that quite impressed i think.
- So after talking for an hour or so we eventually left at 9:30pm, Dean drove down to Timaru where we got petrol ($48.x worth i think) before which i took this grooooovy pic;
- Got into Oamaru at about 12:07am (see the coincidence here; left Dunedin at 9:30am and got to Oamaru at about 12:07pm, left Chch at about 9:30pm and got to Oamaru at about 12:07am...).
- Finally made it into the Dunedin area at roughly 1:30am. I'd been doing about 110km/h the whole way (except when there were oncoming cars, where i slowed to 100) mainly because i didn't want to be driving all morning. And also because the roads were quieter than i had ever seen them, you were lucky to see one or two cars every half hour! Was one time when a possum decided to sit in the middle of my lane, so i quickly braked and swerved out of the way (no oncoming cars for ages).
Those things have death wishes alright. :|
- So, 800+ km's later we got home at about 1:55am after dropping Dean off and my lower leg muscles were kinda sore for some reason so i was glad to stop driving.
Cars Spotted:
- Heaps of awesome looking A31 Cefiro's, almost makes me want to get one!
- Lots of EVO V's and VI's
- Lots of S14 and S15 Silvia's including a few 200SX's
- About four or so 928 looking Porsches (the red one in the pic above is a turbo)
- Porsche 911 GT3
- Ford GT40
- Dark grey Bentley Continental GT (yum)
- Two maroonish R32 GT-R's, or possibly GT-R replica's (didn't get a good look either time)
- One blue R32 GT-R
- One R33 GT-R
- Two or more Honda S2000's
- Far to many non GT-R Skylines than i could possibly count
- Bentley Arnage i think
- Ferrari Testorossa
- Lots of nice looking FPV and V8 BA Ford Falcons
- Couple of nice Corvettes
- Two or three Supras
- Few flash Mercs and other Porsches
- Only about two RX-7's (batmobile in Dunedin and an S5 in Chch)
If you'd like to buy the book which accounts for every detail of this journey then you are out of luck as i'm not writing one - this would probably have been longer than it anyway.
For sakes sake here's a rundown (with pics) of how the day went the other day.
- Woke up to find the surrounding hills with a layer of snow on them and some frozen, nearly melted snow on top of the cars. Cleaned the Mazda (MS-6, front wheel drive, hatchback, manual and a V6 which doesn't put out enough power) which turned out to be a waste of time.
- Left the house (me and GTS-25 owning brother Paul) at about 9:30am and went to the local Shell station where it cost $68.xx to fill the tank (from nearly empty). 91 octane every time. Pumped the tyres all up to 30psi which seems to work better than the normal 27 or so.
- Got to Dean's (RX-7 owning brother) house, picked him up, and got into central Dunedin - 25 km's done already! I think we left at about 9:45am ish or thereabouts.
- After we left the city we saw snow everywhere (there was some all around Dunedin though, especially on the hills) but most had been melted unfortunately.
Paul took the below pics as i was driving.
Did the handbrakeys, as mentioned below, on the other side of this hill.
It was the first time i've ever driven in snow. As we were following cars going way too slow down the four lane hill thing (where the road goes straight across the valley after it used to curve all around it, and where the 'wind gust' warning signs are - on the other side of the hill from the last pic above) i decided to have a bit of fun in the snow, so drove into the stuff on the side of the road that no-one else had driven on and proceeded to pull the handbrake.
Disclaimer: Bear in mind i probably wasn't going anywhere above 20 km/h during this time and had dropped back behind all the other cars. Was also no cars behind me.
:twisted: Didn't think it worked (no sound or anything) until i felt the back end getting out a bit. So drove up a bit further and did it again, this time getting way more sideways (fun!
). It is so weird though, you pull the handbrake on and don't notice a thing, there's no jolt and no feeling that the back tyres are locked until you feel the back of the car sliding out. Quite cool. And before you say anything, this was the first time i've ever done 'handbrakeys' of any sort. I didn't do it again after that because as we were approaching the part of the road that goes right over the valley we saw a tow truck on the other side of the road with a police car pulling up behind it. As we got closer we could see a Nissan Primera right behind the truck and it had a fair bit of damage on the front (like it had gone down the hill too fast, understeered and slid on the snow, hit the bank and gone down the ditch).
It was also almost completely burnt out. :shock: So it was possibly an American import Primera... (seen as American cars always seem to blow up).
Snow = fun.
- Then we kept on moving at a steady 100 km/h or less and managed to pretty much have the roads to ourselves every now and then. Apart from when we didn't.
- Got to Oamaru at about 12:07pm or maybe 11 something. With Pauls help we found the car museum and after paying $6 (sort of overpriced but oh well) to get in saw the following (plus more i didnt bother to take pictures of).
Were also a couple of 80's Mercs and three or four Ford Escorts as well as more older machines including an old M*A*S*H* type army jeep and a huge cannon in another room. Cruised back through the town and bought some pies for lunch. Jimmy's pies FTW!!
- Stopped at the Shell/BK station in Timaru to get petrol, was probably 1pm something by now. Then went into Temuka to see how Dad's old house was doing (sold it for $80k before he moved to California last year) and either they haven't taken the signs down or it is for sale again. :?
- After spotting a nice Porsche (saw three or more of this type of Porsche throughout the trip) in Timaru i think we caught up with it before Ashburton and snapped a photo of it;
- In Ashburton i saw a Nissan dealership in the distance so i went down for a looksie incase anything nice was there, shouldn't have because there wasn't.
- Got to Christchurch and kept following SH1 to the airport roundabout. Went down into the airport, took a wrong road but saw a nice 90's Corvette. Eventually found the carpark and then went into the Christchuch mall... er, i mean airport (hey, it is a mall compared to Dunedin's airport - its huge!). Found the viewing platform and had a look there until we found the upstairs and outside viewing deck (awesome idea to be honest, especially if you want to damage your hearing).
To our left were two (regular sized, as were all but one Air NZ 'Link' plane) Quantas planes, in front of us was an Air NZ, to our left was an Air NZ Link, Air NZ, Air NZ, Air NZ and way around the corner out of view (near the carpark) was i think the biggest plane there, an Emirates (however you spell it) plane. When visiting Dunedin airport you're extremely lucky to see even two planes there at the same time! And Chch airport has far too many runways, we only have one down here.
While there one of the Quantas planes took off, another 'Link' Air NZ landed and another Air NZ plane landed shortly after. The rate that planes were coming and going was unlike anything i've ever seen before, so i can't imagine what an airport like Heathrow or JFK would be like.
- Anywho, followed Riccarton Road (i think) from the airport and after spotting what looked like a Mercedes SL55 AMG in a car sales yard i quickly stopped and got out to investigate. It wasn't unfortunately (was an SL 350) but right beside it was a car i'd never seen before in real life;
Man, such an awesome car.
Had a front pic but accidentally deleted it. Was also an older convertible Porsche up the back and in the small showroom was a late model (not latest) Porsche Boxster or 911 Cabriolet and behind that was a beasty looking Merc SL55 AMG, SL65 AMG or some other high powered Mercedes with flashy wheels and brakes that were way too big.- Next up we tried to find Fazazz, eventually did and parked in the carpark opposite. To get out of that we had to walk through a bus station... i honestly couldn't believe the size etc of that station, down in Dunedin we only have bus depots but nothing anywhere NEAR this fancy.
Fazazz was shut, but managed to spot a nice red Ferrari Testorossa through the window and a couple of Bentleys.
- Then we decided to check out the Lyttleton tunnel (hadn't been through it since we were kids i don't think) so got $35 worth of petrol just in case (got up to Chch and after all that driving around had between 1/4 and half a tank left). Went through the very shiney and clean tunnel and turned around by the port in the town. Outside some shops there was this beast;
R33 GT-R V-Spec II, although i've still yet to see proof of V-Spec II R33's apart from in the flesh, as i've never seen any mention of them on ANY website nor in games such as Gran Turismo which sometime include even the most obscure GT-R models.
On the way back through the tunnel we kept trying to make echoey noises which got boring after a while.
- I saw a sign saying 'Port Hills Road' or something, so followed that road for a while but never saw any hills or ports. After nearly getting lost we somehow got onto Colombo street and proceeded up it to Moorhouse, spotting the South City Library on the way by chance.
- After doing a lap of Moorhouse east of Colombo and spotting the beasty blue R32 GT-R at Bling Bling Motor Company i stopped outside to get a better look. Spent a while looking through the fence at all the cars there and at all the EVO's, Silvia's etc in the caryard next to BB. As i was walking in front of the aformentioned yard i spotted this (maroon?) Subaru Legacy cruising east down the road towards the traffic lights. Don't know what he/she was doing but they seemed to brake or slow down, then boot it a bit and when just about at the lights (which i'm sure were red) they did it again and then i heard this loud but muffled bang.
I looked over and saw tyres and bits and peices fly up into the air, the Legacy slow down and pull over and other cars pulling over/stopping in the middle of the road. By the looks of it the Legacy may have run a red light and hit a cyclist or motorcyclist who was crossing the intersection (heading south?). About three or four minutes later an ambulance came screaming down the road and stopped at the crash site (never saw any Police or Fire trucks there). I had another look through the car yard and when i got back to the road the crash site was clear and cars were travelling like normal.
Kinda freaky though.
- After that incident i drove up the road a bit further and stopped at another car sales, went in and saw a nice stock looking white Toyota Supra for $19,000. Dean took over driving then so i could look at cars instead of the road. Stopped outside Rick Armstrong Motors or somewhere after seeing a (stock) red Supra. After looking at that for a while i finally noticed the car i was standing beside was one i'd never seen before in real life, a Renault Sport Clio V6 - commonly seen in games like Gran Turismo;
Then we headed to BK Moorhouse (first BK i've seen that isn't inside a mall or attached to a Shell Station) at about 6:08pm and waited for Gary and co to arrive. After they did we were in the carpark when i noticed this Nissan Laurel cruising down the road towards the lights. When it had stopped at the red light (first car in line) i thought i heard it spinning the wheels while it was taking off. Only the lights were still red. Strangely enough it still sounded like the car was taking off as well as spinning the wheels.
I eventually realised (duh!) that the car was doing a standing burnout (or whatever you call it) while waiting for the lights to change. By the time they went green there was a huge smoke cloud which was higher than all the surrounding light poles/traffic lights etc. He/she then took off down the road while the cars that were sitting behind it were sloooowly driving trhough the big cloud of smoke, which took a while to disappear.
After we had tea, he led us (me and my brothers and UPnSMOKE) to the Library where we discussed stuff and so on. Gary gave Paul a ride in the GTS-25t and he came out of that quite impressed i think.
- So after talking for an hour or so we eventually left at 9:30pm, Dean drove down to Timaru where we got petrol ($48.x worth i think) before which i took this grooooovy pic;
- Got into Oamaru at about 12:07am (see the coincidence here; left Dunedin at 9:30am and got to Oamaru at about 12:07pm, left Chch at about 9:30pm and got to Oamaru at about 12:07am...).
- Finally made it into the Dunedin area at roughly 1:30am. I'd been doing about 110km/h the whole way (except when there were oncoming cars, where i slowed to 100) mainly because i didn't want to be driving all morning. And also because the roads were quieter than i had ever seen them, you were lucky to see one or two cars every half hour! Was one time when a possum decided to sit in the middle of my lane, so i quickly braked and swerved out of the way (no oncoming cars for ages).
Those things have death wishes alright. :|
- So, 800+ km's later we got home at about 1:55am after dropping Dean off and my lower leg muscles were kinda sore for some reason so i was glad to stop driving.
Cars Spotted:
- Heaps of awesome looking A31 Cefiro's, almost makes me want to get one!
- Lots of EVO V's and VI's
- Lots of S14 and S15 Silvia's including a few 200SX's
- About four or so 928 looking Porsches (the red one in the pic above is a turbo)
- Porsche 911 GT3
- Ford GT40
- Dark grey Bentley Continental GT (yum)
- Two maroonish R32 GT-R's, or possibly GT-R replica's (didn't get a good look either time)
- One blue R32 GT-R
- One R33 GT-R
- Two or more Honda S2000's
- Far to many non GT-R Skylines than i could possibly count
- Bentley Arnage i think
- Ferrari Testorossa
- Lots of nice looking FPV and V8 BA Ford Falcons
- Couple of nice Corvettes
- Two or three Supras
- Few flash Mercs and other Porsches
- Only about two RX-7's (batmobile in Dunedin and an S5 in Chch)
If you'd like to buy the book which accounts for every detail of this journey then you are out of luck as i'm not writing one - this would probably have been longer than it anyway.
